How much would one man be willing to give up for earthly power? Would he forfeit his soul? In Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, the protagonist Doctor Faustus forfeits his soul to Lucifer in exchange for 24 years with Lucifer’s powerful servant Mephistophilis under his control. Marlowe wrote the play in the 16th century, a time when religion was important in society (DelVecchio web). Marlowe focuses on this topic in the play, especially with Faustus. “Doctor Faustus is a play about religion” (DelVecchio web). He shows the moral decay of Faustus after accepting a deal with the devil. Doctor Faustus goes against the religious values of his time period and makes a deal with Lucifer for power. Marlowe makes it apparent through the questionable use of this power that Faustus is not a man that should control it. Marlowe uses the character Faustus to warn others of the seven deadly sins. One of the most apparent sins Marlowe emphasizes in Faustus is his greed. His greed is the reason he is able to overcome his feelings of guilt and accept Lucifer’s deal. Faustus openly admits how he will use his newfound power to satiate his greed when he says, “I’ll have them fly to India for gold, / Ransack the ocean for orient pearl, / And search all corners of the new-found world / For pleasant fruits and princely delicates” (Marlowe 5). Marlowe shows that even though Faustus pretends his reasons are noble, his real concerns are riches and luxuries. These riches and luxuries are more important to him than his soul or a chance at an eternal life in heaven. According to Mebane, “The ‘delight’ he experiences in his worldly pleasures has the bewitching power to delude him into seeing the things of this world as more valuable, more gener... ... middle of paper ... ...Inc., 1964: 112-119. DelVecchio, Doreen. “Thelogy’s Tragic Glass: The Christian Background to Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus.” Open Access Dissertations and Theses. 1982. 19 Mar. 2014. . Larson, John. “Doctor Faustus—Selling His Soul to Make a Point.” Luminarium. 2010. 18 Mar. 2014 . Marlowe, Christopher. The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus. Plano Libraries. Feb. 1997. 18 Mar. 2014 < http://www.planolibraries.org/books/drfaustus.pdf>. Mebane, John S. Renaissance Magic and the Return of the Golden Age: The Occult Tradition and Marlowe, Jonson, and Shakespeare. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska, 1989. Questia School. 18 Mar. 2014 .
This excerpt reveals that Faustus, although he has had much success and is widely recognized for it, yearns for further discovery, a limitless experience, a power that physically is beyond him. Later in the same scene, he clearly states his solution to this quandary, “A Sound magician is a mighty god. Here Faustus, try thy brains to gain a deity” (63 – 64). In order to achieve this for even a limited time however, he must exceed natural human boundaries. In his search for a means to do so, he forms a new boundary, namely the loss of control over his soul, in scene 5 through a contract with Lucifer.
How much influence can a person have in the world before he or she turns thirty years old? Most people never have any true influence in the world and even fewer have done so while being in their twenties, but Christopher Marlowe, a 16th century English dramatist, is one of those few. Within his writings, Marlowe is able to steer his audience and keep them between blasphemy and heroism during a time when the known world executed those who did not believe in God. Marlowe steers his audience within this fine line in Doctor Faustus, a play in which the titular character views magic as a vehicle to gain wealth, power, and adoration. Although the play was printed in 1604, ten after Marlowe’s death, it tackles the divine skepticism that was apparent at the time as Faustus does not believe in heaven or hell and sells his soul to Satan in exchange for magical powers. Perhaps, the most significant aspect of the play is Doctor Faustus’s last speech when he realizes that the devil will soon drag him to hell. In response, Faustus turns to God for salvation but, God does not respond to Faustus’s cries. Through a combination of imagery, diction, meter, tone and allusion, it is apparent that Faustus’s speech exposes the fact that Faustus solely seeks personal pleasure in his quest for the devil and in his future desire for God.
Faustus is an ambitious character. In the first Chorus he is compared to Icarus as “his waxen wings did mount above his reach”, much like in the story of Icarus whose waxen wings melted when he believed he could fly away from Crete and reach the sun due to his high ambition. This also shows that Faustus is self-conceited because he believes he can do such impossible things. Faustus also shows his great ambition in his life story. He strived to be the best in his subject area of Divinity, and was eventually regarded with a “doctor’s name”. Faustus’ main ambition however is to become greater than God. He wishes to have the omniscience of God, so he can know “all the secrets of foreign ki...
John Faustus - the main character - is educated in many fields: medicine, law, divinity, and philosophy, yet his appetite for knowledge is still insatiable. Despite his vast knowledge he is unfulfilled because he still lacks power. As the play unfolds, Faustus is overcome by a craving for power. He eliminates God from his life: "And Faustus vows never to look to heaven,/ Never to name God, or pray to him,/ To burn his Scriptures, slay his ministers,/ And make my spirits pull his churches down" (5.270-3). In western society today, people still lust for power - it is human nature to want. In Faustus' claim that he has nothing more to learn from this world his ambition turns to arrogance, and his intelligence turns into ignorance. Faustus believes that he can attain power beyond mortal ability. Why would God help Faustus, when he refuses to listen to God, and ignores the signs God gave him? Faustus makes several choices in ignorance of the final consequence. When he is having an argument (with the Good Angel and Evil Angel), and chooses to ignore the Good Angel (1.70-73).
Although Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus has outclassed every one at Wittenberg with his academic studies, he is "still but Faustus, a man." Proud of his accomplishments, he desires to become a superman. His judgment clouded by the sin of his pride, he misunderstands his knowledge and dismisses the disciplines of medicine, philosophy, law, and divinity. He lusts for God's capability to "make men live eternally or being dead raise them to life again," believing the devil's arts of magic and necromancy can provide the power, honour, omnipotence and, most importantly, the wealth he craves. His deluded pursuit of the immediate pleasures such wealth can yield brings upon himself the risk of eternal damnation. By conjuring the devil, Faustus removes himself from the influence of the Holy Ghost and God's love, instigating attacks of despair, and internal conflicts as personified by the Good and Bad Angels.
