The devil is portrayed in many modern and classical plays and movies. The most
             common theme in these pieces is the subject of selling your soul to the devil. I found this
             in reading Christopher Marlowe's The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus, and also in
             watching The Devil's Advocate, based on the novel by Andrew Neiderman. What could
             possibly drive you to sell your soul to the devil? I believe that in these cases, Dr.
             Faustus, and Keanu Reeves character were driven by their ego. Through greed they
             desired power. Even that wasn't enough, they kept wanting more and more. Their pride
             and their ego is what pushed them over the edge, thus selling their soul to the devil. In
             Reeves situation, he doesn't actually sell his soul to devil, but takes his life at the last
             second. Ego can be simply defined as an exaggerated sense of self-importance
             (Dictionary.com) This couldn't be shown any more clearly in both these pieces. The
             director of The Devil's Advocate; Taylor Hackford said it best, "His (the devil) greatest
             lure is what we have in common with him, our greed, ego, jealousy, competitiveness, lust
             and dishonesty" (Hackford qtd. in Phipps).
             In Doctor Faustus the main character is, you guessed it, Dr. Faustus. He is a
             fairly-well educated, respected man. He seeks something else though. He looks past the
             everyday knowledge that anyone can acquire and turns to the evil, demonic knowledge.
             His servant Mephostophilis has the power to grant him the knowledge that he so dearly
             searches for. Faustus's ego is what does him in. He knows that selling his soul to the
             devil will bring just temporary powers, but he doesn't care. He is purely concerned with
             what he will get in exchange for his soul. So he does it, Faustus sells his soul to the
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