After reading Macbeth and The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus it's obvious that two main characters are very much alike. Their journey and tragic destiny are almost the same. I will look at features and desires they have in common, symbols and people they are influenced by and some of the differences between them.
When we look at Macbeth and Faustus at the beginning of the play they seem as positive heroic figures. Macbeth is a brave warrior who has an important role in a battle and Faustus is a successful and smart scholar with a lot of potential. Both of them wanted something more. Macbeth became a Thane of Cawdor and Glamis, but he wanted to become a king. Faustus had knowledge he learned from books, but he still wanted to know everything about God and magic. We must ask ourselves why this wasn’t enough for them. Firstly we can look at some of the Macbeth’s reason. Macbeth received a lot of prices for his achievements, but he thought that he deserved even bigger title. He was also controlled by his wife and it was her idea to kill the king Duncan. "When you durst do it, then you were a man / And to be more than what you were, you would / Be so much more the man" Lady Macbeth says that Macbeth is not a true man if he has no courage to do this. It’s obvious that he’s sensitive about his manhood and wants to prove himself, as a husband, man and warrior. Lady Macbeth uses his weakness to get to the goal. He commits this crime instead of her because she’s too sensitive to kill him herself. He is acting like a protector of his wife and like a true man. It’s ironic that he’s so brave and protective, but at the same time he is weak and afraid of his future because he heard three witches’ prophecy. For Faustus reason lays in his s...
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...ect of men's desire. She appears after Faustus wished so and he gave her a kiss. He didn’t ask her for any advice or help, he only wanted a kiss as a comfort. In Renaissance women were not involved in science, art or literature so it is not strage that Faustus saw Helena only as beautiful woman.
To conclude, I think that both of these characters were weak because they couldn’t resist temptations. Macbeth couldn’t resist power that was predicted to him and Faustus wanted the forbidden. Their downfall was inevitable because everything they did was against God.
Works Cited
Marlowe, Christopher. “Doctor Faustus.” Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. 1B. Edited by M.H. Abrams and Stephen Greenblatt. New York: W. W. Norton and Co. 2000. 991-1023.
Shakespeare, William, and John Wilders. Macbeth. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 2004. Print.
Showing overall that he couldn’t ever control his demise, the fate in which things ended, his fate being pinned onto him by the writer just based solely on his character’s actions. Macbeth being a very selfish main character, it was always going to be his fate in which made his demise certain, he was never meant to rise to power which is why fate brought him to getting his head cut off to be brought to the rightful king, ironic fate brought him to his demise, his brute strength character wouldn’t have let that happen if his “character would have had anything to do with his demise.
Overriding ambition and stable ideals led Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to their inevitable demise. They both faced choices in life that defined their character, reinforcing true ideals in life, which determined a path for their future. The actions of Macbeth following the witches prophecies, showed his true self, which represented how easily persuaded he is. The choices he had made defined his character as it showed his transformation from being a noble man to a monstrous murderer. Theses decisions created a detrimental path that ruined the powerful couples relationship along
Lady Macbeth is at the same time greater and lesser than her husband. She has a hardness which he lacks, but she has none of his subtlety and perception. She knows her husband well and despises him a little, but to satisfy her ambition, which is a crude desire to see her man King, she will devote herself soul and body to evil. (62)
Laurence Sterne once wrote, “No body, but he who has felt it, can conceive what a plaguing thing it is to have a man’s mind torn asunder by two projects of equal strength, both obstinately pulling in a contrary direction at the same time.” This passage embodies one of the over arching themes of Macbeth. The character Macbeth, in Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth, could easily identify with this passage due to the fact that he is pulled in opposite directions by both his desire to do what is right and his desire for power.
“What goes around comes around.” The decision of the execution of the King Duncan was beyond the concept of being egoistical. The sum of a person's actions in this and previous states of existence, viewed as deciding their fate in future existences. Macbeth, every dreadful deed you take as an action and claim you have committed a wrongdoing; you excavate your own grave. Since, you commit the murder of King Duncan, how do you believe that fortune will come your way. The three Weird witches and your own love, Lady Macbeth are the key players in this game of guilt. Abundantly, Lady Macbeth is the true top dog pulling the strings, you are the puppet, and while she is the puppet master, you’re just a squirrel trying to get a nut in her world. No virtuous outcome comes out a misdeed. You have to conquer her mindset, and be grateful for what you have now. You should not be able to give your own decisions to someone else.
However, she may be old as she is determined to get her last chance of
Kostić, Milena. "The Faustian Motif in Christopher Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus." Facta Universititas 7.2 (2009): 209-22. Web. 04 Dec. 2013.
The characters Macbeth and Satan both share a number of qualities with each other. Both portray the corrupting influence of power, or the want of it. Both possess inordinate ambitions. Despite these similarities, however, the disparities between the two of them, in the conception of their evil, are apparent.
he heard this he was intrigued to find out how he was going to become
“Marlowe’s biographers often portray him as a dangerously over–ambitious individual. Explore ways this aspect of Marlowe’s personality is reflected in ‘Dr. Faustus.’ ”
Marlowe, Christopher. The Tragedy of Doctor Faustus. Ed. Louis B. Wright. New York: Washington Square Press, 1959.
The Tragic History of Doctor Faustus is Marlowe's misreading of the drama of the morality tradition, the Faust legend, and, ironically, his own Tamburlaine plays. In the development of the character of Doctor Faustus, we find one of the supreme artistic achievements of English dramatic literature, a milestone of artistic creativity and originality. The force of Marlowe's dramatic poetry resonates with lyrical intensity in its dialectic between world and will. Not only is Faustus the first true dramatic character of any psychological, moral, and philosophical depth in English literature of the modern period, but in his creation of this unique character we see Marlowe on the verge of Shakespearean characterization, that supreme artistic achievement that Harold Bloom calls the invention of the human personality.
Oedipus and Macbeth have one main similarity they are kings who take a fall through faults of their own. Both become kings by reacting to what the supernatural forces tell them. If the supernatural forces had never influenced the two, neither would have tried to become king. The role of supernatural forces is important for both heroes. The oracle instructs Oedipus to take revenge upon the murderer of the former king, Laios, in order to stop the plague; Macbeth is told by the three weird sisters that he will be king. How the two heroes interpret the messages of the supernatural forces is their downfall. Both interpret the messages as absolute fact. Macbeth becomes too confident because of the words of the sisters and gets himself killed. Oedipus tries to find the murderer of Laios only to discover that he himself is the killer. Both are very prosperous to begin with and would have lived long and comfortable lives if they had just left well enough alone. But these two teach us a lesson because they both are dethroned at the end of the plays. However, there are some big differences between the two and how they fall.
Snow, Edward A. "Marlowe's Doctor Faustus and the Ends of Desire." Two Renaissance Mythmakers: Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson. Ed. Alvin Kernan. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997. Print.
Robert Ornstein. “Marlowe and God: The Tragic Theology of Dr. Faustus.” PMLA 83.5 (Oct, 1968): 1378-1385. Modern Language Association. Web. 15 Nov. 2013.