Black Magic
The story of Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe explains how someone can only desire three things in life: power, pleasure, and knowledge, but end up with nothing. In the beginning of Dr. Faustus, Faustus imagines all of the great achievements of learning black magic. He says, “Shall I make spirits fetch me what I please, resolve me of all ambiguities, preform what desperate enterprise I will? I’ll have them fly to India for gold, ransack the ocean for orient pearls, and search all corners of the new-found world” (1131). Faustus dreams of all the wealth and knowledge he will gain from learning black magic; however, after signing the contract with Lucifer, his grand ideas of using black magic seem to be downgraded to playing pointless tricks on people to only gain attention from others. Also as the story progresses his tricks become less impressive. For example, his first trick he conjures up Alexander the Great and one of his last is conjuring up grapes in the off season of growing.
Faustus also places his desire for knowledge over wisdom throughout the story which puzzles me, because Doctor Faustus’s wisdom is often brought up when he questions himself for selling his soul to the devil and being damned to hell forever. Over the 24 year span that the story takes place Faustus has many chances to save himself, but does not take the warnings. The first warning comes from Mephastophilis himself. He states, “O’Faustus, leave these frivolous demands, which strike a terror to my fainting soul,” when describing the “ten thousand hells” that curse his soul (1136). Faustus then questions why Mephastophilis was “so passionate for being deprived of the joys of Heaven?” (1136), against his better judgment Faustus plans to co...
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...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.
Throughout history, the Devil has constantly tempted people. That much can be agreed upon. However, the similarities between these two works also show that the reason the Devil has tempted people is actually constant as well, to enlarge his kingdom. Unfortunately, their motives for enlarging this kingdom are not so alike. When Dr. Faustus inquires as to what good his soul will do to the Devil, the demon Mephistopheles responds, “[to] enlarge his kingdom […] to have the human souls of men” (Marlow 2). The Devil from Dr. Faustus appears to cultivate his kingdom with the hope of increasing his own power and possibly challen...
This excerpt reveals that Faustus, although he has had much success and is widely recognized for it, yearns for further discovery, a limitless experience, a power that physically is beyond him. Later in the same scene, he clearly states his solution to this quandary, “A Sound magician is a mighty god. Here Faustus, try thy brains to gain a deity” (63 – 64). In order to achieve this for even a limited time however, he must exceed natural human boundaries. In his search for a means to do so, he forms a new boundary, namely the loss of control over his soul, in scene 5 through a contract with Lucifer.
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.
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.
II. Doctor Faustus is contrived of the following: Faustus, a man well learned in medicine and other knowledge’s known to man is dissatisfied with where his life is heading so he calls upon the Lucifer and His accomplice, Mephistophilis, to teach him the ways of magic. They agree to be his tutors only if Faustus will sell his soul to Lucifer and be His after 20 years. Faustus agrees and goes through trying times where he is unsure of his decision and considers repenting but then is persuaded again and again that the magic powers of the Devil are far more satisfying than the powers of Heaven.
Faustus sells his soul for what he believes to be limitless power, with the full logical, as opposed to emotional, knowledge as to consequences of such a transaction. He knows the stakes of his gamble with the ...
A young man studies theology his entire life and in turn receives his Doctrine in this field. One lonesome and desperate night, he decides to ignore God and fulfill his deepest desires. Hence, he conjures up a servant of Lucifer and agrees to sell his soul only if he can receive whatever or whomever he desires. This is the story of Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus.
(Munteanu, 2002). Therefore it can be said that Marlowe is attempting to alter the doctrines his fellow country men with whom are questioning their religions. Marlowe uses the renaissance ideals with the medieval myths to master his point. This work is a forewarning of damnation by those who attempt to alter the doctrines or moral standards, and a beacon of caution to those in search of the unknown. Dr Faustus, the work of good and evil. When man becomes idle his mind wanders and he wants more. With the wealth of knowledge Dr Faustus wanted more, he was no longer content with his academia since they could no longer provide him with wealth and fame as well as fulfill his souls want, he turned to the mastering of the dark arts.
