Reading Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus: Faustus as Flawed Everyman
Once he obtains these powers, however, he seems only to waste them performing little tricks and never succeeds in doing anything nearly as grand as what he had initially imagined. As Faustus clearly fails to utilize his abilities to their fullest, he becomes a sort of symbol for the failure of humankind to realize their full potential.
Faustus embodies ultimately paradoxical and self-destructive human characteristics such as being self-assured to a fault while also struggling with self doubt, being well educated yet also illogical, and having grown to maturity yet retaining child-like behaviors. These personality traits do not simply portray Faustus’s inability to follow through with his intentions, but portray his subsequent downfall – and ultimately point to mankind’s tendency towards static inaction as well.
Faustus’s cockiness is first suggested within the prologue when he is described as
Excelling all . . .
Till, swollen with cunning, of a self conceit,
His waxen wings did mount above his reach.
(“Doctor Faustus” 18-21)
Because Faustus comes to see himself as above others of his kind, he is no longer content to be the learned doctor that he was widely recognized as, even though he seems to revel in his infamy. He feels that someone of his intelligence could and should be doing more than just working as a physician; in fact, he feels that through necromancy – black magic – he could “reign soul king of all [German] provinces (Scene 1: 94).”
Faustus rejects all that he has studied, even condemns philosophy, law, medicine, and divinity as “unpleasant, harsh, contemptible, and vile” (109), while embracing necromancy for the ultimate power and prestige which he could obtain by means of spirits who, he believes, would
fetch [him] what [he] please[s],
Resolve [him] of all ambiguities,
Perform what desperate enterprise [he] will.
(79-81)
Faustus’s wishes for power, recognition, wealth, and even servitude are ripe for comparison with mankind’s history of competition for these exact same ideals.
In spite of Faustus’s obvious pride in himself, he also engages in a fairly constant struggle with self doubt and denial. Though on some level he feels that “a sound magician is a mighty god” (62), he still worries about the repercussions of the contract he signed pledging his soul to the devil.
This manifests itself in what could be construed as psychological breakdowns that consist of Faustus arguing with himself as to the state of his soul and the future consequences of his actions. While he considers repenting, he seems to lack steadfastness, talking himself in and out of repentance in a moment’s notice:
Faustus will turn to God again.
To God? He loves thee not:
the god thou servest is thine own appetite
Wherein is fixed the love of Belzebub.
(Scene 5: 9-12)
It seems that ultimately no choice Faustus makes will satiate his hunger or calm his mind. The only god he claims to want to serve is himself, but even if that were a possibility, Faustus would likely remain in a state of turmoil. His inability to decide once and for all whether or not he should repent indicates his lack of self awareness – that is to say, that despite whatever continents Faustus lists as wanting to conquer and however many items he considers sending his spirit Mephastophilis to fetch for him, at core he has no idea what he truly wants, what would truly slake his endless thirst.
This makes Faustus seem infinitely human and vulnerable; despite all his boasting and the confidence he tries to project, he is just as uncertain, faltering, and naive as many people remain as they stumble through their lives. Faustus, of course, is an extreme example of uncertainty – fluctuating between such polar opposites as redemption and willful condemnation.
Upon inspection, Faustus’s logic seems incredibly unsound, despite the fact that he is a highly educated man. When he begins to practice necromancy and conjures the spirit Mephastophilis, he is not deterred from pledging himself to Lucifer no matter to what extent Mephastophilis describes the reality of hell. Before Faustus even commits himself to damnation, Mephastophilis explains that
this is hell. . .
Think’st though that I, who saw the face of God,
And tasted the eternal joys of heaven,
Am not tormented with ten thousand hells
In being deprived of everlasting bliss?
(Scene 3: 76-80)
Faustus responds to this by dismissing Mephastophilis, telling him to “learn . . . manly fortitude, / And scorn those joys thou never shalt posses” (85-86). Even when the truth about hell is being told to Faustus by a spirit he summoned forth, Faustus won’t listen because he’d rather not believe in it. Again, this seems to illustrate a basic feature of humanity: to disbelieve even when evidence of the truth is at hand.
Moments after cutting his arm open and using his own blood to write a contract that pledges his body and soul to Lucifer, Faustus insists that “hell’s a fable” (Scene 5: 126) and then wonders if Mephastophilis “[thinks]. . . that Faustus shall be damned” (129). Somehow Faustus is willing to believe in the devil, but not in hell; he is able to compose and sign a contract which damns him, but fails to believe that he will actually be damned. Faustus even has the audacity to ask himself, “What god can hurt thee, Faustus? Thou art safe, / Cast no more doubts” (25-26).
But surely Faustus’s biggest shortcoming of all is his failure to do anything spectacular with the power he achieves through Mephastophilis. Though he dreams of ruling the world, rearranging the continents, and living in “a world of profit and delight, / Of power, of honor, of omnipotence” (Scene 1: 53-54), Faustus becomes little more than like a politician who promises substantial change only to abandon these promises once the votes are in.
Power is like a toy to Faustus, something which he uses for amusement; he fails to take it seriously once he obtains it. Instead, Faustus is content to stop by the Pope’s chambers and perform petty tricks such as stealing his dish and his glass, then boxing his ears and running away.
Faustus also visits the Emperor while he is in Rome and punishes a mouthy knight by making horns appear on his head. All Faustus really does is behave immaturely; making things appear or disappear hardly seems worth the sacrifice of his soul. Perhaps if Faustus had at least used his powers to their greatest extent, his twenty-four years of absolute power would seem more comparable to an eternity in hell. As it is, Faustus begs God in his final hours to
Impose some end to my incessant pain
Let Faustus live in hell a thousand years,
A hundred thousand, and at last be saved
(Scene 13: 91-94).
Faustus can only dismiss his pride and finally ask for forgiveness at the absolute last moment before his death – he recognizes that he was wrong, or perhaps just pretends to, when hell is the only thing left for him.
Faustus, in his downward spiral towards condemnation, embodies the paradoxical elements that plague mankind, such as pride mixed with constant self doubt, knowledge and yet ignorance, and maturity colored with immaturity. These characteristics contribute to Faustus’s inability to fulfill his dreams – and ultimately, these are the same characteristics which keep mankind from realizing its full potential.
