1. Revision of ideas, themes, genre
Doctor Faustus
Revision of ideas, themes, genre

2. Morality plays
Fusion of medieval allegory and the religious drama of the miracle plays
Features an “everyman” to whom the audience can relate
Characters personified vice or virtues e.g. Good Deeds, Faith, Mercy, Anger etc.
Theological at its heart
Struggle between good and evil – good is victorious
Old Man symbolises righteousness and morality
Good and bad angels symbolise path of virtue and sin and damnation
Incorporation of the Seven Deadly Sins
In Doctor Faustus
Faustus commits mortal sin, threatening eternal damnation
Evil Angel declines in importance during play
Angels reflect the possibility of both redemption and damnation being open to Faustus

3. Gothic elements in doctor faustus
Necromancy. Romanticises death with a transgressive infusion of horror and romance. The ultimate in forbidden knowledge
Lucifer. Pride and envy.
High, even overwrought emotion. From rejoicing to despair to excitement to lust to tragedy …
Unusually set in a study, not a castle
Extreme landscapes and weather e.g. thunder and lightening in the final scene
Plot involves a journey/pursuit
Inducing fear, shock, horror, revulsion e.g. fear and shock at what Faustus participates in. Sense of intrigue also? Tendency to enjoy the barbarous or the savage or the violent
Male protagonists may well be men of action, whose role is to overcome whatever the monster is, be it a real monster, or a monster of the mind. Faustus is not idle; he conjures Mephistopheles and, although anticlimactic, goes off adventuring and debating
The ordered world is often threatened or overturned; the world of reason is overcome by the world of emotion. In Faustus, the Renaissance world is disturbed by the supernatural and Faustus’ contact with devils
An interest in the sublime – a state in which the mind or the emotions are overwhelmed by feeling, often accompanied by terror. Faustus’ temptation is so great that he must act upon it.