What is the dramatic function of the Good and Bad Angels in Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus?
Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus in its use
of the personified Good and Bad Angels reveals the influence of the older
morality play tradition. Morality drama
was allegorical and didactic, and usually dealt with the struggle of an
everyman-type figure against the forces of evil represented frequently by the
Seven Deadly Sins. Man’s victory emphasized the positive forces
of grace and a life following religious and ethical teachings. The negative aspect, or man’s defeat, was the
reverse of this movement, and dramatists found this appealing because it
offered the moral lesson that retributive justice punished sin. Obviously there is a close relationship
between tragedy and this latter process, and Doctor Faustus is a type of
reverse morality play because it is concerned with spiritual defeat and not
victory.
In Doctor Faustus the Good and Bad Angel, as in
the morality play, contend for Faustus’s soul.
They represent in an exterior way the interior conflict of Faustus
between good and evil. The Good and Bad
Angel appear repeatedly throughout the play to show the recurring torment
within Faustus’s soul. The Good Angel
signifies the presence of grace, and repeatedly urges Faustus to repent. The Bad Angel represents evil and the forces
leading Faustus to damnation.
Dramatically, these personified figures offered Marlowe a way, other
than the soliloquy, to present Faustus’s spiritual struggle.