Summary: The Tragedy Of Doctor Faustus

871 Words4 Pages

The Tragedy of Doctor Faustus is about a wise doctor falling from his high position trying to learn necromancy by selling his soul to Lucifer. During the tragedy, he second guesses himself a lot thinking about the joys he deprives himself, but is too scared to repent back to God fearing Lucifer’s wrath. Seeing his predicament, one can feel bad for Faustus and think Lucifer is the reason for the fall of the doctor. However, upon closer reading of the tragedy, it is clear that Faustus falls from his own character flaw. He acts impulsively, and is greedy for power and knowledge, while being too ashamed and cowardly to repent. A basic principle of Christianity is the one of repentance. If Faustus is willing to repent, then Christ would save him. …show more content…

Once Faustus knew that he did know everything, he embraces a desire to learn more and more until he hits his brick wall where he just can not learn anymore. But, he found a way to continue his mission to learn more by selling his soul away to Lucifer. But the devils could never satisfy him either for very long. First, it is the seven deadly sins which entertains Faustus for a little while, but then he would want to know more again. Because Mehpostophilis has to appease Faustus, he takes him to study the heavens and the planets on the back of a dragon which again appeases Faustus but not for long again. Needing to satisfy Faustus again because “new exploits do hale him out again”(page 37), Mephostophilis takes Faustus on a tour across Europe and gives him a chance to insult the pope, which makes Faustus happy for a little while, but yet again, he wants to achieve more. This endless cycle of Faustus wanting to know more is another cause of his downfall as Faustus is just embedding himself deeper and deeper into believing that Lucifer could quell his everlasting thirst for knowledge, but all Lucifer is doing, is just teasing Faustus into

More about Summary: The Tragedy Of Doctor Faustus

Open Document