The Deadliest Sin: The Fatal Flaw of Dr. John Faustus
...by introducing Faustus as a man “swollen with cunning, of a self-conceit,” (Prologue 20), comparing him to Icarus whose “waxen wings did mount above his reach, / And melting heavens conspired his overthrow” (Prologue 21-22). This immediately alerts the audience to the fact that Doctor Faustus is a tragedy and John Faustus is fatally flawed, just as was poor Icarus. This is affirmed in Faustus’s open soliloquy in which Faustus “takes up and rejects the ends of logic, medicine, law, the Church, and finally divinity” (Brown 23), ultimately turning to magic, “Which he prefers before his chiefest bliss” (Prologue 27). His dearest wish is that “All things that move between the quiet poles / Shall be at [his] command” (1.56-57). Faustus’s pride does not allow him to fear “God’s heavy wrath upon [his] head” (1.72) but instead compels him to desire the status of “Lord and commander of these elements” (1.77), being “on earth as Jove is in the sky” (1.76). Not even the possibility of damnation terrifies Faustus’s pride into submission, driving him to believe that “His ghost be with the old philosophers” (4.60). While it has been argued that Faustus’s advanced intellect led him to question the existence of hell because he could not see or touch God (Hamlin 265-66), it is more likely that Faustus’s superior intellect created a sense of superiority and a belief that Faustus was capable of equaling his creator in abilities. Mephastophilis’s descriptions of hell reveal a parallel between the fall of Faustus and the fall of the “prince of devils” (4.66), both of which occur as the result of “aspiring pride and insolence” (4.67). Mephastophilis reminds Faustus that those who dwell in Hell are “Unhappy spirits that fell with Lucifer, / [who] Conspired against our God with Lucifer. / And forever damned with Lucifer” (4.70-72). Mephastophilis description of Hell should have served as a reminder to Faustus that Mephastophilis had forever lost the privilege of God’s presence while Faustus still remained free to choose Heaven or Hell: Why this is hell, not am I out of it. Think’st thou that I, who saw the face of God And tasted the eternal joys of heaven Am not tormented with ten thousand hells In being deprived of everlasting bliss? (4.75-80) Mephastophilis makes clear to Faustus that Hell is here on earth in the presence of Mephastophilis, informing Faustus that hell is “Within the bowels of these element / Where we are tortured and remain for ever” (5.118-19). Mephastophilis continues his explanation, “for where we are is hell, / And where hell is, there we must ever be” (5.121-22) for “when the world dissolves, / And every creature shall be purified, / All places shall be hell that is not heaven” (5.123-25) Mephastophilis goes so far as to explain to Faustus that the reason demons seek more souls for Hell is that “Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris” (5.42) and tells Faustus that the tortures awaiting him in Hell are “As great as have the human souls of men” (5.44), none of which deters Faustus from his quest to be a living god. The lengths to which Faustus will go to acquire godly skills illustrate the depths of his hubris. For example, in order to complete his contract with Lucifer he must “stab [his] arm courageously, / And bind [his] soul, that at some certain day / Great Lucifer may claim it as his own” (5.49-51). Hoping to be “as great as Lucifer” (5.52), he does so only to discover that his “blood congeals and [he] can write no more” (5.62), requiring Mephastophilis to bring in a “chafer of coals” for Faustus to “set it on” (5.70). Faustus endures pain “without divine proxy, Promethean or Mephistophelean, for receipt of the fire that vivifies his blood and transforms him, through the contract, into something superhuman” (Brown 31). His suffering, thou intense, did not deter his ambitions. The reward of “four and twenty years” (4.91) of having Mephastophilis “ever to attend on [him], / To give [him] whatsoever [he] shall ask, / To tell [him] whatsoever [he] demand” (4.93-95) was enough to entice Faustus to sacrifice his soul. Despite the occasional appearance of humility, Faustus is determined to “go not backward” and “be resolute” (5.6), recognizing that “The god [he] servest is [his] own appetite” (5.10-11). Never is Faustus able to turn to “Contrition, prayer, repentance” (5.16) to find the “means to bring thee unto heaven” (5.17), preferring to “think of honor and of wealth” (5.21). When Faustus attempts to force Mephastophilis to reveal that God made the universe, Mephastophilis warns Faustus, “Move me not, for I will not tell thee” (5.245), reminding Faustus that he cannot give him what is forbidden. In this case, Faustus, like a haughty child, only refers to repenting as a mean...