Analysis Of Doctor Faustus: A Transgressive Tragic Hero

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Doctor Faustus: A Transgressive Tragic Hero
Published in 1604, Doctor Faustus was the first well-known literary representation of an old motif in Christian folklore, in which an individual selling his soul to the devil for knowledge. As a play that examines moral values held during that period, this empathy-inducing play has been identified as a tragedy by some critics, and a morality play by others. In the following paragraphs, this essay will establish how Doctor Faustus is both a morality play and a tragedy.
Yardstick for Assessment
The determination of the nature of this literary work is majorly based on the sets of moral values held during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance period. In the Middle Ages, Christianity and God lay at the center of intellectual life in Europe. Theology, “Queen of the Sciences” was the meridian subject in universities. It was taught first, before the Trivium (grammar, logic, rhetoric) and the Quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy. (Mangum, 2013) One can see the low importance of science from the late introduction of arithmetic and geometry, and the assisting nature of philosophy primarily serving theological thought. (Howard, 2006) Rather than of the commoners, depictions of the lives of the saints and the mighty had been the pillar of medieval art and literature. …show more content…

Faustus, the man who offended the natural laws of the universe was punished with an act of justice, which was beknown to him from the beginning. This frame of mind was re-emphasized at the closing chorus when the audience was exhorted to learn from Faustus ' damnation and not attempt to challenge the existing limits of humanity: “Faustus is gone: regard his hellish fall, / whose fiendful fortune may exhort the wise, /only to wonder at unlawful things, / whose deepness doth entice such forward wits to practice more than heavenly power permits” (Marlowe, trans. 1604,

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