E X T E N S I O N MAJOR AND MINOR CHARACTERS IN DOCTOR FAUSTUS The list of characters in Dr Faustus is really long about twenty-five. Besides Faustus, Mephistopheles, and a few others, a small crowd of historical or comic characters are also present and all of them contribute to the serious tone of the tragedy.The use of comic situations that echo1 or intensify the central action, in fact, was quite common among Elizabethan dramatists since Elizabethan audiences expected and appreciated these contrasts of tone. Among the comic characters in Dr Faustus are, for example, Wagner and the Clown (who becomes a servant of Wagner just as Mephistopheles becomes a servant to Faustus). Their tricks2 provide comic relief 3: they are ridiculous characters, and their absurd behaviour initially contrasts with Faustus s dignity and magnificence. However, as the play goes on, Faustus s behaviour changes and starts looking like theirs. Marlowe includes these and other similar characters to illustrate Faustus s degradation as he begins playing simple tricks just to entertain the audience. Besides the comic characters, there is also a group of real VIPs from the present and the past. For example, when Faustus meets Pope Adrian (the head of the Roman Catholic Church and a powerful political figure in the Europe of Faustus s days), Marlowe wants to provide both a source of amusement for his Protestant audience, and a symbol of the religious faith that Faustus has rejected. The scene represents a satire of the Catholic Church: the way in which the Pope is shown greedy, ambitious and more focused on worldly power than 1. echo: to repeat, to come back. 2. tricks: silly acts, practical jokes. 3. relief: release, liberation, break. 68