Lack of Inner Strength in Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe

Lack of Inner Strength in Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe

            In the play Doctor Faustus is introduced as a well-respected scholar having vast knowledge of logic, medicine, law, and religion. His proficiency and efficiency was considered in Germany and his ability to discover new things in logic, medicine, law and religion can’t be denied. Certainly a scholar is curious and struggle to get knowledge in depth and leaves behind no doubts. To reveal the layers of subject a scholar also is able to discover his inner strength. He can’t take interest in superfluous things like magic or laugh at other or expose illusions in front of them to be pleased in this respect.

            A scholar has trained his intellectual powers in a way that he becomes never be happy in superfluous things as Mephastophilis and Lucifer keep Dr Faustus busy to please him. It seems not convincing logic to bring in personifications of the Seven Deadly Sins to prance about in front of Faustus, and he is impressed enough to quiet his doubts about leaving his way of knowledge and adopting artificial wrong way to pursue. It seems either Faustus was not a learned and prominent person out of Germany or he adopts magic. There is doubt that he accepts magic as his purpose even on the cost of life and be condemned to hell in the end also. Mephastophilis bestows rich gifts on him and gives him a book of spells to learn magic, make the scholar happy so easily. Between them there are no solid arguments, no discussions, no reference, and no quotations accordingly, while it doesn’t satisfy the scholarly knowledge.

Once Faustus actually gains the practically limitless power that he desires, however, his horizons seem to narrow. On the other hand he contents himself with performing conjuring tricks for kings and noblemen and takes a strange delight in using his magic to play practical jokes on simple folks. Negative power has corrupted Faustus’s behavior after he sells his soul and raises him to the level of true wickedness. Gaining absolute power corrupts Faustus by making him mediocre and by transforming his boundless ambition into a meaningless delight in petty celebrity.