This hero with "super human aspiration" had lived in a time of the Middle Ages and the start of the Renaissance. These were two very different historical eras with quite different values, and Faustus is caught in the grip of changing times.
             The Renaissance period emphasized the revival of classical learning which fired the imagination of people with "the spirit and rational ideals of ancient Rome and Greece" (Burgess, 309). It has encouraged the people to seek wealth and power, live this life to the full because tomorrow you'll be dead. That is, the theme of "eat, drink, and merry for tomorrow we die" which is known as Carpe diem or seize the day. The Renaissance Theater was wholly professional and public, which charged admission fees to allow audiences to witness their performances.
             On the other hand, the Middle Ages period emphasized the concept of don't seek to know too much, learn contempt for this world, and put your energy into saving your soul. It was characterized with its feudal, monastic, and agrarian culture. The art and literature in this period were "rooted in the Christian culture
             that preserved, transmitted, and transformed classical tradition" (Burgess 309). The medieval drama had been an amateur endeavor presented either by the clergy or members of the various trade guilds." (Fitzwater 51)
             In the middle ages, "Greek and Latin had withdrawn into the monasteries; so the Renaissance new learning came as a new dawn, a sudden widening of the scope of human experience and intellectual horizon." (Burgess P: 309)
             Michael Mangan had summarized "Doctor Faustus" in considering Faustus as a:
             man at the height of his mental powers, renowned for his scholarship and intelligence but desirous to know more about the universe than can be learned by conventional scholarship, interrogates the powers of the spirit world, and rec...