Volume-XII, Issue-II, March 2026 |
And then thou must be damn’d perpetually”: On the Devil in Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus Sambuddha Ray, Independent Researcher, Kolkata, West Bengal, India |
Received: 09.03.2026 | Accepted: 13.03.2026 | Published Online: 31.03.2026 | Page No: | ||||
DOI: 10.29032/ijhsss.vol.12.issue.02W. | |||||||
ABSTRACT | ||
The present essay attempts to think about the diabolical in Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus by focusing on one specific aspect of textual reading— Marlowe’s rediscovery of the Faustian myth from the English Faustbook. So doing, the essay attempts to establish the theme of a failed transgression, following Jonathan Dollimore primarily, as central to the understanding of the complex presence of the diabolical in Marlowe’s rediscovered tragedy. The figure of the devil in Doctor Faustus is seen in historicist, cultural and textual scales to imagine the subverted Manichean relation that the newly fashioned Renaissance Man had with the devil, which bears both material and conceptual connotations. The article eventually attempts to show how the figure of the devil in tragedy assumes a prominent role, as opposed to its minimal scope within the Morality play tradition. | ||
Keywords: Devil, Tragedy, Morality play, Renaissance Man, Faustian myth |