Emma McVicar- Block 4 The Magic of Dr. Faustus In Dr.

Faustus by Christopher Marlowe, Faustus sells his soul to the devil. The first thing that would come to mind would be that things like this never end well. Generally, the character never really experiences true happiness in his experience, and the same principal applies to Faustus. He develops powers that can accomplish things that will make him temporarily happy, but have no lasting effect on his well being. Marlowe describes many of the events that occur in Faustus is period of possession as simple, shallow things, and never show any real depth of the knowledge that Faustus has supposedly obtained, but really, he is showing that Faustus really had no knowledge at all. Even if he did have that sort of mastery, he has no desire to use any of it other than whatever would get him attention and allow him to have some fun. Marlowe was not unaware of how to display Faustus knowledge. He was showing how lacking Faustus was of the promised intelligence. Mephostophilis, the main devil of great influence, tricked Faustus with temptation, convincing him of a great deal of power when really he had very little, and Marlowe showed this very accurately with shallow trickery. One of the first times that Faustus uses his powers is when he harasses the Pope. The only things that he did were become invisible and take the Popes food and hit him for no reason. The knowledge implied by the devil suggests that in some way, Faustus would be able to surpass even the Pope in power and intelligence. The fact that he can take advantage of the Pope creates the illusion that Faustus is more powerful than him, while he really is just using simplistic deception to trick him. The Archbishop says Please it your holiness, I think be some ghost crept out of purgatory and now is come

unto your holiness for his pardon(3.2.79-81). Neither the Pope nor his other wise companions think that this ghost is a threat, they just think is wants forgiveness in order to go to heaven. They see through his magic and realize that he is nothing. Faustus and his black magic can only toy with people who are low on the great chain of being, because clearly, the higher beings cannot be fooled into thinking that Faustus can really do damage. Faustus next victim is a horse courser, who, in the end, was merely cheated out of 40 dollars, and that is nothing near the ambitions that he had at the start. Marlowe most likely put this scene in just for the reason of showing how low Faustus had dropped. He had begun tricking people for small amounts of money, so what was he really gaining? He certainly was not obtaining any respect from his peers on earth and was not getting significantly richer either. The life of Faustus had not changed for the good one bit. The horse courser says in response to the proposed deal I beseech you sir, accept of this. I am a very poor man and have lost very much of late by horse-flesh, and this bargain will set me up again(4.5.8-11). The man has hardly any money and only wants to get on with his life and Faustus has nothing to gain from him. This trick, of making his leg break and scare the horse courser, was merely for his own entertainment. Marlowe shows the real benefits of black magic, and really, they are more like burdens to those around Faustus. An important example of the lack of real power that comes from hell is the origin of Lucifer and the other devils. Faustus demands the reason why Mephostophilis is a devil along with Lucifer. Mephostophilis tells Faustus that devils are Unhappy spirits that fell with Lucifer, conspired against our God with Lucifer, and are forever damned with Lucifer(1.3.69-71). The devils associated with Lucifer are almost in the same

situation as Faustus is. They expected great power after overthrowing God and instead were sent to hell forever, just like Faustus wanted knowledge and received deception. Faustus has been reduced to the same sort of power as Mephostophilis because of his attempts to overthrow great powers like the Pope. Another similarity is how they have both lost connection with heaven. God threw out the devils and the good angel leaves Faustus to go to hell after making the wrong choices. The good angel say as it leaves:
O, thou hast lost celestial happiness, Pleasures unspeakable, bliss without end. Hadst thou affected sweet divinity, Hell or the devil had had no power on thee. Hadst thou kept on that way, Faustus behold In what resplendent glory thou hadst at In yonder throne, like those bright shining saints And triumphed over hell! That hast thou lost. (5.2.113-120)

The angel states how, in heaven, Faustus could have acquired the intelligence and power that he desired and not just short moments of bliss. The contrast between what the angel describes and what Faustus is really experiencing is so large that the angel cannot even remain in his presence because he is about to enter hell. Faustus lost his chance to be good and the consequences for that are never having real satisfaction with his powers and being sent away from anything even related to heaven. Over the course of the book Faustus has spiraled downward in many different ways. His wit is leaving him, his morality is leaving him, his prestigious authority is lowering, and he has no friends who care about him or anyone that loves him. The small party tricks that he executes throughout the story become more and more meaningless towards the end and that was most likely done for a reason. Marlowe wanted to shed a bad light on hell and show that it is a very surface level sort of enjoyment, almost a guilty pleasure. The good angel expresses the joys that Faustus could have experienced in

heaven as everlasting, but now he has been damned to hell for the entirety of his being. In the end, Faustus is alone, in hell, with nothing but a couple of magic tricks and no more knowledge than he had before, and even less dignity.