Doctor
Faustus
The
story of Doctor Faustus was to me about greed and power. Faustus practically sold himself to the devil
in order to have the power to perform dark arts. Although Faustus chose this life in order to
feel more fulfilled he would end up coming to an end of demise and regret. I feel that throughout the story Faustus did
use his powers for somewhat of a good cause such as scene 11 with the Duke and
Duchess. In this scene on page 529 the
Duchess asked Faustus to give her ripe grapes in the dead of the winter. As everyone knows there are no ripe grapes in
the winter at this time in history.
However Faustus was able to give the pregnant Duchess the grapes she was
craving. Many of Faustus’ acts were
selfless in my eyes, which is a shame that he would give up his eternal life
just to be more successful in his earthly life.
Even though it is not right or just to sell yourself to the devil in any
way, I feel like Faustus lived his earthly life for good causes and was not all
about himself. However, him wishing to
be more God-like came back to haunt him when Lucifer came in the last scene to
take him away. Even though I do feel
this way, the writer Marlowe was clearly showing yet hiding some of his own
religious thoughts. I feel it does show
that Marlowe is a catholic from this play.
Why would Marlowe even somewhat
show Catholicism ideas? Did he want
people to be aware of his standpoint or was this by accident?
Why was Marlowe so intrigued by the
separation between the worlds of heaven and hell?
I think your approach was very interesting. I definitely hadn't thought of Faustus as self-less, but I can see how that is so using the situations you pulled out of the tale. However, I think that Faustus' need for power outweighs his good deeds. Overall, I think it would be difficult to consider someone with such hubris as self-less. I do like how you can see the good in Faustus! It is good to pull out the different complexities within one character.
ReplyDeleteI'm not certain, but maybe Marlowe was so intrigued by this separation because he was aware of his own mortality and that his own decisions would impact his afterlife. It's a hefty concept.