He creates plans to acquire the magic and what to do with them. For example, Faustus’ naturally ambitious characteristic leads him to say, “I’ll have them fly to India for gold, ransack the ocean for orient pearls” (Marlow 1.1, 109-110). Faustus goes on and on about the limitless potential he sees that the power of the supernatural can give to the world so much he asks his servants to call on the local summoners of Germany to assist him in summoning a well-known demon for their time. The demon, Mephistophilis, does not want to become Faustus’ servant, so he strikes a daring deal that the demons can’t say no to. Fasutus tells Mephistophilis to go to Lucifer and “[say] he surrenders up to him his soul, so he will spare him four and twenty years … Having thee ever to attend on me”(1.3, 317 – 320). Faustus is known amongst his peers as a well-known scholar but as well as a magician. He knows many things about life that lesser-men of his time would love to have of at least one specialty in a topic. He throws away his potential for jobs in other fields for magic which would require his soul. Faustus is not wise enough to understand he has a realm of possibilities of professions to join outside of sorcery but still gravitates towards the territory of magic and mystery. Recent studies suggest a correlation with millennials, and depression. Although more girls suffer from it and are 2 times as likely than a boy to
The relationship between Faustus and Mephastophilis creates a dynamic that is rejected by society at this time. Although Faustus is well educated, he still lacks the one thing he truly desires: someone to control him, especially in a sexual manner. When Faustus decides to give Mephastophilis his soul for servitude, Faustus proclaims: “Lo, Mephastophilis, for love of thee, / I cut my arm, and with my proper blood, / Assure my soul to be great Lucifer’s,” (I.V.53-54). The declaration of love for Mephastophilis suggests that Faustus realized that, by giving Mephastophilis his soul, he will be able to gain his desire for control through Mephastophilis acting as his servant and granting him his wishes. Faustus does not realize until the last line of the play, however, that Mephastophilis is the one who is
Unaware that he is guilty of committing these sins, pride first leads Faustus into being extremely greedy, and this greediness acts in opposition to the will of God. While ambition is admirable, it appears to be a negative trait when it is not used for good. It appears that Faustus wanted to gain this knowledge for himself and not for the well-being of all people. Being so adamant about gaining this power
Faustus was an exceedingly ambitious man, even in relation to what is considered to be ambitious by people in today’s society. In the prologue, The Chorus sums up Faustus’ background and early life, emphasizing his ordinary background and academic success. It seems that Faustus’ intellect made him become proud and this fired up his ambition. When Marlowe presents Faustus in scene 1, Faustus methodically shuns great authors and classically intellectual subjects, such as medicine and law because they hold little attraction to him, (line 11)
On the other hand, there is Doctor Faustus, whose arrogance and sinfulness led to his own downfall. At a point when he was considering turning away from the devil, Faustus lets the promise of fleshly pleasures with a beautiful woman steer him back to the devil. Although he was granted unlimited knowledge, Faustus clearly didn’t learn anything.
The protagonist in Marlowe’s splay is Faustus. Faustus is represented as a contradictory and ambitious character. In addition, he was greed driven, blind and willing to do anything to get powers even if it meant selling his soul to the devil. Marlowe introduces us to the protagonist as he prepares to embark on a journey of gaining more powers and becoming a magician. He is blinded by greed, and never thinks of what might happen if things do not work out well (Austen2). All the protagonist thought of was how he was going to use the power he was to get from the devil, and how he was to become wealthy with his powers as a magician. Marlowe portrays the central character as blind, arrogant, self-aggrandizing, and ambitious. However, his ambitions were so big until instead of the reader pitying him, one feels impressed by what he plans to do with his powers after selling his soul to...
The first appearance of Faust in the story finds him having doubts about himself and the worth of his time spent in education. Undeterred by this depression, we see his pride has not diminished as he declares he is “cleverer than these stuffed shirts, these Doctors, M.A.s, Scribes and Priests, I’m not bothered by a doubt or a scruple, I’m not afraid of Hell or the Devil” (Goethe 633). Turning to magic to fill the void in his life, Faust conjures a spirit, but shrinks back from it in fear. In the ensuing argument between them, Faust asserts that he is the spirits “equal” (Goethe 637). Mephisto’s second visit at Faust’s residence leads them to having a drawn out discussion over the proposal of Mephisto serving Faust in exchange for his soul. Common sense might ask why a person would willingly discuss a deal with the devil knowing that it probably won’t end well. This instance would have to be answered that the imperious pride of Faust made him “so rash that he would give no heed to the salvation of his soul He thought the devil could not be so black as he is painted nor hell so hot as is generally supposed” (Fischer 107). In spite of his vast education, Faust’s pride pulls him into wagering his soul with Mephisto and causing the deaths of others and his