From Divine Skepticism to Pleas for Divine Intervention

1018 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: An essay on Dr. Faustus

How much influence can a person have in the world before he or she turns thirty years old? Most people never have any true influence in the world and even fewer have done so while being in their twenties, but Christopher Marlowe, a 16th century English dramatist, is one of those few. Within his writings, Marlowe is able to steer his audience and keep them between blasphemy and heroism during a time when the known world executed those who did not believe in God. Marlowe steers his audience within this fine line in Doctor Faustus, a play in which the titular character views magic as a vehicle to gain wealth, power, and adoration. Although the play was printed in 1604, ten after Marlowe’s death, it tackles the divine skepticism that was apparent at the time as Faustus does not believe in heaven or hell and sells his soul to Satan in exchange for magical powers. Perhaps, the most significant aspect of the play is Doctor Faustus’s last speech when he realizes that the devil will soon drag him to hell. In response, Faustus turns to God for salvation but, God does not respond to Faustus’s cries. Through a combination of imagery, diction, meter, tone and allusion, it is apparent that Faustus’s speech exposes the fact that Faustus solely seeks personal pleasure in his quest for the devil and in his future desire for God.

Once he realizes that he is going to suffer eternal damnation, Faustus looks towards God and heaven for safety. Faustus begins his speech at 11:00 PM, an hour before the devil promised to take him to hell and pleads, “Stand still, you ever-moving spheres of heaven,/That time may cease and midnight never come./Fair Nature’s eye, rise, rise again, and make/Perpetual day; or let this hour be but/A year, a month, a week, a na...

... middle of paper ...

...ifer because Faustus himself is at fault for being deprived of the joys of heaven. He sought the devil because he did not believe in heaven and wanted to experience earthly pleasures; however, once he realized that he was damned, Faustus seeks and believes in God and wants to experience the very same heavenly joys that first thought of as vile. It is evident that Faustus only wants to feel joyous: he does not want to feel pain in hell; he simply wants the power and notoriety that come with being one of Satan’s disciples.

Works Cited

"Latin Proverbs, Mottoes, Phrases, and Words: Group O." English-Word Information. N.p., n.d.

Web. 24 Feb. 2014.

Marlowe, Christopher. Doctor Faustus: A Two-Text Edition (A-Text,1604; B-Text, 1616)

Contexts and Sources Criticism. Ed. David Scott Kastan. 4th ed. New York: W.W.

Norton, 2005. Print.

Show More
Related

  • Hope and Fear in Dr. Faustus and Paradise Lost

    680 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Dr. Faustus, the titular character is an extremely intelligent man who has worked his way up from a lower class family to become a highly respected scholar. However, it is revealed early on that Faustus has become bored with the conventional fields of study, and decides to learn necromancy in order to continue his quest for knowledge. After he summons the demon Mephastophilis, Faustus cannot bear the sight of the demon’s true form. “I charge thee to return and change thy shape; thou art too ugly to attend on me (Marlowe, p.508, lines 23-24). At the first sight of Mephastophilis, Faustus is afraid, and we see that he is actually a coward. Despite being a coward, Faustus is full of hubris, and assumes that he can exert his will over Mephastophilis. Faustus plans to use Mephastophilis’ powers for his own selfish gains, but must first sell his soul over to Satan. Once the pact between Faustus and Lucifer has been completed, the good and evil angels arrive to talk to Faustus. The good evil encourages him to repent and accept god back into his heart, while the evil angel tells him not to bother as he is already damned. Faustus believes himself to be unable to rep...

    Read More

  • Goethe's Faust - Triumph of Faust

    598 Words  | 2 Pages

    When the pact is first on, Faust doesn't seem to care about his soul or his life. He is Mephisto's sidekick for lack of anything better to do. In lines 1676-1678, Faust says, "If you pull this world down over my ears...who cares?" Faust sees himself as better than God, so therefore not worried about his welfare. In the scene, "Night", Faust even tried to kill himself. As the twosome begin hanging out together, Faust seems bored with all that Mephistopheles shows him. In lines 2377-2383 Faust says, "Are you telling me that I'll learn to be a new man stumbling around in this lunatic confusion?...If you can do no better, the outlook is black for me, the hopes I nursed are already dead."

    Read More

  • A Divided Self: The Many Facets of Faustus

    2087 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Dr. Faustus Essay - Pride, Insolence and the Fall of Doctor Faustus

    1960 Words  | 4 Pages

    As a highly revered individual - a doctor of theology who is also involved in liberal arts, medicine and law - Doctor Faustus possesses limitless knowledge. Nonetheless, unfortunately the more people know the more curious, thirsty and greedy for knowledge they become. Thus, wanting to know more and therefore, gain supernatural power, Faustus creates his own fall through pride, insolence and child-like behavior - the by-products of the dominating id that overpowers the superego in this particular case.

    Read More

  • Deluded Pursuit in Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus

    420 Words  | 1 Pages

    Faustus, too, is a superior being. He consciously removes the yoke of academia, and exerts his free will. After freely entering into his contract with Lucifer, he repeatedly considers repenting. When he calls on Christ to help "save distressed Faustus' soul," the evil trinity of Lucifer, Belzebub, and Mephostophilis appear, possibly to tear him to pieces. Under duress, he vows, "never to name God or pray to him." However, with only one-half hour left on earth, he calls on God. Faustus, forever the horse trader, tries to strike a deal with God. He asks God, for Christ's sake and blood, to limit his time in hell from a thousand to a hundred thousand years.

