Can Faustus truly be regarded as a tragic hero
Faustus, a tragic hero?
In order to do this, Marlowe has drawn on the conventions of classical
Greek tragedy, many of which dictate the nature of the hero or
heroine. In ancient times, a hero achieved heroic status not because
of saintliness or wickedness, but because of the acts he performed in
life. The hero should have a socially elevated status and suffer a
reversal of fortune in which he experiences great suffering. This is
all certainly true of Faustus, who is highly regarded as both a
lecturer at the University of Wittenberg, and an accomplished scholar.
During his life, he performs extraordinary feats, which were unlike
anything experienced by lesser mortals. Even by modern standards, the
notion of necromancy is disturbing; for a contemporary Elizabethan
audience, for whom religion permeated all aspects of life, it would
have been inconceivably horrific. Once Faustus is "glutted with
learning's golden gifts and surfeited upon cursed necromancy" he uses
his powers to embark upon amazing adventures (for example learning the
secrets of astronomy upon the summit of mount Olympus) which, again,
are befitting of the tragic hero.
Faustus reversal of fortune is also typically tragic. During the final
scene of the play, in which we witness Faustus' final hour before
being taken off to hell, he is, like all heroes of classical tragedy,
completely isolated. There is a poignant contrast in Faustus'
degeneration from the successful, revered conjurer of the previous
scenes, to the disillusioned scholar we see here. In despair, he tries
to conjure and command the earth to gape open but realises that, "o
no, it will not harbour" him. His terror, desperation and...
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...alise he has made a fatal choice. By now the
tragedy is inevitable; of his own free will Faustus has rejected all
hope of salvation and the audience waits in trepidation for his
impending doom.
In conclusion the arrogance and blasphemy apparent in many of Faustus'
speeches ("a greater subject fitteth Faustus' wit", "Faustus, try thy
brains to gain a deity" etc) are characteristic of the classical
tragic hero. For example, Faustus' pride and arrogance (which the
Greeks called 'hubris') is strikingly similar to that of Aeschylus'
tragic hero, king Agamemnon. As far as the issue of free will is
concerned, I think that Faustus does have the opportunity to make his
own decisions, despite Marlowe's paradoxical portrayal of a God whom,
whilst able to control our predestination, cannot (when it comes down
to it) control or undo the contract which Faustus makes.
Throughout our history, many genres have survived the test of time. One of the most well known and popular genre is the tragedy. A tragedy tells a story of the downfall of a basically good person through some fatal error or misjudgment, producing suffering and insight on the part of the protagonist and arousing pity and fear on the part of the audience. One of the main authorities on tragedy is ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle. His piece of literature, Poetics, is highly regarded as one of the main sources used to define what makes a tragedy. In each tragedy, there must be a tragic hero to carry out the plot of the story. In addition, the protagonist must conform to specific guidelines according to Aristotle to be considered a tragic hero. According to Aristotle, the hero of a tragedy must “not be shown passing from good fortune to misfortune; again, vicious people must not be shown passing from misfortune to good fortune; nor again should an utterly evil man fall from good fortune into misfortune. So we are left with the man between these extremes: that is to say, the kind of man who neither is distinguished for excellence and virtue, nor comes to grief on account of baseness and vice, but on account of some error; a man of great reputation and prosperity, like Oedipus and Thyestes and conspicuous people of such families as theirs.” (L.J. Potts 981-2) However, there are many adverse views on his definition of a tragic hero. The question is whether or not those guidelines must adhere to all tragedies to be successful. Othello, the protagonist in Othello is much like Oedipus, from Oedipus the King. Both Oedipus and Othello fulfill all of the prerequisites of a tragic hero: men between the extremes, they have a tragic flaw, t...
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar is a dramatic play written by William Shakespeare. In this play, Marcus Brutus gets asked by Caius Cassius and a few others to join their conspiracy of killing the ever growing power hungry man called Julius Caesar. As the play goes, on Marcus Brutus has an internal conflict on whether or not to kill Caesar. The play goes on to talk about how this affects not just Brutus, but a few other characters in the play. Along with his conflict to kill Caesar or not to kill him and a few others things that Brutus has done, is what makes Marcus Brutus a tragic hero.
“Tragedy is an imitation of an action of high importance . . .” states Aristotle in his book Poetics (as cited in Kennedy & Gioia, 2010). Without a doubt, he observed and analyzed countless plays throughout his life and in Poetics, he writes a broad description of what a tragedy should contain (Kennedy & Gioia). Specifically, to Aristotle, tragedies require a “Tragic Hero.” What makes this literary character unique from the other heroes of literature? The most obvious and central difference is that the hero in question always experiences a disastrous reversal of fortune, which follows the recognition of a previously unknown truth (Kennedy & Gioia). He must be “a man not preeminently virtuous or just” (Poetics part XIII, trans. 1909), yet he still must be a “good person” whom the audience grows to respect and because of this, deeply pities and fears for throughout the play (Poetics part XIII). Despite being a person of high estate and influence, surprisingly, the hero in the Greek tragedy is someone we can relate to in his humanness. Furthermore, his fall “from happiness into misery” is “brought upon him not by vice or depravity but by some error of judgment” (Poetics part XIII)—his hamartia. The Oxford English Dictionary translates this Greek word as, “The fault or error, which entails the destruction of the tragic hero” (Oxford English Dictionary, 1989).
