evaluate christopher marlowe's use of dramatic conventions in doctor faustus

Dramatic Conventions

An Elizabethan audience did not expect to hear plain naturalistic prose, and the theatres and other venues did not allow drama to produce an illusion of reality. Elizabethan dramatists wanted their audience, inspired by their words, to share their own thoughts and feelings in response to the characters and situations portrayed in the drama. If the communication of the play demanded it, the dramatist would present behaviour quite unlike life, and the audience was prepared to accept and respond to it. Therefore characters speak their own thoughts aloud to the audience in soliloquies and asides, they frequently speak in verse, using figurative language and other rhetorical devices; settings were often suggested or represented, often without even background scenery.

Another dramatic convention centred on the fact that Elizabethan audiences frequently featured both educated and non-educated people. Scenes of low comedy were interspersed among more serious scenes, to keep the groundlings entertained. The distinction between prose and blank verse could be used to elevate serious scenes from scenes of low comedy. This comic sub-plot was often used to parody the main plot.

PLease check out the link below. The above description relates directly to Dr. Faustus.