Monday, 10 September 2012

The Chorus in Doctor Faustus

What are the audience's impressions at the end of the chorus?

The chorus in a play is used to tell the audience what to expect from the play and gives a brief summary of what will happen, for example, in Romeo and Juliet, the audience is told at the beginning of the play that the pair of "star-crossed lovers" will die. However, in Doctor Faustus the ending is not revealed, which ultimately removes the inevitability of the ending. Therefore, at the end of the chorus the audience feel confused as to what to expect which adds to the mystery of the play.

The chorus also tries to persuade the audience to reserve their judgement/impressions of Faustus and encourages them to empathise with him. However, the chorus does this telling the audience to have "patient judgments" and the fact that the chorus has to warn them to not judge Faustus straight away, it automatically does the reverse, making the audience believe that Faustus will do wrong and makes them judge him quickly anyway.

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