Alyssa's Exploration Report

I chose to do my informal exploration on The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus, by Christopher Marlowe, one of the texts I read for a past class. One of the first sources I found was a very interesting BBC article written in 2017 that discusses how contemporary politicians make their own deals with the devil, so to speak, and so gain as much power and influence as they like without really doing much good for the communities they represent. It touches on the concept of instant gratification in our modern culture as well, and how technology is one of the driving forces for our constant need of something pleasurable now without thinking of the long-term consequences. On YouTube, I discovered the full performance of the play at the Globe Theater, and watched some of it. The actors’ and director’s interpretations of the text were quite vivid and made the comical elements of the play all the more so. They really highlighted Faustus’s internal dilemmas in a way that made the audience almost sympathize with him for his choices and their consequences. When I made the syllabus search online, I found myself in the midst of student responses to the text, which included some connections to other works of literature I hadn't considered. A search on Pinterest yielded several depictions of Faustus conjuring and making his deal with Mephistopeles.