The Struggle Within Dr. Faustus
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
(96) Starting by the Faust legend, for the medieval one, Faustus was considered as "a faker who lived by his wits," (Zane pub. His inconsistency in beliefs is revealed also in being once a master of theology, and when finding everything insufficient, the resorts to Black magic directly, by calling it as a "heavenly" act, neglecting that this act will only bring him eternal damnation in the end. (56- 62) According to the traditional Christian cosmology, Eva claimed that the universe wasviewed as a hierarchy which descends from God, through the angels, then man, the animals, and finally to inanimate nature. This ambiguity of interior inclinations within Faustus was regarded by Mangan as: The struggle of a man attempting to assert his own autonomous identity in the face of a cosmic vision which dooms the very attempt and the struggle between two ways of thinking about humanity's place in the scheme of things. It was as the Medievals considered it to be, and not what Mephostophilis told him about. Marlowe here was making an anti-Christian statement. This thirst for knowledge mirrors him with Icarus, a figure in classical mythology, who because of his pride, soared so high until his wax wings were melted and dies". Ambition to go beyond one's natural place in the hierarchy is considered a sin of pride. He could have repented, but his pride stood in his face. Indirectly, throughout the play, Marlowe exhibits a Protestant view of God. Not only that but also this chorus has introduced the main hero in the play, who was a peasant's son, different from the traditional way in having noblemen and kings as heroes. So this great logician of Wittenberg wants the best that each side is able to offer him. ] two forces struggling for the soul of Faustus" (18). However, during the Renaissance period, where the exciting possibilities of knowledge wit the advance of science and the revival of classical learning, Faustus was regarded as "a hero whose thirst for knowledge leads to salvation" (Zane pub.
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