Because this is a sequence of monosyllabic words, it is not entirely clear which of them are stressed.
Look, for example, at the second line: ‘Now hast thou but one bare hour to live’ (l. Why does the second half hour pass much more quickly than the first? Is this Marlowe's way of conveying what the passage of time feels like to the terrified Faustus: it seems to be speeding up as the dreaded end approaches? The thunder and lightning that swiftly follow the sound of the clock striking midnight announce the final entrance of the devils.Ĭritics have often commented on how skilfully Marlowe uses rhythm to underline the passage of time. It strikes eleven at the start of the speech, then half past the hour 31 lines later, then midnight only twenty lines after that. Of course, the speech doesn't really take an hour to deliver, but Marlowe uses the sound of the clock striking to create the illusion that the last hour of Faustus's life is ticking away and so heightens the sense of impending doom. The soliloquy represents an attempt to imagine and dramatise what the last hour of life feels like to a man awaiting certain damnation.
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