Rewriting the Last Monologue of Doctor Faustus with Insights from Bhagat Singh’s Arguments

This blog is written as a task assigned by the head of the Department of English (MKBU), Prof. and Dr. Dilip Barad Sir.Click here

Introduction

Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus ends in a deeply tragic monologue that encapsulates the despair of a man who traded eternal salvation for momentary power. The final soliloquy of Faustus—spoken in the last hour before his damnation—reflects terror, regret, and helplessness. But what if we re-examine Faustus’s downfall not just as a moral or religious failure, but as a psychological and philosophical crisis through the lens of Bhagat Singh’s revolutionary thought, particularly from his essay Why I am an Atheist?

Bhagat Singh, a radical freedom fighter and thinker, rejected blind faith and advocated for intellectual courage and freedom of thought. He challenged not only colonial oppression but also the dogmas that enslaved the mind. By blending these two worlds—the Renaissance tragedy and the revolutionary spirit of pre-independence India—we can reinterpret Faustus’s final moments with a renewed sense of agency and resistance.

Faustus’s Final Monologue: A Cry for Mercy

In the original play, Faustus pleads:

> “O lente lente currite noctis equi!

The stars move still, time runs, the clock will strike,

The devil will come, and Faustus must be damned.

O I'll leap up to my God!—Who pulls me down?

See, see where Christ’s blood streams in the firmament!”

These lines reflect a man utterly dependent on divine mercy, crushed by the weight of religious fear. He yearns for salvation but is paralyzed by guilt and cosmic fatalism.

 Bhagat Singh: Defiance over Despair

In Why I am an Atheist, Bhagat Singh argues that reliance on divine intervention limits human potential. He writes:

> “A man cannot be truly free until he liberates his mind from all kinds of superstitions.”

To Singh, true freedom involves confronting reality without illusions. His rejection of God was not born of arrogance but of intellectual honesty. He believed in fighting oppression through reason, not ritual.

Rewriting the Monologue: From Submission to Struggle

Let us reimagine Faustus’s last speech infused with Bhagat Singh’s ideological clarity and defiance:

> “O time, thou art not my enemy,

But the construct of my cowardice.

No stars govern my soul,

No blood in the sky can absolve my choice.

The devil I feared was but a shadow

Cast by my own ignorance.

Let this hour not be a cry for rescue—

But a reckoning.

If I perish, let it be not in shame,

But in the resolve that no fear shall rule me again.

Hell is not beneath, nor heaven above—

But within the mind that yields to chains.

Strike, clock! I welcome the truth,

Unmasked, unafraid, unrepentant.”

Interpretation: From Theological Doom to Existential Awareness

This revised monologue reflects a Faustus who embraces responsibility rather than begging for divine rescue. He does not surrender to fear but confronts it with clarity. The idea of damnation is internalized—not as eternal punishment—but as the natural consequence of choices made in ignorance.

Bhagat Singh's influence replaces theological guilt with philosophical awakening. Instead of fearing "hell," Faustus now understands the tragedy of his own intellectual enslavement. The monologue shifts from a passive lament to a radical self-critique—empowered, not broken.

Conclusion: From Tragedy to Transformation

Rewriting Faustus's final monologue with Bhagat Singh’s insights doesn’t dilute its tragic essence—it deepens it. Marlowe's Faustus represents the Renaissance man's thirst for knowledge but falls into despair because he seeks power without wisdom. Bhagat Singh offers a contrasting vision—of knowledge grounded in courage, freedom from dogma, and unwavering intellectual honesty.

This fusion of Western tragedy with Indian revolutionary thought reminds us that real liberation—whether personal or political—begins with the fearless questioning of authority, even divine. In this light, Faustus’s

 end becomes not just a fall, but the beginning of a much-needed awakening.

Refrence:https://blog.dilipbarad.com/2016/08/online-test-renaissance-literature.html