Doctor Faustus - Thinking Activity

Welcome to my blog, Here I am going to ponder upon such thematic ideas and myths with reference to "Doctor Faustus."

The closing scene of Dr.  Faustus is very Emotional and full of despair and misery. During his last hours of life his mind ran from idea to idea. He had so many ideas to save his life… But god is not going to help him. He wants to repent for his bad deeds but he has no time and God will also not allow time to repent.  According to Christianity the person who made repent is saved but here, the soul of Dr. Faustus is not saved by God so here, Christopher Marlowe questions the existence of God and indicates that he is not writing this scene from Christian point of view.

In the last speech Dr.  Faustus' mind jumps from one thought to another thought which is full of imagination. At one point he begged for more time.. In his words-

"A year,  a month, a week,      

a natural day,  

That faustus may repent

and save his life."

He asked to hide him in land or in cloud or anywhere,  he prayed Christ to do mercy on him and save his soul from the devil. His next request is to overcome his punishment in hell like….

"Let faustus live in hell a          

Thousand years,  

A hundred thousand year       

And at last be saved."

So last monologue of Dr.  Faustus written in a very simple and straight language contrastingly first monologue.  Here we can found a sad voice which is bursting with regret and downfall of his ethical standard. We can differentiate the first and last monologue In following manner… 

First Monologue 

• High sounding word
• Pride of knowledge
• Language is also full with symbols 
• Tone of voice is egoistic and challenging
• Arrogance

Last Monologue

• Simple words
• Lost of pride
• Sober and simple language
• Humble and noble man
• Hubris (pride of knowledge) washed off
• Praying,  regretting and repenting

#Wings of Lucifer 

The play Dr. Faustus performed in Globe theatre which is directed by Winster Dusten. The last scene of the spread of wings by Lucifer shows the victory of the devil over humans.  Who served them for a few years and imprisoned humans' souls perpetually. This scene shows revolt against Christian belief that God is the savier here, we can see Lucifer as a winner and God can't  do anything, even a person is ready to repent. The spread also depicts the spread of hell.

#Is God present in the play? If yes, where and how? And if no,  why? 

The tragic history of Dr.  Faustus is a story of a man whose desire to get more knowledge and in the course of fulfilling his desire he became like a god himself.  In Dr. Faustus we can say Presence of God is not observed by naked eye but by the indirect influence of God and fear of God is noticed many times. Dr. Faustus wavering to know whether the chosen path is right or not.. He recalls god. We can see good in the symbol of Good Angel and in human beings in Old man who come at the end of play and try to guide him to forget all this nonsense and magic and make back your path towards God by repenting of your sins.  We can see the portrayal of God is very low.. He is shown as less important as Cross is thrown by mephistophilis and in the last scene Dr. Faustus tries to pray for him and asks for more time but he is not going to come here to save his life. 

O my Christ! Rend not my heart for naming of my Christ”

From this line we come to know that faustus wants his heart safe and for that he prayed to God to save his heart from devil spirit. 

#Interpretation of the image of Icarus and daedalus in reference to Dr.  Faustus

Daedalus was a craftsman and artist in Greek mythology.  He angers King Minos, the ruler of the island Crete. So he wants to flee from the island and for that he built wings with the use of wax for him and his son Icarus. He warns his son not to fly so high.. But because of his own over ambitiousness Icarus flew at very high speed and because of the heat of sun, wings started to melt and he fell from very high. 

From the story of Icarus and Dadalus one greek believes that if we try to go beyond our limitations then God will definitely  punish us and the same theme of pride and punishment can be observed in Dr. Faustus… Whose extreme desire is to be knowledgeable and in trying to get knowledge and  power he made black magic and consider himself as a god like figure so this is the fall of hubris and excessive pride and which ultimately lead him to near his death. 

#How do you interpret this image?

               

At first sight when we see this photo normally we can say it is about nature where a farmer is ploughing,  fisherman is fishing and lamen is watching the sky. But when we make a deep study of the image and minutely observe it then we come to know that there is a leg of a man who is submerged into the sea and who is Icarus,  a son of daedalus. His father gave him waxed wings to fly and warned him not to fly at height or near sun but he refused it and in his over ambitiousness he fell from height.  

This image shows modern values that in the modern era no one cares about what is happening in the surrounding. Icarus falling is neither noticed by lamen or farmers or fishermen. Everyone is busy with their own business. And suffering and problems of other people are not given importance. 

#Read this article by Bhagat Singh. In light of the arguments made by Bhagat Singh in this article. 

Bhagat singh is known as an atheist. If Dr. Faustus' thinking is like Bhagat singh then the sad end of Dr.  Faustus is no more with despair and misery. If Dr. Faustus in place of Bhagat Singh then didn't repent or regret what he had done. He will say that what I have done is my wish and I am responsible for my own deeds and in which position I am today is all because of my own sins.  

         

He wants to get knowledge and now he is a god -like figure.  He enjoyed his life fully on his own rules so I am ready to die. I have done what I want.  So the end of Dr. Faustus can be the opposite in the modern world to what Christopher Marlowe did. 

#Myth , psychology and Marlowe's Dr.  Faustus article by Kenneth L. Golden

This article makes a psychological and mythical study of Dr faustus. It is about a theory of Enantiodromia by Jung.(https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enantiodromia) According to this theory when things reach their top or it becomes too extreme then there is a fall of person at height. This theory also depicts the myth of Icarus and daedalus. And the character of Dr.  Faustus is the same person who is ready for whatever for the sake of knowledge and when his desire to reach at the peak he also sells his soul to hell. And he tries to go beyond his borders so there is ultimate fall from height. 

       "Mankind has never lacked 

       powerful images to lend              

       magical  aid against all the

       uncanny things that live 

       in the depths of the psyche"

#Marlowe and God: The tragic theology of Dr.  Faustus by Robert Ornesteine

Marlowe as a renaissance man looks totally different from other writers of the same age. His thinking is quite different from other writers like they all try to show supernatural power and God as a supreme. While Christopher Marlowe looks like an Anti-god. There is a spiritual imagination of good and bad angels and from that his character dr.  Faustus suffers a lot to know what is good and what is bad. His wavering and resolute shows the idea of circumstantial machinery of his mind. He turned from atheist to theism and at last by his character he started believing in God.