Faustus epitomises the dangers of knowledge without morality. Do you agree?

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Faustus epitomises the dangers of knowledge without morality.  Do you agree?

        From the outset of Marlowe’s play ‘Doctor Faustus,’ it is clear that Faustus is a man who is unwilling to accept the limitations of human knowledge.  In seeking to become more than a man, with no regard for the spiritual consequences, he becomes an example to the religious audience of Marlowe’s time of what happens when a man pursues knowledge undeterred by moral boundaries.

        From the outset of the play, Faustus appears to be driven by his thirst for knowledge.  The chorus introduces him as ‘glutted…with learning’s golden gifts,’ and led by his desire to further expand his knowledge he ‘surfeits upon cursed necromancy.’   Here, I noticed that imagery connected with food and overindulgence is used to illustrate the scholastic gluttony that seems to control Faustus’ actions, as though by learning he were feeding a hunger.  His own words at the beginning of the play, which are interspersed with the names of works he has studied and phrases in foreign languages, immediately convey his strongly academic nature.  Showing the importance Faustus attaches to learning, his first request of Mephastophilis is for knowledge relating to the whereabouts of hell, and he later continues to question the demon on astrology and philosophical issues.  He also receives a number of books from both Mephastophilis and Lucifer, which he vows to ‘keep as chary as my life,’ and uses his twenty four years before damnation to continue his studies, seeking to ‘prove cosmography’ and becoming renowned for his ‘learned skill’ as ‘his fame spread forth in every land.’  Born from ‘parents of base stock’ and rising to greatness beyond the normal scope of man, I think that Faustus could be seen as a Renaissance hero were it not for the misdirection of his knowledge towards evil.

        Faustus’ pride in his knowledge and abilities is an important factor in his downfall.  Using imagery relating to the Greek myth of Daedalus and Icarus, the first chorus illustrates the effect this important character flaw has on his actions with the metaphor, ‘his waxen wings did mount above his reach,’ extended with the ideas of ‘melting’ and ‘falling’ which occur in later lines.  This conveys the central theme of attempting to violate appropriate human boundaries by reaching too far, and given Faustus’ motivation, shown in the line, ‘swollen with cunning, of a self conceit,’ also reveals his pride.  Like Icarus, Faustus does not see the danger of the excessive belief in his abilities until it is too late.  Reaching further and further into forbidden realms, he overlooks a critical danger, the threat of eternal damnation, because blinded by pride and the belief that he cannot be wrong, he rejects even the evidence in front of his own eyes.  An example of this is that when confronted with the demon Mephastophilis’ depiction of hell, Faustus responds with disbelief, replying, ‘Come, I think hell’s a fable,’ and diminishing religious issues by describing them as ‘trifles and mere old wives’ tales.’  Despite appearing to believe in ‘God, that made the world,’ I think that he distances himself from Him and seems to think that he will somehow receive special treatment due to his mental superiority.  Even in his last words of the play as he is dragged off to hell, he confuses the spiritual with the intellectual world with regard to the reason for his damnation in his vow to redeem himself, ‘I’ll burn my books!’  He still does not appear to recognise the nature of his sins.  Faustus purports to know the nature of faith as a teacher of theology, but his mistake is in assessing and scrutinising religion from a scholarly perspective that prevents him from truly understanding the issues or applying his knowledge to his own life.  Thus he shows that faith relies upon a blind belief that he lacks, instead focusing too much on factual evidence and rationality.  

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        It is due to his sacrilegious aspirations to be more than a man, to ‘gain a deity,’ that Faustus decides to discard his earthly studies, turning instead to ‘conjuring’ as a new challenge to his abilities.  Believing that ‘a sound magician is a mighty god,’ he desires the power and knowledge magic offers him and appears to have no objection to its demonic source, as he is quick to pledge that ‘There is no chief but only Beelzebub, To whom Faustus doth dedicate himself.’  Faustus is shown as a character led by a thirst for knowledge, who vitally does not ...

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