Portrayal of devil
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 Phip
He has super human powers, and he loves it. He is a fairly-well educated, respected man. His selfishness almost led him to a deal with Pacino. In conclusion I believe through their personality and actions throughout their given story proves that is was their ego that made them decide to flirt with the devil, and in Faustus's case make a deal with the devil. He has a very strange interest for the well being of Reeves. The power he gets from it boosts his ego, which is essentially what he was looking for. Before this could happen, he kills himself. He wanted power, and knew that "Our society gives power to people who are successful" (Phipps). They just had to keep feeding it; it was like a drug to them. This is true, but some people just take it to an extreme. Though one doesn't actually make a deal with the devil, their motives were the same. Both characters knew they were talented, but were obsessed with it, that's where "self importance starts to take over, and you find out that you're making decisions that are destructive, making decisions that have nothing to do with your talent but have everything to do with your narcissistic desires" (Hackford qtd in Phipps).
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Acceptance Essays
