Destruction by knowledge

Formally, one refers to a hero as “A person noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose, especially one who has risked or sacrificed his or her life”. In the Romantic era, poetry and science begin to move away from the Age of Enlightenment and start focusing on emotions and experience. Mary Shelley writes a classic novel, Frankenstein, which fulfills the ideal romantic qualities, that instills horror in the reader which invokes their emotions. Dr. Frankenstein represents a fallen hero who allows his obsession with knowledge to completely dominate his life. Likewise in Dr. Faustus written by Christopher Marlowe, Faustus permits the devil to persuade him into seeking an amoral task. Dr. Faustus and Dr. Frankenstein display their corruption and arrogance throughout their respective works that eventually results in tragedy, dooming both characters and proving that obsession with anything results in evil.

Both possessing the desire to learn, Faustus and Frankenstein begin researching black magic and anatomy and attempt to become geniuses which eventually becomes their downfall. In his haughty manner, Faustus contemplates the study of a variety of subjects and comes upon the choice between black magic and theology. Reluctantly, he chooses “a world of profit and delight” which promises “power, honor, and omnipotence” (Marlowe 5). Because of

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his pretentious manner, Faustus believes that law, logic, divinity, and medicine simply do not meet his intellectual abilities. Hoping for progress in his knowledge, Faustus obtains a book about black magic and displays his eagerness. The evil angel provokes Faustus even further by persuading him to aim for the abilities of the gods by taking magic to the n...

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... help, Frankenstein takes matters into his own hands and attempts to track the monster to destroy him. However, this impossible task proves Frankenstein’s doom when he dies in search of the murderer. In their arrogance, Faustus and Frankenstein refuse assistance from any other human being in the practice of magic and anatomy and consider themselves masters or geniuses.

Once Frankenstein and Dr. Faustus recognized their brilliance, they planted their feet on the paths of their destruction. Both characters found a subject that fulfilled their passion for knowledge and replaced human companionship with magic and anatomy. When knowledge becomes an addiction for Faustus and Frankenstein, the subjects display their evil qualities. Due to their evil pleasures, Dr. Frankenstein and Dr. Faustus in their corruption and arrogance become “blind” which causes their downfall.