The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus Essay Example for Free

The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus Essay Christopher Marlowe, in his play The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, examines the renaissance spirit that aims for secular and materialistic knowledge, and explores its affinity with magic. In our modern era secular knowledge has lost all its associations with magic, and this makes it difficult for modern audiences to appreciate the concerns of Marlowe. Magic has been reduced to a quaint and harmless superstition for most, and therefore the heretic’s heroic pursuit of it, or the Church’s severe condemnation and suppression of it, either has ceased to make any sense. The Bible, indeed most religious scriptures, severely proscribes magic, and paints it as the most serious threat to civilization. This contrasts with the modern attitude in which magic is only meaningless chants and redundant amulets with no efficacy whatsoever. In the original context of the play magic was seen as an active scourge, and was believed to be a way to knowledge that shunned the path of God. The connection between magic and secular learning is revived throughout the play. On several occasions we find Faustus faulting his books for his downfall: â€Å"O, would I had never seen Wittenberg, / never read book! † In his last desperate attempt to gain redemption from the clutches of Lucifer he offers to burn his books. In recent times such knowledge is called materialistic, and at times condemned as such. However, rarely is such knowledge associated with black magic. In Marlowe’s time conceptions were radically different. Indeed all the great pioneers in the renaissance of learning knew the nature of the task they undertook. When Roger Bacon submitted to the Pope his elaborate blueprint aimed at a fundamental new direction in learning – the Opus Majus – he coined the term â€Å"white magic† for it. Christian doctrine taught that magic was a black art, because evil. Bacon explained to the pope that his new experimental way to learning, if properly guided by the authorities, such as the Vatican itself, would not harm, but instead improve society. Bacon stated intention was to â€Å"better demonstrate the inferiority and indignity of Magical power to that of Nature or Art†. Despite Bacon’s optimism, the suspicion that the rise of secular knowledge was releasing into Christian Europe the seven deadly sins was slow to fade. When Goethe retold the Faust story in the early nineteenth century he still held that the protagonist was making a pact with the devil, but added a crucial difference to the ending, where Faust is not subject to eternal damnation after all. In Marlowe’s time ungodly knowledge was manifestly a black art. Therefore Doctor Faustus, symbolizing the renaissance spirit, does not escape eternal damnation. The opening soliloquy of Faustus explains the rationale behind magic concisely and powerfully. A luminary of learning in Wittenberg, he is ruminating in his study over his multitudinous achievements, and yet finds dissatisfaction over and over again. He has mastered Aristotle’s logic, but is it only to win a metaphysical debate, he ponders. He has applied Galen’s medicine and saved Wittenberg from the ravages of the plague. But to what avail, he ponders, if man be mortal in the end. Justinians’s Institutes of law appears now to him a â€Å"mercenary drudge†. In the end divinity is judged to be above all secular arts. But then the biblical doctrine of original sin confronts Faustus squarely. If it is in the nature of man to sin, and by sinning he meets eternal death and damnation, then the doctrine of predestination is meaningless, he thinks: â€Å"What doctrine call you this, Che sera, sera, What will be, shall be? † By refuting religion in the end, Faustus is left at the doors of magic. It promises riches, power and dominion over world, and meets exactly the needs of a soaring ambition that is sated with mere learning for learning’s sake. A sound magician is a demigod,† he expresses. In this way Faustus has come to the logical conclusion of secular knowledge, the aim of which he professes at the beginning, to â€Å"level at the end of every art†. In the process has made clear the link between the spirit of the renaissance and magic. This is why the play is truly a tragedy, and not merely a morality play that teaches the wages of sin. After this soliloquy and Faustus has finally chosen the path of magic, the rest of the play is merely a drawn out dramatization of the inevitable fall. The only remaining tension is in the mind of the protagonist, as it vacillates between moving ahead into the kingdom of Lucifer, and turning back with repentance to God. In fact the latter is not an option at all, which Mephistopheles and Lucifer remind him times over, and he finds out on his own whenever to tries to repent: â€Å"My heart is hardend, I cannot repent; / Scarce can I name salvation, faith, or heaven. † He has sold his soul to the devil with a pact signed in blood, which signifies none other than that he has committed himself to the path of magic. He is damned and destined for an eternity in hell. The 24 years granted by Lucifer is his perdition. They are expended in exercise of meaningless powers over kings and emperors, and a tormenting vacillation between heaven and hell. The latter is in fact the only dynamic in the play after the pact signed in blood. It is the tension of what might have been and what is. The last glimmer of hope for Faustus is when his blood congeals before the pact is signed with it, signifying that the body is resisting that which the mind has already yielded to. But Mephistopheles brings in fire to keep the blood warm and running, and the final disaster is completed. A further dynamic in the play is the realization of the ultimate futility of magic. Faustus has been granted worldly power and glory, by which he impresses and wins favors of kings and princes. But they turn out to be meaningless to him in the end, just as meaningless as his prior accomplishments in the fields of metaphysics, medicine and law. He is quickly sated with his new found powers, and ends up just as dissatisfied as prior to selling his soul. He is tortured by pangs of remorse, and begins to think the glories of heaven far superior. By degrees Faustus is made to learn what hell really is. His first shock is to learn that hell is not really an old wives’ tale after all. In answer to Faustus’ suspicion Mephistopheles interjects, â€Å"But I am an instance to prove the contrary, / For I tell thee I am damnd and now in hell. † Faustus wants to learn more about hell. The first response he gets that it is under heaven. He urges for clarity and Mephistopheles responds: Within the bowels of these elements, Where we are torturd and remain for ever: Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscribd In one self-place; but where we are is hell, And where hell is, there must we ever be: And, to be short, when all the world dissolves, And every creature shall be purified, All places shall be hell that are not heaven. In this description hell is clearly identified with materialistic knowledge and pursuits. â€Å"Within the bowels of these elements† is exactly where materialistic knowledge is sought. The materialistic world order is indeed painted as permanent and indifferent. Against this Mephistopheles points out that the present order will be dissolved and all living souls purified. The materialists stubbornly resist any suggestion that there could be a transcendence beyond empirical world. But Mephistopheles confirms that there is an â€Å"Above†, and after the dissolution and the purification of souls, all places are hell, except for where the transcendental souls reside – i. e. in heaven. By clinging to the lowly elements, through the illusory promise of magic, Faustus has indeed chosen hell as his eternal abode. Doctor Faustus is thoroughly imbued with the spirit of the renaissance, and it is only his overarching enthusiasm for it that leads to his fall. This is why he is a truly tragic figure, and the contemporary audience of Marlowe’s time would certainly have appreciated this fact. Modern audiences will tend not to sympathize with the protagonist, but what is even more shocking is that a large part will be left indifferent. Those of a religious temperament will judge that anyone who consorts with the devil deserves eternal damnation, and will probably fail to appreciate that Faustus was moved by nothing other than a tremendous spirit of learning borne of the Renaissance. The larger part, on the other hand, does not believe in hell at all, and will merely express indignation that so much suffering be heaped on one who dabbles in a few charms, and did no one any harm. To appreciate the tragic element of the play one needs to understand the spirit of the renaissance, as well as have a clear conception of magic. Modern audiences are infused with the former, but have discredited the latter as mere superstition.