To what Extent Has Marlowe Employed the Principles of Variation and Contrast to Sustain the Attention of an Audience throughout the Tragic History of Doctor Faustus and to what Effect?

The foolishness of these scenes also portrays Marlowe's intended affect of didacticism, teaching the audience how to act in a morally challenging situation. All the comic scenes show Faustus' decline, emphasizing the themes of the problems of human ambition, the price of power and the Christian themes of sin, redemption and damnation. It does so whilst sustaining the audience's interest through comedy and relating issues to them.
Other variations used by Marlowe to build his play are; variations in style, language and means of narration. The contrast between Marlowe's blank verse and prose is distinct. Prose is used in the comic scenes including the poorly educated characters of lesser social status. The use of prose allows for humour and develops the minor characters. Blank verse increases the flow of the drama and is used to signify the more highly educated and more significant problems and scenes to Marlowe's moral play. …