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How does Marlowe's Doctor Faustus compare to Shelley's Frankenstein?
Quick answer:
Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein both explore themes of intellectual hubris and the misuse of knowledge. Faustus seeks pleasure and fame through a pact with the Devil, while Frankenstein aims to create life through science. Marlowe's work includes satire and comedy, whereas Shelley's novel is serious and focused. Both characters ultimately face dire consequences for their actions.
Christopher Marlowe's The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus are both cautionary, moralistic works about the use and misuse of knowledge.
Mary Shelley is unapologetic in sustaining the "be careful what you wish for" philosophy throughout her book, whereas Marlowe, after hypocritically criticizing and satirizing those who actively resist scientific and other intellectual advances, ultimately supports and reinforces their fearful, religion-based "status quo" philosophy.
Frankenstein is utterly and unrelentingly serious in tone and mood throughout the book. Doctor Faustus, although ultimately tragic like Frankenstein, is satirical, comic, farcical at times, and even whimsical.
Marlowe seems not to take his subject matter very seriously. Faustus is simply having too much fun being the smartest and most powerful person on earth (with some minor limitations) to recognize and appreciate the seriousness of his situation.
Dr. Frankenstein and...
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the other characters inFrankenstein seem never to have any fun. Even the lighter moments in Frankenstein involve an underlying sense of dread and foreboding, simply because "the monster" is always lurking just out of sight.
The events in Doctor Faustus often diverge from the main plot, sometimes dramatically so, to allow Marlowe the opportunity to criticize and satirize as many individuals (e.g., the Pope, Emperor Charles V) and institutions (e.g., the Catholic Church, the imperial German court, scholarly academia) as possible. The low comedy in DoctorFaustus, like the humiliation of the Pope, for example, is mean-spirited and dismissive of the subject matter of the play. Marlowe plays to his audience's baser nature.
In Frankenstein, Shelley relentlessly pursues the plot of the story that follows the birth of "the being" to the death of "the monster." All secondary plots directly support this main plot. There are no extraneous scenes, no scenes of comic relief or intellectual flights of fancy to distract from the main story. Shelley is unrelentingly respectful of her characters and their stories. She doesn't mock the townspeople, for example, but tries to understand them and their fearful reaction to the creature.
The common interpretation of Doctor Faustus in ascribing to Faustus the motivation to usurp God's place, and, in Frankenstein, of attributing to Dr. Frankenstein the desire to "play God" isn't supported in the works themselves.
FAUSTUS. A sound magician is a mighty god:
Here, Faustus, tire thy brains to gain a deity. (Scene 1)
Faustus doesn't want to be God or be equal to God. He simply wants to be like a god, and enjoy the pleasures of being a god with none of the responsibilities. Throughout the play, Faustus never questions God's supremacy or God's ability to grant him redemption or damn him to hell for eternity.
Dr. Frankenstein is absolutely in awe of the science of attempting to create life, categorizing it at times as "evil," and at other times as "noble and godlike."
For Dr. Frankenstein, it's all about the science. Bringing "the being" to life is certainly his goal, but the goal is secondary to the science itself.
For Doctor Faustus, it's all about the pleasure and the fame.
Nothing else matters to either character until they're forced to realize and accept the consequences of their actions.