Una Ellis-Fermor, 1927 (Faustus)

Ellis-Fermor presents a picture of Faustus as Everyman*, and the embodiment of the Renaissance scholar.

“The character of Faustus, it cannot be too often repeated, it is not that of one man, but of man himself, of Everyman. There are no details, no personal traits, no eccentricities or habits, nothing that is intimate or individual. Marlow could not have told us where, or in what way, Faustus differed from any other man. He was concerned only with that part of him which was common to all men, yet in virtue of which he exceeded all men, his mind.”

*In literature and drama, the term Everyman has come to mean an ordinary individual, with whom the audience or reader is supposed to be able to identify easily, and who is often placed in extraordinary circumstances. The name derives from a 15th century English morality play called Everyman.