Category: Doctor Faustus

The text I have selected is one that raises numerous themes and issues which are reiterated and developed throughout the play. Many of these themes are typical of the Renaissance period. In particular we see the notion of personal despair due to Faustus being denied salvation. This idea of personal despair, and the emphasis that Marlowe places on it, is what contributes to this play’s pronounced reformation feel, hence why I chose this text, as it is the beginnings of Faustus’ undoing and his loss of trust in personal salvation. Furthering this, I would agree with Sachs, who argues that Doctor Faustus is ‘a religious despair of salvation, seen as springing from the primordial guilt of Pride but sufficiently recurrent in the play to justify our regarding it as Faustus’ main transgression.’ Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus has continued to be the subject of analysis for many modern and postmodern critics. It has long been a debate amongst Faustian commentators whether the play reflects an intense, constant religious standpoint, or whether it is in fact anti religious. This essay seeks to dissect the play whilst exploring how religion is presented, its connection with the dark world of necromancy, but also the intrinsic relationship between religion and the notions of good and evil, repentance, and salvation.

Throughout the play we see Marlowe using Doctor Faustus’ own speech in order to illuminate his own flawed thinking in reference to religion. In his opening speech Faustus lists various disciplines and establishes a hierarchy, deciding which of these professions is the most noble. After moving on from law and medicine, not wanting to protect man through their bodies or through their property, he decides he is striving for higher things, thus proceeds to religion. Here we witness him quote selectively from the New Testament, opting for the passages that present christianity in a negative manner. He reads ‘the reward of sin is death: that’s hard’ and ‘if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and there’s no truth in us’(1. 43). Faustus distorts the reading here and in doing so finds inevitable condemnation within these words, as opposed to charity. Having such a clinical view of sin allows him to detach from the damning nature of sin and is the beginning of Faustus’ fall as he descends further into sin. This leads to him rejecting religion as a possible venture, which he does by stating ‘What will be, shall be! Divinity adieu!’(1. 48) What Faustus neglects to do is read the very next line of the bible which reads ‘If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.’ This suggests that despite Faustus’ initial reading of the bible, salvation was very much available to him and if he’d managed to see this earlier then he would have been spared eternal damnation.

Eventually religion was banned from being presented on Elizabethan stage due to the sensitive nature of the subject, and Doctor Faustus was one of the last plays to deal with religion directly as a topic. Also presented in this play is the close link between religion and the supernatural. Religion involves having faith or belief in that there is no tangible proof for, thus the line between religion and magic was oftentimes blurred, and this play is an example of this. Initially, the longing Faustus had to practise magic appears relatively admirable to the reader. What Faustus yearns for is to push the boundaries of human knowledge, expanding frontiers and achieving great things by wielding such a power. He describes the necromantic books as ‘heavenly’ as he states ‘O, what a world of profit and delight/Of power, of honour, of omnipotence’(1. 54). Marlowe implements the use of a semantic field of religious imagery to further reflect the sheer extent of Faustus’ selfish ambition. There is a level of irony that Marlowe presents here, as Faustus crowns what appears to be the least noble of all the disciplines and decides that this is the one he shall opt for. Also ‘Omnipotent’ connotes a level of power that is godlike in stature, thus reflecting Faustus as a character that believes he can be the first to transcend the normal, mortal boundaries and foreshadowing his growing hubristic beliefs, the corruption that wielding unlimited power brings and his inevitable fall from grace as a tragic hero. Furthering this, ‘a sound magician is a mighty god’ (1. 62) and ‘try thy brains to gain a deity’ (1. 63) both present this sin as an ‘extreme commitment to cupidity by which he would direct all of his developed human gifts towards a self-exaltation that further aspired to godhood’. This cupidity symbolises a human representation of the first sin that Lucifer committed. Satans fall is outlined in Isaiah 14:12-15 and declares, about Satan, ‘For you have said in your heart: I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’ Thomas Acquinas said of this ‘Without doubt, the angel sinned by seeking to be a God…. he sought to have final beatitude of his own power, whereas this is proper to God alone.’ Direct parallels can be drawn between the two, Faustus behaving exactly as the devil did, so it is no surprise to a devoutly religion audience that Faustus’ pride was going to be his ultimate downfall. This downfall will have been viewed in light of the notions of salvation, damnation and redemption, all of which are ideas heavily rooted in christianity. Additionally, Acquinas also argues that ‘Consequently, no creature of a lower order can ever covet the grade of a higher nature; just as an ass does not desire to be a horse: for were it to be so upraised, it would cease to be itself.’ Therefore Faustus was doomed form the start, his chances of repentance are further diminished when it is taken not account the highly trained intellect that he possesses. The total deliberation that precedes his choosing of Satan proves that he was not acting on a whim that he then later regretted, but rather he made a calculated choice, knowing the risks of his actions. Throughout the play he is reminded of God’s grace and mercy and of the possibility of repentance. He disregards this however, due to his own conviction that, and he reiterates this several times throughout the play, that God hates him. It must also be noted that this redemption is only available to those who truly feel remorse and penitence. Whilst his final speech is poignant, it is a speech made out of fear for losing his life. Instead of a feeling of remorse, he feels sheer terror at knowing this is the end that makes him want to repent.

The scheme of values presented in Doctor Faustus are the fundamental christian values that dominated the western world. Although Doctor Faustus presents the reader with a character who has entirely abandoned his christian faith, it would be wrong to suggest that ‘Faustus’ view of Christianity is the only one made explicit in the play.’ An omnibenevolent god is depicted throughout the play and this abundance of love that Faustus chose to reject allowed the Christians of Marlowe’s era to both condemn Faustus as a character and revel in the ‘justice of God’ revenging the blasphemies Faustus committed. The character of Faustus emerges from the play as one who portrays a man seduced by his own damnation. A character who, through his own cupidity, is made incapable of salvation. He contravenes the sovereign values that allow for order upon civilisation, and consequently pays for it with his life. In explicitly damning Faustus to death at the end of the play, Marlowe allows the values that form the foundations of Christianity to triumph, albeit on his own terms.

The influence of supernatural forces was a common theme among works written during the Renaissance and early medieval periods, and was often used to create moral conflict within the characters by introducing them to sin or strife. It was mainly used to support biblical lessons that the writer wished to convey to their audience. Doctor Faustus and Sir Orfeo are both examples of texts that use the supernatural to teach their respective lessons. However, the difference is that Doctor Faustus, written during the Elizabethan era, uses it as an embodiment of pure evil, whereas Sir Orfeo utilises the supernatural as a transformative entity that provides the protagonist with a challenge that he must overcome. These contradictory applications reflect the attitudes towards witchcraft, magic and all things supernatural during the respective times in which they were written. In both texts, these attitudes can be detected in the description of the behaviour of the paranormal beings, and how they drive the plots, as well as in the depictions of their appearances.

In Doctor Faustus, Faustus’ ambition to master the art of magic causes him to promise his soul to Lucifer, which begins to corrupt him to the point where he spends his life playing tricks on people and partaking in blasphemy, a most severe offense at the time. Witches can be defined as those who cause harm by supernatural means, and who make a pact with the devil for their powers.[footnoteRef:1] Applying this definition, one can argue that Faustus himself, was a witch as he exchanges his soul for the use of Mephistopheles’ power. This deduction could contribute to the understanding of the attitudes that the Elizabethan audience would have towards the main character of the play, because witchcraft was seen in an extremely negative light during this period, and this sentiment lasted well into the seventeenth century, during which the height of the witch trials was taking place. In fact, in 1563 about 30 years before Marlowe wrote Doctor Faustus, a bill was passed that would legalise the murder of those suspected to be a witch.[footnoteRef:2] It is clear that in the Elizabethan era, witchcraft and the supernatural did not hold favour with the people. [1: Richard A. Horsely, ‘Who Were the Witches? The Social Roles of the Accused in the European Witch Trials’, The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 9 (1979), 689-715 (p. 690).] [2: UK Parliament, ‘Witchcraft’, Living Heritage, >www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/private-lives/religion/overview/witchcraft< [Accessed 9 December 2019] (Paragraph 3).]

And the reader can see this as the text clearly shows its intention to depict the supernatural as evil when revealing the devils for the first time. The physical appearances of the creatures in Doctor Faustus are often described as ‘ugly’ on first encounter. The character Robin even states that the devils have ‘vile long nails’, ‘horns’, ‘clefts’, and ‘cloven feet’.[footnoteRef:3] This monstrous imagery matches the fear of the paranormal that was felt by the people of the renaissance period and reinforces the belief that the seeking out of supernatural power outside what is humanly possible is evil and ungodly. ‘[In the Elizabethan era there] was an almost universal belief in witchcraft. The bitter hatreds and persecutions and cold terror inspired by this belief left its obscene mark upon much of the literature of that age.’[footnoteRef:4] The Elizabethans were fascinated and frightened by the supernatural to a point where they almost came to detest. It is important to note that all the supernatural creatures in this text, except perhaps the Good Angel, are agents of the Christian hell, a place of torture and sin. This highlights a dichotomy between God (good) and Satan (evil) that was created by the outlook of those during the renaissance period. The only good supernatural entity is the godly angel, and everything else is evil; highlighting the enormous pressure and stigma surrounding sin. [3: Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus, ed. by David Scott Kastan, 4th Edition (London: W.W Norton & Company, 2005), (p. 19).] [4: Clarence Jaeggli, ‘Witchcraft in the Elizabethan Drama’, (North Texas State College, 1940), (p. 1).]

However, in this play, the supernatural can change their shape into more pleasant figures, as shown by Mephistopheles appearing as a friar when told to by Faustus. To Faustus, his deal with Satan will provide him with all the pleasure he desires in life, but actually only leaves him unsatisfied, torn, and full of regret. The fact that the hideous Mephistopheles disguises himself to please Faustus can be symbolic of the idea that the instant gratification provided by the supernatural only leads to eternal damnation. He is literally a ‘devil in disguise’, appearing to be something pleasant that will provide Faustus with the power to immediately fulfill his desires, but in the long-run destroys Faustus’ chance of eternal bliss. This idea is one commonly reinforced among the biblical lessons portrayed in literature.

