Argumentative Essay Characterizing Faustus

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Argumentative Essay Characterizing Faustus
“The Tragic History of Doctor Faustus” is the work of Christopher Marlowe. Faustus was a doctor involved in the study of law, theology, logic, and medicine. However, he became dissatisfied with his career forcing him to look for alternatives in dangerous practices of magic or necromancy. In the new line of business, he was assisted by two magic experts from Germany, Cornelius and Wagner Valdes. The role of this essay is to explore the critical debate surrounding the discussion by Marlowe. My stand is that the play holds “Faustus as an example of damning folly.’ Similarly, there are explanations of Faustus being equated to ‘a romantic rebel,’ facts which are further attributed to the ‘damning folly’ as illustrated by Faustus.
The aspect of romanticism is expressed by the excerpt which states “When Mephistopheles shall stand by me, What God can hurt thee, Faustus? Thou art safe;” (Marlowe and Bevington, 151). The illustration portrays Faustus denying his knowledge of God with the claim that he is untouchable. For this reason, Faustus is described as a romantic rebel who defies God’s glory. He goes ahead and damns himself further by stating that “I cut my arm, and with my proper blood Assure my soul to be great Lucifer’s,” (Marlowe and Bevington, 151). The passage illustrates Faustus cutting his arm to enable him to place his name on blood as a sign of giving his entire soul to the Lucifer. All these are a direct illustration of Faustus acting as a damning folly who later puts his life in jeopardy.

Faustus can be said to be a classic example of ‘a damning folly.’ There is an excerpt which directly points to these allegations. “His waxen wings did mount above his reach, And melting heavens conspired his overthrow” (Duxfield, 66). The passage is referring to Icarus, a story of a man who attempted to escape Crete with the use of wings. It is his father who had crafted these wings using feathers and wax for him to use. According to Icarus, he saw it not fit to obey instructions of flying near the sun. For this reason, he went past the sun thus being affected by hotness, causing the wax to melt. He felt down straight to the sea and drowned there.
The illustration of the man falling from the sky and drowning in the sea elucidates the character of Icarus, a tragedy caused by being over-ambitious. Such a theme applies perfectly to the tale by Faustus, the reason being the fact that the over-ambition nature of Faustus damns him to a life-long suffering, eternally. It creates a powerful illustration of an individual doomed to external suffering. For this analysis, there is a strong belief to the element of Doctor Faustus becoming a damning folly in this entire experiment. According to the Good Angel, there is a statement which alleges that any temptation is what leads to the element of damnation, an equivalent of hell. These same allegations are proofed by Faustus when he goes ahead to risk damnation.
The play by Christopher Marlowe illustrates the character of Faustus as a romantic rebel and at the same time, an example of ‘damning folly.’ The element of a romantic rebel is explained by Faustus attempts to cut his arm and signing his name on blood to signify his allegiance to the devil. However, there is more of damning fully illustrated by Faustus than the depiction of a romantic rebel. Additionally, the aspect of foolishness is illustrated further by the character of Faustus falling from the sky due to his over ambitiousness. Such an element makes him fall into the sea and drowns, causing a tragedy of eternal suffering.
Works Cited
Duxfield, Andrew. Christopher Marlowe and the Failure to Unify. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2015.
Marlowe, Christopher, and David M. Bevington. Tamburlaine: Parts I and Ii. Oxford [u.a.: Clarendon Press, 1998. Print.