Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Question for September 30: Doctor Faustus (pp. 1022-41)
In Christopher Marlowe's play, "The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus," the title character sells his soul to Lucifer in exchange for twenty-four years of otherworldly power. What seems to be the motive of Faustus? He wants power, certainly, but on the surface of it, this seems like an extremely shortsighted bargain. What is your informed hypothesis, based on your reading of the play so far?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Faustus’ deal with the devil is shown to be unfair on his part. Faustus seems to not feel appreciated for his knowledge. He is never ending with studying the works of past philosophers to better himself, but he does not see himself as such. Faustus asks himself, “And be eternized for some wondrous cure...The end of physic is our body’s health. Why Faustus hast thou not attained the end?” (lines 15-18). This shows how Faustus thinks that there is nothing more for him to do. He has already found cures, so now must he be done? Faustus is unhappy with himself and will only be happy when he can make men live forever or rise them from the grave. Faustus only refers to himself in third person, but he refers to himself as “I” when Mephastophilis agrees to make a deal with him for extreme power and knowledge. This shows that Faustus is only fulfilled with himself when he has the idea in his mind of having unlimited power. I think Faustus is trying to obtain unlimited power because of his own insecurities. He is trying to make up for his lack of power and lack of true knowledge through the use of necromancy and dark magic. Faustus blames everyone but himself for his unhappiness. At one point, he even yells at God by saying that God only does what He wants and never truly helps others. Faustus, however, realizes that God and heaven is wear true happiness lyes but he thinks it is too late for him to start repenting. This timidness of his decision shows his insecurities that he possesses about himself before dark magic helps him.
ReplyDelete“And live and die in Aristotle’s works...Sweet analytics, ‘tis thou hast ravished me: Been dicer est finis logicies.” This tells us that Faustus believes that more can be done and he wishes to build upon the knowledge of great philosophers, such as Aristotle. Therefore, I disagree with Someonelikeyou in your statement that “Faustus thinks there is nothing more for him to do.” Faustus actually believes there is more for him to do, and is willing to do whatever it takes to do so; he does by selling his soul to Lucifer. He wants to achieve certain goals such as “be eternized for some wondrous cure.” He is so in depth with his studying of physical health, that he believes that more can be done. Yes, he wants to obtain more credit to him as a doctor due to feelings from within, but he also seems to have the desire to help man, not just himself. He acknowledges the fact that “prescriptions have ended plagues for whole cities and put maladies to ease,” but he simply wants to further these profound cures and to achieve what no man has done yet which is, “...make men live eternally, or, being dead, raise them to life again.” This shows that his aspirations are beyond his own insecurities.
ReplyDeleteIn the prologue, in lines 20 and 21, “Till, swollen with cunning, of a self conceit, his waxen wings did mount higher than his reach,” tells that Faustus is overwhelmed with the opportunity he is given (to have higher power), but that it exceeds him because he is still not able to do all that he wants, i.e., his wish to be married. Desperate to be able to elaborate more in his knowledge and medical procedures, Faustus takes up the only opportunity he has not realizing exactly what he’s getting himself into. Indeed,it as an extremely short bargain because of obvious reasons; only twenty four years of magic and the terrors of hell told by Mephastophilis, where Faustus will spend his eternal life.