The large role that the supernatural plays in the plot also contributes to the representation of it in the text. Even Faustus’ own moral compass takes a supernatural identity in the form of a good angel and an evil angel. Everything Faustus does throughout the play is either influenced by the angels, Mephistopheles, or even Lucifer himself, conveying the common tendency of the time to blame the supernatural for one’s actions. And it was ‘the common belief in the Elizabethan conception that madness is based on the idea of possession by evil spirits’.[footnoteRef:5] This attitude can also be found in Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’, where the three witches influence and convince Macbeth to commit murder. He is driven mad by the interference of these supernatural beings.[footnoteRef:6] Having the angels as the expression of Faustus’ values also supports the concept that all morality itself comes from the Christian God, and that either he or the corruption of Satan will guide one through life: perhaps acting as a subtle reminder to follow the instructions left in the bible. [5: Rowena Newman Wilks, ‘Madness in the Elizabethan Drama’, (North Texas State College, 1949), (p. 5). ] [6: Shakespeare, William, ed. by Bloom, Harold, Macbeth, (New York: Chelsea House, 2008).]

The devils are also shown as being brazenly violent, with Mephistopheles once threatening: ‘I’ll in piecemeal tear thy flesh’.[footnoteRef:7] In the B-text of Doctor Faustus, the scholars discuss Faustus’ mangle limbs and how the devils have ‘torn him thus’[footnoteRef:8], which are savage depictions of how violently the devils ended Faustus. Overall, a horrid picture of the supernatural is depicted in Doctor Faustus, both in their violent appearances and violent nature. The demons are meant to strike fear and cause disgust in the eyes of the audience it was intended for because few in England at the time were not partial to the belief in the supernatural and the Christian God. [7: Christopher Marlowe, (p. 48).] [8: Christopher Marlowe, (p. 122).]

This representation is in contrast to the earlier text Sir Orfeo, written in medieval times. Unlike the devils in Doctor Faustus, the faerie world is described in an overwhelmingly positive manner, and once even referred to as a ‘paradis’ that is ‘shrewed me castels and tours/ Rivers, forestes, frith, and flours’.[footnoteRef:9] The descriptions and imagery are very typical of Celtic folk tales, mostly in the fascination in the mystery of nature and the use of Faeries as its supernatural characters. In this tale, the faeries are always in a position of power, yet are seen to be non-violent; such as in the instance when the faerie king is hunting but never actually kills anything. Nor does the faerie king enact any violence upon Sir Orfeo or his armies. [9: ‘Sir Orfeo’, The Middle English Breton Lays, ed. by Anne Laskaya, ed. by Eve Salisbury, (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 1995). ]

Heurodis also states that the garments of the faeries are “white as milk” and so are their horses. White is commonly associated with purity, cleanliness, and beauty, probably due to the fact that pure white is an absence of colour. It is often noted as ‘unstained’ by any other colour, and no colours can be mixed to achieve pure white. ‘Blue in the medieval codification is the symbol of eternity and chastity, white of purity and innocence.’[footnoteRef:10] This change in description shows the difference in attitudes towards magic in the renaissance period versus a medieval time where Celtic mythology was prominent and magic was not considered to be the work of the devil, but rather an energy from another world of no moral standing; buttressed by the quote: ‘But above all [Celtic stories] show how important the other world of magic and superstition was in the ancient Celtic culture. In that other world, magic can be used for good or evil.’[footnoteRef:11] [10: Françoise Meltzer, ‘Color as Cognition in Symbolist Verse’, Critical Inquiry, 9 (1978), 253-273 (p. 269).] [11: Liam Mac Uistin, Celtic Magic Tales, (Dublin: The O’brien Press Ltd, 2015) (p. 1).]

In this text, the supernatural creatures are not agents of hell, but rather of purgatory instead. The faerie world is parallel to the ordinary, meeting at the spliced tree, where the manmade world interferes with the natural world. This interlinking of the two worlds happens in nature, where Orfeo can sometimes see the faerie king even though he has not yet entered the faerie kingdom. He also does not need to die in order to enter this domain, exhibiting that it is not an afterlife, but rather a state of being between life and death. These are the largest disparities between the representation of the supernatural in Sir Orfeo and Doctor Faustus, the latter in which the supernatural world is hell and the reader is never able to experience it. It is distinctly separate from the ordinary world, with only its entities, such as Mephistopheles, choosing to move between worlds, with the only way for a human to enter being death.

Additionally, the ten years that Orfeo spends in the wilderness acts as a test of his loyalty to his wife. He never leaves and has to fend for himself for a decade, so when he enters the faerie court and manages to receive his wife back, the faerie court becomes a place of redemption where his loyalty is rewarded. Faustus however, is denied the opportunity for redemption because of his relationship with the supernatural. When Faustus considers asking for redemption from God, Mephistopheles and Lucifer threaten him on two separate occasions. This fact acts as a cautionary tale, warning that any relation to evil and Satan could cost one their soul. Again, this reflects a harsh detestation for sin and a very strict social pressure that does not allow one to stray from what was considered a pure life at the time. The play echoes a sense of strict parental forewarning, not leaving much room for personal thought on the matter, but rather trying to show what must never be done, which is in this case, choosing pleasure and power over purity and biblical obedience.

The representation of the supernatural in the two texts seem to be in complete contrast with each other, not only in their appearances and connections with the ordinary world, but particularly in the way in which they drive the plot. The faeries in Sir Orfeo act as a path to redemption for Orfeo. They allow his loyalty to his wife to be tested, as well as the loyalty the steward has to him, and both he and his steward are rewarded in the end. Overall, the experience is transformative for Sir Orfeo. However, in Doctor Faustus, the devils act as agents of damnation, often convincing Faustus not to repent when he is clearly considering doing so. This variation in the physical and behavioral representations of the supernatural in these two texts highlights the public opinions of magic at the times they were written. But, despite the contrast in its representation, both stories are similar in the way that they utilise the supernatural to relay a religious or social message. Doctor Faustus warns against the search for godly powers and instant gratification, and Sir Orfeo celebrates loyalty and reward, perhaps alluding to the concept of the afterlife being a reward for loyalty to God. This concealment of a moral within the representation of the supernatural is a tradition that has lasted for centuries.

Bibliography

1. Horsely, Richard A., ‘Who Were the Witches? The Social Roles of the Accused in the European Witch Trials’, The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 9 (1979), 689-715.
2. Jaeggli, Clarence, ‘Witchcraft in the Elizabethan Drama’, (North Texas State College, 1940).
3. Liam Mac Uistin, Celtic Magic Tales, Illustrated Edition, (Dublin: The O’brien Press Ltd, 2015)
4. Marlowe, Christopher, Doctor Faustus, ed. by David Scott Kastan, 4th Edition (London: W.W Norton & Company, 2005).
5. Meltzer, Françoise, ‘Color as Cognition in Symbolist Verse’, Critical Inquiry, 9 (1978), 253-273.
6. Newman Wilks, Rowena, ‘Madness in the Elizabethan Drama’, (North Texas State College, 1949).
7. Shakespeare, William, ed. by Bloofm, Harold, Macbeth, (New York: Chelsea House, 2008)
8. UK Parliament, ‘Witchcraft’, Living Heritage, >www.parliament.uk/about/living- heritage/transformingsociety/private- lives/religion/overview/witchcraft< [Accessed 9 December 2019].

Faustian tropes are intertwined within the bosom of Christopher Marlowe and Oscar Wilde’s contemporary societies, encapsulating the literary intellects to portray the parallels that lay within. Marlowe’s Renaissance play Doctor Faustus (1604), and Wilde’s Victorian novel The Picture of Dorian Gray are two pieces of literature that integrate very protuberant features of their societies- creating two texts that share various similarities, particularly in accordance with the plot; relationships amongst the main characters and the two title characters themselves. There is also literary likeness in the rudiments of the gothic and doppelganger life themes. Aestheticism, hedonism and the Faustian bargain, in many ways, illustrate The Picture of Dorian Gray as a reiteration of the story in Doctor Faustus; both the protagonists enter the world of evil. Dorian Gray pacts with the devil naively, whilst Doctor Faustus conjures the devil ignorantly. By analysing the Faustian tropes persistent in the novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray- Doctor Faustus can be employed as the model for presenting the story of the Faustian fall. Good and evil is enthralled through the sequence of the protagonists mirrored lust for evil as the metaphoric marriages between Dorian Gray and the devil, as well as Dr Faustus and the devil condense themselves as the root of the two plots.

Doctor Faustus is a type of morality play, where the strengths of good and evil are embodied out of an inner battle in the human soul. This battle is shifted to the outside world, and it signifies “man’s need for salvation and the temptations which beset him on his pilgrimage through life to death” (Cuddon 1999: 519). Marlowe’s play is largely based on psychomachy in the manner of the conflict between the good and evil forces. The conflict becomes conveyed through Good and Bad Angels, who illustrate the tension inside the protagonist’s soul. The Angels try to convince Faustus why he should and should not interfere with necromancy. This nature of personification is not portrayed in The Picture of Dorian Gray. Dorian’s inner fight is voiced through his way of thinking; he perpetually rationalises to himself why he ought to surrender to the world of pleasures, although nevertheless contemplates the question: “What are the moral consequences of this choice?”. Conversely, the picture performs as memento, a type of psychomachy to which Dorian doesn’t pay anyway meaningful consideration at first, but develops to be more and more cognizant of it, up until it holds the role of his conscience displaying how Dorian’s soul is steadily being distorted. The Picture of Dorian Gray and Doctor Faustus both encompass the theme of the confrontation between good and evil in the world, and the human soul.

