| Faustus Went to Hell, but I Wouldn't Have Sent Him There By: Sallee Reynolds
Knox Higher Common Room: Volume 2, Number 2
April 14, 1998
URL: <  I had a teacher in loftier school, Mrs. Hewlett, who had a reputation of beingness a cantankerous and difficult woman. Every year on the outset solar day of course she would stand in front and say, "Banish all preconceptions." Mrs. Hewlett and Christopher Marlowe had a similar message. In his retelling of the fable of a human who sells his soul to the devil in lodge to proceeds divine powers, Marlowe started with characters that would have fit nicely into preconceived little slots: the villain who is a human being evil enough to sell his soul to the devil, the devil's henchman who would sacrifice annihilation to plunge another soul into the purgatory that he has to live in, and a whole slew of other characters whose personalities seem as nicely laid out. Marlowe fell for none of the trappings. Instead he chose to make a story with realistic characters whom the reader could relate to and experience sympathy for. Dr. Faustus has an epilogue that nicely states the moral of the whole story. The footnote in The Norton Anthology says that it is believed that this was tacked on to the text by another writer much after the story was written. "Faustus is gone! Regard his hellish fall.
Whose feindful fortune may exhort the wise
Only to wonder at unlawful things:
Whose deepness doth entice such forward wits,
To do more than than heavenly power permits" (Epilogue.6-ten). I am given to agree with the notion that Marlowe did not write the epilogue because I remember that information technology's stated moral does not capture the indicate of the play. This play was not written as a fable that tidies itself up in one neat paragraph at the terminate; information technology is non merely a story near good vs. evil. Christopher Marlowe was educated in the orders of the church. He never joined the clergy, instead, he wrote. Later on in his life he was charged with beingness an atheist. While I am sure that at the fourth dimension it was written the average church member who saw it performed thought this play an excellent example of what happens to those who conspire against God, nosotros must take into consideration that Marlowe may non have fifty-fifty believed in the God of his story. This play is non simply nigh the evils of joining forces with the devil, rather, it is a story that beautifully illustrates to the reader that things are non always what they appear, that people are gloriously complex, and that no one can be shoved into a preconceived little slot. Dr. Faustus sells his soul to the devil in society to gain the powers of a deity. "Here Faustus, try thy brains to gain deity" (one.60). Usually when a character makes any kind of a pact with the devil, he is immediately written off by both the reader and author every bit a "bad guy." Faustus has the inherent traits of a "bad guy" merely through the careful precautions that Marlowe took in building his character Faustus is non then like shooting fish in a barrel to write off. Faustus sold his soul to the devil, simply his motives for doing so and his deportment afterward do not fit nicely into the characterization of a "bad guy." In lines 79-94 of the outset scene Faustus gives the reader an idea of why he wants to sell his soul. He wants material wealth. "I'll have them [devil's angels] fly to Bharat for golden,/ Ransack the bounding main for orient pearl" (i.82-83). He wants cognition. " I'll have them [devil'south angels] read me strange philosophy, / And tell the secrets of all foreign kings."(1.86-87). And he wants ability. " And [I will] reign total king in all of our provinces." (1.94). We expect bad guys to want power and money; we expect villains to exist power-hungry maniacs. Offsetting these typical wants, however, Faustus also wants cognition, separating him from other archetype villains. A wise man once said "Listen to what a man says. Picket what he does. Believe what he does." So information technology is with Faustus. He lists three reasons for selling his soul but all of his actions indicate to one fact; he isn't really interested in either the coin or the power that his new found magic has to offering. Faustus wants knowledge. The search for knowledge has always been considered a noble one. To this day people prepare out on the quest for cognition, sacrificing coin, time--oftentimes their entire lives. I myself will be over $xvi,000 in debt when I graduate from college--money spent on behalf of my personal quest. Faustus's quest for cognition is what endears him to me; it is the feature that makes information technology difficult to sentence him to purgatory without a second idea. That is 1 of the precautions that Marlowe took in building his play. He made realistic characters, who are neither wholly good or wholly evil, that people could relate to, and have sympathy for. The search from knowledge fuels Faustus. When his pact with the devil is consummate the first matter that he says is, "Now I volition question thee about hell."(5.114). With an inexhaustible enthusiasm Faustus grills Mephistopheles most the country of sky and hell. Afterward he asks Mephastophilis to bring him a volume that will list spells, explain to him the movements of heaven, and tell him of all the plants and their uses. He mentions nothing of money, or fame, or power--the first thing that he wants is noesis. We meet upwards with Faustus several years subsequently. His retainer Wagner prepares the audition by letting them know what Faustus has been up to for the final picayune while; "Learned Faustus,
To know the secrets of astronomy...
