Is it just me, or is
the fact that Dr. Faustus looks over the parts of The Bible that refute him
hilarious? The best kind of bias is when you ignore evidence that doesn’t match
what you want to prove! I can’t help but question how a man who is so educated
can be so stupid. (Oh yeah, he is human!) Overall, I don’t think this Faustus
guy is very smart. I mean, why is he so excited to have just 24 years of having
a servant? Why didn't he ask for at least 100 years?
Dr. Faustus also is
very indecisive about this soul-selling business. He wonders if his blood is an
omen, and he questions why Lucifer wants his soul, but he dismisses these
concerns. Faustus seems to easily accept that he belongs in hell one way or
another, and he wants to have fun while he can. The one time he seems to be to
closest to going back to reading The Bible and wanting to be saved by God— he has
already sold his soul to Lucifer and is forbidden from talking about it. It is
unsettling that he keeps second-guessing himself and talking about salvation
from God even after he sells his soul, but I guess I would be more concerned if
he never questioned his decision. I would probably do the same thing if I did
something drastic like that, but hopefully before it was too late.
A friend of mine brought
up the idea that “all powerful and knowing” has changed meaning over time.
Nowadays, we think it means having an impressive, all-encompassing scholarly
comprehension of the world around us. We think that if we knew everything, we
would win Jeopardy, end world hunger, and etc. At the time Dr. Faustus was written, “limitless knowledge” meant knowing how to
perform dark magic— so pretty much Frankenstein’s monster, water-into-wine, Houdini
stunts. What I am trying to say is, this book is pretty cool, even if I am
either laughing at or aggravated with Dr. Faustus.
Nope, it's not just you Laura. It is interesting that he picks and chooses what biblical beliefs and reasonings go along with what he wants his image and morals to be. He is human, but he is also educated and those people who are educated know better than to simply memorize and repeat biblical verses verbatim and would rather question everything. He is a philosopher after all, which means he would never really find pleasure in one simple, definitive answer.
ReplyDeleteI also don't like that he is second guessing himself about his contract with the devils. It is good in a way that he has some morals, even though in a moment of weakness he has a lapse judgment, but it's good to see him stop and reconsider even if it is too late. However, I would hope that such a wise and educated person would think his decisions through thoroughly and clearly before making a decision. Fine. You're bored and want to try something new. You pick magic. But shouldn't you read up on magic and it's dangers and shouldn't you figure out if you're okay with spending eternity in hell if that's what you're signing up for. Don't do the crime if you can't do the time. I don't know if he thinks he's superior to the rules of hell or if he thinks these twenty four years will allow him to outsmart hell. Somehow I feel that these twenty four years will be him trying to avoid hell and ending in right in it by doing so. There is a very Greek hubris, running from fate feel to all of this.
Faustus is definitely a greedy dude. Combine that with pride and there's no way he would admit he was wrong about selling his soul. It's nice that he considered doing some charity work, but he always came first, and every time the Good/Bad Angels appeared on his shoulder, all it took was the Bad Angel saying, "Yeah but you could be rich" to get Faustus right back on the wrong path. You're definitely right though, he should've asked for more years...
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