The battlefield where Dorian’s fight with the opposing forces takes place is within his mind. This is a fierce, close fight for at one point “[o]ne could never pay too high a price for any sensation” (Wilde 2001: 47), at another he wants to be good (79). What is more, “there were moments when he looked on evil simply as a mode through which he could realize his conception of the beautiful” (116), but then again, he decides not to do any hideous acts anymore (166). One of the best examples of his inner fight may be when he is disappointed with the acting performance given by Sibyl, an actress with whom he is supposedly in love. After just one bad performance, Dorian is disappointed with her since she has lost all the aesthetic features of her person which have made her exquisite in his eyes. He breaks his promise to marry her, insults her, and runs away for she has killed his love and destroyed the romance of his life (71). But the picture that “taught him to love his own beauty” now teaches him “to loathe his own soul” (74). His thoughts wander so far, that at one point he gives the impression of a lunatic:

For every sin that he committed, a stain would fleck and wreck its fairness. But he would not sin. […] He would resist temptation. He would not see Lord Henry any more […] He would go back to Sibyl Vane, make her amends, marry her, try to love her again. (74)

Longing to atone for his sins, he goes astray and is unable to think clearly, and therefore becomes hasty in making decisions. The painting is Dorian’s Good Angel. Even though it may have the appearance of something wicked, it provides him with insight into his soul. It shows him what the sins he commits do to his soul, and reminds him to be careful and not allow the evil inside of him triumph over his virtue: “But here was a visible symbol of the degradation of sin. Here was an ever-present sign of the ruin men brought upon their souls” (78).

But it’s not only the picture that takes the role of the Good Angel from Doctor Faustus. There is one character whose love for Dorian is unconditional and who helps him save his soul and escape Lord Henry’s bad influence10 – the painter, Basil Hallward. Dorian is aware that “Basil would have helped him to resist Lord Henry’s influence, and the still more poisonous influences that came from his own temperament. […] But it was too late now” (96). He even confesses to Basil that he is better than Henry, but weaker (89), and it is bad influence that usually prevails over the good one. In chapter twelve, Basil tries to point to the change that has happened inside Dorian, but the latter is not willing to hear it, or perhaps not able to do so. The painter reminds Dorian that status and affluence are not the most valuable things in life, that one cannot hide from sins, that dignity, virtue, and chastity matter in life, and that God sees the soul of a man (118-121). Furthermore, Basil could be seen as an allegorical figure, in the same way as the Old Man who represents Faustus’ last chance to repent and choose the good side, but also “Faustus’ unwillingness to accept, or even to see, the proffered hand of redemption” (Simkin 2001: 98). In that way, the Old Man is an extrinsic guide and advisor sent from God. The line “I do repent, and yet I do despair” (xviii, 71) that Faustus says is, as Simkin (100) describes, “a wonderfully compact, concentrated assessment of his spiritual status”, just like when Dorian realizes he has become sinful and still is unable to step to goodness. Basil asks Dorian to pray for “prayer of your repentance will be answered” (125). Tragically, prayers are now meaningless to Dorian, and he goes from sin to sin accepting the fact that he has become wicked.

Faustus believes that his sins are so great that God will not forgive him, and he accepts the Devil. This does not happen instantly, he actually contemplates the consequences of turning to the Devil. Nevertheless, when Mephistopheles describes Satan’s fall by “aspiring pride and insolence, / For which God threw him from the face of heaven” (iii, 70-71), we realize that this is an alternative that awaits Faustus if the evil overcomes the good within him. In the same manner, Dorian listens the outcome of both good and bad things from Lord Henry, but somehow chooses to hear only the positive side of them. We expect, nay, believe in the possibility of Dorian’s redemption, for he inspires us to have faith in him. He hesitates, contemplates, decides, but changes his mind again, until the moment he consummates evil. The point when we stop believing in the possibility of his salvation is when Dorian kills Basil, for “murder is always a mistake” as Lord Henry claims (Wilde 2001: 169).

Both characters want to repent and be good, but it’s long overdue. They are now “between a wrathful deity and the torments the devils are inflicting” (Simkin 2001: 204) and “[e]ach of us has Heaven and Hell in him” as Dorian believes. But having been committed to evil for so long, even by picking the proper option the catastrophic outcome is inevitable. Ultimately, as Wilde claims in the preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray, “[v]ice and virtue are to the artist materials for an art” (2001: 3). And, without a doubt, he made use of vice and virtue in creating this classic.

In Christopher Marlowe’s play, Doctor Faustus, the protagonist, Dr. John Faustus, struggles between following God or Lucifer. Faustus is a divided soul, pulled between competing interests and needs. There are many examples of dichotomy that are established in Marlowe’s play that back up the notion of why Faustus was being torn between two different worlds. Some of these binaries include the author and Dr. Faustus, good and evil, religion versus magic, and between Medieval and Renaissance thinking.

Faustus started out as a morality tale in a Protestant-leaning region of what is now modern-day Germany, in a time and place which believed in the literal Devil on Earth, it was a frightening tale, and warned against godlessness, worldly ambition, and of course, magic. For the audience, Faust’s religious salvation was at stake. Legend goes that the Devil himself appeared at one of Marlowe’s shows, so even the audience was fearful of the Devil’s notice. Today, the name “Faust” has become synonymous of tales of power by people who turned their backs on principles and values for the knowledge and power to achieve their own self-centered goals. But with their ambition and their power being more than they can handle, inevitable doom is made more tragic by their inability to seek forgiveness (Sciortino and Wallace).

However, there are also Faustian tales of redemption, where Faust has in the end came out a better man, overcame his human nature, and won God’s approval. That was the Faust of forward-looking, idealistic Europe becoming like a God. The possible plot outcomes reflect attitudes of Europe through the ages. Five hundred years ago it was unthinkable that Faust could be have found salvation; but hundreds of years later, it had become essential. Europe changed, and so did Christianity. Faust is also Europe itself, organically changing from being a religious dominated society and culture in the Medieval Europe and thinking to a free-thinking Renaissance. It, like Faust, has turned away from the from God and personal salvation, to ambitiously take its chances in the material world, dependent upon science and technology to achieve salvation for all—in time. So, the Faust story appears to also be the story of western civilization, and its destiny, prophetically written as the change began. The result of success is utopia; of failure, is destruction (Sciortino and Wallace).

Marlowe is alluding to seeing himself in Faustus or his dark side that he is not allowed to show in public through his writing. The play opens with a chorus, which gives us the reader an introduction and some background into who Faustus is, the chorus mention the birth of Faustus, his academic success, achievements and arrogance. Faustus studied and received a high level of training and has quite extensive knowledge about theology and philosophy (Malueke 7). Marlowe was born in Canterbury during the same year Shakespeare and Galileo were born. In the year 1579, Marlowe is said to have received a grant of £1 per quarter at the King’s School where he was born (Malueke 9). Christopher Marlowe saw himself in Faustus but was not born into wealth or had the same advantages as him so he made an alter ego where he can express his frustrations and publicly speak out on certain subjects.

Christopher Marlowe uses a vast vocabulary, which was full of extreme or exaggerated language, which takes the reader or audience into an imaginary world covered in references to myth and to the limits of geographical knowledge. He generates a sense of excitement and of the importance of dignity to his subject matter. His use of proper names which were elaborate and polysyllabic, an example of one such would be Mephistopheles which sustains that sense of dignity, as does his obsession with repetition. It is a combination of passion and control that marks out Marlowe’s poetic achievement from those of his predecessors, an achievement which critics have described as a ‘poetry of excess’ (Galle 103).

The graphically descriptive language Marlowe uses to help us and the reader visualize the devilish aspects of the play, provides an array of images that appeal to all the senses, for instance in scene 13, Dr. Faustus says on line 81-85 “Now draw up Faustus like a foggy mist Into the entrails of yon labouring cloud, That when you vomit forth into the air My limbs may issue from your smoky mouths,So that my soul may but ascend to heaven.” In four lines Marlowe can draw on sight, smell, taste and movement to evoke feeling of an evil cloud as something that is tangible and can be seen by us, only to contrast it with heavenly elevation in line 85. It is probably the most dramatic moment in the play, and Marlowe uses some of his rhetoric to create an unforgettable portrait of the mind of a man who is about to be carried off to eternity of punishment. Faustus flip flops from one idea to another, but no escape is available, and he ends by reaching an understanding of his own guilt (Galle).

Dr. Faustus by many is considered a tragedy, Faustus shorting coming came when he fell short of God’s grace and was sent to Hell, he had the chance to ask for repentance in his final speech, but he was conceited. Susan Snyder says “Marlowe was accused in his own time of holding unorthodox religious views. One target of his attacks, according to both the Kyd deposition and the Baines memorandum, was Scriptural mira- cles. Kyd and Baines report statements by Marlowe that such miracles were not the work of God but of clever conjurors who could trick simple people with their arts” (Snyder 565)

Throughout the play we see Faustus struggling with doing what is right and being pulled between good and evil In Doctor Faustus, good and evil are presented as two feuding ideas: God and Heaven on one side, and the Devil and Hell on the other. Opposing views of this division also are represented through characters such as the old man and the Good Angel opposed to Mephistopheles and the Bad Angel. Initially, this struggle between good and evil is Faustus’ major internal conflict as he is deciding whether to make the blood bond. However, by the time Faustus views the seven deadly sins, evil persists as the dominant force and is the path that Faustus follows to his final damnation. But even early on Faustus is plagued on where to align himself. Susan Snyder once again states that “As a Christian soul, Faustus is caught between his two angels, swinging between remorse and desperate pleasure-seeking, not lost until the final moment. In theological terms he is not damned until he dies; deliverance is always possible if he will repent and call for mercy, and in the dramatic tradition of the morality such deliverance was often postponed until the last minute. At several points Faustus seems capable of breaking through to God before the devils return him to spiritual insensibility (Snyder 567).”

These two angels appear when Faustus hesitates on in his decision to give his soul to the Devil and considers repenting. The Good Angel encourages him to seek God’s mercy and tells him that it is never too late to do so. The Bad Angel persuades Faustus not to repent, saying that he is too damned to ever be able to be worthy of God’s forgiveness and so he is better off just indulging in his desire for knowledge, power, and enjoyment. The angels are symbolizing the opposing pulls of sin and repentance, or the opposing sides of Faustus’ own conscience, However, they also have a presence as actual entities. In Scene 1 Act 1 the Good Angel says “O, Faustus, lay that damned book aside, and gaze not on it, lest it tempt thy soul, And heap God’s heavy wrath upon thy head! Read, read the Scriptures: —that is blasphemy to which the Bad Angel replies “Go forward, Faustus, in that famous art Wherein all Nature’s treasure is contain’d: Be thou on earth as Jove is in the sky, Lord and commander of these elements.” Later, in Scene 2 of Act 1 lines 20 and 21 the traits of good versus evil are in full view when the Good Angel tells Faustus to ‘think of heaven and heavenly things” while the Bad Angel tells Faustus to ‘think of honor and wealth’ (Golden 205).