Having attained all that he desires from the knowledge of man, Marlowe’s character Faustus turns to the only remaining school of thought that he feels he must master which is the art of necromancy. In his pursuits, he manages to summon the devil Mephistopheles, arch demon of hell, and strikes a deal to trade his immortal soul with Lucifer in exchange for being granted an infinite amount of power and knowledge that extends even beyond the limits of human understanding. However in the process of negotiating the terms of his pact, it becomes clear that Faust is in a constant state of uncertainty in terms of whether he should repent and forsake the arrangement or simply go through with it. This underlying theme of internal struggle is introduced very early and reappears in later acts with the appearance of established binaries that suggest a theme of division not only among the character of John Faustus, but within the written text as a whole. This suggests that Faustus is meant to serve as a symbol for the divided nature of man and the consequences of failing to negotiate the struggles that are a result of the divided self.
Faustus is not a villain, though; he is a tragic hero, a protagonist whose character flaws lead to his downfall. Marlowe imbues him with tragic gr...
Upon receiving the knowledge of the art of necromancy from Lucifer, Doctor Faustus is unable to utilize his intelligence to make significant changes with this newfound power. Faustus’s greed for power and wealth overpowers his senses; he is unwilling to distinguish between what is right for him and what is harmful. It is ironic that Faustus wishes to distinguish himself from the physical world; yet, his actions convey the opposite. For example, he desires power and wealth, but this interconnects him with the physical, which he wants to surpass in the first place.
He creates plans to acquire the magic and what to do with them. For example, Faustus’ naturally ambitious characteristic leads him to say, “I’ll have them fly to India for gold, ransack the ocean for orient pearls” (Marlow 1.1, 109-110). Faustus goes on and on about the limitless potential he sees that the power of the supernatural can give to the world so much he asks his servants to call on the local summoners of Germany to assist him in summoning a well-known demon for their time. The demon, Mephistophilis, does not want to become Faustus’ servant, so he strikes a daring deal that the demons can’t say no to. Fasutus tells Mephistophilis to go to Lucifer and “[say] he surrenders up to him his soul, so he will spare him four and twenty years … Having thee ever to attend on me”(1.3, 317 – 320). Faustus is known amongst his peers as a well-known scholar but as well as a magician. He knows many things about life that lesser-men of his time would love to have of at least one specialty in a topic. He throws away his potential for jobs in other fields for magic which would require his soul. Faustus is not wise enough to understand he has a realm of possibilities of professions to join outside of sorcery but still gravitates towards the territory of magic and mystery. Recent studies suggest a correlation with millennials, and depression. Although more girls suffer from it and are 2 times as likely than a boy to
Marlowe, Christopher. The Tragical History of D. Faustus. In Renaissance Drama: An Anthology of Plays and Entertainments. Edited by A.F. Kinney. Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers Ltd., 2002.
The. Marlowe, Christopher. The. Dr. Faustus. New York: Dover, 1994. Print.
The Tragic History of Doctor Faustus is known as one of the many books to display a popular understanding of the evolution of modern Western Science. The story is about a medieval doctor who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge and power. However, he starts to fear hell as his motive to repent for his wrongdoings haunts him. This story takes place in Europe during the 16th century, which was when major changes in philosophy and science occurred. Unfortunately, this was also when conflict between Medieval and Renaissance values occurred. People who held values from the Medieval era strongly believed in God and religion while those with Renaissance values focused on science and the natural world. This conflict is
Dr Faustus is a short play written by Christopher Marlowe. The play is a masterful insight into the paradoxical soul of mankind and its ironically self inflicted corruption. The play could be classified as a theological allegory. It can be assumed that the play specifically speaks to the religious motivations of the time, but can be adapted to the present as well. Marlowe portrays Faustus’ ambition as dangerous; it was the cause of his demise. Perhaps Marlowe used the theme of over-ambition as a warning to the audience, who would be likely to be wary of ambition - it was looked down on as a negative personality trait in Christian England (Calvinism) (Munteanu, Class notes). An on going theme within the story is the corruption of a soul which is played out through the use of religious beliefs. Specifically, the use of the seven deadly sins is a precursor to man kinds self inflicted death. Marlowe uses sin, redemption and damnation to get his point across to the audience. The sins that Marlowe specifically uses are those of: pride, covetousness, wrath, envy, gluttony, sloth and lechery. Theses sins are colourfully displayed through the character traits of Dr Faustus. In the process we view them and can adapt them to our own lives and how they are all parts to the corruption of our souls.
Marlowe, Christopher Doctor Faustus in ed. Worthen, WB (1996) The Harcourt Brace Anthology of Drama, 2nd edn, Texas: Harcourt Brace
Doctor Faustus, also referred to as The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus is a play by Christopher Marlowe. This play is based on a German story where a man sells his soul to the devil in quest for knowledge and power (Sales 340. The protagonist in this play is Doctor Faustus. Doctor Faustus was hungry of power and knowledge and in search for them; he sold his soul to the devil. At first, he was very happy with the praise he received from the people as they considered him a hero. Later on, Faustus learns that he committed a grave mistake of selling his soul to the devil for twenty-four years. Even though he felt remorseful for his mistakes, it was already late for him. He is later found by his fellow scholars dead and torn from limb to limb. Faustus was a heroic fool who only thought of power and never thought of eternal damnation.