Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Doctor Faustus as a tragic hero

Doctor Faustus is the most famous play of Christopher Marlowe and

this play alone has perhaps made that his name will be mortal in the
history of English literature and English drama. This play shows that he
was of high skilled as a playwright and he could write very good
drama. It is a tragedy of Doctor Faustus that is the main point of this
play.
Before moving on further, we should discuss about the definition of a
tragic hero. A tragic hero is obviously a hero of a tragedy drama.
However, this is not enough. Perhaps the first tragic hero in history of
drama is Oedipus in ‘Oedipus Rex’ of Sophocles. There we could find
that Oedipus in the end suffers tragic consequence but he was higher
than ordinary people. This matter is very important. A hero of the
tragedy should not be an ordinary man but should be some higher and
extra ordinary. He is exceptional than other people.
From this point of view, perhaps we can say that Doctor Faustus is a
good example of tragic hero. If we look at the opening scene then we
will notice that he was unhappy because he grew tired of life. He was a
scholar and he wanted new knowledge. He got all the knowledge but
except black magic. He realized that he did not have all the knowledge
and there was something missing. So, he sought the new knowledge
and he was not afraid of it. He was also not afraid of anything a deal
with Lucifer and Mephistopheles.
After Doctor Faustus could make a deal with Mephistopheles then he
started to enjoy all the knowledge but the main problem is that
instead of gaining more knowledge, he became hungry for power. He
wanted to be the boss of everyone and he wanted that other obey
him. This is the thing that ultimately leads him into the tragedy. This is
the thing that perhaps also takes away the sympathy from the
audience.
I think that the main problem of Doctor Faustus is that he was proud
and he was greedy. Although, he was thirsty for knowledge but in his
character, there was a mixture of knowledge and power both. He was
not happy along with knowledge but he wanted to become the
dominant person. That is why, I think that his tragic flow was pride
and thirst. He was also very proud and not satisfied with the things he
got. His pride makes him abnormal and this way he wanted to make a
deal with the devil despite knowing after a certain period of time his
soul will be captured and he will suffer eternal damnation. The last
scene perhaps disappoints the audience because there we can find that
 Doctor Faustus hopeless and desperate. He wanted to get back his
belief on god and Jesus Christ. He regretted a lot why he made the
deal with Lucifer. He perhaps wanted another chance from god. It is
clear that if he got another chance or opportunity from god then he
would not waste it and he would denounced Lucifer and come back
into the way of god.
I think that Doctor Faustus is a renaissance tragic hero. Like many
other people in renaissance time, he had the desire to go beyond the
limit of knowledge and religion. He also challenged religion but in the
end he could not win over religion. The struggle between religion and
the new class of educated people who were secular by nature is
perhaps the main theme of renaissance. Thus, I think that Doctor
Faustus was a renaissance tragic hero.