Upon reading Dr. Faustus what stands out and is apparent right away is the authors use of magic and religion throughout the story. During the sixteenth century, England began a transition period between Catholicism and Protestantism. During the English Reformation, Protestants were harsh about the Catholic faith and certain elements were removed from Protestantism services. Elizabethan audiences wanted to watch plays that had religious figures and had magic (Scribner 475). Marlowe use of fireworks onstage was highly controversial, but it gave him the opportunity to discovery religious conflict. Doctor Faustus was a scholar who has mastered all the subjects available, is bored, and decides to involve himself in magic. Although at first, he has his reservations on to it, he decides to research the taboo subject of the dark arts and devilry, he finally overcomes those hesitations and decides to do a spell, which summons the demon Mephistopheles. When Mephistopheles appears, Faustus orders him to become his servant; however, Mephistopheles is service to the Devil (Davidson). This rejection inspires Faustus to make a deal with the Devil saying that Mephistopheles will be his servant on earth for twenty-five years in exchange for Faustus’ soul after that time is up. Throughout the play, Faustus suffers a series of religious crises in that he is unable to decide whether to continue practicing magic or to find salvation from God. However, each crisis ends with a reaffirmation of his commitment to Lucifer and the use of magic is to further degrade religious beliefs and figures. Faustus mocks religious ceremonies attacks the Pope and friars, and marvels at the seven deadly sins (Butturff).

To put the opposite of religion and magic into perspective in this play we must look at the time period in which it was written. Marlowe wrote his play during a time of huge scientific strides in the upended period following the division between the Protestant and Catholic faiths. Writing for an audience whose minds are thinking about the future of science and religion, Marlowe presents us with more than a stereotype of the damned. Faustus is a character struggling to understand why he must choose between his duty as a scholar wanting to learn dark magic and his religious duty. (Harrison 3-4) Faustus consistently claims that he is not in danger of damnation or harm: ‘What power can hurt me? Faustus, thou art safe,’ ‘If heaven was made for man, ’twas made for me. I will renounce this magic and repent,’ ‘Yea, God will pity me, if I repent,’ ‘Tush, Christ did call the thief upon the cross; Then rest thee, Faustus, quiet in conceit’ (Doctor Faustus 2.1.24; 2.3.11-11; 2.3.16; 4.5.26-27).

Faustus does not accept that his days are numbered and will end in his eventual damnation and he will enter the eternal tortures of hell., at the end of the play it is quite clear that Faustus is going to be sent to Hell, why would Marlow end it in such a way? Marlowe left the reader and audience with a large question to answer, how do we know what is allowed in the eyes of God by man when the world is constantly changing and shifting by what is morally and culturally acceptable in order for us to gain God’s grace and acceptance when it is our time to be judged. Faustus was in a world where knowledge and power is increased through the access of science and religion is ever expansive, how was Dr. Faustus was faced with new moral dilemmas and sets of decisions new to his world. So, Faustus left his trust in science rather than obeying the word of God. The most prestigious universities in Elizabethan England were closely tied to the political and religious spheres. For example, the school’s history notes that ‘in 1530, Henry VIII strong armed the University to accept his divorce decree from Catherine of Aragon, and during the Reformation in the 16th century (Harrison 8-9). The education that Faustus would have received at a University such as that would have shaped how Faustus accepted the theology of the Anglican church. His mastery of theology shows that he was knowledgeable about Protestant approved sciences.

Lastly when we analyze Dr. Faustus, we can make that claim that he was a Renaissance thinker in a Medieval world not ready to accept how he thought. During this time God was the center of everyone’s world, The Renaissance took place in Italy during the fifteenth century and had a huge impact on all of Europe, it brought along with it an emphasis on the individual themselves and approaching the natural world through the lens of scientific inquiry. In the medieval academy, theology was the queen of the sciences. Rohit claims that “In the Renaissance, though, secular matters took center stage. Faustus, despite being a magician rather than a scientist (a blurred distinction in the sixteenth century), explicitly rejects the medieval model. In his opening speech in scene 1, he goes through every field of scholarship, beginning with logic and proceeding through medicine, law, and theology, quoting an ancient authority for each: Aristotle on logic, Galen on medicine, the Byzantine emperor Justinian on law, and the Bible on religion (Rohit 1). “Faustus is adamant on becoming a full Renaissance Spirit who does not allow tradition or authority his path for seeking knowledge and wealth, this is yet another example by not only Faustus but by Marlowe himself. Neither had traditional views and it can be interpreted as the hypocrisy of the church saying people should be content in where they are in life and be accepting because if they were destined for more God would have made them more. Faustus and his modern thinking challenged the very notion in Act 1 Scene 1 in lines 8 and 9 Faustus says “Is to dispute well logic’s chiefest end? Afford this art no greater miracle? Faustus is not happy not knowing the ins and outs of a subject and he feels as if he must dedicate his time and effort to one concentration when he is wants to know everything.

For the medieval person, pride was one of the greatest sins that a person could commit. In their lives, this concept was based upon the fact that Lucifer’s fall from heaven and into Hell was based on his pride when he tried overthrowing Heaven against God. Thus, for the average medieval person, aspiring pride became known as one of the cardinal sins. According to the medieval view, Faustus has a desire for knowledge not granted or accessible to him, so in order to gain this knowledge, Faustus makes a contract with Lucifer, which brings about his damnation. When we look at the overall picture of the play from this standpoint, Faustus deserves his punishment; then the play is not so much a tragedy as it is a morality play. The ending is an act of justice, when the man who has transgressed against the natural laws of the universe is justifiably punished. The chorus at the end of the drama re-emphasizes this position when it admonishes the audience to learn from Faustus’ damnation and not attempt to go beyond the restrictions placed on humanity basically telling audience to know their place and to not step out of line otherwise, they will face a similar fate. The character of Faustus can also be interpreted from the Renaissance point of view. At the time of this play, there was a conflict in many people’s minds, including Marlowe’s, as to whether to accept the medieval or the Renaissance view. Should they allow themselves to be slaves to the traditional ways of thinking or should they be allowed to free express themselves and allow themselves the opportunity to have more opportunities in life.

We could take this play and examine it now and say Christopher Marlowe was ahead of his time with his way of thinking, now most people are free thinkers and although they walk a moral and religious code set out by the Bible, they do not allow it to inhibit their knowledge and how they think. People are free thinkers and if the play is a tale about anything, it is a tale of challenging the status quo.

In Christopher Marlowe’s Christian play Doctor Faustus, sin is a very notable feature in regards to the theme of the play. This play revolves around the topic of temptation and repenting following one’s decision to sin. The main character Faustus, is tempted by Lucifer to give him his soul in return for ultimate power and knowledge. Throughout the play, Faustus is constantly struggling with asking for forgiveness or continuing to move forward with his sins. There are multiple times in which Faustus is calling for God to save his soul. Whenever this occurs, Lucifer comes back and reminds Faustus that speaking to God is against the rules and he should simply focus on his work towards his power. Faustus unfortunately does not feel as if he can be forgiven because he has caused too much harm and he has gone too far into his own desires. This can be seen when he says, ‘My heart’s so hardened I cannot repent!’ (Line 197). This cements the idea that sin causes regret and constant unhappiness.

Marlowe is getting his theme of not giving into the temptations of sin across through showing the negative effects that will be created. Marlowe does this to portray to his audience that although sin is tempting, it will have repercussions that outweigh those temptations.

In Paradise lost Book IX, John Milton is able to describe the reality of temptations of sin, and also how the devil is an awful character who can use different techniques to lure others. In Paradise Lost Book IX, Satan searches for Eve after he has transformed himself into a serpent. Satan knows to use flattery to intrigue Eve and get her attention. Eve is astonished that the serpent can speak because she thought none of Eden’s beings could speak except for Adam and herself so she wonders how this has happened. Satan tells Eve that he has found a tree with delicious apples on it. After he ate that he gained the ability to speak and the amazing intel on knowledge. To continue to tempt her, Satan claims that the apples also made him find out Eve so that he could give her the compliments she deserved.

Satan knows to continue to influence Eve’s beliefs, mostly that they are not to eat from the forbidden tree because her and Adam will die if they do. Satan explains that God has forbidden this to keep her and Adam from gaining total knowledge and they must not trust this command and that they will not die because he has not. After these persuasions, Eve decides she should be able to experience this knowledge and power as well and takes a bite of the apple. At that moment she decides whether or not to share this with Adam but ultimately, she decides she must. When she tells him what she has done he is horrified she has given into temptation however, similar to how Satan persuaded her, she is able to persuade Adam. After they both have eaten it they feel a sense of power and go off to have sex. Once waking they are embarrassed that they are in the nude and ashamed they gave into temptations. Milton says “Humbly thir faults, and pardon beg’d, with tears VVatering the ground, and with thir sighs the Air Frequenting, sent from hearts contrite, in sign Of sorrow unfeign’d, and humiliation meek” (1185-1189). In saying this Milton is demonstrating that sin is not worth the inevitable aftermath.

In Book IX, Milton is able to use the theme of temptation and regret following a decision to perform a sin. It is evident that after giving into temptation to follow through with this sin, they both instantly feel the regret and guilt which they know they have created themselves. Milton was able to portray the downsides of sin and the consequences one will experience after performing them.

