ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author proposes that the two versions of Faustus published in 1604 and 1616 reverse the set of claims he have been developing up to this point, namely that Marlowe's plays generally work on one important level as figurative antidotes to the martial atmosphere that permeated London in the six years or so he was active as a playwright. Magical realism often facilitates the fusion, or coexistence, of possible worlds, spaces, systems that would be irreconcilable in other modes of fiction. The debate just described is reflected by Marlowe in the ways his titular heroes engage with the icon of Helen of Troy. The private nature of his anxiety distinguishes his experience from Benvolio's very public withdrawal from stage when he is faced with an uphill battle to restore his own dignity and shore up his reputation.
