Doctor Faustus: Faustus’s Nature

Faustus, being the protagonist of Doctor Faustus, should not strike confusion upon the reader, when told that Faustus is a well-respected scholar; however, as knowledgeable as he may seem at first, the level of ignorance he shows throughout the play is phenomenal. During the beginning, Faustus disregarding certain warnings shows how Marlowe was forcing Faustus into the role of a tragic hero; however, it was a too forced – and unnecessary. Once Faustus actually obtains his powers, how easily he was corrupted was astonishing. Lastly, as with many other tragic heroes, Faustus is contradictory, but Faustus highly likely to be one of the most contradictory tragic heroes yet. All of this ties in with Faustus’s nature.

R.M. Dawkins once said that Faustus was “a Renaissance man who had to pay the Medieval price for being one”. One would naturally assume that a Renaissance man in a medieval era would be rather wise. Faustus, however, shows that even as a man ahead of his time, he is still just as foolish – if not, more – as the others of his generation. After summoning Mephostophilis, Faustus is told that Mephostophilis had ultimately come to seize Faustus’s soul and even warned about the terror of ten thousand hells as seen in the following memorable passage:

Why this is hell, nor am I out of it.

Think’st thou that I who saw the face of God

And tasted the eternal joys of heaven

Am not tormented with ten thousand hells

In being deprived of everlasting bliss?

O Faustus, leave these frivolous demands

Which strikes a terror to my fainting soul! (I, iii, 75-81)

When warned by a devil (that had originally come to take Faustus’s soul after hearing him speak badly of holy things) about the horror of hell, and the joys of heaven, Faustus should h...

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...panic and regret selling his soul, but shortly after quit doing so after Mephostophilis ordered devils to give Faustus rich clothing and dance for him. Yet, no matter how ambiguous Faustus may seem, at the end, Faustus will always land on the more sinful side.

All in all, it were these things – a man ahead of his time forced to be a tragic hero, corrupted by power, and his contradictory personality – that best defined Faustus’s nature. Despite not living up to the expectations of a well-respected scholar, Faustus is definitely one of the most interesting characters one can read about to this day.

Works Cited

"Cambridge Authors." Cambridge Authors RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2014. .

Marlowe, Christopher, and Sylvan Barnet. Doctor Faustus. New York: New American Library, 1969. Print.