A piece that portrayed the negative connotations of sin in a rather different way is Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales General Prologue. This piece revolves around a group of pilgrims who partake on a religious journey. At first glance this work may seem as if it will go in a pro-catholic way. However, this piece is able to depict the sins seen in everyday lives that are experienced, even for those who hold positions within the church. Through Chaucer’s characters, a picture of irony is painted. These characters include an array of church members who are participating in sin. A prime example of one of these characters is the Monk. Instead of devoting his life to work and pray like most monks of the his time, he spends his time hunting and eating. Chaucer says “Ther as this lord was keper of the celle. The reule of seint Maure or of seint Beneit, By-cause that it was old and som-del streit, This ilke monk leet olde thinges pace,” (175-179). In saying this Chaucer is letting his audience know that the Monk is very modern and does not listen to St. Benedict’s rule that monks should live a simple life that devotes themselves to prayer. This is the first sinning character that Chaucer introduces.

Another influential character who is living a life of sin is the Pardoner. He uses his power to dissolve others sins to take their money or possessions and sells these items by falsely claiming their history. When describing the Pardoner Chaucer says, “And thus, with feyned flaterye and Iapes, He made the person and the peple his apes. But trewely to tellen, atte laste,” (705-708). This means that the Pardoner is using his position to trick innocent people into giving him money and items they own.

In his own way Geoffrey Chaucer is able to show the sins these characters commit within their positions in the church. With these Chaucer is portraying the members of the church and their sins in a way that does not seem appealing to the reader to show the negatives associated with sinning.

Abhorrent judgments abound these days. Violence. Hate. War. Political insanity over authority. It all seems so negative. Events and such individuals become more disturbing than the last, and this initiates the loss of hope. Nevertheless, what if things are not as bad as they seem? What if the view about what is occurring in the world is warped by the very means by which one learns about it? Therefore, in the novel ‘Paradise Lost,’ written by John Milton and in the play, Doctor Faustus, written by Christopher Marlowe, both texts promote main characters, Satan and Faustus, who seem unlikely on taking a step towards a moralistic and holy direction. However, these figures are eventually perceived the opposite instead when their motives exhibit qualifying and laudable characteristics, which brings upon the underlying idea that there is a veil of goodness that evil appears within. This further demonstrates the revelation that the people who seem unruly end up being not as terrible as one might have hoped— in turn, creating a more in-depth idea: through what is initially heinous, is something guileless and naive in the end.

In Book One of the novel, ‘Paradise Lost,’ Satan and a group of angels are condemned from Heaven as they transpired to avenge the heavenly kingdom and affirm their defiance against God by creating their militia. Satan declares that through this event, those who have fallen with him to Hell, shall ‘wage by force or guile eternal war / Irreconcilable, to our grand Foe, who now triumphs, and in th’ excess of joy / Sole regaining holds the tyranny of Heav’n’ (Milton 121-124). Upon this statement made by the sinful leader, Satan is discerned as persistent in trying to promote how it is necessary for retaliation against God. In using Heaven as an analogy to ‘tyranny,’ he is trying to coerce the fallen angels in concluding that the holy domain was an oppressive regime— therefore, there should not be minuscule traces of sadness as to why any of them were cast out in the first place. This speech manifests a profoundly immoral occurrence that should have never crossed the mind of any individual— consequences that can ultimately end in mishap upon the angels that are co-siding with Satan as well. This initial portrayal of him paints a gloom-ridden and obstructive picture that is beyond redemption. Nonetheless, the audience recognizes that through this scene, Satan holds a malicious persona who is out for revenge for openly resisting what rules and regulations Heaven holds. It is unlikely for someone to commiserate anybody who does not respect a divine, authoritative power.

Although Satan was deemed ignoble for planning such a contemptible occasion against God, and for the reason he had been redirected to Hell, he later ignites solace feelings when he perceives his new surroundings. This change in the outlook of the new and upcoming leader of the underworld, advances upon the idea that what was seen as corrupt in the beginning, in turn, reveals how a greater good is disguised beneath all that was irreverently characterized. For instance, by taking in and adjusting to where he now belongs to, Satan finds that ‘Hell / [Recieves] thy new possessor: one who brings / A mind not to be changed by place or time… / And in itself can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n’ (251-255). This exhibits Satan’s prevalent thoughts in bringing hope to not only himself but for those who descended alongside with him— that Hell can still be just like the same as Heaven, and still lead with integrity. This allows the readers to feel sympathetic for him because he upholds the burden that now awaits him; he is unable to avoid the unexpected change in his life, as it is these events that challenge and force him to step out of his comfort zone. By understanding how Satan feels at this particular moment, the readers can conclude that he is in a difficult predicament. If he were to ignore or hide away from this inevitable challenge of change, he denies himself the opportunity to prosper.

Concern and the ability to show compassion towards Satan continues when he reaches the Garden of Eden and sees Adam and Eve. He grows to feel despair and bitter that God has placed the couple in a wondrous place, whereas the misery of Hell accompanies him wherever he attends. For example, when Satan finally approaches his current condition and undertakes the appalling effects that Hell offers, he lets go of his aggrieved reactions and considers repenting for what he has done: “But say I could repent and could obtain / By act of grace my former state; how soon / Would heighth recall high thoughts” (93-95). Through this moment, the readers can recognize that Hell is, in fact, cumbersome and emotionally draining Satan. He reflects upon his current condition and the thought to feel remorse for his actions crosses momentarily. This allows others to feel sorrow for his misfortune and make of his situation a lot more concerning.

The purpose of placing evil in a sympathetic manner is to indicate that despite the atrocities a person with wicked traits commits, it is also someone many people can understand. Satan is not the total embodiment of evil nor a baseless, insane opposer, but a flawed individual who took the rails on the wrong side of life and has progressed too far to return to their previous state. Portraying evil in a sensitive light, elicits reactions from both the character and audience, earning whom many considered a beguile individual, a grudging place in the readers’ hearts. Having not only this information of the person this character used to be, living through the gameplay itself is what makes them sympathetic. The readers understand and pity him because they were able to see his turning points.

In another literary text, the play, Doctor Faustus, contains a character, Faustus, who sells his soul to the devil in order to gain the powers of divinity. This statement alone already places the character in a negative standing as he commits to something very sinful. Normally, when a figure performs any bargain with the devil, they are promptly written off as an abomination to the greater good. As this pact immediately prepares to settle in, Faustus begins to augment in curiosity and acts haughtily upon the concept of religion when he asks Mephistopheles, a demon under Lucifer’s rule, a question on what Hell is: ‘Come, I think hell’s a fable’ (22). The readers can see that arrogance can create evil objectives in a man, persuading him to rise beyond what he is higher—to become something that he thinks he deserves (alchemy and knowledge of the dark arts in this case), even though he should have known better.

Although Faustus sold his soul to the devil, his motives for doing so, and his actions afterward do not necessarily fall into the characterization of a ‘bad guy’ after all. Even though he cast his soul to Lucifer, and in ways acted imperiously, that does not change what he still is — human. During the scene where Faustus is overfilled with the worry of being damned to Hell, he cries out, ‘On God, whom Faustus has abjured! On God, whom Faustus hath blasphemed! Ah, my God, I would weep! But the devil draws in my tears’ (49). This specific moment implies the regret that Faustus feels, and the audience comprehends the aghast emotions that are running through his mind as he certainly does not want to seek Hell. Many evidently can find that Faustus was a man who did not intend any harm. He solely wanted ‘demonstrations magical, that [he] may conjure in some lusty grove, and have these joys in full possession’ (10). As the readers are provided with context for his melancholic emotions later, it is what makes his sacrifice so meaningful. Faustus wants to have full and ultimate autonomy on learning whatever it is that he desires, but in performing a pact with the devil, he restricts himself in every way. Nonetheless, the final act of knowing, the revealing of him as a sympathetic character, is what elevates him from being someone with that the reader can look down upon, to one they can admire.

Evil eventually gains the empathy of those who would never be expected to earn over. The point and purpose of why people sympathize with the exhibition of evil are because of their point of view — readers are more tuned into the anguish they are experiencing. Many are biologically inclined to want and need to understand others’ pain. In reading these two literary texts, analyzing how these two characters, Satan and Faustus, appear to be defeated, the moment of their demise pulls the reader’s focus intensely. In other words, the experience of a heightened sense of awareness, as it pertains to the pain, allows anybody to better assess their fate. Things, people, events, that are synonymous with corruption, are not that far off from a normal person. Therefore, the nature of evil reconciles alongside with an understanding of compassion, as it shares similar struggles as the audience, but on a more extensive scale.

Renaissance, which literally implies revival or reawakening, is the title of a Europe-wide motion that has shut down medieval trame and conferences and liberated everyone in existence and culture. The change from celestial to human existence took place. The Renaissance person on which he assessed and gaged everything, richness, understanding and strength of understanding were the touchstones. Individualism and worldliness were the primary elements of this fresh concept. Although all authors of the subsequent part of Elizabeth’s time—-in poems, theater, period romance, and movies— have an impact on the Renaissance mood, the effect can be seen operating forcefully on Marlowe and his colleagues, who are called ‘university Wits’ all together. Again, Marlowe’s texts are the most significant incarnation of the Renaissance character. Marlowe himself is, in general, the heart of the incarnate Renaissance. The Renaissance mood is driven to unlimited power and understanding, infinite for strength, limitless riches, again for the sake of strength, in conceiving the main figures of his plays. The characteristics of the imagined life which glittered before his eyes in the age of daring adventures are the love of beauty, the unbounded desire for the pleasures of the sense, the infinite yearning for the truth. Dr. Faustus is the Renaissance official and represents modern lives issues.

Dr. Faustus expresses the most significant wish of the Renaissance man. With this understanding he has an unmatched thirst for information and power. Dr. Faustus finds himself contemplating the significance of different topics he is able to explore at the very start of the game. He has researched numerous topics and intrigued scientists with his understanding at universities. He says that understanding, but no authority, can offer it after having considered different topics such as Logic, Metaphysics, Medicine, Law and Theology. ‘Yet you only are Faustus, and a person.’ He comments.

“Philosophy is odious and obscure,

Both law and physic are for petty wits,

Divinity is basest of the three

He intends to reach super human power, such as person from the Renaissance, which only necromancy can gain. ‘A wizard’s noise is powerful God.’ Thus, in these phrases, he says his desire: ‘Tire your brain here to obtain a god.’ During the Renaissance there was an academic interest: fresh scientific and technological innovations go beyond pure human improvements. It was a young era that seemed unlikely. This era launched a fresh fantasy universe before the European era.

