Introduction to Doctor Faustus (1592)
(1) Full name: - "The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus"
(2) Based on the German legend of Faust
(3) Represents fall of man due to eating the forbidden fruit of knowledge
(4) "Corruption Optimi Pessima": - The corruption of the best becomes the worst
(5) Dr. Faustus represents spirit of renaissance man
(6) Elements of a morality play
(7) Themes: - soul, salvation, and damnation
(8) Prologue: - "cursed necromancy" "self-conceit"
(9) Faustian bargain: - a deal in which someone trades his or her principles for material gain
Introduction: - Important Characters
(1) Doctor Faustus: - Scholar from Germany
(2) Wagner: - Doctor Faustus's servant
(3) Lucifer: - The Devil
(4) Mephistopheles: - Servant of Lucifer
(5) Valdes and Cornelius: - Teachers of black magic
(6) Non-important characters
(a) Emperor Charles Fifth: - King of Germany
(b) Pope: - Pope who resides in Rome
(c) Duke and Duchess of Venholt:- Call Faustus to their court
(d) Good and the Bad Angel: - Advice Faustus about selling his soul to the devil
Hello literature friends, welcome to Educational Guruji. Today we are going to cover a short summary of an Elizabethan tragedy, Dr. faustus.Now friends, the full name of the book is The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, also known as Doctor Faustus. In short, it is believed that Marlowe was inspired from a German legend based on the historical Joan George Faust. It was a story of a German necromancer or astrologer who sells a soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge and power. Through this, a story almost as old as religion itself. Fully credited for creating the first dramatized version.Just like the story of Adam and Eve where they were punished because of eating the fruit of knowledge, Fosters also dies because of his greed of knowledge. So this is 1 common thing in both. And there's an important phrase used in the book that goes like corruption. Optimi pesima. The corruption of the best becomes the worst. Doctor Fosters represents the spirit of modern renaissance man. Now you might ask who is a renaissance man? So before renaissance during Middle Ages man was considered.Believe but the power of the Church shrank and the importance of the individual grew. As Renaissance spread across Europe. Man and human nature were no longer seen as totally sinful and in need of punishment, but instead as independent, beautiful and individual creations of God. Renaissance man considered man the center of the universe, limitless in his capacities for development, and led to the notion that men should try to embrace all knowledge and develop their own capacities as fully as possible.This book also has elements of morality. Please. Throughout the play we find Doctor Foster facing a lot of moral dilemmas. Just like in morality plays, the central themes of Doctor Fosters are the sole salvation and damnation. The plays also moral lesson warning against the dangers of pride and of sacrificing one's faith and spiritual goodness for power, wealth, knowledge, and other earthly things. Now in the product to Doctor Faustus, the chorus proposes that the theme is cursed necromancy self.So Please remember these two words as it is frequently asked in exam. So two things whenever you hear about Doctor Foster should come to your mind are cursed necromancy and self conceit. Also students you must note that this play is the origin of the term Faustian bargain, a deal in which someone trades his or her principles for material gain. So this concept is also important. What is forstanian bargain that you are trading your principles.Things you know, greed, Kapuragani clip, moral principles. Moving on to the characters now the main character is Doctor Fosters, of course. He's a very intelligent man and a scholar from Germany. Next we have servant Wagner who's a very helpful man. Then we have a demon called Lucifer. The character of Lucifer is similar to that of Satan who we come across in Bible. There's a very interesting Netflix series on Lucifer if anyone wants to understand his character. Do watch this over next weekend.Character named Mephistopheles who is Lucifer's servant. My friends Doctor Fosters is very interested to learn black magic and for that we have two teachers named Valdez and Cornelius. Now we also have some non important characters like the King of Germany, Emperor Charles the 5th, the Pope, Duke and Duchess of Vanhold and the Good and the Bad Angel. So this was a brief about the characters. Now let's begin the story.This is a story of a scholar doctor named Doctor Faustus, who lives in Wittenberg, Germany. Doctor fosters things that he has read everything in the world and has good knowledge about everything. What is there to read more? Being a scholar, he has studied everything. His interest develops in black magic and he asks his servant Wagner if he knows someone who can teach him black magic. Wagner introduces Doctor Foster's to two men.Leave the two men teach black magic and voodoo to Doctor Faustus. While he is learning black magic, suddenly 2 angels appear in front of him. 1 is a good Angel and the other is a bad Angel. The good Angel requires Dr. Fosters to not learn bad magic and stay away from it. On the other hand, the bad Angel encourages him to learn black magic. Now the two teachers of black magic while these and Cornelius give many books to Doctor Faustus to help him learn black magic. Doctor Faustus is very excited to read these books.Spirits. Meanwhile 2 scholar friends of Doctor Foster's come to his house and ask his servant to Wagoner about Doctor Fosters whereabouts. Wagner tells them that he is learning black magic from Wales and Cornelius. After learning this the two scholar friends of the Doctor They get very disappointed. Now Doctor Foster starts calling out to