Doctor Faustus

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In this drama the important point to consider about Doctor Faustus is his intelligence. He is an expert in many difficult fields of learning, and at the start of the story he is looking for a new challenge. He wants something that will really test his intelligence. He’s gone beyond all the learning he can achieve. In his opening soliloquy, Faustus gradually dismisses the field of study he has already undertaken. "Both law and physic are for petty wits; Divinity is basest of the three.” (Marlowe 16) In this scene Faustus is debating with himself, offering both the advantages, and disadvantages of each. He addresses himself in the second person creating an illusion of impartiality. “Thou hast attained that end. A greater subject fitteth Faustus' wit.” (Marlowe 4) He’s being scientific, and he’s trying to get across the idea that he’s not biased. When he dismisses a field of study, he wants the audience to believe that he has reached that conclusion by scientific reasoning, not by his own personal desire. He shows off his knowledge by making Latin references to his studies. The majority of the public at the time wouldn’t understand these quotations, because so few of the population went to school.
However, Faustus is immensely flawed as a person. He uses his intelligence to build the impression that he is scientific. Yet the quotations that he uses to dismiss the different disciplines that he has mastered are all either incomplete or there misconstrued, and he does this deliberately. Of course the reason he does this is so that the quotations that he uses will fit his own personal desires. If he used the quotations correctly or in full, they wouldn’t support his reasoning. For example, he uses the quote from the Bible, “The reward ...

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... though the two have developed a type of friendship. Faustus’s calling the demon sweet Mephistopheles, wicked Mephistopheles, but also a cursed spirit, depending on whether he is in danger, or enjoying pleasure.
Faustus later comes to terms with his fate saying, “Art thou, Faustus, but a man condemned to die?” (Marlowe 197) That is true to an extent. Yes he must die, but he’s not like other men in the sense that he is certain to go to Hell. Marlowe is saying to the reader that, all men must die, so make up your mind about how you behave on earth. It seems as though Marlowe is playing with the readers, making them see that such Demons cannot be trusted, no matter how alluring they appear. Essentially, they cannot be trusted because we cannot know what a Demon’s true motive is at any time. They are liars. So how can we believe them when they are being pleasant to us.

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