The Faithless Dr. Faustus Essay, Research Paper

Christopher Marlowe s, Dr. John Faustus regards knowledge as easily obtainable information that he can use, or discard, at his own will. This learned philosopher, medical doctor, lawyer, and faithless theologian carelessly rejects his past studies. Then, in his search for a new educational passion, Faustus turns away from Christian devotion and chooses black magic as his study of choice. Lacking true faith in God and the Holy Word, the misguided doctor jumps blindly into a contract with the Devil. He cannot be faulted for his thirst for learning only his lack of sincere devotion to the God that he studied so tirelessly in the past. Faustus misinterprets and misuses the intelligence, the gift, granted to him by God. He refuses to accept the limitations of man; and this coupled with his viewing of theology, God s study, as merely another avenue for knowledge gain, he condemns himself to an eternity in Hell. Faustus desire to know more is not the initial cause of his fall. Dr. John Faustus fails to dedicate a single ounce of true belief in the power and mercy of God. His faithless heart commits him to Hell before he even signs the Devil s contract.

Early in the play, Faustus exhibits the characteristics of a man who does not understand the limitations of humanity. He is highly intelligent and very accomplished, but he finds no satisfaction in his professions:

Could’st thou make men to live eternally

Or being dead raise them to life again,

Then this profession were to be esteemed. (1.22-24)

If he cannot make man live forever, or raise him from the dead then medicine has no use. Faustus fails to recognize the gift given to him by God, and only knows that he cannot, in a sense, play the role of God. Despite his religious expertise he does not devote earnest belief in the verses that he has undoubtedly learned and obviously overanalyzed.

After mastering divinity, and several other respectable professions, the fickle doctor sees no need to continue his religious examination. Faustus dismisses his study of divinity with a hopeless air:

The reward of sin is death? That s hard.

If we say that we have no sin,

We deceive ourselves, and there s no truth in us.

Why then belike we must sin,

And so consequently die.

Ay, we must die an everlasting death.

What doctrine you call this? Che sara, sara

What will be shall be! Divinity adieu! (1.40-48)

How easily he casts away religion. No matter what a man does or accomplishes he will sin and die, and face everlasting agony. Faustus analytical view of his religion removes all emotional and spiritual connection to God and Heaven. Does this mean then that he never had true faith or loyalty in and to the Heavenly Father? In the Christian realm of religion, believers must protect their souls and devote themselves entirely to God in order to ensure salvation. And although he knows this, Faustus early denial of God s law foreshadows his inevitable fall from grace and eternal sentence in hell.

Faustus attempts to enter his initial agreement with Mephastophilis with control over the situation:

Seeing Faustus hath incurred eternal death

By desperate thoughts against Jove s deity

Say, he surrenders up to him his soul

So he will spare him four and twenty

Letting him live in all voluptuousness (3.88-91).

Faustus relies on his miscalculated impression of the relationship between spirituality and salvation. In the early stages of his intimacies with the Devil he speaks with the confidence of man with a simple plan for salvation for his transgression. To return to God he must repent and God will forgive him for his violation of holy vows. Faustus acknowledges his wrong, but misjudges the controlling powers of evil. In the beginning of Scene 5, Faustus shows signs of seemingly weakening faith:

Abjure this magic, turn to God again.

Ay, and Faustus will turn to God again.

To God? He loves thee not:

The god thou servest is thine own appetite (5.8-11).

But, a man who continuously lives to rise above God cannot genuinely have strong enough conviction in God to truly repent for his sins. Faustus has committed himself to his self the Devil. As Mephastophilis states, Why this is hell, nor am I out of it (3.76), Faustus enters his own hell; the damned doctor begins a life riddled with already known answers and lost to truly useless skills and abilities.

Marlowe takes care to offer his plunging doctor many opportunities to turn back to God. The Good Angel, presumably sent by God to Faustus in the form of conscience, repeatedly offers reason to the situation. But, Faustus, first, believes that he can outsmart the Devil, and then he finds himself wrapped deeper into evil s cloak. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul (Mark.8.36)? For Faustus, he lost his soul, but gained the things that he believed that he could not get by following God. With the Devil, he receives twenty-four years of childish pranks, lascivious behavior, and painful threats. Had he truly possessed faith in Jesus Christ the Savior he would believed the Good Angel when he says, Repent, and [devils] shall never rase thy skin (5.256). Faustus even recognizes that God is attempting to save his soul. But, his now completely corrupted mind has taken over his spirit and the Devil convinces him that he cannot return to Good.

Dr. Faustus studies have taught him the truth to salvation. He, however, never allows his knowledge to intermingle with his heart and soul. He cannot repent, because he never bowed to the will of God. In all of Faustus studies he seeks to act as God. Dr. John Faustus lacks true faith and belief in the God that grants him his intellect. Rather than submitting to God, he searches for some form of knowledge that will propel him above the realms of Heaven, Earth, and Hell. This alone leads him to his eternal life in the fires of hell.