From one point of view, Christopher Marlowe's Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Dr. Faustus can be looked upon as an allegorical and didactic morality play in which the central character, fettered by his medieval magic and beliefs, foolishly aspires beyond his God-given place in the world to become a true "Renaissance man." The most perverse, ingenious, and still astonishing
novelty of Marlowe was to show the Renaissance scholar
as a spectator of the old morality play in which the
medieval warlock, torn between good and evil angels,
is tempted by the devils on his road to the grave.
What a challenge for the directors; this alienated
hell in the parody and reenactment of the medieval
mystery play by the devil. (Kott, p.8)
Much of what is recognized as good and evil is painted here in black and white, and there is little room for ambiguity.
Shakespeare, however, is all about ambiguity. Much of what can be painted in the whites of angelic good and the blacks of devilish evil is often presented in shades of gray. Instead of a catechismal morality play, Shakespeare's tragedies provide deeper drama in which audiences are offered less in simple answers of right or wrong and more in complex questions of ethics and motivation. And the ethics of villainy, as has been pointed out, has always been popular:
Iago at once captures the attention of the spectator.
He is the personification of the villain that
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