Critical Criticism Of Faustus

In the history of the formation of the world, man has been instilled with the ability to discern between right and wrong even from his innate being. For the reason that every man has a fraction of imperfection instilled in his ingenuity, this yet-to-be named man fabricated his own downfall not by malicious fate or mishap or some foreordained catastrophe but through his own introspection in the sphere of free will. In his quest for superior knowledge and power, he lost the ability of discernment and judgment in the knowledge of what is true, right and lasting. As it turns out, he became blinded to the deeper applicability of his impressive knowledge to his decision making and the greater scheme of life. It is the story of a scholar who traded

This marks the beginning of his struggle with the limitation of human knowledge and it will cause him to make a fatalistic decision of choosing necromancy as the crowning discipline. It shows his lack of wisdom, the essence of all his impressive knowledge. He is a fallible and vain man with an ambition of the forbidden and he lost his reasoning power by choosing a path to obscurity. Furthermore, he sets himself a daunting task, “Here Faustus, try thy brains to gain a deity.” (1.3). He aspires to become a god, this, according to him, will break his limitation of knowledge and afford him great political power and wealth. Despite his exceeding knowledge, as Marlowe attested, he still chooses to travel down the path where every man had failed; to attain

Just after signing the deal, he learns the limits of the deal: he cannot marry a wife, he is forbade to pray or speak about “heavenly things”. He vows to stick to his end of the contract after being amused by the entertainment of the seven deadly sins. He is taught astronomy and allowed the sight of hell. He goes on a relative brief and demeaning adventures— from slapping the Pope in Rome and befuddling a host of Ecclesiastes to evoking a “but shadows, not substantial” figures of Alexander the Great and King Darius much to the delight of the Emperor. If anything, this is no worth sacrificing his soul. Faustus’ downhill drift continues from fetching an out-of-season grapes for a pregnant and bored duchess, to freeing Bruno—a convict. Also, beating Benvolio and his friends and messing with a drunk who bought a horse from him. He has clearly drifted from greatness to utter self-inflicted mediocrity. The goal of reshaping the geography of Europe and becoming a god holds no substance anymore. The gulf between his early ambitions and his present state is dismaying, but he seems not to care. Faustus exhibits the blindness and lack of wisdom and that serves as one of his outlining characteristics throughout his journey. His blind spot allows him to see the world as he wants it to be rather than the way it actually is. He shuns reality but prefer to dwell on his own