Critical Assessments

Important topics in Faustus criticism have included the uncertainties around the two texts; the theological questions surrounding Faustus’s failure to repent; the relationship between Marlowe’s allegedly transgressive beliefs and the play’s value system; and the play’s inheritances from medieval dramaturgy. In a way, these issues all relate to the central question of how we assess Faustus: as a justly damned sinner or a heroic Renaissance Humanist. Judgments of Faustus, in turn, are often rooted in judgments of Marlowe.