Christopher Marlowe was an atheist, a counterfeiter and a possible spy – a Renaissance rebel. Fran Connor tells us how this informed his most famous character, Dr. Faustus, in today’s Why Should I Read This.
Christopher Marlowe's 1588 play Dr Faustus opens with his scholarly title character grappling with a universal question: what am I going to do with my life? Rejecting the limits of human arts and sciences, Faustus uses black magic to summon Mephistopheles, who he thinks can provide all the knowledge and power he desires. Shockingly, this does not go to plan. Faustus plays a cool prank on the Pope, turns a horse to water and sees a glorious specter of Helen of Troy, but never attains the power or knowledge he asked for. In one of the earliest special-effects extravaganzas of the English theater, he's dragged to hell at the play's end. Marlowe warns us about the danger of hubris, but he also asks us to admire Faustus. Would we dare take such a risk with our own lives for the sake of discovery?
