Dr. Faustus Moral Dilemmas

In Christopher Marlowe’s play, Dr. Faustus, he writes a story of a doctor who sells his soul to the devil for twenty- four years in exchange for limits of knowledge. Dr. Faustus reflects on scholarly ideas in the first scene. He quotes Aristotle, Galen, Justinian, and Jerome’s Bible. He then dismisses all of their philosophies and sets his mind to magic. When Faustus rejects the other scholarly ideas, he sets out to become his own person seeking knowledge from magic and wanting to know everything there is to know. He believes pursuing magic will make him “a mighty god” (Scene 1.5). Before he dismissed all of the ideas, he looked at religion. With the entire Bible he could have used, Faustus finds a somewhat negative verse that says “The reward of sin is death.” Faustus states another verse, “If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and there’s no truth in us.” He then continues to say, “Why then, belike we must sin and so consequently die.” (Scene 1.4). I believe Faustus wanted higher things than God and thought magic could get him that. Going throughout the play having this kind of mindset, Faustus deals with many dilemmas by the choices he made including his yearning for knowledge and the theme of how he is divided within himself.

Faustus never really gave the other philosophies a chance. He went through them, and as it seemed he thought about it, but he quickly brushed them aside for the thought of magic. He states, “Philosophy is odious and obscure. / Both law and physic are for petty wits; / Divinity is basest of the three, / Unpleasant, harsh, contemptible, and vile.” (Scene 1.6). Faustus’ character flaw is that he wants to know everything there is for him to know. Faustus states, “Ay, these are those that Faustus most desires. / O what a world of profit and delight / Of power, of honour, of omnipotence / Is promis’d to the studious artisan!” (Scene 1.5). He is unsatisfied with just knowing a little bit. Faustus wants more than what he has and more than what he can get. Not one single person can know everything. Though as he knows more than most, he still wants more. He believes making a deal with the devil will get him what he wants. That is where Faustus becomes very ignorant. He is a knowledge and power hungry person. Faustus says to the devil before making the deal, “To give me whatsoever I shall ask. / To tell me whatsoever I demand. / To slay mine enemies and aid my friends, / And always be obedient to my will.” (Scene 3.14). All Faustus wants is his desires, and as it is shown he will do anything, like sell his soul to the devil, to get those.

Throughout the play, there is a theme of a divided self and Faustus is divided within himself. He has a divided soul dealing with what he actually needs and what he thinks he needs, or what he wants. He confuses his needs with his curiosities and his interests. Honestly, that is a common mistake to have, even in today’s society. The only difference is it is very unlikely today to hear about someone selling their soul to the devil to get all of those things. One example of how Faustus has a divided soul, is the good angel and evil angel. In scene five, Faustus begins to think about actually selling his soul to the devil. The good and evil angels appear in the scene. The good angel states, “Sweet Faustus, think of Heaven, and heavenly things.” as the evil angel states, “No, Faustus, think of honour and of wealth.” (Scene 5.19). This is a good representation of how Faustus’ soul is divided because he still hears from both sides, the good and bad angels, so he must know he is doing something wrong. He continuously regrets his choices though. For example, Faustus says right before he is about to sign the deal with the devil, “...But, Mephistophilis, / My blood congeals, and I can write no more.” (Scene 5.21). Although he regrets that decision, he still went through with it. Faustus seems to understand that what he is doing is not a good thing, that it is very bad. He is aware of what is bad and good but still chooses to do the bad.

Dr. Faustus has to battle through his decisions to make a deal with the devil and deal with his consequences. There are people just like Dr. Faustus in today’s society who will do anything to become the smartest person or have the most power, just maybe not go to the extreme and sell their soul for twenty- four years. Dealing with the choices you made and having regrets on them is what makes us human. That being said, I believe Dr. Faustus was pursuing what he wanted, he just went about it the wrong way.