black spirits. First he calls out to a demon named Mephistopheles. He asked the demon to obeys orders. He says that his master is Lucifer and he only obeys his orders.Fosters then asks Minister Phillies about Heaven and Hell. After that, he tells the demon that he has an offer for Lucifer. He's ready to give his soul to Lucifer in exchange for unlimited power for 24 years. Along with that, Lucifer will also let Mephistopheles to be the doctor's servant. So the demon returns to Hell after this conversation and fosters things that he has made a very good deal with the devil. Meanwhile, Wagner keeps calling different people to home to teach black magic to Fosters then at one point.Records about his decision to sell his soul to Lucifer. He wonders if he should ask for the Lord's forgiveness. Suddenly the 2 angels couldn't bad appear again. The good Angel tries its best to stop Fosters from making a deal with Lucifer, but Fosters is adamant and does not listen to the good Angel. But Fistophiles returns to Fosters with an agreement and asks Fosters to sign it with his blood in order for Lucifer to grant his wish. So in Fosters is about to sign it, his blood freezes as if it is a sign from above to not go.However, the demon gets hot coals to melt the freezing blood and Fosters successfully signs the agreement. Now, as per the agreement now, Mephistopheles is now Fosters servant. Fosters asked the demon for a wife. The demon refuses by saying that marriage is a holy ceremony and he can't help Fosters with that. However, in order not to disappoint his new master, Professor Feliz gives knowledgeable books with respect to astronomy, stars, planets, trees, etcetera to Fosters.What's about his decision? And he wonders if we should ask for God's forgiveness. The 2 angels, the good and the bad, they again appear in front of him.Justice decides to not ask for God's mercy and keep the deal with Lucifer. Faustus asks Mephistopheles about who created the world and the universe and he refuses to answer. He used to be a devil's servant and he cannot take the name of God. So Faustus again has second thoughts about his decision. These two angels appear again in front of him. This time Faustus decided to ask for forgiveness from God exactly. Then when Faustus was thinking about saying sorry to God, Lucifer appears. He reminds Faustus about the agreement and tells.Into Christ's name, Fosters ensures him that he would never do it again. Before leaving Lucifer gives another book to Faustus Amifesto Police takes Fosters on a world tour on a carriage. While roaming around festival he sells Fosters about the secrets of the world. So their journey ends in Rome. Finally, Fosters tells the demon that he wants to see all the monuments in Rome. The festival's replies that we will see, don't worry, but first he'll go and bother the Pope who is the head of church first disagrees.So when Faustus returns to Germany. He realizes that he has become very famous. In fact Emperor Charles the 5th invites him to his court to see Faustus magic. Now Foster schools to the kings court and displays his talent. There was 1 member of the court who did not like the magic because Foster had taken help of black magic. So Fosters gets angry and he makes horns grow on that person's head. Post that Faustus meets a horse trader and annoys him too. He makes the horse run on water and then makes the horse disappear using black.So many people. So when Fosters finally returns home, Wagner, his servant, he tells him to the Duke of Venholt has invited Fosters to his court. Foster's entertains both the Duke and the Duchess with his magic. Then the Duke asks Fosters to present grapes in Midwinter's, and Fosters does so. So a lot of time passes in 24 years are about to be over 24 years of his agreement with Lucifer. But Foster still keeps entertaining people with his magic. Some friends of his ask him to call out for.Helen was the most beautiful woman in the world. Now, as time is nearing, Fosters gives everything to Wagner in his will. He knows his time is about to be over. An old man visits Fosters and asks him to ask for God's forgiveness. Fosters is confused but wants to ask God for his mercy. At the exact moment my festivities comes to the scene and calls Fosters a traitor. Fosters says that he was not even thinking of taking God's name. It was this old man who was provoking him. Fosters further ask Mephisto Velis to make.So that he can spend the rest of his days tension free. Now towards the end we see that Fosters death is slowly approaching. He knows that his scholar friends visit him and Fosters tells them that he made a deal with Lucifer and now he only has one hour. Yes, just one hour. So Faustus runs towards God to ask for mercy. He lived a fabulous life and now that his time was about to get over, he ran towards God to save him from Lucifer. Austice says that just one drop of Jesus blood can save him from Lucifer. Look at the irony.Process is now even bargaining with God as well, so blood plays several symbolic roles in the play. When Foster signs away his soul, he signs in blood, symbolizing the permanent and supernatural nature of his pact with the devil. His blood hardens on the page, however, symbolizing his own body's revolt against what he's doing. Meanwhile, Christ's blood, which Fosters says he sees running across the sky during his terrible last night, symbolizes the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross.Humankind to repent its sins and be saved. Unfortunately, the one hour gets over and the devil comes and takes away Faustus soul fosters praise that is book of black magic be destroyed and no one else makes the same mistake as him. So this was the whole plot of Doctor Faustus. Uh, have a look at the storyboards, uh, memorize the plot and the important points that I have highlighted at places.