All these things stirred men’s imagination and led them to believe that the infinite was attainable. In Dr. Faustus, Marlowe has expressed such ideas, when Faustus says:

“O, what a world of profit and delight,

Of power, of honour, of omnipotence,

Is promised to the studious artisan! All things that move between the quiet poles

Shall be at my command:”

The Renaissance man wanted wealth and pleasures of the world. He had visions at his order to do whatever he wanted after his contract with the Devil. He wishes them gold, sea perls and delicacies from every side of the globe. He wants them to take In this manner he would appreciate worldly pleasures through a bunch of energy and abundance. Dr. Faustus wished to move all over the globe, like the Renaissance man. Thus he moved to remote nations with the assistance of Mephistopheles. And:

He views the clouds, the planets and the stars

The tropes, zones, and quarters of the sky

From east to west his dragons swiftly glide.

The medieval era put God at the core of life and shunted the human person and the natural world away. ‘Doctor Faustus’ It implies that my existence and my first concern are crucial to me. This is why people don’t have understanding, research and so on in the medieval era. They reverse everything. They reverse everything. Superstitious faith inspires foolishness. Renaissance, an illuminated era, takes position, and grants fundamental rights to individuals. A fresh emphasis is placed on individuals, classical education and science research into the world’s essence. Theology was the king of science in the medieval academia. But secular affairs took center stage during the Renaissance. In the perspective of the Renaissance, Faustus fights against the constraints of medieval understanding and against restrictions placed on mankind by decreeing that they must acquire their position in the world without calling him into question. In the perspective of the Renaissance, Faustus is opposed by the Renaissance and is not opposed. In addition to the beginning days, think culture is all. My happiness, idea, peace, etc. were nothing before community and community but this became first priorities during the renaissance and affection for one another grew.

Revolt against Church / Pope and Dr. Faustus when he is executed in all justifiable ways by the person who is in violation of the normal legislation of the world. That we discover in Dr. Faustus too. Faustus goes against natural borders after authority and has received adequate penalty. We can know Icarus ‘ morals here

Faustus is gone! Regard his hellish fall,

Whose mindful fortune may exhort the wise

Only to wonder at unlawful things

Faustus starts traveling, armed with his fresh forces and assisted by Mephistopheles. He is going to the Pope’s tribunal in Rome, invisibly becoming and playing a number of games. By destroying meat and scratching the Papa’s eyes, it disturbs the pope’s banquet. The church is all for person in the medieval era. They discriminate against individuals generally or poorly. They also reside rich and beautiful lives. Give them a nice lecture from the Renaissance.

Dr. Faustus has the Renaissance-love of art, so he wished a woman to have the fairest woman in Germany, beside being in worship with wisdom, energy, worldly delight. He conjured Helen’s sight as he wished to see the world’s most lovely lady. The phrases below conveys his excellent pleasure.

“Was this the face that launch’d a thousand ships,

And burnt the topless towers of Ilium–

Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.–

”[kisses her]”

Her lips suck forth my soul: see, where it flies!–

Come, Helen, come, give me my soul again.

Here will I dwell, for heaven is in these lips,

And all is dross that is not Helena.

I will be Paris, and for love of thee,

Instead of Troy, shall Wertenberg be sack’d;

In the globe of the Renaissance, where humanistic ideals take precedence, the Prolog locates its drama. Classical and medieval literature relies typically on the life of the grand and well-known — saints, rulers or old gods. But the Chorus insist this play will concentrate on the ‘courses of roys’ or ‘the pompe of proud, auditory acts,’ not in the ancient fighting between Rome and Carthage. The message is clear: the ordinary man, like Faustus, a common-born scholar, is just as important as any king or warrior in the new world of the Renaissance. His story is just as worthy of being tell. Note how Faustus considers research and reasonable enquiry as a manner to gain ‘gain and pleasure’ and ‘omnipotence.’ The thirst for authority and aspirations of mankind has taken place in God’s place. However, in the end, as the Act V shows obviously, Faustus must acknowledge the supreme superiority of God and has surpassed itself, which is the failure of the Renaissance era to realize that it has gone far too far in emphasizing the intrinsic capacity of beings. This piece therefore shows the audience the ideal of the Renaissance in the figure of Doctor Faustus, but it also shows the dangers of the worldview of the Renaissance as a part of a wider conflict between Renaissance and medieval values. Dr Faustus is a guy of perfect renaissance. In this respect, George Satayana tells correctly-

“Marlowe is a martyr to everything, power, curious knowledge, enterprise, wealth and beaut”.

The Elizabethan and Victorian eras marked a plethora of changes throughout England, both stabilizing the previously turbulent political field, and initiating periods of prosperity. That shift allowed for new artistic endeavors and cultural refinement and posed questions regarding the established values and conventions in society. Particularly, the Elizabethan era, or, as it has been dubbed, “England’s Golden Age”, and the apogee of England’s Renaissance, provided a catalyst for English Theater, and the royal patronage of the arts allowed for the establishment of staple literary figures such as Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare. Similarly, during the Victorian era, literature was popularized and widespread, with the novel and prose being accessible and affordable to all. Among the Victorians there was a strong religious drive for higher moral standards, placing emphasis to the didactic role of art, and a strict code of conduct shaping their outward social image, that praised restraint and moderation. According to the dominant religion, that is Protestantism, salvation was the duty of the individual, and it was the individual, through his own faith and conscience that was responsible for it. With all that in mind, in this essay I will compare the characters of Doctor Faustus and Dorian Gray, and examine the influences that led to their downfall and eventual damnation, and the struggling manifestations of conscience of these two figures.

The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, or more simply, Doctor Faustus, is an Elizabethan tragedy by Christopher Marlowe, based on the anonymous German Faustbook. The play, as Schelling (1914) puts it, “tells the world-story of a man who, seeking for all knowledge, pledged his soul to the devil, only to find the misery of a hopeless repentance in this world and damnation in the world to come.” This anxiety permeates the play, as even the scenes of joy seem to be mere procrastinations in the grand scheme of the plot, and the lack of character development augments the tragic element. Faustus is not redeemed or pardoned; despite his attempts at repentance. Is what ensures the contract’s successful completion the combined effect of books Faustus and the forbidden knowledge Mephistopheles provides?

Faustus, from the beginning of the play is presented to the audience as a scholar in his study, inspecting the books he owns. After going through a list of the major fields of human knowledge—logic, medicine, law, and theology—and citing for each an ancient authority (Aristotle, Galen, Justinian, and Jerome’s Bible, respectively), he decides to reject them all and throw them away as he has presumably mastered all these sciences and reached the end of knowledge (“… Then read no more, thou hast attained the end…”, “… Why Faustus hast thou not attained that end?…) . By this rejection Faust severs ties with his formal education and the medieval world and with that he denounces hopes of salvation (“Divinity, adieu!”) and turns to books of magic and necromancy. Curiously, Faustus’ motives for seeking knowledge are not straightforward, and his interpretation of the ancient texts is skewed and superficial. His true desires are revealed to be material aspirations, instead of intellectual “… a world of profit and delight, Of power, of honour, of omnipotence…” and they are made physical (“glutted”). Faustus’ friends give him books to learn conjuring, the devils provide him with books of spells, books of shapeshifting to distract his existential ponderings. As the end of his contract draws near, Faustus cries he would rather have “never read book”, pledging to burn them all and renounce his magic. All in all, books, both the canonical literature and the magic books provide comfort and direction to Faustus.

Mephistopheles, the summoned demon, is the main companion of Faustus for the majority of the play. In the Introduction of the Complete Plays he is described as “a new kind of devil, quiet, melancholy, menacing in the very honesty with which he explains his coming…” (2003). Surprisingly, it is Mephistopheles at the beginning of the play who gives voice to the orthodox dogma (“Why, this is hell… my fainting soul”), and his words would serve almost as a warning or cautionary remark. He answers Faustus questions regarding heaven and hell, perhaps giving him the answers he expects to hear. However, once the contract has been signed, he becomes less eager in answering questions and his chief concern is how to keep Faustus from repenting. He appeases and distracts him with gifts, tricks, books, performances (the pageant of the seven sins) and pleasures, but also calls upon Lucifer when Faustus’ resolve wavers and cruelly reminds him that he is damned. Mephistopheles is enough to temporary satisfy Faustus’ hunger for luxury and power, but the voice of his good angel persists. When all is said and done, Mephistopheles’ responsibility is to ensure Faustus’ soul for hell and uses all means to accomplish that.

In The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, the notion of influence is predominant in the novel. Dorian Gray, a handsome young man, who once made aware of the ephemeral nature of his beauty, unknowingly trades his soul for everlasting beauty and youth, with his portrait bearing the physical marks of time and sin in his stead. Emulating Lord Henry’s cultivated cynicism and his yellow book, Dorian leads a hedonistic double-life. The Victorian notion of physiognomy, that is, the widespread belief that an individual’s appearance, particularly his or her face reveals character, frees him of consequences and raises him above suspicion.

The yellow book Lord Henry lends to Dorian has a great effect on him. Specifically, Dorian identifies himself in the protagonist to the extend that he sees in its hero “a kind of prefiguring type of himself. And, indeed, the whole book seemed to him to contain the story of his own life, written before he had lived it.” This book, which remains unnamed in the novel, seems to be partly modelled after Huysmans’ A Rebours, a volume admired by Wilde. Dorian becomes so enraptured by this book that he allows it to dictate his life and actions, be a guide to him. At the same time, he is aware of the “poisonous” effect it has on him and blames Lord Henry for introducing him to it. However, Lord Henry deflects his accusations by paraphrasing Wilde’s own belief of books and their influence: “There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all,” and “It is the spectator and not life that art really mirrors.” Thus, it is Dorian’s own fault for reading the yellow book in such an autobiographical manner and allowing it to affect him.

