Dr Faustus Faces his End
Analysis of the Final Monologue
A Summary and a Reflection on the Concept of Time
Summary
Faustus' eternal damnation is but an hour ahead. He suffers because he completely realizes that his eternal soul will be deprived of eternal joy and will have to suffer eternal damnation. As the clock strikes half past eleven, he thinks of every possible and impossible solution to avoid his punishment and even figure out an end to it . He is even willing to suffer a hundred thousands years if at last his soul can be saved. As the clock strikes twelve, he appeals to God to save him but amidst thunder and lightning the devils arrive to take him away. The whole passage reveals Faustus' fear of death and eternal damnation as well as his fear of not being saved.
General Introduction
- Main Work and Author: Christopher Marlowe's The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus. As explored in our first video, How to Master Dr. Faustus: Mind Mapping the Plot and Genre for Exams, this play is a foundational Renaissance tragedy and a Morality play.
- Publication and Sources: First performed around 1588-1592; based on the German Faust legend.
- Explanation of the Title: The "Tragical History" emphasises the inevitable downfall of a man who rejects divine law for human knowledge, a character dynamic we analysed in our second video: How to Analyse Doctor Faustus (B1/B2 English): Sources, Characters & Themes.
- Plot Context: We join Faustus in his final hour. The 24 years of power he bargained his soul for are gone, and he is left alone to face eternal damnation as the clock strikes midnight.
Division into Sections
The monologue can be divided into three psychological sections:
- The Plea for Time (Lines 1-15): Faustus begs for the sun to stand still and for time to stop.
- The Vision of Judgment (Lines 16-32): He sees Christ's blood in the firmament but cannot reach it; he begs the mountains to fall on him to hide him from God's gaze and wrath.
- The Final Descent (Lines 33-end): The clock strikes twelve. He offers to burn his books in a last, desperate attempt at repentance, and wants to dissolve into a water drop before being dragged away.
Grammatical Analysis
- Imperative: The text is dominated by desperate commands ("Stand still," "Rise, rise," "O soul, be changed") showing Faustus's futile attempt to control nature even as he loses control of his destiny.
- Exclamatory Sentences: The frequent use of "O" and exclamation marks creates a fragmented rhythm that mimics a panic attack, a great point for students to mention regarding B2-level dramatic analysis.
- Pronouns: There is a notable shift from the arrogant first-person 'I' seen earlier in the play to a more submissive and fragmented self-address, reflecting his loss of identity.
- Temporal Adjectives: The repetition of temporal markers (like 'perpetual' and 'everlasting') emphasises the transition from human, linear time to the terrifying reality of eternal damnation.
- Sentence Count and Types: The extract consists of approximately 20–22 distinct sentences (depending on how you count the breathy, fragmented exclamations). There is a high prevalence of Exclamatory and Imperative sentences.
- Prevalent Sentence Type: Exclamatory sentences are the most prevalent. This is because the scene is a "limit experience"; Faustus is no longer arguing logically but is experiencing a visceral panic attack. The sentences are often short and "breathless," reflecting his racing heart as the clock ticks.
- Verb Tenses and Prevalence:
- Present Tense: Highly prevalent ("The stars move still," "Time runs") to create a sense of immediacy and 'real-time' terror.
- Imperative: As noted, he uses the imperative to command nature ("Stand still," "be changed into small droplets"). This shows his tragic refusal to accept his lack of power.
- Future Tense: Used specifically to describe his dread ("The devil will come," "I shall be damn'd"), making his fate feel like an inescapable certainty.
4. Semantic Analysis
- Light vs. Dark Imagery: Faustus looks to the "firmament" (sky) for salvation, but the imagery quickly shifts to "stars," "clouds," and "fogs".
- Religious Lexis: Terms like "God," "Christ," "Lucifer," "soul," and "perdition" dominate the scene, highlighting the spiritual reality he ignored for 24 years.
- Temporal Words: The constant repetition of "hour," "time," "clock," and "midnight" emphasises the play's central theme: the relentless, irreversible nature of time.
- Word Length and Complexity: The text is a mix of short, monosyllabic words ("Stop," "Run," "Blood," "God") and occasional long, Latinate/Academic words ("Perpetual," "Metempsychosis," "Spheres").
- Prevalent Word Type: Short, Anglo-Saxon words are prevalent.
In moments of extreme crisis, human language tends to simplify. Faustus drops the complex, flowery language of a scholar and reverts to the primal language of a man begging for his life. The short words create a rhythmic, ticking sound (like the clock).
- Hard vs. Soft Sounds: There is a prevalence of "Hard" Plosive sounds (words ending in t, d, k, p).
Words like "Clock," "Strike," "Dread," "Drop," and "Burn" create a harsh, aggressive acoustic effect. This makes the monologue feel "violent" and uncomfortable to listen to, perfectly mirroring the violent act of his soul being "rent" (torn) from his body.
- Semantic Areas:
- Time: "Hour," "Half-hour," "Minutest," "Midnight" to build suspense.
- Body: "Heart," "Blood," "Bowels," "Eyes" to emphasise that his suffering is not just spiritual, but physical.
5. Characters
- Faustus: He is completely solitary here. Unlike the earlier scenes where he is surrounded by scholars or Mephistopheles, his isolation highlights that his damnation is a personal, individual consequence of his own choices.
6. Settings
- Faustus's Study: The setting is claustrophobic and dark. It represents the physical limits of the "forbidden knowledge" he sought. He is trapped within the very room where he once felt limitless.
- The Clock: While not a physical setting, the sound of the clock functions as a "temporal setting" that dictates the scene's pace.
7. Point of View
- Subjective First-Person: The monologue provides an intimate, psychological "internal view" of Faustus's terror. This shift from his earlier objective, arrogant speeches allows the audience to feel the full weight of his tragedy.
A reflection on the concept of time
If we underline the lines / words that are connected with the idea of time in the excerpt, we can observe that the author uses them at the beginning and the end of the excerpt.
When classifying the items listed above, we notice there are mainly three categories: nouns, verbs, adjectives (and one adverb).
Conclusion
On the one hand the nouns and the verbs (see the chart above) together with the stage directions (l 1, 33, 51) are used to stress the passing of time. The nouns are connected to a clearly defined semantic area: the time that can be counted on the clock, on the calendar.
In the stage directions: clock, watch
l 2 hour
l 5 midnight
l 6 day; day, hour
l 7 year, month, week, day
l 11 time, clock
l 33 hour
l 37 years
l 38 thousand
l 39 no end
The verbs, or more precisely the repetition of the verb "strike", seem to be used as a reminder of the imminent danger that dangles on Faustus' head. They convey a violent image.
Stage directions [The clock strikes] [The watch strikes] [The clock strikes]
l 51 it strikes, it strikes!
On the other hand the adjectives (and the adverb) all belong to a diametrically opposed semantic area: eternity, a time that cannot be counted and never ends.
l 6 Perpetual day; or let this hour be but
l 7 A year, a month, a week, a natural day,
l 3 perpetually
l 4 ever-moving spheres of heaven
l 6 Perpetual day; or let this hour be but
l 7 A year, a month, a week, a natural day,
l 41 this immortal
Only one adjective does not fit: "a natural day" (l 7). It has to be contrasted with "perpetual day"(l 6). In those two lines the fugitiveness of time is contrasted to eternity. Faustus' knowledge of their ineluctability causes his despair.
The chart below shows how the contrast fugitiveness/eternity pervades the whole extract:
