Character Sketch of Doctor Faustus

 

Faustus is the central figure of Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus. Faustus is a character ideal to be the hero of a tragedy where man alone is the maker of his fate, good or bad. He falls, not by the fickleness of fortune or the decree of fate, or because he has been corrupted by Mephistophilis, the agent of Lucifer, the Devil, but because of his own will.

Faustus is an ordinary German born in a humble family who goes to Wittenberg for higher studies, mainly supported by his kinsmen. But in course of time, he graces the golden field of learning and before long obtains a Doctor’s in Divinity for his unsurpassed skill in dispute on heavenly problems. He has attained mastery over various branches of study. Thus Faustus is a break from the traditional concept of the tragic hero to the extent that he is not of royalty or any noble parentage. But he is great all the same, because of his scholarship.

He possesses rich imaginative faculty. He cherishes the idea that as a magician he will be greater than emperors and kings, and his dominion will stretch “as far as doth the mind of man.” He will become a mighty God. Endowed with exceptional imaginative power, he visualizes as a magician the bright dreams of his future.

Faustus is not satisfied with his vast knowledge in various subjects of the university, for still, he is an ordinary man. Faustus wants to be a superman; he wants to be a “mighty God.” He is “swollen with cunning and of a self-conceit”—to such an extent that he becomes the “Icarus” of classical mythology. And he aspires on the artificial wings of his knowledge to soar above human limits, to reach the status of a “Jove in the sky.” Pride is the sin for which the angels fell.

Faustus stands not for a character, not for a man, but for Man, for Everyman. The grim tragedy that befalls him is not a personal tragedy, but a tragedy that overtakes all those who dare “practice more than heavenly power permits.” The terrible conflict that goes on in his mind is not particular to him alone, but common to all who waver between opposites.

Faustus’ choice of necromancy is made after inner conflict. The appearance of the Good Angel and the Bad Angel side by side are the personifications of his good and evil impulses. His conventional heart is opposed to his self-damnation and this is clearly hinted when his blood congeals as he proceeds to write: “Faustus delivers his soul to the Devil.”

The doubts and fears which rock the mind of Faustus are not of one character alone: these doubts and fears about hell, heaven, God, salvation and damnation have been experienced by all inquisitive men of all ages. Faustus wavers between his Good and Evil angels, between God and Devil, so we may see Marlowe hesitating between the submissive acceptance of a dogmatic system and a pagan simplicity of outlook to which instinct and temperament prompted him. It will be hard to condemn Marlowe as an atheist. His skeptical and rebellious temperament was not simply his personal tendency; rather he was impressed by the prevailing tendency for free thinking on religious matters. In the same sense, Faustus, with all their doubts and fears about hell and damnation, believes in Christ and God. Faustus in the beginning is a bold, defiant and adventurous spirit of the Renaissance but at the approach of his doom, he reaffirms his faith in Christ.