Some misguided people believe that Christopher Marlowe faked his death to avoid arrest by the Elizabethan authorities on blasphemy charges and went into hiding, becoming the actual author of the plays attributed to Shakespeare.
I doubt that anyone who has actually read Marlowe would see that as halfway plausible, given the much darker and more pessimistic world view expressed by Marlowe.
I have long had a possibly unhealthy preoccupation with the nature of the Devil, and hence I am very familiar with many of the depictions of the Devil in literature. The Faust legend, about a man who sells his soul to the Devil, is depicted very differently by those who have written about him. Goethe’s Faust starts off as a relatively good man who becomes increasingly corrupted after his deal, but who, at the very end, is still not damned despite the Devil’s efforts to claim his soul.
Two centuries earlier, when Marlowe wrote Doctor Faustus, the story is much the inverse. Faustus, after making his deal, spends most of the play regretting his decision and repenting of his sins. Yet, despite this, he is dragged off to Hell at the very end. A deal is a deal, after all.
I suppose Marlowe’s blackly pessimistic Faustus was representative of the times. The Reformation had started 70 years earlier, and the theology of the new Protestant faith was darker and less forgiving than would be allowed for by Catholicism. The road to Hell is far easier to tread and has far fewer exits after Luther and Calvin remade Christian theology. Marlowe, the cynical and probably atheistic maverick, could not have escaped those influences at University despite his skepticism.
Despite my own intense skepticism, I am, if I am honest with myself, still hard wired as a Roman Catholic, and therefore I do believe in repentance and redemption, that very few people are truly irredeemable.
Last year after the conclusion of Season 2 of Ted Lasso, I wrote that perhaps it was transforming into a Shakespearean tragedy, with the fall from grace of Nate the assistant coach, tempted by hubris and the Devil (in the form of former AFC Richmond owner Rupert).
After just watching the ending of Season 3, I must say that I was wrong. Nate repented very early on in the piece, resigned from coaching West Ham, and returned to Richmond to do his penance as an assistant kit boy. He was redeemed and forgiven, although I assume his penance was much softened by the acquisition of a very hot girlfriend.
The real villain of the story is Rupert Mannion, the former owner of AFC Richmond and ex-husband of Rebecca, the current owner. With his flowing black coat, he is not just a villain, but possibly represents The Devil (as he is listed on Rebecca’s phone list). Constantly philandering and morally corrosive, there is even a moment towards the end of the season, where he listens to Rebecca’s pleas against creation of a super league and refuses to join it, where even he might be worthy of redemption.
But that passes, and his ruthless competitiveness and lack of a sense of fair play result in his ultimate downfall, when he storms off the field in the final match of the season, with the Richmond fans chanting WANKER at him (the nickname, if you recall, Richmond fans used to reserve for Ted Lasso at the start of the series).
As a lifelong supporter of the Footscray Football Club (and recent fan of the Cleveland Browns), I have great affinity with and affection for underdog teams. I suppose that having AFC Richmond end up finishing second in the Premier League is the right ending, as winning would be too much the cliched sort of predictable outcome Hollywood gives us in sporting stories. But I still am disappointed for the fictional Richmond fans. Why could they not have their fairytale ending, just as myself and my fellow Bulldogs fans had in 2016?
But winning on the field is not the message from Ted Lasso. It is the moral journey of all the characters, where they all grow into much better and happier people by the end of the story. They might not all find love (I still think Roy and Keeley should still be together), but they do find happiness, and friendship.
Except for Rupert. He ultimately proved himself to be unrepentant and therefore irredeemable and loses his third wife and his new football club. He then slinks off alone into obscurity, which probably is in itself a form of Hell.
Lost For Words! 