Home > Doctor Faustus Summary & Study Guide > Doctor Faustus Group > Question and Answer

Question:

Answers:

1. 
   herappleness Teacher
   Graduate School

   eNotes Editor

   In Dr. Faustus we find: Ambition extended to greed, sin extended to infernal and eternal damnation, and the wicked nature of man under the effects of power.

   His actions denote a man who is too big for himself but, at the same time, too small for the whole wide world. Although he is superbly intelligent, he cannot use common sense to fix his problems. Although he is a professor and an academic leader, he lacks the gumption and creativity to make his natural gifts be worth anything. He is the typical man who is so insolent, petulant, and full of himself that he even trades his soul to the devil for absolutely no real reason but that of obtaining a power which he is not ready for. That shows you the measure of his character as a man, and as a genius which is very small and minimalistic compared to what he can actually accomplish.

   Sources:

   http://www.enotes.com/faustus

   Rate answer:

   • Flag as inappropriate

   Posted by herappleness on Monday November 9, 2009 at 2:27 PM
   
   

2. 
   nusratfarah Student
   Graduate School

   Three themes from Doctor Faustus: 1) Ambition,

   2) Fate vs Freewill,

   3) Renaissance vs Medieval.

    

   Doctor Faustus's actions reveal the ambitious side of his character, his inner favoritism towards Classic beauty, his fascination for the Evil and, above all, his internal conflict between good and bad.

   The tragic hero gets engulfed by power which is given by knowledge, and like Paradise Lost's Adam and Eve, he has to face an ultimate downfall.

   Throughout the play, Faustus is in a dilemma where he has to choose between the good and the bad. The gradual appearance of the two angels and the old man and, the warning of Mephistopheles- all are like alarms for him. Marlowe thus shows that his Faustus has his own choice, like Shakespeare's Macbeth or Sophocles' Oedipus. Yet he pays heed to his own greed and ambition. But at the end, he is seen to remorse and repent, and willing to return to God's path; and this is an indication that a medieval belief prevails inside the Renaissance age's Faustus. It also shows that, Faustus is not a flat character, he's rather a round character.  And one more thing is necessary to add, which is that, his charm and fascination to Helen indicates to his liking of Classics.

   Rate answer:

   • Flag as inappropriate

   Posted by nusratfarah on Tuesday November 10, 2009 at 5:30 AM