Kant on Euthanasia

Provide a close analysis of the following passage, discussing the dramatist's use of diction, register, rhythm and metre, imagery, tone and ANY OTHER dramatic resources which seem relevant to you. Also discuss why your chosen extract is important within the context of Dr. Faustus as a whole.

Scene 5

FAUSTUS My heart's so hardened I cannot repent!

Scarce can I name salvation, faith, or heaven,

But fearful echoes thunders in mine ears,

"Faustus, thou are damned"; then swords and knives,

Poison, guns, halters, and envenomed steel (200)

Are laid before me to dispatch myself:

And long ere this I should have slain myself,

Had not sweet pleasures conquered deep despair.

Have I not made blind Homer sing to me

Of Alexander's love, and Oenen's death? (205)

And hath not he that built the walls of Thebes

With ravishing sound of his melodious harp,

Made music with my Mephastophilis?

Why should I die then, or basely despair?

I am resolved! Faustus shall never repent. (210)

This essay will discuss the above extract, focusing

on the dramatist's use of techniques such as diction, register, metre and rhythm. It will show that this extract is a pivotal moment in the play and therefore necessary to the play as a whole.

Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe is a play which deals with, in a similar vein to the Morality plays which preceded it, issues at the very core of Christian belief and the workings of the Christian church. By employing such themes as Sin, Redemption, Eternal Damnation and the corrupting influence of Power, Marlowe is assured of an immediate connection with his post-Reformation English audience.

Marlowe uses comic references to poke fun at Catholicism in general and the Pope in particular and these would delight a fiercely Protestant Elizabethan court. This audience would have been able to predict Faustus's downfall and therefore a tragic irony exists during the performance.

Marlowe, writing in open verse, has employed iambic pentameter to construct this extract. In line 1 Faustus has "hardened his heart", and the rhythm of the piece seems to echo that dogged determination. "Hardness of heart" is the desperate state the reprobate would find himself in, and in being so incapable of turning to God's forgiveness, his only alternative is damnation. Faustus is convinced that he is beyond salvation. The extract is both erudite and formal. It refers to classic Greek and Roman literature to emphasise the extent of Faustus's knowledge. The story's defiant tone may be a reflection of Marlowe himself, as it portrays the ambition of the classic Renaissance man's rebellion against Christian belief and, in the case of the play itself, specifically the Catholic Church.

At the beginning of the play Marlowe impresses on his audience Faustus's determination to use his power to uplift himself and to change his world, but it rapidly becomes apparent, as Mephistophilis refuses his requests, that Faustus will never reach the heights of power he had first envisaged. In this, Marlowe reveals Faustus's human weakness alongside his spiritual ambition and it is the contradiction of these and other binary opposites that help to develop a personality that Marlowe's audiences could more easily relate to.

We see that Faustus is capable of being both intellectual and stupid. How can he not see that Mephistophilis is playing him? He is both a coward and courageous otherwise he would stick determinedly to his purpose when making his pact with the Devil or on the other hand, see beyond the Devil's ploy and steadfastly seek salvation. He is none of these and by lines 209/210 he has fallen back to his stance of non-repentance due to his erroneous belief that eventually he will become more powerful than Belzebub and so retain his soul. This realisation at the end of the play is where Dr. Faustus differs most from a Morality play in that the traditionally happy ending is not echoed here. Faustus, although continually offered the chance of God's forgiveness, is at the end, a tragic, not comic figure. Locked in his hubris, his tragic flaw of pride, Faustus determines his own fate and is dragged down screaming to spend eternity in Hell.

Faustus has considered suicide and knows that he would have taken that course but for the dalliances that have distracted him from his purpose. He ruminates on the pleasures he has experienced and the visions he has been able to conjure that have taken him from his despair. Even when presented with the means of bringing about his own demise in lines 200/201, Faustus shrinks from the task. To commit suicide was considered to be in the "depths of despair", in other words, to have lost faith in God. Faustus is reluctant to take his own life and at this stage in the proceedings at least, he still holds out some hope of either conquest over the Devil himself or Redemption.

Marlowe's use of binary opposites as a dramatic resource is at its most powerful in the use of the allegorical characters of the Good and Evil Angels. This psychological civil war taking place in Faustus, "psychomachia" in classic literature, becomes quite literally "the battle for the soul". It is unfortunate for Faustus that the Devil is more determined and more capable of winning than he is. At the beginning of this extract the Evil Angel makes his exit with his pronouncement that, "Faustus never shall repent"(line 195), the battle between evil and good is well under way and from this point it would appear that all is lost. Faustus confirms, "Faustus cannot repent" (line 196), adding emphasis to the Evil angel's statement. "The fearful echoes", (line 198) reverberate, telling him, "Faustus, thou are damned" (line 199) every time he dares turn to Heaven for his salvation.

The writer's use of the passage of time as a dramatic resource is fundamental