Analyzing and Interpreting Literature / Unit 17 AIL 1625 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Damnation as a Literal Stake
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The idea
For Marlowe's first audiences hell was not a metaphor, so Faustus's clock is counting toward something real. Reading his final soliloquy as a figure for regret loses the play's whole pressure, which is a period fact with a direct effect on the reading.
In practice
The stake was literal.
Where people slip
Not a figure for regret.
Your place on the trail
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