Student Question

Who is Beelzebub in Doctor Faustus?

Quick answer:

In Doctor Faustus, Beelzebub is the chief of demons. Faustus pledges loyalty to him instead of the Christian God.

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In Doctor Faustus, Beelzebub is the chief of the demons, ranking only below Lucifer, the devil himself. In the play, Faustus pits the Christian God against Beelzebub and openly pledges his loyalty to the latter, saying,

There is no chief but only Belzebub;
To whom Faustus doth dedicate himself.

He again uses Belzebub as the antithesis of God, saying he will

despair in God, and trust in Belzebub.

Later, we get a more refined, though still fairly crude, sense of who Beelzebub is when Faustus says,

The god thou serv'st is thine own appetite,
Wherein is fix'd the love of Belzebub.

Beelzebub thus represents to Faustus the earthly appetites or desires, such as fame, power, or sex. As Faustus believes he wants these things and does not need to fear God, he worships the one he thinks will deliver to him what he desires.

Beelzebub will show up alongside Lucifer and Mephistophilis to watch a play with Faustus about the seven deadly sins, who are personified. This shows Beelzebub's high status in hell.

Faustus seems to admire and respect Beelzebub in the beginning part of the play, because he says he will build him a church and an altar on which he will offer this beloved demon the "lukewarm blood" of infants in a Satanic version of the Eucharist. It is clear from all this that Faustus has studied the demon world prior to making his decision to sell his soul. All of what Faustus says about allegiance to demons would have shocked Elizabethan audiences.

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