Self-Reflexive Character of the Staging of Violence in Marlowe's Doctor Faustus Summary of the Articles - Essay Example

Explore the Self-Reflexive Character of the Staging of Violence in Marlowes Doctor Faustus Summary of the Articles Rick Bowers’ article “Marlowe’s Knifework: Threat, Caution, and Reaction in the Theatre” makes a reflective exploration of a particular kinesthetic experience with special emphasis on the physicality of knives. According to the author, cutting and stabbing instruments on Marlowe’s stage assume meanings beyond mere stage property which draw out neuro-sensory muscular reactions in the audience. Thus, he asserts that the stabbing instruments in Marlowe’s plays have a great role as special prop, agent, and symbol for the materialization of terror as a new and devastating instrument of culture in the theatre. Marlowe’s heroic villains use a knife or any other stabbing instrument in order to intensify psychological effects of violence and fear. The article indicates that Marlowe makes use of visual and kinetic means to enact violence in his plays, which create moments of audience distress and present-tense fear in the audience. According to the author, Marlowe thrust the kinesthetic truth of theatrical violence into the heart of culture, though this strategy in his plays. In his article “What Happened to the Mighty Line?: Recent Marlowe Productions”, Lois Potter makes a fundamental exploration of the nature of “mighty lines” in the recent Marlowe productions such as films and stage performances. The author maintains that there are many mighty lines in these recent productions and these lines are seen in the recent productions of the various plays by Marlowe such as Dr Faustus, The Jew of Malta, Tamburlaine, and Edward II. According to him, the influence of the author of the recent productions of Marlowe’s plays is greatly evident in these productions and he makes a profound exploration of why the mighty line are replaced by the moving line in these production. “How to Do Things with Demons: Conjuring Performatives in Doctor Faustus” is an important article by Andrew Sofer, in which the author investigates how the Elizabethan actors performed black magic on the early modern stage. Andrew Sofer purports that the unnerving performative potential of the actors influenced the fascination conjuring held for Elizabethan audiences and conjuring in plays such as Doctor Faustus makes use of a performative speech act which threatens to blur the distinction between theatre and magic. The conjuring in these plays reflect the ontological ambiguity of performance itself and, by doing so, conjuring poises on the knife-edge between representing (mimesis) and doing (kinesis). According to the author, the power in performance of the play Doctor Faustus relies on keeping the ontological stakes of black magic deliberately uncertain, which ultimately convinces the audience of the efficacy of Faustus’s conjuring. Thus, the article offers convincing explanations about the various aspects of the performatives which reveal the features of the conjuring in the play Doctor Faustus. The Self-Reflexive Character of the Staging of Violence in Marlowes Doctor Faustus Christopher Marlowe’s celebrated play The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, normally known simply as Doctor Faustus, is based on the Faust story, in which the protagonist, in pursuit of power and knowledge, sells his soul to the devil and the play is noted for the theme of violence. Violence, along with sex, suggests one of the basic themes in various plays by Marlowe and the playwright has considerably dealt with the theme of violence in his play Doctor Faustus, which was one of the celebrated stage performances of the time. As a playwright had a thorough idea of what his audience wanted, Marlowe offered various scenes dealing with violence in his play. The playwright was aware of the mood of the audience who wanted to see violence, sin, sex, magic etc on the stage and he offered them an important opportunity to see and experience these elements in his Doctor Faustus. In this play, as in the play Tamburlaine, a new kind of experience in theatre which exceeds the blunt morality of cautionary moral tradition is evident. Marlowe was careful in offering every opportunity for the effective staging of violence in his play and he creates the right atmosphere for introducing violence at the outset of Doctor Faustus. Thus, in Act I of his play, Marlowe creates the environment for the dramatic summoning of the Devil, by first letting Faustus describe the setting. “Now that the gloomy shadow of the night, / Longing to view Orion’s drizzling look, / Leaps from th’ Antarctic world unto the sky, / And dims the welkin with her pitchy breath, / Faustus, begin thine incantations / And try if devils will obey thy hest…” (Marlowe, I.iii, 1-6) Therefore, it is fundamental to realize that the playwright adopts highly effective strategies in staging violence his play Doctor Faustus and Marlowe has been emphatic about the successful staging of violence in his play. All through his play, Marlowe is focused on creating neuro-sensory muscular reactions and radical tensions in the audience, by producing actions of fear and distress in his play. A careful analysis of Marlowe’s verbal and visual onstage violence confirms that there is a self-reflexive character of the staging of violence in his plays, especially Doctor Faustus. In a reflective exploration of Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, it becomes lucid that the playwright is effective in the staging of violence and the playwright has been highly noted for the production of a theatre of consistently violent techniques and effects. It is important to comprehend that the play Doctor Faustus is important for its techniques and effects of staging of violence. The playwright offers significant opportunities for the stage-managers to present violence through various means which considerably influence the aesthetic appreciation of the play by the audience. The self-reflexive character of the staging of violence in Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus is especially instrumental in the presentation of the dramatist’s themes as well as the appreciation of the play by the audience. As Rick Bowers argues, cutting and stabbing instruments on Marlowe’s stage assume “meanings beyond mere stage property to elicit neuro-sensory muscular reactions in the audience; actions of fear and distress that occur prior to intellectual perception and that produce radical tensions beyond moral pedagogy, analogues of Artaud or Seneca, or even post-reformation humanist debate. For Marlowe’s heroic villains, a knife—in hand, imagined, or in action—represents a desperate, even deadly, adjunct to making the character happen onstage and thereby heightening psychological effects of violence and fear.” (Bowers, 19) Therefore, self-reflexive character of the staging of violence in Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus intensifies the psychological effects of violence and fear in the audience. In opposition of the criticisms of destabilizing Marlowe’s verbal and visual onstage violence, Bowers argues that the critical vocabulary as well as the governing aesthetics of violence inheres in the physicality of theatre itself. According to him, “Marlowe’s violence, especially knife violence, asserts something new, sensational and immediate, something more visceral, dangerous, and specific than can be handled by the usual critical vocabularies.” (Bowers, 20) The self-reflexive character of the staging of violence in Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus becomes obvious in a careful analysis of the various techniques used by the dramatist to create psychological effects of violence and fear in the audience. The use of the elements of the supernatural in the play should be comprehended as an attempt to thrill and captivate his audience. Through the presentation of these supernatural elements in the play, the dramatist also succeeded in creating the effects of violence and fear on stage. The presentation of the supernatural powers in the play also helped in the depiction of the protagonist, Faustus, as a true tragic hero. “Faustus, begin thine incantations, / And try if devils will obey thy hest, / Seeing thou hast prayed and sacrific’d to them. / Within this circle is Jehovah’s name / Forward and backward anagrammatiz’d, / Th’ abbreviated names of holy saints, / Figures of every adjunct to the heavens, / And the characters of signs and erring stars, / By which the spirits are enforced to rise: (Marlowe, I.iii, 5-13) Therefore, the playwright incorporates elements of supernatural powers in the play in order to create psychological effects of violence and fear. It is the self-reflexive character of the staging of violence in Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus that helps the audience in appreciating the violence performed in the play. The analysis of how the Elizabethan actors performed black magic on the early modern stage by Andrew Sofer suggests the self-reflexive character of the staging of violence in the play. According to him, the play does not side with its own devils and reduce magic to theatre because it proposes the stage-cue and the imperative address as verbal conjuring analogous to black magic. Significantly, the play’s power in performance relies on keeping the ontological stakes of black magic deliberately uncertain, and the audience is convinced of the efficacy of Faustus’s conjuring. According to Andrew Sofer, “the fascination conjuring held for Elizabethan audiences can be traced to its unnerving performative potential. More precisely, in plays such as Doctor Faustus conjuring models a performative speech act that threatens to blur the distinction between theatre and magic. Mirroring the ontological ambiguity of performance itself, conjuring poises on the knife-edge between representing (mimesis) and doing (kinesis).” (Sofer, 2) Thus, it is essential to comprehend that the self-reflexive character of the staging of violence in the play offers convincing explanations about the various aspects of the performatives which reveal the features of conjuring in Doctor Faustus. In conclusion, the self-reflexive character of the staging of violence has contributed highly to the successful performance of the play on the stage and the playwright has been careful in using effective techniques in the staging of violence in the play Doctor Faustus. Works Cited Bowers, Rick. “Marlowe’s Knifework: Threat, Caution, and Reaction in the Theatre.” Shakespeare Bulletin. Vol. 27. 2009. P 19-26. Marlowe, Christopher. Dr. Faustus. Kessinger Publishing. 2004. Potter, Lois. “What Happened to the Mighty Line?: Recent Marlowe Productions.” Shakespeare Bulletin. Vol. 27. 2009. P 63-68. Sofer, Andrew. “How to Do Things with Demons: Conjuring Performatives in Doctor Faustus.” Theatre Journal. Vol. 61. 2009. P 1–21. Read More