Essay about The Deeper Meaning of Christopher Marlowes...

The Deeper Meaning of Christopher Marlowes Doctor Faustus I do not agree with the frequently repeated comment that Doctor Faustus is an anti-intellectualist play that preaches that curiosity is dangerous. It is all too easy to see Faustus as the scholar, seeking knowledge, and his desire for knowledge that leads to his downfall. To confine the play to something so narrow is to ignore the deeper meaning behind the play. I believe that this deeper meaning is more important than the superficial idea that curiosity is wrong. I believe that the deeper meaning behind the play is the idea that in loosing sight of the spiritual level of existence, we loos sight of God. In doing so, we can no longer see Gods mercy and love, and so ignore†¦show more content†¦It has been said that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely - this is what has happened to Faustus. He ceases to be the seeker of knowledge, but becomes a seeker of pleasure. One of the first things he wants is a wife: ... but leaving off this, let me have a wife, the fairest maid in Germany, for I am wanton and lascivious, and cannot live without a wife. Scene 5, lines 139-141 This marks the descent of Faustus from the intellectual seeking pleasures of the mind, to the hedonist seeking more sensual pleasures. It is not for being intellectual that we start to dislike Faustus, but for the numerous foolish and irrelevant displays of his power that he undertakes, and eventually his pride. This is exemplified by the sharp contrast between Faustus intentions at the beginning of the play, and the deeds he performs during the play: Ill have them read me strange philosophy, And tell the secrets of all foreign kings. Scene 1, lines 86-8 Instead of doing things like this, he squanders his power. It is his decision to indulge in, as Bentham was later to call them, lower pleasures that illustrates the falsity of the claim that Doctor Faustus is anti-intellectual. If this play were meant to be anti-intellectualist, then the scenes toward the middle of the play that involve Faustus attacking the pope, or summoning AlexanderShow MoreRelatedChristopher Marlowe Protests: The Moral of Doctor Faustus Essay883 Words   |  4 PagesWhen Doctor Faustus was written, there was turmoil in Elizabethan society. The old medieval view made God the most important aspect of the world, while mankind and the natural world were ignored. This was giving way to the idea that mankind and the natural world were supreme. At first glance, it seems that Doctor Faustus was written with the medieval ideal in mind, however, I believe this is not so. I believe that Marlowe subscribed to the renaissance view of the world, and Doctor Faustus was inten dedRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s The Play Everyman 1275 Words   |  6 Pagesinvolved every person who’s ever thought about the meaning of life. Similarly, we can also see the shadow of a philosophical trace in Christopher Marlowe’s play, Doctor Faustus. The play personifies good and evil. The devil will fight for the soul of human beings, while our soul remain indecisive. Soon after, high lights appeared in the instance when the soul makes a decision. Even though both works are excellent, but I fell that Dr. Faustus made a bigger impact on me. Although both work revolvedRead MoreThe Tragical History Of Doctor Faustus1991 Words   |  8 Pagesâ€Å"The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus,† or â€Å"Doctor Faustus,† is a tragedy, written by Christopher Marlowe, which conveys the heavy use of symbolism and allusions to illustrate the conflict between good and evil during a time of rebirth in England. This play was first performed sometime between 158 8 and 1593, and published sometime in the early 1600s and is based on the protagonist, Faustus, who originates from a classic oral German legend. â€Å"Doctor Faustus† is one of the first of many publications