Christopher Marlowes Dr. Faustus - An Insatiable Desire for Knowledge,

Christopher Marlowes Dr. Faustus - Corrupted by an Insatiable Desire for Knowledge, Wealth And originatorThe Renaissance period is characterized by a grand desire for acquisition of knowledge and a passion for emerging individuality. Scholars and educators . . . began to emphasize the capacities of the tender-hearted intelligence and the achievements of human culture, in contrast to the medieval emphasis on graven image and contempt for the things in this world (Slights 129). However, the whirlwind of change brought on by the budding ideas of Humanist thinkers was met with a cautious warning by one the greatest writers of the era. Christopher Marlowes Dr. Faustus acts as mask, containing and disguising the dramatists criticisms of Renaissance thinking. Christopher Marlowes Dr. Faustus is, in many ways, reflective of humankinds struggle to balance new ideas with existing conventional thoughts as the world neared the 17th century. At the time this play was written, Elizabethans s aw the world as a vast, unified, hierarchical order, or Great Chain of Being, created by God (139). At the very depths of this hierarchy lay the innate objects and at the top sat God and the angels, with the plant and animal kingdoms falling somewhere in the middle. human were believed to sit just above the animals, as they possessed souls and free will. It is said that humans could develop and reside a little lower than the angels or lush and fall to the level of the animals (139). Faustus is striving to rise towards the angels in his quest for human advancement, but ironically, he ends up plummeting to the depths of Hell. The drama Dr. Faustus illustrates Marlowes two main concerns for the human mind at the turn of the 17th ... ...twines the vast differences with prolific language and a shocking storyline. The plays tragic cultivation marks Marlowes detachment from the morale plays of his generation. Its tragic conclusion leaves the Renaissance audience with a sense of despai r, but also with a resolve to avoid the wicked desires embodied by Faustus. Works Cited Barnett, Sylvan, ed. Doctor Faustus / Christopher Marowe change and with an introd. by Sylvan Barnett. unused York New American Library, 1969.Etienne, Gilson. Reasons and Revelations in the Middle Ages. New York New York, 1938.Marlowe, Christopher. Doctor Faustus. The Genius of the Early English Theatre. Sylvan Barnet, Morton Berman & William Burto, eds. New York Meridian, 1990. 95-161. Slights, William. New Ways of Looking at the Renaissance. Binghamton, New York Renaissance English Text Society, 1993.