Lord Henry, on the other hand, is a character very much aware of his influence of Dorian. To him influence as something intimate, a form of metempsychosis, and immoral. “There is no such thing as a good influence, Mr Gray. All influence is immoral […] Because to influence a person is to give him one’s own soul. He does not think his natural thoughts or burn with his natural passions.” Lord Henry observes the effect Dorian has on Basil Hallward, and he consciously strives to induce that effect in Dorian. A discrepancy between theory and action is observed in the novel, though. Lord Henry renounces the culture of “self-denial” and supports pleasure through the senses in theory, but Dorian is the one who lives to regret it. When in the end Dorian all but confesses to be responsible for Basil’s murder, Lord Henry dismisses him, as he could not look as handsome as he did, had he committed such a crime. In an ironic twist, the cynical character that Dorian once idolized and followed at the end comes across as naïve and hypocritical.

In both Doctor Faustus, first performed in 1562, and The Picture of Dorian Gray, published in 1890, there is an exploration of demonic powers, and the influence they have over the respective protagonists. Both texts utilise the religious chaos regarding Christianity in the time period of its conception and the sensuality of temptation to depict the extent of the influence the demonic figures have over both Dorian and Faustus. The 1500s-1600s saw the emergence of the Renaissance in England, a period brought forth by intellectualism in a country where religion was at war with oneself. Despite this, radical Christians – Catholic or Protestant – would fear these new intellectuals, ‘atheists’ as they were then dubbed. Through Faustus’ insatiable curiosity for knowledge beyond what should be known, as represented by the new ‘atheists’, he opened himself up for the corrupting influence of the demon Mephastophilis. Similarly, the 1800s saw a new Enlightenment Era wherein questions of the same nature to that of the Renaissance was being explored, however, there is also an exploration of hedonistic pleasure and art through the dominance of Lord Henry over Dorian, which is near demonic in nature, in contrast to the knowledge Faustus seeks. The Portrait of Dorian itself acts as a demon in its ultimate representation of Dorian’s soul and very being.

In both texts, there is a prominent theme of the protagonists making some sort of ‘Deal with the Devil’, which eventually leads them to their downfall, however, it is presented differently regarding how literal their ‘deals’ are.

In Doctor Faustus, Marlowe presents the scholarly figure of Faustus literally forming a deal with the demon Mephastophilis, where he actively puts moral integrity behind him in his search for power and agrees to sell his soul in exchange for twenty-four years of Mephastophilis’ service. In Act One Scene One, Faustus, while describing the influence of magic, says that “Tis magic, magic that hath ravished me.” This shows how he is willing to be influenced by the corruption he is being presented with. During the late Elizabethan/early Jacobean era, the contemporary presence of the drama, any form of magic or witchcraft was inherently tied to devilry. Magic was viewed as an evil temptress and as being alluring. According to T. McAlindon in his work Classical Mythology and Christian Tradition in Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, magic was regarded as “the most dangerous […] of all the shapes which Satan assumed”. This supports the idea of demonic power, and in this case, demonic temptation has such a stronghold over Faustus, that despite his best efforts, he cannot overcome his damnation. The use of the word ‘ravished’ to show the effect of magic only further shows the lusty, almost sensual power of Lucifer and Hell, as well as why it was so easy for Faustus to give in to temptation.

Moreover, thanks to the deal he made, Faustus sentenced himself to damnation; in Marlowe’s adaptation of the Faustus myth, he chose to allow Faustus to be condemned to Hell at the end in contrast to German writer Goethe’s interpretation, wherein Faustus achieves salvation through repentance of the actions that he had done. In Act Five Scene Two, Faustus, in a final attempt to evade his fate, cries out saying that he will “burn [his] books”, and for Lucifer to “come not” for his soul. The burning of books, in this case it is assumed to be booked on magic, was considered to be a traditional gesture in which a magician would prove that they were renouncing magic. However, due to this being a mere attempt just before his deal is completed, it takes away from any sincerity he may have had. Furthermore, during his twenty-four years, as promised by Lucifer, he had committed many feats of evil, such as tricking and harming the Pope in Act Three Scene 1, and had not shown much repentance for those actions afterward. Through this, it is shown that Faustus completely rejects orthodox religion and accepts magic and mythology, it is shown that he has completely succumbed to the corrupting temptation of the deal he made.

Marlowe presented the idea of a ‘Deal with the Devil’ leading to downfall through Faustus’ literal deal with Mephastophilis which eventually leads him to his ruin, however, Wilde chose to present the idea of a ‘Deal with the Devil’ through the more symbolic deal Dorian’s character makes as he wishes for eternal youth in exchange for his soul.

In The Picture of Dorian Gray, there is no explicit ‘deal’ made, not in the same fashion as Faustus, as there is no physical demon present. Rather, one of the ways that the demonic power presents itself is through the Portrait, as painted by Basil. When coming face to face with the Portrait, he cries out in jealousy of the Portrait’s beauty and says that he is “jealous of everything whose beauty does not die”. He then later goes on to say that “there is nothing in the whole world [he] would not give! [He] would give [his] soul for that!” It is this moment in Chapter Two, that Dorian has signed his soul in exchange for the eternal youth he is then granted, and in turn made his very own ‘Deal with the Devil’. This marks a contrast as well, regarding how the ‘deal’ is presented within the text. Whilst Faustus had known of his actions, known of what the final consequences would be, Dorian was ignorant to it all; in his envy, he had accidentally claimed to accept the loss of his soul for the sake of vanity. Dorian had unknowingly sealed his fate in his unintentional wish to switch places with the Portrait.

The original wish was to simply gain the eternal youth of the Portrait while the Portrait is the one to grow old, however, it also displays the cruel and corrupt disposition that Dorian manages to hide with his physical appearance. The Portrait was first tainted after Dorian’s harsh rejection of Sybil Vane, as when he sees the Portrait it “was watching him with its beautiful marred face and its cruel smile.” in Chapter Seven. From this point on, Dorian becomes more and more obsessed with his appearance and vanity, as well as more worried about someone discovering the Portrait, and thus, discovering the truth behind him. The Portrait, at the centre of these events takes on the role of one of the demonic figures within the novel, it becomes the cause of sorrow for the characters. Moreover, the Portrait can even be linked to the cause of Dorian’s death. In Chapter 12, Dorian, in fit of hatred, after seeing Basil’s horrified reaction to what had happened to his portrait picks up a knife and kills him. Later, in Chapter 14, Dorian seems more worried about the Portrait, than his murder of a once dear friend, as when looking at the Portrait, it was described as having, “that loathsome red dew that gleamed, wet and glistening, on one of the hands”. The Portrait seems to be gaining more sentience, as there is the implication that it is alive, and this can then suggest that it is Dorian who is actually not alive. This links back to the idea that Dorian has sold his soul in his ‘deal’, and this could be indicative of the fact that he is, in part, losing his soul.

The sins committed by Dorian, eventually catch up with him, leading him to his downfall, death, in Chapter 20. In Chapter 20, Dorian, completely driven by madness from his macabre actions, takes a knife and stabs the painting, only for it to kill himself. When his servants discover his body, they see the Portrait containing “exquisite youth and beauty,” whereas Dorian appeared “withered, wrinkled and loathsome of visage.” This shows how all the years of sin and corruption that could have only once been seen upon the Portrait, was now transferred back to Dorian. In the novel, Wilde had not disclosed where Dorian had stabbed the portrait, however due to the knife being found in the heart of the now dead Dorian, it is implied that it was towards the heart itself. This goes somewhat back to a comment Dorian had made in Chapter 12, when he spoke about keeping a diary of his life locked away in a room. It is implied that the Portrait was his diary and his heart. Furthermore, this goes to show how one of the demonic figures present is the Portrait. Dorian had made his ‘deal’ with the Portrait being the other party. Once Dorian had finally been driven mad from this ‘deal’, the Portrait took his share of the deal, Dorian’s life and soul, something which the Portrait contained.

In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian makes his ‘Deal with the Devil’ with the Portrait taking on the role of a demon, it is a more implicit depiction of how Dorian was led to selling his soul as he was ignorant to the consequences his actions would have, and wasn’t actively aware of what he had done, eventually leading him to his death. In Doctor Faustus, it is shown that, unlike Dorian, Faustus knew what he was doing when he summoned Mephastophilis. Faustus’ ‘Deal with the Devil’ is a much more literal ‘deal’ wherein he accepts the consequences at first, but then when he is faced with them, tries to ‘repent’, only leading him to his downfall, the loss of his soul to Lucifer.

Demonic power is presented in both texts through the major influencing figures the respective protagonists are faced with. In Doctor Faustus, there is Mephastophilis who actively influences Faustus to remain on the path he has set out on, often recruiting other demons to help him. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, it is the character of Lord Henry who is another demonic figure within the novel, regarding the power and influence he holds over Dorian. Unlike Mephastophilis however, Lord Henry is not bound by a contract to serve Dorian as if he was Lord Henry’s Faustus. Despite this, both Dorian and Faustus find their lives centering around these figures of power who tempt and corrupt their lives.

In Doctor Faustus, it is Faustus who summons Mephastophilis for an exchange, their ‘deal’, as was previously established, yet it is Mephastophilis who is actually in power, and who keeps Faustus under his control. In Act One Scene Three, Mephastophilis remarks that he did not appear because of any magic Faustus performed, but rather he heard Faustus “rack the name of God,” and that he “[flies] in hope to get his glorious soul.” This shows the idea that demons fly up whenever someone takes the name of God in vain, denies Christ, or insults the scriptures, thus whenever someone actively works against the Christian commandments. Mephastophilis describes the soul as “glorious”, showing that even he acknowledges that the human soul ought to be revered and kept sacred, however, Faustus, for all his scholarly knowledge, is driven by his gluttonous pride for more knowledge. This heightens the reversal of power, and shows how it is Mephastophilis who is controlling the situation, and manipulating it for his own self.

Moreover, Faustus, as a scholar during the Renaissance, and someone who appears to be heavily influenced by the ‘Free-Thinkers’, a group of intellectuals who were passionate about increasing one’s knowledge, and would often point out inconsistencies with the Church dogma, for all the religious instability in England in the 1600s. Marlowe reflects the darker aspects of this pursuit for knowledge, displaying how Faustus, in a similar manner to that of the ‘Free-Thinkers’, appears skeptical and intellectual, however goes too far in his search for forbidden knowledge, and ultimately ends up damned for it through his violation of the Heavenly Laws.

