“A hero is one who not only has many good aspects, but many flaws.” Critic Solomon Short stated that one is not a hero through great qualities, but through flaws, and how one will overcome them. In the novel Dr. Faustus, by Christopher Marlowe, Faustus represents a great man with stature and personality, but is also a man with many sins. Dr. Faustus sells his soul to Lucifer and pertains to black magic in order to become powerful and influential in the world. He gives up his scholarly beginnings in order to pursue the opposite for more power. We learn that Faustus’ desires control him and his nature by manipulating him to take the easy, yet fearful road, instead of the steady, heavenly process. Dr Faustus goes from a man who wants more “of power, of honor, [and] omnipotence” (1.1.52) the moral way to obtaining these possessions in a hasty and deceitful manner through black magic and the Dark Side. His tragic hero qualities are revealed through his bad desires for honor and authority; his fatal flaw for power, his self-enlightenment as he realizes that his mistakes caused him the misery and suffering, and through the provoking catharsis that the reader engages as Faustus is pitied for in the finale.
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196) the reader feels much sympathy for Faustus because he did allow himself to burst out screaming and crying for salvation and repentance. His mind wasn’t focused on his own perceptions, but the perceptions of Mephostophilis and other Dark people. on man who possesses good and bad desires through various actions and features of his personality. His downfall started when he lost his devotion and faith to God. Faustus wasn’t a man of ill will, but a man who knew what he wanted most. Faustus portrays a vast amount of sinful desires and feelings that will not allow him to repent himself when he makes a mistake later on in the novel. He is feeling distraught and confused on whether he should follow the ways of God or take the path of Lucifer and live his life full of perfection.
Faustus’ covetousness purged the good qualities out of him because his only goal was to become the greatest super-authority. He is a man who wishes to give up his past actions and reconcile his attachments with God instead of Lucifer. 71) His mind couldn’t get off the fact that his soul had been sold to Lucifer, and that Faustus would now be in hell for eternity on sins that he shouldn’t have committed in the first place.
Approximate Word count =
1121
Approximate Pages =
4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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