How Paradise Lost drew on Dr. Faustus
A documented line of influence: John Milton demonstrably engaged Christopher Marlowe’s work. The commentary below is Gröblé’s, verbatim from each work’s page.
The source
Dr. Faustus
Christopher Marlowe · 1588
RenaissanceThe influenced
Paradise Lost
John Milton · 1667
RenaissanceRelevance
6/10
On Paradise Lost’s page
- Satan's hell-within-the-self was Marlowe's idea first
- His "Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell" (Book IV) echoes Faustus's "Why, this is hell, nor am I out of it" — scholars treat Marlowe's damned scholar as a direct source for Milton's fallen angel
- Read Dr. Faustus and you hear the earlier voice standing behind Satan's interior torment
On Dr. Faustus’s page
- Marlowe's Faustus gave Milton's Satan his deepest line — that hell is not a place but a condition of the self
- Faustus's "Why, this is hell, nor am I out of it" is echoed in Satan's "Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell" (Paradise Lost IV.75)
- The damned mind that carries its torment wherever it goes: Marlowe drafted it, Milton perfected it