Faustus

Doctor Faustus opens with a depiction of Faustus as the perfect Renaissance man. "He is partly an artist, who does not wish to glorify God, as his medieval predecessors did, but to applaud and please man; he is partly a scientist and philosopher, whose hope is to make man more godlike and not to justify his miserable life on earth; and, most significantly he is a Protestant, a Lutheran by training who has attempted through Reformation to escape the evils he associates with a Roman Catholic Church." As the epitome of Renaissance man, Faustus believes that he can infinitely improve himself. Faustus considers his life before his deal with Lucifer as one that has gone as far as current interests may carry him. He notes in the opening scene "Then read no more; thou hast attained the end. / A greater subject fitteth Faustus' wit: / Bid philosophy farewell" . To complete his life Faustus considers following God, however after reading from the Bible he decides that God cannot offer him truth, "The reward of sin is death. That's hard. /…/If we say that we have no sin / We deceive ourselves, and there's no truth in us. / Why then belike / We must sin and so consequently die, Ay, we must die an everlasting death/…/…Divinity, adieu!".

Having denied God completely leaves Faustus completely desolated from society, In acceptance of Mephistopheles, Faustus completely denies society and all that has been handed to him by science and learning. "Marlowe shows that one who rejects his intellectual, social, and spiritual inheritance experiences pain of personal isolation, anxiety, dread, and meaninglessness". Finally, Faustus turns to magic as his method to improve himself infinitely. Faustus' decision to become a magician marks the fatal culmination of his attempt to improve himself infinitely. At this point, Faustus notes, "A sound magician is a mighty god / Here, Faustus, try thy brains to gain a deity" . This marks the crossover from attempting to improve himself as a mortal and attempting to become immortal. He believes that magic is his only feasible option to become immortal. "He dismisses divinity because it seems to invite a hateful determinism which denies the real freedom to 'settle', 'begin', and 'be'". Faustus' deal with Lucifer ultimately commits Faustus to this belief. By making a deal with Lucifer, he is putting into practice his belief that he can make himself immortal and challenge both God and death. Clearly, Faustus must believe that God exists since he empirically knows that Lucifer exists.

Even though Faustus knows that God exists he states, "The word damnation terrifies him not [Faustus]" . This early lack of fear of damnation in Faustus stems from two different sources. The first of these two sources is Mephistopheles. Mephistopheles, Lucifer's diplomat, performs his function of convincing Faustus that he need not worry about damnation perfectly. Mephistopheles begins by describing Heaven as a place that is not that wonderful by stating, "Why, Faustus, / Thinkst thou heaven is such a glorious thing? / I tell thee, 'tis not half so fair as thou, / Or any man that breathes on earth" . Mephistopheles also distracts Faustus from his worry by presenting him with shows such as the seven deadly sins and Helen of Troy. Faustus experiences his own personal hell. To make it tolerable Mephistopheles offers things to delight his mind – to take his mind off it, have a good time, and enjoy life.

On the other hand, Faustus does not need Mephistopheles to damn him; Faustus himself causes his own damnation. An intense present dominates Faustus' life where he does not seem to care how his actions in the present will cause problems in the future. He seems to believe that anything he does may by rectified very simply. After he signs his contract with Mephistopheles, he exclaims, "O thou art deceived!" . The deception which Faustus is alluding to is that, "When I [Faustus] behold the heavens, then I repent / And curse thee, wicked Mephistopheles, / Because thou hast deprived me of those joys" . A second piece to Faustus' character which contributes to his damnation is his attempts to perfect himself. "He is a man typical of the Renaissance and modern periods because his tragedy occurs because he has too much knowledge" .

This tragic flaw occurs because Faustus is eventually forced to realize that men are limited. "Man is limited not by his own nature, but by the nature of the world which encloses him" (Source 10 158). The world which Faustus lives in treats him as nothing special but an entertainer. He does not receive the ultimate riches and power which he thought that his deal would provide him with. "Faustus thinks to be greater, but as he sees in the court, he is only a superior and honored entertainer. The bitterness of this tragedy lies not only in the nature and wages of sin, but the triviality of the profit and delight the world offers, grace not being present in the soul" (Source 10 130). This limitation placed on Faustus, leaves him completely decimated. Since Faustus cannot ever become completely immortal on his own will, he must turn to God in order to escape his ultimate fate of hell. The story of Beowulf is somewhat similar that of Faustus in terms of its failure as a hero.

Some say that Beowulf lacked characteristics to be a good hero and king. Beowulf lacked nothing he fought all sorts of monsters, dragons and other types of scary creatures. To prove this Beowulf traveled out of his way to fight Grendel , killed Grendel's mom when she stole the kings best friend and killed him, also when Beowulf was an old man and king he fought the dragon by himself with little help from his thanes. One day Beowulf heard of the monster Grendel terrorizing the Danes so being a hero ask King Hygelac if he can travel to the land of the Danes and slaughter Grendel. By doing this it shows that Beowulf has respect for his king and shows that he has all the making for being a hero since he always wants to help out with others problems.

After this Beowulf travels to the land of the Danes and goes after Grendel with his men, but at the time not knowing that Grendel could only be killed with bare hands. Beowulf then goes and attacks Grendel they fight for awhile and then Beowulf tares off Grendel's arm and kills the beast, the reasoning of pulling off the arm was so he could prove he killed the beast. This segment of his life shows that Beowulf is an ideal hero since he goes and fights others battles which he wouldn't even have to do. After slaying the beast Grendel one of the kings best friend is took and killed by Grendel's mom. Beowulf could have been like I just killed one beast now I have to go kill another one, but he wasn't like that at all he went out for Grendel's mom. Beowulf then travels to the deep dark swamp to go after the evil beast woman. Beowulf goes and fights the beast in the water for a really long time, being a smart guy he finds the only sword that can kill Grendel's mother and slaughters her with it. For the second time in his life Beowulf does a another huge good deed just to help people that he never even met before now that a great hero. Later in Beowulf's life he is king and is a really old man and really has no fight at all left in him.