Various themes in doctor faustus

This presentation is a part of my academic presentation of The Renaissance literature Semester 1 of Department English MA English, MKBU and it is submitted to Prof. Dr. Dilip Barad Sir.

1. Name: Rinkal jani Roll no: 30 Sam: 1 Paper : The renaissance literature Topic: Various themes in Dr. Faustus Submitted to: Smt. S.B Gardi Department of English Maharaja Krishnakumarsinghji Bhavnagar university

2. “ Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work “

3. Various themes in Doctor Faustus Pride of Dr. Faustus - hubris Quest for knowledge Quest for power Over Ambitious nature of Dr.Fuastus Sin, redemption & damnation Divided nature of man Good versus Evil Conflict between renaissance and medieval

4. Pride of Dr. Faustus : Hubris The major theme of Doctor Faustus Faustus is swollen by pride The Pride which goes before a fall. His sins become his pride , Faustus ’ sin is not his practice of necromancy, but his denial of God’s power and majesty. His pride is the source of his damnation. All the other sins committed by him are various aspects of the sin of pride The Pride of a man who refuses to accept limitations of human knowledge He has to pay fore his arrogance and pride Faustus hubris was because he loved the materialistic life.

5. Quest for knowledge Central theme He examines all the orthodox branches of knowledge and finds them wanting. Quest for knowledge; inadequate, unsatisfying and incomplete He chooses magic, for it promises “a world of profit and delight, /Of power, of honor, of omnipotence.” For twenty- four years, he seeks experience of all kinds. However, finally, his knowledge brings him despair instead of freedom. Why? Concept of means and ends His path is his error of Judgment

6. Quest for Power A desire to be ‘Omnipotent’ or ‘demigod’. Misuses the power All these his performances are far removed from his first confident assertion that “a sound magician is a demi-god.” Faustus’ power is illusory, since at each stage he depends upon Mephistophilis.

7. Sin, redemption and Damnation Christian ideology First, there is the idea of sin, which Christianity defines as acts contrary to the will of God. Faustus commits what is in a sense the ultimate sin: not only does he disobey God, but he consciously and even eagerly renounces obedience to him, choosing instead to swear allegiance to the devil . Each time, Faustus decides to remain loyal to hell rather than seek heaven. In the Christian framework, this turning away from God condemns him to spend an eternity in hell. Only at the end of his life does Faustus desire to repent, and, in the final scene, he cries out to Christ to redeem him. But it is too late for him to repent. Faustus is still alive but incapable of being redemen Faustus spends his final moments in a slightly different universe, where redemption is no longer possible and where certain sins can not be forgive

8. The Conflict between Medieval and Renaissance Values R.M . Dawkins : Doctor Faustus’ tells “the story of a Renaissance man who had to pay the medieval price for being one.” `the heart of one of the play’s central themes T he clash between the medieval world and the world of the emerging Renaissance . “Dr. Faustus” put human at the center The medieval world placed God at the center of existence and shunted aside man and the natural world . The Renaissance is Rise of Humanism where men at the center In the medieval academy, theology was the queen of the sciences. In the Renaissance, though, secular matters took center stage.

9. Power as a Corrupting Influence Universal theme Once Faustus actually gains the practically limitless power that he so desires, however, his horizons seem to narrow. H is ambition is somehow sapped. It is not that power has corrupted Faustus by making him evil: indeed, Faustus’s behavior after he sells his soul hardly rises to the level of true wickedness . Rather, gaining absolute power corrupts Faustus by making him mediocre and by transforming his boundless ambition into a meaningless delight in petty celebrity. Faustus is curse to hi mean. He has gained the whole world, but he does not know what to do with it .

10. The Divided Nature of Man To say something about man nature is difficult PuzzNature of Faustus Faustus is constantly undecided about whether he should repent and return to God or continue to follow his pact with Lucifer. His internal struggle goes on throughout the play, as part of him of wants to do good and serve God, but part of him (the dominant part, it seems) lusts after the power that Mephastophilis promises. Appearance of Good and bad Angel

11. Good versus Evil Universal theme Good angel versus bad Angel Ultimately devil is win