Faustus is almost frantic as his end approaches. The drama of the scene is heightened by this constant awareness of the passing of time. That Faustus may repent and save his soul! That time may cease and midnight never come įair Nature's eye, rise, rise again, and make Stand still, you ever-moving spheres of heaven, He suddenly understands that one power he does not possess is the ability to make time stop he desires to have more time to live and thus repent of his sins.

As the clock strikes eleven, he realizes that he has only one hour left to live. Man's limitation is that he lives in time, and in his final speech, we see Faustus fighting against this very limitation. All he can finally do is to ask the scholars to pray for him. In the previous scene, Marlowe demonstrated the example of the old man who abjured the devil and turned to God.Ĭonsequently, Faustus' explanation is false and empty. Faustus' only excuse for not turning to God is that 'the devil threatened to tear me in pieces if I named God, to fetch both body and soul if I once gave ear to divinity.' This excuse is not rational. He knows that he has committed those very things which God most strictly forbids. As he realizes the magnitude of his sin, he is almost afraid to turn to the God whom he has abjured. Faustus makes a statement to one of the scholars that 'had I lived with them then had I lived still, but now I die eternally.' In spite of all the admonitions, Faustus even at the end makes no real effort to turn to God. There is a constant interplay throughout the scene between living and dying. Because he wanted to live for vain joys, he has lost eternal life. It is in this scene that Faustus completely realizes what he has done. In Doctor Faustus, the doctor has his friends with him and one of the scholars wants to stay with him, but Faustus realizes that he must face death alone. Likewise, in the play Everyman, Everyman wants to take all his friends with him to the grave. For example, we are immediately reminded of Job, who had his friends with him to comfort him during his suffering, but the friends were no help to him. The basic situation in this final scene evokes many literary parallels.

Thunder and lightning flash across the stage and the devils arrive to take him away. As the clock strikes twelve, he cries out for God not to look so fierce upon him. He would suffer a hundred thousand years if at last he could be saved. As the clock strikes half past eleven, he pleads that his doom not be everlasting. He suffers because he realizes that he will be deprived of eternal bliss and will have to suffer eternal damnation. He must face the final moments alone.Īfter the scholars leave, the clock strikes eleven, and Faustus realizes that he has only an hour left before eternal damnation. One of the scholars volunteers to stay with Faustus until the last minute, but Faustus and the others admit that no one will be able to help him. I would lift up my hands but, see, they hold them, they hold them!' Faustus tells the scholars that he has done the very things that God most forbids man to do: 'for vain pleasure of twenty-four years hath Faustus lost eternal joy and felicity.' He says: 'Ah, my God, I would weep, but the devil draws in my tears!. The scholars urge him to call on God, but Faustus feels that he is unable to call on God, whom he has abjured and blasphemed. He admits that he has sinned so greatly that he cannot be forgiven. Faustus declares to the three scholars who accompany him that he is in a dejected state because of what is about to happen to him.

Ambition strikes