Faces in the Wall: A Tragedy of Divine Justice
Intended to be Marlowe’s masterpiece at New Olamn College, this "avant-garde" work rages against the Wall of the Faithless and calls into question the justice of allegedly good deities that allow it to exist. Reportedly, the original script passed by the faculty board was not the version staged for the public, and the opening performance was shut down before the end of the third, final act. Marlowe barely escaped blasphemy charges and was expelled from the college without receiving her degree.
Considered purely as a work of drama, Faces in the Wall has many of the flaws of even advanced student plays. Most notably, its structure belies the “tragedy” promised by the subtitle. There is no tragic flaw to seal the central character’s fate; indeed, there is not even a central character. Arguably, there is not even a plot, since most of the play consists of “Faithless” victims telling their (admittedly powerful) stories of abandonment by the gods. Such monologues are often stilted, especially coming from younger poets, but Marlowe’s gift for poetic yet naturalistic expression is evident even in this earliest extant work.
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