Doctor Faustus | On the A-text, the B-text, and Their Differing Endings

The A-text and B-text of Doctor Faustus have many notable differences, with one of them being the play's ending. In this post, I would like to lay out my interpretations of both of these endings and discuss the dissimilarities between them that produce these differing interpretations.

The first difference between the A-text and B-text is the introduction of Mephistopheles, Beelzebub, and Lucifer at the opening of the final scene:

Thunder. Enter Lucifer, Beelzebub, and Mephistophilis.

Lucif.
Thus from infernal Dis do we ascend
To view the subjects of our monarchy,
Those souls which sin seals the black sons of hell,
'Mong which as chief, Faustus, we come to thee,
Bringing with us lasting damnation,
To wait upon thy soul. The time is come
Which makes it forfeit.

Meph.
And this gloomy night,
Here in this room will wretched Faustus be.

Bels.
And here we'll stay,
To mark him how he doth demean himself.

Meph.
How should he, but in desperate lunacy?
Fond worldling, now his heart blood dries with grief;
His conscience kills it, and his labouring brain
Begets a world of idle fantasies
To overreach the devil, but all in vain.
His store of pleasures must be sauced with pain.
He and his servant Wagner are at hand.
Both come from drawing Faustus' latest will.
See where they come. Enter Faustus and Wagner.

The introduction of these devils at the beginning of the scene rather than at the end (as it is in the A-text) gives this scene a much stronger feeling of inevitability in the B-text. Notice that the devils never leave the stage but instead remain upon it when Faustus and Wagner enter. While it is made clear that the devils are supposed to be waiting for Faustus in a room other than the one in which he enters, the audience would nevertheless be able to see both the devils and Faustus on stage at the same time, giving the impression that the devils are always watching Faustus as he prepares to meet them. Further, this gives the devils a much stronger presence in the scene. Not only are they always watching over Faustus, but they are literally and figuratively in the background of everything that happens throughout the scene. The devils share the stage with Faustus, likely farther backstage than Faustus since Faustus has the speaking role and is supposed to be in a different room than the devils, as he tells the scholars how he is damned to hell because he has sold his soul to the devil. While the presence of the devils in the A-text is minimal and the ending ambiguous, the presence of the devils here, to me, makes it clear that Faustus is truly damned.

Next, there is the brief exchange between Faustus and Wagner regarding Faustus's will:

Faust.
Say, Wagner, thou hast perused my will;
How dost thou like it?

Wag.
Sir, so wondrous well,
As in all humble duty, I do yield
My life and lasting service for your love.

Enter the Scholars.

Faust.
Gramercies, Wagner. Welcome, gentlemen.

While many would pass over this as being inconsequential, I would argue that it shows Faust as being more resigned to his inevitable damnation. In the A-text, Faustus gives no indication that he has accepted his fate at all; instead, the most I can say is that he seems relatively calm as he speaks with the three scholars. This scene in the B-text, however, shows that Faustus has thought about what will happen after he goes to hell as he takes the time to draw up a will and run it past his assistant Wagner.

Finally, there is the appearance of the good and bad angel just before Faustus is taken to hell:

Enter the Good Angel and the Evil Angel at
several doors.

Good.
Oh Faustus, if thou had'st given ear to me,
Innumerable joys had followed thee.
But thou did'st love the world.

Bad.
Gave ear to me,
And now must taste hell's pains perpetually.

Good.
O, what will all thy riches, pleasures, pomps,
Avail thee now?

Bad.
Nothing but vex thee more,
To want in hell, that had on earth such store.

Music while the throne descends.

Good.
O, thou hast lost celestial happiness,
Pleasures unspeakable, bliss without end.
Had'st thou affected sweet divinity,
Hell, or the Devil, had had no power on thee.
Had'st thou kept on that way, Faustus behold
In what resplendent glory thou had'st set
In yonder throne, like those bright shining Saints,
And triumphed over hell. That hast thou lost,
And now poor soul must thy good angel leave thee.
The jaws of hell are open to receive thee. Exit.

Hell is discovered.

Bad.
Now, Faustus, let shine eyes with horror stare
Into that vast perpetual torture-house.
There are the Furies tossing damned souls
On burning forks; their bodies broil in lead.
There are live quarters broiling on the coals,
That ne'er can die. This ever-burning chair
Is for o'er-tortured souls to rest them in.
These, that are fed with sops of flaming fire,
Were gluttons, and loved only delicates,
And laughed to see the poor starve at their gates.
But yet all these are nothing; thou shalt see
Ten thousand tortures that more horrid be.

Faust.
O, I have seen enough to torture me.

Bad
Nay, thou must feel them, taste the smart of all.
He that loves pleasure must for pleasure fall.
And so I leave thee, Faustus, till anon.
Then wilt thou tumble in confusion. Exit.

