Drama And Tragedy- The Tragical History Of Doctor Faustus By Christopher Marlowe Comments

Explore the ways in which Marlowe presents the relationship between Faustus and Mephistopheles. You must relate your discussion to relevant contextual factors.
Mephistopheles have been a poignant character to embody and exemplify Marlowe's crafted edifice of Doctor Faustus, who would have been a scholar prince but he chooses to be a conjurer laureate. Marlowe's Faustus scholarly, skeptical, defiant and desperate; combines in himself the characteristics of a medieval rebel and a Renaissance adventurer. Through Mephistopheles, Faustus imagines aspiring dreams to achieve the supernatural powers and perform miraculous feats with the spirits of hell at his command. "I command you to come back after changing your present shape which is so ugly that you are not fit to attend on me. Just go and then come back in the guise of an old Franciscan monk. The holy appearance befits a devil best of all."Mephistopheles caricatures as a Franciscan monk (friar) . The docile obedience of Mephistopheles elated the Doctor Faustus (magician who had abjured the Holy Trinity, the Bible and cursed God) .
Mephistopheles, the subordinate of the Fallen Angel Lucifer, the Prince of Hell and Darkness, is depicted as a personification and symbolism of atheism and buffoonery of the Roman Catholic Church. Mephistopheles explained that he hadn't appeared at Faustus' behest but because of performances of necromancy which paves the way towards blasphemy, sacrilege, profanity and imprecations. "No doubt, that was the cause of my appearance; but…name of God or renounce faith in the Bible and the holy books, and his Saviour, Christ, we rather rush to him immediately to get hold of his splendid soul". Inevitably Marlowe created Mephistopheles to please Queen Elizabeth as it was her father Henry the VIII who invented the protestant faith in order to marry Anne Boleyn.
"…there is no chief greater than Belzeebub…the word damnation can never frighten him…for makes no distinction between heaven and hell…" Faustus became skeptical and inquisitive about the nature of damnation and particularly interrogates with a discourse about relationship between Lucifer, heaven and hell. "Unhappy spirit that fell with Lucifer, conspired against out God with Lucifer and forever damned with Lucifer…..And tasted the eternal joys of heaven, Am not tormented with ten thousand hells…everlasting bliss..frivolous demands..fainting soul."
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