Did mount himself to scale Olympus' meridian..
And now is gone to prove cosmography.." (Chorus 2.i-7) Wagner'south clarification is strikingly void of information almost Faustus's attempts to proceeds money and power. All that we are told is that Faustus used his magic to proceeds noesis and experience. Faustus's quest for cognition is accented. In scene five Faustus is on the verge of calling for repentance. With a perfect sense on timing Lucifer appears and soothes his wavering soul by offering to show him the vii mortiferous sins; the kind of temptation that Faustus has no power to refuse. Friction match offers to give him knowledge that isn't written in any book and that could not be taught to him by anyone else. At the end of the grotesque parade of the vii deadly sins Faustus cries out, "O this feeds my soul" (5.124). Faustus's soul is fed by noesis. Faustus wants to gain the ultimate independence, to have no bounds placed on his learning, but in making a pact with the devil he limits himself in every way. That is where the tragedy of Faustus lies. Faustus situation is laced with the near painful type of irony. His accessibility to knowledge is not limitless. He finds this out near the beginning of the play when shortly after selling his soul he asks Mephastophilis to tell him who made the world and Mephastophilis says, "Movement me non, for I will non tell thee.../ Think thou on hell Faustus, for thou fine art damned." (five.240-244) Here, forcefully, Mephastophilis tells Faustus that in that location are things that he can non know. Faustus has been cheated. He sold his soul in society to get ane thing--unlimited noesis, and information technology is denied him. Faustus enters his life's endeavor, gaining cognition, with high hopes. He plans to get the fastest, the brightest and the most powerful. When he finds out that his ultimate goal is out of attain, his hopes neglect him and Faustus gives up. When he is brought before the King and Queen, instead of using his power to throw them off the throne so that he tin can rule in their identify, he wins their angel with tricks. He uses his magic to bring the Queen grapes in the middle of January and to bear witness the King the ghost of Alexander the Great. When he is washed with his display the King says, "...reward this learned/ man for the great kindness he hath showed" (eleven.25-26). The spells that he casts win the adoration of the King and Queen, just Faustus's works are zero more than parlor acts. I am convinced that he gives up trying anything spectacular considering he knows that his ultimate goal, absolute knowledge, is unattainable. Faustus reduces himself to doing petty magic; cheating a farmer out of a horse and 40 dollars, pulling off his leg--cheep tricks. Information technology is my belief that Faustus realizes that he has been cheated long earlier the final scene when he finally admits it. Faustus's magic turns petty and insignificant, considering he is plagued by despair--a despair that is brought on considering he gives upwards. He knows that accented knowledge is out of his achieve and really, that was all that he wanted. In the stop Faustus realizes that his quest for knowledge wasn't plenty. In the terminal scene Faustus, speaking to his scholarly friends, says "I gave.. my soul for my cunning" (11.31) He admits that all that he got out of the sale of his soul was cunning. Information technology is said with a spirit of remorse, as if he had expected so much more. His friends then go out and Faustus gives an astonishing monologue where he speaks equally a very learned human who is very deplorable. He calls on the proper name of God, only still feels that repentance is out of his achieve. As the clock strikes 12 and his life is ending, he calls out "I'll burn down my books" (13.111) Faustus'south quest for cognition was indeed absolute--accented and futile. He concluded his life acknowledging that he would trade all the knowledge he had for conservancy. And then Faustus sold his soul to the devil in guild to proceeds knowledge. Did that brand him evil? I would argue that information technology did not; not in my eyes and not in Christopher Marlow's optics either. Christopher Marlowe took painstaking precautions so that Faustus would not be lumped in with the other "bad guys" of the world. By making Faustus's motives noble, Marlowe created a character who had depth and meaning. The easy way for him to build his character would take been to brand Faustus evil through and through. Instead Marlowe took the time to make Faustus a good person with flaws. Faustus's quest for noesis was not necessarily a bad affair. He used evil ways to an end, just he was not a wholly evil man. That makes him a tragic hero--not wholly evil, merely damned anyhow. That is non an inherent aspect of the ancient tale. Marlowe was careful to make sure that we, every bit readers, walked abroad caring most a man who was "evil plenty to sell his soul to the devil." Like Mrs. Hewlett, Christopher Marlowe asks us all to "Banish all preconceptions." Work Cited Marlowe, Christopher. "Dr. Faustus." The Norton Album of English language Literature Vol. I, Ed. Thou.H. Abrams. New York, Westward.W. Norton & Company, 1993. |
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