The Last Scene: Helen of Troy and
the Old man in "Dr. Faustus"
Introduction: Faustus’s
great final soliloquy consummates the play. The last scene of the
play is the most poignant The last scene, be it in the form of
Helen’s presence or the final beseeching of Doctor Faustus, makes Marlowe
reach the flights imagination. We may divide last scene of the
play into three parts: First the Helen Episode, Second the Old Man and the Last
soliloquy of Doctor Faustus. The three parts of the play make up the whole last
scene to abide in our thoughts.
The Helen Episode: When
‘music sounds’ and Helen passes across the stage, her sanctity is mirrored
in the awed calm of the scholars. Her “heavenly beauty passeth all compare” She
isthe pride of the nature’s work. Here outburst the eternal words of
praise for Helen from Doctor Faustus who, in the most ravishing way, loses
himself in the arms of Helen to avoid his imminent doom.
Was this the face that launce’d a
thousand ships,
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?
-
Sweet Helen, make me immortal
with a kiss.
Her lips suck forth my soul: see
where it flies!
Come, Helen, come, give me my
soul again,
Here will I dwell, for heaven
is in these lips,
And all is dross that is not Helena.
I will be Paris, and for
love of thee.
Instead of Troy , shall Wittenberg be
sack’d:
And I will combat with weak
Menelaus,
And wear thy colors on my plumed
crest;
Yes, I will wound Achilles in the
heel,
And then return to Helen for a
kiss.
O, thou art fairer than the
evening air,
Clad in the beauty of a thousands
starts;
Brighter art thou than flaming
Jupiter
Faustus’s poetry for Helen shows
his ultimate desperate condition and his futile effort to evade the eternal doom.
The Old man: Doctor Faustus
is ‘But a man condemned to die.’ Soon after the appearance of Helen, the
old man approaches Doctor Faustus to reconcile him. The Old Man’s
compassionate advice to Faustus adds a new dimension to our senses of the human
predicament.
Yet, yet, thou hast an amiable
soul if sin by custom grows not into nature.
The Old Man is, rather the
last man trying to pull Faustus from the snaps of
death. But Faustus, as
he is eternally doomed, must reach his self-imposed torments of hell.
The Last hour: As
Faustus’s fascination for Helen, ‘The only paragon of excellence’
reveals the Renaissance characteristics of love and adoration of classical art
and beauty, Helen epitomizes the charms of classical art, learning and beauty.
And her shade of apparition may also be the symbol of sensual pleasures of life
which is but transient, and leads to despair and damnation. If it is so, the
old man represents Christian faith with its obedience to the laws of God
and its needs for prayer and penitence that can assure eternal joys and
bliss. Doctor Faustus knows that his end is approaching. The proud and
puffed scholar of Wittenberg, who once dreamed of becoming a Jove on the
earth, ironically craves to be transformed into some mean creature so as to
escape his doom. And when the last hour strikes, we find the
anguished cry of a terror-stricken man who is facing his damnation.
O, it strikes: No body turn to
air,
Or Lucifer will bear thee quick
to hell,
O, soul, be changed into little
water drops.
And fall into the ocean, never be
found!
Critics and scholars of one
opinion that the last scene of the play is highly consummate and
grim.
No comments:
Post a Comment