    Read More

  • Faustus and Hamlet´s Belief in the Ghost

    1507 Words  | 4 Pages

    Faustus is a depiction of a typical “renaissance man”, a man who could know everything about anything because knowledge was limited.. He is a discontented scholar who turns to magic in order to gain unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures, however blinded by his hubris his procrastination to repent leads to his eternal damnation.

    Read More

  • Dr Faustus Research Paper

    854 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Good Angel convinces Faustus for a brief moment that "if I repent" then "God will pity me" putting a stall to his steady decline (1.5 192). However with a reminder that he "never shall repent" Faustus remembers that because of his predestination it does not matter whether he wants to he "cannot repent" and his "heart's so hardened" (1.5 193-194). Faustus catches a glimpse of his life without predestination; he finally sees that maybe after all this God could forgive him if he repented. He quickly resubmits into the hopelessness of his life being predestined to damnation though. Faustus could make the choice here to change and he's being told by an angel of God that he still has a chance but he simply is incapable of leaving his way of thinking.

    Read More

  • Faust's Relationship With The Spirit Of Evil

    859 Words  | 2 Pages

    He allows Faust to find more meaning to life which he at the start of the play described as unsatisfying. It is Faust, who is on the verge of taking his life he finds to be pointless yet in the final scene he has formed a meaningful opinion on life. This can be seen while he is attempting to save Gretchen and wants her to follow her "into freedom" (line 4537). He no longer sees just a "paper world". The devil has led him to live satisfying moments with Gretchen. He experiences emotion and love because of him for the first time. Furthermore, Mephistopheles ironically serves as passage to heaven for Faust. When Mephistopheles visits heaven the Lord tell him "you may feel free to come and call. You are a type I never learned to hate" (line 336). This demonstrates that although he is the devil, Mephistopheles is not a typical force of evil. Rather, he symbolizes that Faust too can enter heaven even though he has made a wager with the devil.

    Read More

  • "Dr. Faustus:" An Analysis of Mephastophilis

    1466 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...om hell is standing in front of him and telling him that it does exist. They feel sorry that Mephastophilis has got to put up with Faustus for twenty-four years. When Mephastophilis tells Faustus of how he was thrown from paradise and that he has to suffer a "thousand hells," makes the audience feel sympathy towards him. The important thing is though that Mephastophilis' personality has been created by Marlowe and therefore a real devil may have been completely different and humans would not have felt sympathy for them. The audience do admire Mephastophilis since he has such strong loyalty to Lucifer.

    Read More

  • Moral and Ethical Dilemmas in Marlowe's Dr. Faustus and Shakespeare's Othello

    426 Words  | 1 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Closing Speech in Dr. Faustus

    485 Words  | 1 Pages

    Faustus’ mind is fraught with despair in his final, closing speech. It jumps frantically from thought to thought: one moment he is begging time to stop, or slow down, the next second, he is pleading to Christ for mercy and salvation. He asks to be hidden, the next instant he is asking for his punishment in hell to last ‘A hundred thousand [years], and at last be saved’ (1.13.95). These various attempts to escape his imminent doom ultimately lead to him to realise that the situation is entirely his fault, just before midnight, he finally realises to ‘curse [him] self’ (1.13.106). This extremely passionate remorse leads to a recurring theme in the play, namely, the reasons behind him not repenting at earlier stages.

    Read More

  • Comparing the Characters of Faustus and Hamlet

    1761 Words  | 4 Pages

    Faustus is a well-educated man who learnt about Logic, Medicine, Law and religion, however Faustus turns to magic to gain knowledge about the world, using it to substitute his faith in Christianity. Hamlet and Faustus can both be considered as a “typical” renaissance man, a man who could know everything about anything because knowledge was limited, however Hamlet is more of a renaissance play while Faustus is focused as a morality play, where actors come on stage dressed as sins.

    Read More

  • Pride In Dr Faustus

    1122 Words  | 3 Pages

    I can go as far as saying that Faustus lusts to be God, similarly to Lucifer, considering everything he has asked for. Lucifer was envious of God before he fell from grace, and with Faustus emulating Lucifer so closely, he also matches this unnecessary envy through his actions. He is too charmed with being a God in which he says “A sound magician is a mighty God.” The fact that Faustus wants to be an equal with God has him in complete denial of God 's power. But just as how Lucifer was damned for the same desires, Faustus was destined to follow the same fate. Despite Lucifer’s damnation, it is also as if he has succeeded in someone serving him as a God, seeing that Faustus has gave himself up to

    Read More

  • Faustus and Hamlet

    1753 Words  | 4 Pages

    Faustus looses his faith because the devil provides him with materialistic things that he cannot achieve or have access to without external supernatural help, whereas the reasons he is alive is a gift from God. When the devil threatens to rip Faustus into pieces when he was tempted to repent, Faustus backs out perhaps because he has physically seen what the devil is capable off but the physical absence of God leaves him with a sense of doubt which inevitably leads to his impending doom.

    Read More

  • Magic In Doctor Faustus

    680 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...s, “I see an angel hovers o’er thy head and with a vial full of precious grace offers to pour the same into thy soul! Then call for mercy, and avoid despair” (1158). Although against his better judgment again, Faustus decides to renew is vow to Lucifer. As Faustus’s time runs down, he begins to realize the mistakes he has made. He tries to bargain with God to reduce his time in hell, curses himself, Lucifer, and his parents for him ever being born. As hell begins to appear Faustus tries to repent for his sins. Little did Faustus know this would be his last chance to save his soul, because it was too late, for he dies shortly after and is damned to hell for eternity. Because of Faustus desire for more knowledge he became unaware of his wisdom. His wisdom tires many times to save his soul, but he dismisses them to acquire knowledge that he never fully achieves.

    Read More

More about From Divine Skepticism to Pleas for Divine Intervention

Open Document