Doctor Faustus
by Christopher Marlowe

Doctor Faustus: Style 1 key example

Style
Explanation and Analysis:

For the most part, Christopher Marlowe’s play Doctor Faustus is written in blank verse iambic pentameter. The term “blank verse” refers to poetry written in rhythmic, unrhymed lines. In fact, Marlowe is thought to be the first English playwright to thoroughly explore the vast possibilities afforded by the use of blank verse in drama, crafting lively and poignant dialogue that brims with intensity and emotional depth. The use of blank verse lends an elevated, lofty quality to the dialogue of the play, generating additional solemnity, as when Faustus admires the conjured Helen of Troy in the quote below:

Was this the face that launched a thousand ships 

And burnt the topless towers of Ilium? 

Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss