IndexIntroductionChristian Messages in Doctor FaustusConclusionWorks CitedIntroductionThe traditional Christian message that Christopher Marlowe was working with during the time he wrote Doctor Faustus stated that one should avoid leading a life of temptation and sin, whose origins lay in an enterprising owner of evil generally called the Devil. But if someone succumbs to these humiliations, atonement is always possible as long as the person is alive. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Faustus serves as a representative of the common man, or at least one type of common man: he is an expert seeker of knowledge; the knowledge at his disposal is not enough to satisfy him. Faustus is described as a character of "cunning and conceit" whose "waxy wings rose above his reach." Indeed, the passionate Icarus is an ideal foil for the tragic Faust. Icarus embodies the idea of ​​inventiveness gone awry, of humans pushing the limits of human knowledge and attempting a compatibility with the divine that cannot be achieved. Although his father Daedalus had warned him not to fly too close to the sun because it would melt his wings, and not to fly too close to the sea because it would dampen them and make flight difficult, Icarus' elation at the feat of flying caused him to cross boundaries he shouldn't have crossed, untying his wings until he fell to his death. Seeking truth in the divine is not a sin, but it is a difficult and arduous task. Faust gives up the task of understanding the divine and seeks a simpler source of knowledge: the devil. Despite the Good Angel's warnings that the venture he undertakes will be fruitless, Faustus follows the Bad Angel's path and continues to have his earthly desires satisfied by evil. The presence of this dualism is a symbol of Faustus' conscience and implies an innate ability to distinguish between right and wrong. Marlowe's point, then, is to emphasize that the decision to be evil is indeed a decision; evil is behavior that is drawn out of us, not implanted within us, by a devil. Christian Messages in Doctor Faustus The tragedy of Doctor Faustus is the fact that the modern world is more interested in who and what the devil is than in who and what the divine is. It is initially difficult to understand why the reader should blame Faustus for contractually binding his soul to Lucifer. Faustus' companion on his diabolical journey is a servant of Lucifer named Mephistopheles. When Fausto asks him what the exact location of Hell is, Mephistopheles replies: "In the bowels of these elements, where we are tortured and remain forever." Hell has no limits, nor is it limited to a single place, but where we are is hell, and where there is hell we must always be. And, to make a long story short, when the whole world dissolves and every creature is purified, all places will be a hell that is not paradise." Here Marlowe presents the humanist concept of Hell, namely that Hell is any place devoid of divinity, and since only Heaven contains divinity, everything below is Hell, including the world we live in. Essentially, it is the very nature of the human condition to be as close to Hell as possible. Faustus only does what is natural in a moment of pain or discomfort: finding a distraction, as in Pascal's idea of ​​divertissement. If we are unable to think thoughts that give us our dignity, thoughts that grasp the divine as closely as possible, we might as well divert our attention to something more pleasant,which in this case is the sensory stimulation that the devils provide to Faustus. The distractions experienced by Faustus are not only in the spectacles provided by Lucifer, but are also in the tricks that Faustus plays once he is granted power after making the pact with Lucifer. Faustus' initial noble plans for his powers that be are a bit ridiculous (for example, he wants to redesign the globe, integrating Africa into Europe so that it is easier to plunder), but they are almost heroic. His plans certainly don't embody goodness, but they don't embody badness either; they are apparently neutral. His fault is that the only reason he wants to do something is so he can be known for doing it. Perhaps it is because of this weakness that, once he has acquired unlimited power from the pact, he resorts to the deceptions of kings and nobles, among others, who will grant him more tangible results and more easily observable affections. It is quite ironic that after gaining so much power, instead of being elevated to the level that Faustus wished to be elevated to after binding his soul, he is reduced to mediocrity. This can be interpreted as the consequence of rejecting God-ordained greatness and accepting greatness from a temptation. Seeking knowledge in a muddy origin is unproductive; the only way to guarantee prosperity is to accept God. This is the message that is constantly reiterated to Faustus by the Good Angel throughout the play. From time to time it seems that Faustus gives in to the Good Angel's advice. For example, at the moment when Faust meditates in his study with Mephistopheles at his side, Faust seems to come to the conclusion that the only good that can be found is in Heaven, and that Mephistopheles, by taking it on his downward spiral, has deprived it himself of this good. Mephistopheles tells Faustus that Heaven is not as glorious as he perceives it, that it was created only for man. But Faustus says: "If heaven was made for man, it was made for me." I will renounce this magic and repent' [2.3 Line 10]. Yet, even as Faustus says this, the Evil Angel prevents him from doing so out of fear, telling him that the contract binds Faustus to a life of debauchery or he will be torn to pieces by the devils who swore him to Hell. Despite the Good Angel's news that if Faustus renounces Lucifer, he will be saved from any promised torture, Faustus is forced to reclaim evil because the Bad Angel proceeds to offer him eyeglasses and other forms of hedonistic divertissement. Faustus is too weak to expose the evil within him; he is too weak to follow the path of good that is intrinsically in him. As if Faustus was not sufficient proof of dualism in humans which requires free will, and is the cause and origin of evil, the devils themselves are described as having dualistic natures. What was Lucifer if not a fallen angel? An example with more textual support is the character of Mephistopheles himself. Although in an excerpt mentioned above he was portrayed as a sort of "evil angel" for Faustus, a tempter more interested in having his own servant in the underworld, Mephistopheles is also portrayed as a seeker of the divine. On another occasion Faustus was curious about Hell, Mephistopheles answered his questions as follows: 'Why, this is Hell, and I am not out of it. Do you believe that I, who have seen the face of God and have tasted the eternal joys of heaven, am not tormented by ten thousand hells, being deprived of eternal bliss? O Faust, abandon these frivolous requests, which strike terror into my fainting soul.' [1.3, line 75] Describing Mephistopheles as a devil who regrets his condition really seals the deal on what Marlowe means to say about the human condition. The fact that a 1995.