The Contributing Forces to the Character of Doctor Faustus
...y. Faustus inner weakness to mortal pleasures and fantasies was his greatest fault. This weakness is what harbours his destructive inner forces, which allows them to insidiously corrupt his soul. This in turn, weakens Faustus to the compelling influences of the devil, who takes advantage of his greed and enslaves him to his own fantasies. Though Faustus was once a good and devout soul, from the outset of Marlowe’s play he is doomed. We see the human “tug-of-wars” arise. These are personified in the debates between the two angels that symbolize his internal battles. Both spirits try to persuade his course of action but he repeatedly sides with the evil angel. Faustus’ whole being is consumed by a voracious internal obsession with knowledge and supreme power. This obsessive inner force is so overwhelming that not only does he make unholy compromises and commits inhuman deeds, but makes notable mental mistakes. He loses all logical reasoning and ignores common knowledge, which proves the depth of his deception. This is incredibly significant when you consider Dr. Faustus’ status within society and how intelligent he was reputed to be. Faustus had a distinguishable education and was supposed to be an intelligent man. However, being the good scholar that he was, he used his studies for necromancy and called devils. He sold his soul to the devil for 24 years of power, during which he partook in many pleasure with the devils and tortured many innocent and devout men. He also burned scriptures and denounced God. Furthermore, beyond the obvious vices are the profound logical errors Faustus made that reveal the extent of his internal deception and external manipulation to his servile passion. His first logical error was to trust a devil and believe that black magic could bring him permanent advantages. Trusting a devil is asking for horror. It is common knowledge that devils are anything but trustworthy and deceive you for their own advantage. Faustus, a supposedly smart man, is often persuaded by simple logic. The following excerpt is an example. G. ANG. Faustus, repent; yet God will pity thee. B. ANG. Thou art a spirit; God cannot pity thee. FAUST. Who buzzeth in mine ears I am a spirit? Be I a devil, yet God may pity me. Yea, God will pity me, if I repent. B. ANG. Aye, but Faustus never shall repent. FAUST. My heart is hardened; I cannot repent Here, Faustus is merely told not to repent, so he does not, even though he should remember that the charm of Christianity is grace and that he’d be saved upon repentance. Another example of Faustus’ illogic is when he...