Is Marlowe a Marxist? The Economic Reformation of Magic in Doctor Faustus

Author： Tucker-Abramson Myka  

Publisher： Routledge Ltd

ISSN： 0893-5696

Source： Rethinking Marxism, Vol.24, Iss.2, 2012-04, pp. : 288-301

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Abstract

In Christopher Marlowe's 1594 play, Doctor Faustus, magic is a metaphor for exploitation. My paper argues that Doctor Faustus is based on a carefully constructed comparison between the old and ineffective magic of the Emperor and the Pope and the new, very effective magic of Mephistopheles and Lucifer. The transition from Catholic to Luciferan magic represents the dissolution of the old order and money's entrance into a capitalist system. I argue that Faustus's “fall” to the devil enacts the larger process of exploitation and commodity fetishism overtaking the play's entire social world, from the Pope and the Emperor down to the servant and the Vintner. From this perspective, Doctor Faustus is not about a personal or moral failing, but a mapping of, and challenge to, the naturalization of capitalist ideology.

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