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Aegis 2021
The Differing Moralities of the Renaissance Play The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus and the Medieval Morality Play Everyman By Audrey McCutchen Morality has been explored and taught differently throughout the ages, and this is expressed in the art of its time. This difference is apparent in comparing Medieval theatre and Renaissance theatre and is due to the different societal approaches to understanding the world. The traditional Medieval morality play Everyman and the Renaissance play of The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus written by Christopher Marlowe are excellent representatives for understanding the different approaches people had for morality in those different eras. Everyman talks about morality explicitly, through direct representation of characteristics and human qualities that every person has, whereas Doctor Faustus expresses morality through a study into one specific person’s life choices. Everyman follows the character of Everyman — who represents humanity — as he is confronted with Death and where his soul will go in life everlasting. He was not a bad man in his life, but his lust for worldly things puts him on a path headed to Hell, so God enlists Death to teach him a lesson to help him back on the path of good. Everyman is told he can bring whatever will help him in his spiritual reckoning with God and so he proceeds to
implore the characters which represent his worldly possessions, virtues, and friends and family to help him prepare for his spiritual reckoning. They all fall through except for the character Good Deeds, who stays with him to the end. Everyman does penance, and by the end of the play he is deemed worthy and dies and enters the Kingdom of Heaven. The play The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus follows a man named Doctor Faustus who becomes bored with the knowledge of the world and so turns to necromancy and worldly passion to sate his desires. He ends up selling his soul to the Devil for twenty-four years on Earth with all the riches and power of Hell and the companionship of a co-conspirator of Lucifer — the demon Mephistopheles — to do his bidding. The play follows Faustus in his worldly adventures for the next twenty-odd years, as well as his constant internal struggle over whether to repent and choose God and goodness over the Devil, until the end of his contract when he is subsequently sucked into Hell. Both plays deal with the struggle of good versus evil, heaven versus hell, and a human’s choice in the matter, but they approach it at entirely different angles. Part of this is due to the contexts in which the plays were created.
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