Abubakar Sulaiman Muhd
In an attempt to look at the common
and uncommon attributes of the two plays, we will find out that the two have
some similarities and differences despite the fact that each one comes from
different period.
Medieval drama is any play that
comes during the classical civilization from Greece through Italy up to the
collapse of the Roman Empire. Historians divided this period into three groups,
the mid, the high and the late, beginning in Italy from the 900 C reaching
England around 1500 C which results in the works of the playwrights such as Christopher
Marlowe and his peers William Shakespeare, Ben Johnson, etcetera.
Medieval drama pays much attention on
morality, yet certain elements have been transported into English plays during
the Renaissance in the course of adoption. In this sense, English dramatist Christopher
Marlowe has incorporated certain elements of medieval theatre in his play, Dr Faustus, in which good and evil are
laid side by side to teach moral lesson to humanity. But there are also certain
differences that exist between Everyman
as medieval play and Dr. Faustus as renaissance
drama.
Medieval dramas are religious
presented as mystery, miracle as well as morality plays in which the message is
central to Christian beliefs in salvation. It is based on the idea that human
being has the ability to choose the good or bad that will determine their life
in the hereafter. Life is believed to be of two kinds, the eternal and the
earthly. God, Satan and souls live in the eternal or the transcendental which
unlike here on earth, there is no beginning or end. So, our life on earth is
just an interlude in which everyman will use his little time to make this
choice.
In Everyman, like other medieval theatrical plays, allegorical
characters are used in which attributes of good and evil are depicted for the
protagonist to choose and determine his fate in the hereafter. Everyman focuses
much of his attention on wealth living with little or no thought of death and
God. Everyman has concentrated on amassing rich, and God is not happy with the
ungrateful life he leads on earth. God sees that if he allows him to continue
he will be worst than beast. He sends Death to summon Everyman to a pilgrimage
to render the account of how he spent every minute and second of his life. He asks other allegorical characters as Friend
and Fellowship and the Goods that Everyman loves so much to accompany him. They
all refuse to go making Everyman to realize that all such worldy fellowship,
friends and wealth are unreliable and deceitful. Everyman quickly realizes his
situation that he does not have sufficient good deeds to help him render his
account. In the end, Good Deeds agrees to follow him to his pilgrimage although
it is very weak and feeble. Everyman regrets choosing riches and worldly goods,
and wishes if he has done much good deeds in his life.
Furthermore, medieval drama uses
allegorical characters in which abstract concepts are personified between good
and evil, wealth and humble life, which is evident in Everyman as medieval play, in which a protagonist representing
humanity will succumb to the wordly materials, seductiveness and temptations.
The emphasis is on morality in which the good and evil is portrayed in vivid
and clear contrast. The purpose of this is to show the sinfulness and
wickedness of the vices and evil and its consequences on humanity in the
hereafter when everyman will be left to himself and his deeds. The vice characters usually come out to
declare their wickedness against the protagonist, thus a warning to humanity to
shun away from evil. The good character is shown as a contrast to the evil,
that will come to help the protagonist
when he realizes his wrong actions in succumbing to evil temptations, and then
will repent when he sees the wrath and curse of God he is doomed to face.
Everyman as medieval drama has a clear message. The main idea of the
play is in teaching Christian beliefs and salvation which is reinforced by
presenting allegorical character in which every human being struggles to live
between good and evil. This is for the reader to learn a lesson to utilize his
interlude to determine a pleasant abode in the hereafter by upholding good
values and following orthodox faith.
However, if we turn to Christopher
Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus as renaissance
play, we can see some similarities but can also easily make differences from Everyman as medieval play. Medieval period
starts later after the revival of interest in classical Greek and Rome, and has
influences on the renaissance in which the end of the former is the begging of
the latter, starting from Italy reaching English society around fifteen to
sixteenth century. It is a period of reawakening of knowledge with rigorous studies
and interest in science, cosmology, art, philosophy and thought, as well as
divine things that were unquestionable during the medieval times, having exclusive interpretation and explanation from
secular views. Christopher Marlowe came
at this time where the world is opened and the attention shifted from the
religious view of the universe and heavenly things to a secularized
perspective.