Additionally, Faustus appears to be a rather weak-willed individual, making it much easier for Mephastophilis to assume the role of control over Faustus. It is him who oversees the pact between Faustus and Lucifer, and he is the one to cajole Faustus into staying loyal to Hell. Due to how impressionable he is, Faustus is shown to constantly go back and forth between repentance and going back to God, and acceptance of the power he gains thanks to Mephastophilis. It is important to note here that Faustus would in fact be powerless without the help of his demon, displaying how regardless of his dubious confidence, it is in fact Mephastophilis who is in power. In Act Five Scene One, Faustus has once more uttered the words “I do repent.” This only angers Mephastophilis, who threatens to tear Faustus apart, a contrast to how he previously dealt with Faustus’ changes in decisions. Previously, Mephastophilis recruited the help of Lucifer and even the Seven Deadly Sins, who had tempted him with what he could have should he choose to stay loyal to Hell. In response to his anger, Faustus asks Mephastophilis to “pardon [his] unjust presumption”, and reaffirms his vows to Lucifer with blood once more. For Faustus, at this point in the play, the meanings of sacred and profane appear to be perverted, as he finds his repentance to be “unjust”, as well as asking a demon to “pardon” him as though he committed a sin. This is supported through S. Snyder’s writing in Marlowe’s ‘Doctor Faustus’ as an Inverted Saint’s Life, wherein she describes Mephastophilis as a “mentor” figure to Faustus, especially when considering the dominant role he has towards directing Faustus down the ‘right’ path, which just so happens to be the path to hell.

Through Marlowe’s presentation of Mephastophilis, demonic power is shown through the dominant influence he has on Faustus, and the control he manages to retain through a combination of manipulating Faustus’ pleasures and his weak-willed personality. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde chooses to portray demonic power through Lord Henry, who appears to be the equivalent of Mephastophilis when it comes to his manipulations of Dorian.

Lord Henry, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, wields an interestingly powerful influence over Dorian and seeks to dominate him. Lord Henry is described as having “wrong, fascinating, poisonous, delightful theories” in Chapter Six. This aligns with the Enlightenment Era which emerged during the 19th century in England. The Enlightenment brought forth new ideas about religion, science and philosophy, some of which was considered to be dangerous in itself by orthodox religion, and Christianity in particular, of which most Victorians would have excessively followed. This parallels to the ‘Free-Thinkers’, of whom Faustus may have been inspired by. One of Lord Henry’s more dangerous opinions finds itself regarding the institution of marriage. He disregards marriage, finding that it makes people “colourless” and that they “lack individuality”, he even wishes in Chapter Six that Dorian marries Sybil Vane and loves her for six months before being “fascinated by someone else.” He comments on Dorian being an “interesting study” for this. His distaste for marriage only further shows his alignment towards some sort of demonic power, a parallel with Faustus’ inability to marry because of marriage being an institution of God. Lord Henry, through this, distances himself from the laws of Heaven, and instead places himself closer to Hell.

He is the primary corrupting influence on Dorian, more so than the Portrait who earned Dorian’s soul. Lord Henry finds himself intrigued by Dorian’s innocence and purity, as if he was some sort of toy, and uses the reciprocated interest from Dorian to manipulate him. The power dynamics are shown through the way Lord Henry compares talking to Dorian in Chapter 3 with “playing upon an exquisite violin.” This shows the pleasure he gets from exerting his influence over Dorian. Moreover, it is through the influence of Lord Henry that Dorian is introduced to the theories of youth, beauty and pleasure, a point explored through Jean Nounadonde’s work The Supernatural Side in Oscar Wilde’s the Picture of Dorian Gray. This is especially true, considering how it was because of Lord Henry’s speech in Chapter Two on youth and how “there is nothing in the world but youth,” that Dorian even made his ‘deal’ with the Portrait in the first place. There is a parallel between Lord Henry’s role in influencing Dorian to make his ‘deal’ and the role Mephastophilis plays when overseeing the ‘deal’ being formed by Faustus and Lucifer. This emphasises the dominant demonic power Lord Henry has come into, and how he manipulates this into toying with Dorian, similarly to that of an immortal being and an impressionable mortal.

Lord Henry presents himself as an imposing figure, who would “seek to dominate [Dorian]” and “make that spirit his own.” He is presented as the equivalent of Mephastophilis in The Picture of Dorian Gray, and as such, presents his demonic powers through the influence he exerts over Dorian, tempting him into a world of “a New Hedonism”, and most notably overseeing the ‘deal’ between Dorian and the Portrait. This is comparable to the influence Mephastophilis has over Faustus in Doctor Faustus. Mephastophilis is the figure who keeps Faustus in check through their power imbalance and is also the person to make sure that Faustus remains loyal to Hell. Unlike Lord Henry, however, Mephastophilis is contractually obliged, by not just Faustus, but also at the request of his Lord, Lucifer, to serve Faustus for twenty-four years.

In conclusion, both Marlowe and Wilde explore the presentation of demonic power and the corrupting influence they have over the protagonists, eventually leading to the loss of their respective souls. The demonic power present goes hand in hand with the gain of what would be considered forbidden knowledge. In Doctor Faustus, Faustus, as a scholar inspired by the ‘Free-Thinkers’, develops a passion for prohibited magic and is only encouraged by the presence of Mephastophilis. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, on the other hand, Dorian is encouraged to enter what is almost a cult of hedonistic pleasure by Lord Henry, who appears to always know what will happen. Both Dorian and Faustus find themselves handing their souls over to the Portrait and Lucifer respectively, all while being watched by their demons and not being able to think or do anything differently.

The definition of fate: is the development of events beyond a person’s control, regarded as determined by a supernatural power. The definition of free will is: the power of acting without the constraint of necessity or fate; the ability to act at one’s own discretion. Do we live in a reality where our lives or controlled by fate or free will? Do we have the free will to live our fate, or our we fated to have free will? In their own attempt to master and control their lives through their own free will, both Dr. Faustus and Macbeth, choose their own fates. They act freely without constraint and yet fulfill their destinies from the choices they make, thus proving that free will and fate are two sides of the same coin.

The protestant reformation as well as the Renaissance had a large influence on both Marlowe and Shakespeare . As for Dr. Faustus, one of the ideas the play touches on is the belief of predestination. Calvinists believe people are predestined to go to heaven or hell, they are born fated for one or the other and there’s nothing they can do about it. The question in Dr. Faustus is whether or not Faustus’ fall from grace was his own doing or was he fated to go to hell. Faustus chooses his own path by selling his soul to Lucifer for power. He is given the choice to repent many times during the play, yet Dr. Faustus does not take them. Immediately after signing the contract with the devil, his blood congeals, implying his spiritual disconnect with the contract, and the potential that his fate has yet to be sealed, and that through his own free will, he can still repent and not face the gates of hell.

Doctor Faustus, a German scholar becomes bored with traditional forms of knowledge and decides to practice Black magic. He learns the black arts from Valdes and Cornelius and summons Mephastophilis, a demon. Faustus then makes a deal with Lucifer for magic power. Faustus begins to regret his deal as the twenty-four year deal reaches its conclusion. Faustus is constantly reminded that he needs to repent but does not. He is visited by an angel to convince him to repent but vows “never to look to heaven, never to name God or to pray to him”. The good angel’s failed attempts shows role Faustus’ freedom plays in his own demise. The good Angel constantly tries to convince Faustus to repent “ Repent, God will pity him.” In the final moments Faustus begs for mercy but is too late, the good angel leaves him: “Must thy good angel leave him, the jaws of hell are open to receive him”. We can see early on in the play how Faustus desires power and control over his own destiny. When Faustus says: “These metaphysics of magicians and necromantic books are heavenly; Lines, circles, letters, characters- Ay, these are those that Faustus most desires.” as well as the lines: “O, what a world of profit and delight, of power, of honor, and omnipotence, a sound magician is a demi-god!”. The line ‘Divinity, adieu!’ is said in a manner to freely negate God’s will. The two themes of fate and free-will are very prominent in this play. Predestination would suggest that Faustus is fated to go to hell, but since he clearly is given multiple opportunities to repent, his own free will is ultimately what drives his fate for going to hell.

From when the witches tell Macbeth and Banquo their prophecies, both of them think on the concept of fate, whether its real and if they need to take the steps to follow the prophecies. Macbeth believes in the prophecies and begins by killing those that stand in his way of becoming king all by his own doing. He tries to control fate in order to achieve his desires, believing that there is no way out of his fate, he goes further. Macbeth becomes so obsessed with his fate that he drives himself mad. By trying to master fate he ruins his life and receives the fate of his actions.

In Act 1 scene 2 the captain returns from battle and describes to King Duncan and Malcolm, Macbeth’s victory. He tells them how Macbeth should have died but that he defied fate. ‘“And fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling Showed like a rebel’s whore, but all too weak: For brave Macbeth- well he deserves that name

Disdaining fortune, with his brandished steel, Which smoked with bloody executions ” This is an example of the the underlying superstitious believe in fate that is becomes so prolific to the plot. After Macbeth’s encounter with the three witches, Ross shows up and tells macbeth that the king has given him the title of Thane, Macbeth speaks on the powers of fate saying: “If chance may have me king, why, chance may crown me without my stir.” Again, this presents us with a character who blindly believes in fate. Yet Banquo who understands the role that free will plays says, “New honors come upon him, like our strange garments that cleave not to their mold, but with the aid of use.” Banquo is speaking of the garments as the characters we play in life. Lady Macbeth, speaking on actions moving things rather than fate says: “Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem to have crowned withal.” Even though the witches may give the ideas to Macbeth, he murders those around him through his own fruition and desire for power, ultimately leading him to the fate of which he created.

In both Dr. Faustus and Macbeth, we see the dance of fate and free will intertwined. Both characters having many opportunities to undo the path of which they believe is inevitable, only to secure their own fates by failing to act otherwise. With fate and free will being two sides of the same coin.