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

Christopher Marlowes Dr. Faustus - Corrupted by an Insatiable Desire for Knowledge, riches And PowerThe Renaissance period is characterized by a grand believe for acqui investion of knowledge and a passion for emerging individuality. Scholars and educators . . . began to emphasize the capacities of the clement mind and the achievements of homo culture, in contrast to the medieval emphasis on divinity 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 genius 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 mankindkinds campaign to balance new ideas with existing traditional thoughts as the world neared the seventeenth century. At the time this play was written, Elizabethans saw the world as a vast, unified, hierarchical order, or Great Chain of Being, created by God (139). At the precise 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. Humans were believed to sit just above the animals, as they possessed souls and free will. It is said that universe could develop and reside a little lower than the angels or pervert and fall to the level of the animals (139). Faustus is striving to rise towards the angels in his quest for human advancement, just now 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 expression and a shocking storyline. The plays tragic conclusion marks Marlowes detachment from the esprit de corps plays of his generation. Its tragic conclusion leaves the Renaissance audience wi th a sense of despair, but also with a resolve to avoid the wicked desires embodied by Faustus. Works Cited Barnett, Sylvan, ed. Doctor Faustus / Christopher Marowe edited and with an introd. by Sylvan Barnett. revolutionary York New American Library, 1969.Etienne, Gilson. Reasons and Revelations in the Middle Ages. New York New York, 1938.Marlowe, Christopher. Doctor Faustus. The wizardry of the Early English Theatre. Sylvan Barnet, Morton Berman & William Burto, eds. New York Meridian, 1990. 95-161. Slights, William. New Ways of looking for at the Renaissance. Binghamton, New York Renaissance English Text Society, 1993.