As I mentioned previously, the ending of the A-text may be read as slightly ambiguous about whether or not Faustus is actually damned to hell or is saved at the last minute. This addition to the B-text makes the ending less ambiguous, as the good angel, instead of offering salvation as he had done previously, now chastises Faustus for his decision to sell his soul to the devil while the bad anger torments Faustus with visions of the hell that he will spend eternity in. This ambiguity is further dissolved in the B-text with the addition of a scene after the one in which Faustus is seemingly dragged to hell:

Scene 13

Enter the Scholars.

1
Come, gentlemen, let us go visit Faustus,
For such a dreadful night was never seen,
Since first the world's creation did begin.
Such fearful shrieks and cries were never heard.
Pray heaven the Doctor have escaped the danger.

O help us heaven! See, here are Faustus' limbs,
All torn asunder by the hand of death.

3
The devils whom Faustus served have torn him thus;
For 'twixt the hours of twelve and one, me thought
I heard him shriek and call aloud for help,
At which self time the house seemed all on fire
With dreadful horror of these damned fiends.

2
Well, gentlemen, though Faustus' end be such
As every Christian heart laments to think on,
Yet for he was a scholar, once admired
For wondrous knowledge in our German schools,
We'll give his mangled limbs due burial.
And all the students clothed in mourning black
Shall wait upon his heavy funeral.

Faustus, then, has been torn asunder, and his end is "such as every Christian heart laments to think on." If I was not convinced that Faustus was damned and dragged to hell after reading the A-text, I certainly would be after reading the B-text.

Doctor Faustus | On Preoccupations with the Physical and Too-Late Realizations

Doctor Faustus (again, of the A-text of Marlowe's play) is undoubtedly preoccupied with the physical. He is spoken of as "glutted," a word with very obvious physical notions; he contemplates being a physician in order to "heap up gold" (1.14); he dreams of using his magic to make spirits fetch him whatever he wants, such as gold from India, a pearl from the ocean, fruits and delicacies from around the world, etc.; he dismisses the good angel as soon as the evil angel tells him that he can have honor and wealth if he gives his soul to Lucifer instead of God (and even then he focuses exclusively on the wealth instead of the honor); and more. It seems plausible this preoccupation with the physical that leads Faustus not only to believe in his black magic and in devils but also to not believe in heaven or salvation. Like the skeptical knight in scene 9 who does not believe that Faustus can summon the spirit of Alexander the Great until he does so (and until he has horns placed on his head, as well), Faustus seems to only believe in what he can see: not God, not heaven, not hell, but rather his black magic and the devil Mephistopheles. Even in scene 5, as he speaks to Mephistopheles, a servant of Lucifer's in hell, Faustus still says, "Come, I think hell's a fable" (5.126) and, "Think'st thou [Mephistopheles] that Faustus is so fond to imagine / That after this life there is any pain? / Tush, these are trifles and mere old wives' tales" (5.132-134), thus expressing his disbelief in the hell that he is damned to. Yet, after summoning Mephistopheles for the first time, Faustus certainly has a belief in both his black magic and in Mephistopheles. Perhaps, then, Faustus's decision to turn to black magic and ultimately to Lucifer is tied up in Faustus's preoccupation with the physical. Faustus is able to see Mephistopheles and witness his power, and he even encounters Lucifer himself later in scene 5. Yet when it comes to God and God's power, neither make an obvious appearance to Faustus (it is arguable that God and his power manifest themselves in different aspects of the play), and so Faustus, with his preoccupation with the physical, naturally turns to Lucifer rather than God.

Another somewhat related notion that I had after finishing Doctor Faustus is that it is only because of Faustus being doomed to hell that causes him to desire God in the final scene of the play. Throughout the entirety of the play, excluding the final scene, Faustus portrays no desire for anything other than that which will bring him immediate, physical pleasure (again, his preoccupation with the physical, as discussed previously). Will God's salvation have an immediate effect on Faustus? No. It would only be upon his death that he would go to heaven instead of hell, and, further, Faustus would see no guarantee, while he was alive, that he would go to heaven. Not only would salvation not bring Faustus immediate gratification, then, but it would also fail to appeal to his preoccupation with the physical. Now, I realize that I have somewhat reiterated my notions from the previous paragraph, but my point is this: Faustus's desire for God in the final scene of the play is not a genuine desire for salvation or for God. Instead, it is simply in response to the realization that he is going to hell. Faustus is not wanting to be saved because he is guilty of sin, but rather hoping for immediate pleasure by being saved from his predicament. It is only when the realization that he will be eternally doomed to hell sinks in that Faustus decides to ask God for forgiveness. He does not turn to God any other time during the course of the play, which seems to make it evident that Faustus's decision to turn to him in his final moments is not a genuine gesture but is instead just Faustus up to his old tricks.
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And here's a fitting signature:
"Terminat hora diem, terminat author opus."
--From Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus

Doctor Faustus | On Knowledge, Human Nature, and Fate

This blog is meant to be a sort of curio cabinet for my thoughts on Renaissance literature. Much of what will be posted here will be somewhat disjointed thought processes result from my interaction with Renaissance texts and Renaissance culture, and to academic criticism and contemporary opinions (scholarly and otherwise) on these aspects of the Renaissance. While my writings will no doubt be sporadic in content and form at first, I hope to produce significantly more consistent posts within the next couple of weeks. I would have put all this in the "blog description" section of this blog, but I like my semi-humorous (in my opinion) subtitle too much to remove it. Oh, and as a final note, while I am a great fan of Shakespeare's, I will be tending to write more on other authors and works of the Renaissance, at least for the time being. Perhaps I will throw in a witty reference or two every now and then, when it seems appropriate.

