The humanist simulacrum vs. religious reality in Christopher Marlowe’s doctor Faustus

Abstract EN

The present paper is an analytic study of jean Baudrillard’s postmodern notion of simulacra and the world of the hyper real.

it attempts to analyse the ways in which Baudrillard explains his aspect of absent referentiality that loses its essence gradually when surpassed by images and copies stripping its originality and authenticity.

in order to interpret this postmodern theory, the study delves into a different era from the Baudrillardian time of post-capitalism.

it aims at investigating the mentalities, behaviours and inner reflections of the people during Elizabethan England (1558-1603) through exploring its revolutionary renaissance theatre and its dramatis personae.

Christopher Marlowe’s doctor Faustus (1594) stands as the corpus for this study.

the play explains the way the protagonist falls into the trap of his own ego and pride after his eagerness to prove individualistic and humanist.

the final results demonstrate how doctor Faustus’s simulacrum and copied reality weave a magical world for him with no reference to his religious reality because through shaping a simulated reality, he abjures god and sells out both body and soul to the devil and ends up tormented and damned in hell with nothing to refer or to repent to.