Dr Faustus is a play that tells a story of a religious man who
is well-learned in theology but feels the curiosity to know more about the
world from a view not strictly religious. He seeks to find a discipline where
he could command the four elements: fire, water, earth and air, to make the
cardinal points move and have emperors under his control. He blasphemes and abjures the heavenly
scriptures to acquire such powers. Dr. Faustus calls Mephistopheles who
facilitates the process between Dr. Faustus and Lucifer, the Prince of Devils,
in which Faustus will sell his soul to acquire power to perform magic and
occultism for twenty-four years. Dr. Faustus struggles with inner feeling after
receiving pieces of advice from Good Angel and Bad Angel respectively, but decides
to go ahead and signs the deal with his own blood. Dr. Faustus wields magical
power and wonders making him famous all over Europe. In the end of the twenty-four
years, the Devils come to take his soul where is shown regretting his life and
demanding forgiveness when it is too late. It is highly offensive to God to
offer coward repentance after death.
In line with the story in Dr. Faustus, it can be said that the
main concern is not specifically amassing wealth as we have seen in
Everyman. The thirst for power and
curiosity could be regarded as the central themes in renaissance plays which
center around the spirit of intellectualism, curiosity, and individualism of
life in thought and religion. Many believed that Dr. Faustus is just a man of renaissance
who has curiosity and interest in knowing more about other fields. As a result,
he follows the trend of the Renaissance to satisfy his curiosity. It was a
period where knowledge is a powerful tool in explaining the universe. Many discoveries
were made during this period. America was discovered by Columbus, another
theory of the earth rotation was introduced by Nicolas Copernicus that
challenged the Ptolemaic planetary theory of the solar system which held the view
that the Earth was at the center of the universe with the sun, moon, stars and
other planets revolving around it. Then Galileo also came up with his theory
about the globe pattern that contradicted the explanation expounded by the
church.
In view of the features we have
seen in the two plays, we can say that the plays have similarities in using
allegorical characters. Everyman uses
some characters such as Goods, Beauty, Good Deeds, Fellowship, Kindred, Death
etcetera. Similarly, Dr. Faustus also
uses allegorical characters: Envy, Wrath, Lechery, Sloth, Gluttony, Pride and Covetousness
in the form of the Seven Deadly sins as well as Good Angel and Bad Angel. While
Everyman explicitly preaches morality
about wealth and ascetic life which serves as a constant reminder of the power
of God through Death, Dr. Faustus
also implicitly preaches this message hence we see Dr Faustus in the end regretting
his rebellion against the religion.
From our reading of the two plays,
we have understood that both the unbridled love for wealth in the Everyman, and disproportionate thirst
for power in Dr. Faustus, can be seen
as acts that will lead humanity to eternal damnation.
However, although Dr. Faustus has some features of medieval
drama which is mainly moral lesson reinforcing Christian beliefs in salvation, the
main concern in the play is not entirely central to the theme of amassing
wealth or it wickedness which makes it different from Everyman.
While good and evil vie for human
soul in the medieval drama, the thirst for knowledge is the dominant theme in renaissance
plays. Dr. Faustus rebellion against religion is nothing
but struggling to break the dominance of religion and philosophical teaching in
explaining the universe. Therefore it is seen as the reactionary forces against
the medieval drama where religious explanations remained unquestioned.
Finally, to reconcile the two
plays, it is clear that Dr Faustus
has some features with Everyman in
dominant theme of the medieval drama in teaching moral lesson about religious
belief and power. Yet, it also maintains its renaissance elements in elevating
the power of knowledge in which human being discovered themselves and the
universe around them after centuries of darkness aided by the religion which
allows only church to offer explanation about the universe.
(@abubakarsulai13)
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