Faustus as a Cautionary Tale Amelie Maurice-Jones College

The Renaissance period in European history oversaw a dramatic disintegration of beliefs that had largely helped to structure contemporary society, such as the belief that the Christian faith should be the epicenter of everyday life. It is understandable that such a period produced mass distrust and skepticism concerning tradition, which finds apt grounding in Marlowe’s 17th century drama ‘Doctor Faustus’. Marlowe’s play might be read as a cautionary tale of prioritizing an appetite for knowledge and worldly pleasures over worship and respectable actions towards the divine. Indeed, the drama further cautions against human sin through warning the Renaissance man of the dangers that come to those who attempt not only to ignore the Christian faith, but to rival God in their intellectual and strategic capacities. Nonetheless, the playwright himself could not be entirely convinced of the validity of the Christian faith, and such uncertainty feeds through the lines of the text which indicates Marlowe’s cautions to those who too readily and easily accept the Christian doctrine. So, ‘Doctor Faustus’ cautions those who both rejects Christianity, and those who accept i. Marlowe urges the reader to use their intellectual capacities wisely...