Anyhow, we begin with Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, a favorite play of mine. It is important to explain that I will be working exclusively with the A-text here, though I have nothing against the B-text (I have read it also and actually enjoy it more, but the A-text just happens to be what am reading at the moment). I would like to address three aspects of Doctor Faustus which may be seen within the first 5 scenes of the play: desire for knowledge, human nature, and fate.

Desire for knowledge is undoubtedly a key aspect of Doctor Faustus. We see within the first scene that, having learned all that he can about philosophy, medicine, law, and theology, Faustus gives them all up to search for something new. His desire to study black magic is not due to an innate fascination with the art; rather, it is because the study of black magic would allow him to both pursue studies in a field which he had not pursued previously and learn, with the help of Mephistopheles, all he desired about heaven and hell and all else that he could not learn through traditional study. The question that must be posed is whether Faustus's desire to learn is excessive. I would say no. For centuries people have conjectured about what happens after death, if anything at all. People have wondered if there is a heaven and a hell, and Faustus is no different. "Others have not sold their soul to the devil," one might respond. Perhaps, we cannot know for sure, but regardless, the problem here lies with Faustus's method of obtaining knowledge, not his abstract desire for it. There is more to this thought process, of course. Is infinite knowledge worth the price Faustus must pay? Does the knowledge that Faustus gains beneficial to anyone but himself? However, I simply wish to provide a brief overview of my thoughts on this matter before moving on. I will, perhaps, expand upon these points in later posts.

Faustus's human nature is also a key aspect of Doctor Faustus. Is Faustus innately evil and sign the deal with the devil of his own free will, or is he tempted by Mephistopheles and the evil angels into signing his deal with the devil? The one thing the struck me in particular in the scenes where the good and bad angels appear to Faustus is that they never lie to him in order to persuade him. Instead, they appeal to different aspects of Faustus's nature. The good angel appeals to the part of Faustus that believes that there is a god that will forgive him and protect him if he gives up the practice of black magic and lives a life relatively free of sin. The bad angel appeals to the part of Faustus that desires money, wealth, knowledge, etc. Both angels, in essence, simply say, "If you choose my side, this is what you will get." Yet Faustus, at least in the first few scenes of the play, always sides with the bad angel. He chooses to have Mephistopheles as his servant and to obtain infinite knowledge and power. When given this simple choice, I believe that Faustus reveals his true nature; he would rather obtain power, wealth, and material possessions rather than the guarantee of a life in heaven. There is no persuasion, just a demonstration of what Faustus himself values the most.

Finally, fate is also an important, yet less immediately obvious, aspect of Doctor Faustus. Faustus is born into a low family, yet he excels in all of studies at university and quickly receives his degree. He masters philosophy, medicine, law, and theology (as mentioned previously), and still has the potential and desire to learn even more. Is this his fate? Does his fate allow him to transcend the low status with which he was born? Further, the heavens "conspire" against Faustus, which makes his over-ambition and downfall seemingly inevitable. Can we blame Faustus, then? I think not. Marlowe certainly makes it seem as though Faustus's fate was out of his hands. Even when Faustus is beginning to have second thoughts about making a deal with the devil, he still chooses to make the deal instead of accepting the good angel's offer to turn to God for salvation. His fate is to sell his soul in exchange for power. As many times as he doubts the decision he will inevitably make, he still goes through with it in the end. While the play may, at first, seem to focus on Faustus's decisions, I think its focus is actually on the inevitability of Faustus to make the choices he does.

On a note which just occurred to me, Marlowe seems to be making a distinction between knowledge and salvation in this play. If Faustus chooses Mephistopheles's offer, he will have the opportunity to wield infinite power and obtain infinite knowledge, yet if he follows the good angel's advice, he is seemingly offered nothing but "God's Grace." This characterization of knowledge as evil and Faustus as an extremely intelligent man who sees value in this knowledge is amusing. It is hard to tell whether Marlowe is making the point that the pursuit of knowledge is evil and that one should turn to God instead, or satirizing the view that knowledge is evil and arguing that turning to God keeps one from knowledge. Certainly there is a biblical allusion to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in both scenarios; God attempts to keep Adam and Eve away from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, either because the knowledge its fruit bestows is inherently evil or because he wants to keep knowledge from the pair simply because he desires they choose him over knowledge (or, in other words, as a test of whether they will obey him or not), depending on how you read it.

--ARR
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"So, good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends."
--From William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream