Darren Dièguez Marlowe Essay 11/3/04 The play Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe describes the “The History of the Damnable Life and Deserved Death of Doctor John Faustus.” It is the story of a man who, bored with his knowledge and calling, pursues power beyond the conventional boundaries established to contain the human will. This man, Doctor Faustus, makes a pact with the devil where he trades his everlasting soul for the excessive power of knowledge.
Echoing Eve’s temptation to obtain wisdom of good and evil from the Tree of Knowledge, Faustus trades freedom for knowledge that doesn’t help him at all. With this power, Faustus aims to “master all things that move between the quiet poles” (994, 56) He is the quintessential overachiever, who wants mastery over even God’s knowledge. Marlowe suggests that Faustus cannot have power on the scale of our Lord. In the arrogance of thinking he can, Faustus’ narcissistic power is self-defeating. Faustus is not in reality our Lord and Savior. When he is granted untold power he squanders it on pranks, proving that he cannot wield real power because he is not The Creator.
Faustus, however, believes that by studying magic he can become all-powerful: “Of power, of honor, of omnipotence is promised to the studious artisan!” (994, 55-56). When he is told by an Evil Angel he will be lord and commander of the elements, Faustus entertains fantastic notions of what he will do with his power:
I’ll have them wall all Germany with brass,
And make swift Rhine circle fair Wittenberg; I’ll have them fill the public schools with silk, Wherewith the students shall be bravely clad. I’ll levy soldiers with the coin they bring And chase the Prince of Parma from our land. (994, 88-93)
Faustus believes he will command spirits to carry out various tasks: decorate a country, make water more accessible, redecorate the schools, provide clothing for the students, and chase out an unpopular ruler. There is an extensive list of people and things that Faustus would like to have power over. He doesn’t ever complete a single one of these ambitions. The deal Faustus strikes with the devil is to trade his soul for Mephastophilis, in the false belief that this spirit can grant him omnipotence:
Having thee ever to attend on me, To give me whatsoever I shall ask, To tell me whatsoever I demand, To slay mine enemies, and aid my friends, And always be obedient to my will. (999, 93-97)
For twenty-four years Mephastophilis will heed Faustus’ every wish and yet Faustus accomplishes none of his previously stated goals. Faustus never exhibits any power over anyone, in fact, for the full twenty-four years. For example, Faustus is requested to produce Alexander the Great and his paramour, but is only able to summon a mirage of the two. “I’faith, that’s just nothing at all,” (1014, 38) remarks one witness. And it isn’t. Faustus’ “unlimited power” turns out to be just a parlor trick to impress the Emperor.
One of Faustus’ ambitions was to be a “mighty god.” Faustus wanted to “gain a deity.” (994, 62-63) And yet his attempts to have power over the Church prove pathetically impotent. During one of their flights of fancy, Mephastophilis urges Faustus
to “take some part of holy Peter’s feast” with a troop of bald-pate friars. Ironic that it is the devil who is encouraging the man to take part in holy rites. Faustus instead wants to make sport of the friars and trick them. Faustus “hits him [the Pope] a box of the ear, and they all run away.” (1011, 78-79) In this encounter it is clear that Faustus has no power over those he thought to rule. Instead he is reduced to simple pranks, the consequences of which he doesn’t know how to handle: “Come on, Mephastophilis, what shall we do?” (80) Faustus is asking the spirit he pledged to be his servant for direction because, in reality, Faustus has none.
While the pranks are slapstick funny the friars whom Faustus sought to mock are dismissive of them: “Come brethren, let’s about our business with good devotion.” (87) They pray in a comedic way: “Cursed be he that struck his holiness a blow on the face. Maledicat Dominus.” (1011, 91-92) But they are able to move on from Faustus’ meddling while he is not. In other words, he does not have influential power over them.
Another attempted use of his power, Faustus wants to have control over a woman and asks Mephastophilis for a wife: “to glut the longing of my heart’s desire.” (1020, 73) But Faustus is denied this connection with another person because Mephastophilis cannot provide him with a wife. He tries to convince him that a paramour would be a fitting consolation: “Marriage is but a ceremonial toy; If thou lovest me, think no more of it.” (997, 97) Because marriage is a god-given blessing, Faustus is denied this connection and instead tries to find meaning in a mirage of Helen summoned by Mephastophilis:
Her lips sucks forth my soul, see where it flies!
Come Helen, come, give me my soul again. Here will I dwell, for heaven be in these lips, And all is dross that is not Helena! (1020, 83-86)
While it is indicated that Faustus has already surrendered his soul to the devil, he imagines losing it still to a mirage. He doesn’t have power over even what he asks for. Helen is still taking his soul in this passage, and he is begging for it. For this reason Faustus fails to find comfort in this beauty. Heaven isn’t in these lips, after all because that would be assuming that he, Faustus, could create a heaven. It is the height of idealized beauty that he is entertaining, but even that is not enough to provide him rest.
Faustus’ last words as he is dragged away to hell are “I’ll burn my books- ah, Mephastophilis!” (1023, 113) Even to his grave, Faustus is caught on material objects. Faustus is still, up to the very end, unable to admit powerlessness in the face of the Lord. Faustus refuses to admit he needs help from a divine power and instead calls out to a spirit he knows can only play tricks.
Faustus cannot have power. Though he is illusioned into thinking he will perform high feats of magic he actually has no influence over anyone. Faustus can have knowledge and obtain self-mastery, but not power over other objects or people. If man, in his hubris, attempts power beyond himself, he will only bring destruction to himself. Power pursued by man, beyond the established limits to contain human ambition is selfdefeating. It is destructive because it is never enough. Once man has a taste of power, he will thirst unendingly for it, forsaking reverence to God and all other obligations.
“The Sixteenth Century – The Early Seventeenth Century.” Norton Anthology of English Literature. Volume 1B Seventh Edition. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 2000, pg 1595-6.
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