-
Essay / Critical Review of Faustus - 1645
In the history of the formation of the world, man was given the ability to discern between good and evil, even from his innate being. For the reason that every man has a fraction of imperfection inculcated in his ingenuity, this man, who is not yet named, has manufactured his own downfall not by malicious fate, accident or predetermined catastrophe, but through his own introspection into the sphere of free will. In his quest for higher knowledge and power, he has lost the capacity for discernment and judgment in knowing what is true, right, and enduring. It turns out that he has become blind to the deeper applicability of his impressive knowledge to his decision-making and the life project as a whole. This is the story of a scholar who went into business. This marks the beginning of his struggle against the limits of human knowledge and it will lead him to make the fatalistic decision to choose necromancy as his supreme discipline. This shows his lack of wisdom, the essence of all his awesome knowledge. He is a fallible and vain man with an ambition for the forbidden and he has lost his ability to reason by choosing the path of darkness. Moreover, he sets himself an arduous task: “Here, Faustus, try your brain to gain a deity. » (1.3). He aspires to become a god, which he believes will break his limitations in knowledge and bring him great political power and wealth. Despite his exceptional knowledge, as Marlowe attested, he still chooses to follow the path where every man has failed; to achieve Just after signing the deal, he learns its limits: he cannot marry a woman, he is forbidden to pray or talk about “celestial things”. He swears to uphold his end of the deal after being amused by the entertainment of the Seven Deadly Sins. He is taught astronomy and allowed to see hell. He embarks on relatively brief and humiliating adventures – from slapping the pope in Rome and confusing a crowd in Ecclesiastes to evoking figures "but shadows, not substantial" of Alexander the Great and King Darius, to the great pleasure of the emperor. On the contrary, it is not worth sacrificing your soul. Faustus' descent continues, from searching for grapes out of season for a pregnant and bored duchess, to freeing Bruno, a convict. Also, beating up Benvolio and his friends and messing with a drunk who bought him a horse. He clearly went from greatness to total self-inflicted mediocrity. The goal of reshaping the geography of Europe and becoming a god no longer has substance. The gap between his early ambitions and his current state is dismaying, but he doesn't seem to mind. Faustus demonstrates blindness and lack of wisdom and this constitutes one of his defining characteristics throughout his journey. His blind spot allows him to see the world as he wants it to be rather than as it actually is. He flees reality but prefers to live alone