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.
The Romantic Hero in Goethe's Faust Works Cited Not Included Long hailed as the watershed of Romantic literature, Goethe’s Faust uses the misadventures of its hero to parallel the challenges that pervaded European society in the dynamic years of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Faust is the prototypical Romantic hero because the transformation of his attitudes mirrors the larger transformation that was occurring in the society in which Goethe conceived the play. Faust’s odyssey transports him from adherence to the cold rationale of the Enlightenment to a passion for the pleasures that came to define the Romantic spirit. Faust not only expresses the moral contradictions and spiritual yearnings of a man in search of fulfillment, but also portrays the broader mindset of a society that was groping for meaning in a world where reason no longer sufficed as a catalyst for human cultural life. The period of German Romanticism in which Goethe wrote Faust was plagued with the same intrinsic turmoil that Faust himself felt prior to making his deal with Mephisto.
Shakespeare's Othello clearly demonstrates a tragic hero, with multiple deep rooted causes leading to a downfall. Othello is a complicated and troubled character who is manipulated into heinous acts. However, there are faults in his own traits that make him so easily overcome. Othello is overly passionate, both in love and anger. When he falls, he falls spectacularly. His emotions are explosive, his pride is toxic, and his security is fragile. This incapability to separate delusions from reality makes him susceptible to a horrific lapse in judgment, where he undermines himself.
... believes his life to be beyond his own control even when he is the only character to have made any significant decisions in the entire play. Because of the many times he refuses divine help and rejects the idea that he controls his life, Faustus' stubborn belief that he cannot be saved appears almost comically tragic to the audience. The reader gains a sense that Faustus uses fatalism as a justification to do whatever he wants. This may be Marlowe attempting to bring attention to a condition he saw in his society.
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.
III. Faustus is portrayed as a very individual character. He changes and is shaped by the events that happen all around him. Everything he does affects his future outcome. For example his decision to give up his studies of medicine were very un-stereotypical of a character that is studying to be a doctor to do. Even more so is his decision to take upon the necromantics of the devil. He says, “Then read no more; thou hast attain'd that end: A greater subject fitteth Faustus' wit.” (1.11) He believes that he has learned enough information about all the great things of the world and there is nothing left to study that will intrigue him as much as magic will. His curious personality affects the play because his decisions determine the plot. For example the Seven Deadly Sins entice him so he becomes convinced not to repent his sin. This characterizes him as gullible, curious and adventurous. He becomes obsessed with his magic and he absolutely loves having the powers to do anything he pleases. An example of this is when he conjures up Helen. He knows he can do whatever he wants without reservation so he chooses to conjure the woman who launched a thousand ships. This shows that not only is he gullible, curious and obsessed but also Faustus only wishes for the best in whatever he does; the best that will please him.
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.
The concept of tragic hero is very important in the construction of tragedy. It is the main cause of pity and fear. The tragic hero is a character between the two extremes; he is neither virtuous nor evil. At the same time, this character is better than the ordinary men or audience, he has some good qualities. Moreover, as a tragic hero, he is moving from happiness to misery by his downfall at the end. In fact, this downfall is caused by an error or a flaw in his character not by a vice or depravity. Another feature in the tragic hero is that he has good reputation and he is a man of prosperity. It can be said that Oedipus is a tragic hero because he has all the previous mentioned characteristics and the whole play is a classical application of this concept.
Faustus' moral dilemma is brought on by his own lust. He desires to have things that were never meant to be his, such as power to rule kingdoms, and he is willing to do anything to obtain them including selling his soul. Faustus considers himself to be a skilled magician and calls on the devil in a God cursing chant to obtain the knowledge he desires. When Mephostophilis appears Faustus bids him to serve his wishes for twenty-four years. Although, Faustus is warned by Mephostophilis to repent and never call upon the devil again he doesn't listen and tells Mephostophilis to go to Lucifer and get the approval. Mephostophilis returns to get Faustus to sign a contract with Lucifer in his own blood. After Faustus signs the contract he speaks the last words said by Jesus as he died on the cross "It is finished". These words give Faustus thoughts that he should not continue this contract but his greed overcomes him and he finishes the delivery to Mephostophilis. Faustus continues with his greedy desires for the allotted 24 years but when his time is up he wishes he had not signed the contract because he did not prosper from his greedy act but his time has expired and Mephostophilis has come to collect his soul.
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 reflects ambition in the character of Faustus to deter the audience from being ambitious, and over-reaching their place in the ‘Chain of Being’. However, if Marlowe chose to be ‘dangerously over-ambitious’ and regarded himself as this, it is likely that he may have written ‘Dr. Faustus’ differently, not viewing ambition in such a negative way. Whatever Marlowe’s view on ambition was, it is not made clear in the play, through Faustus or other characters. Certain aspects of his personality are indeed reflected in Faustus, which make reading the play and exploring Faustus as a character even more intriguing.
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.