Doctor Faustus 733desire to share his good fortune in plans to build
a protective brass wall around Germany, drive the
invading prince of Parma from the provinces, pay
the soldiers fairly, and provide the scholars with silk
garments. But his ambitions soon become even more
godlike as he imagines reshaping the physical world
itself, pulling the continent of Africa to meet with
Spain. Additionally, Faustus would restructure the
hierarchy of power by making all the earth’s rulers
subservient to his will.
Once he has signed over his soul to the devil,
Faustus’s fine ambitions rapidly decline into parlor
tricks and vengeful pranks: making Alexander the
Great and Helen of Troy appear, fetching out-of
season grapes for the duke of Vanholt’s pregnant
wife, tossing about platters and goblets at the pope’s
feast and boxing him on the ear, setting antlers on
a disdainful knight’s forehead, selling a horse that
will turn into a bale of hay when ridden into water,
and sending devils to torment an old man whose
only offense was begging Faustus to repent and ask
for God’s mercy. In the end, none of these acts will
benefit mankind or bring Faustus the eternal fame
he craves.
Through the characters of Wagner, Robin, and
Rafe, Marlowe subtly mocks Faustus’s lofty ambi-
tions. Wagner, Faustus’s servant, observes the results
of Faustus’s study of magic and determines to gain
a measure of power for himself. As Faustus binds
Mephistopheles to serve him for 24 years, Wagner
proposes that Robin serve him for seven; when
money cannot persuade him, Wagner calls up two
devils. Although frightened, Robin proposes that he
will accept the position if Wagner will teach him,
too, how to raise up devils. Instead, he is offered the
ability to turn himself into any creature—a parallel
to Faustus’s request that he may be invisible at will.
Immediately, he imagines turning himself into a flea
that can crawl into women’s most private places.
Later, Robin steals one of the conjuring books for
the purposes of setting the parish maidens to dance
naked before him and getting his master’s wife to
sleep with him. Like Wagner, Robin desires a ser-
vant, and he persuades young Rafe to serve him by
promising him sex with the kitchen maid. Robin
and Rafe’s ambitions seem comical in comparison
to Faustus’s; however, Faustus’s objectives, though
stated in loftier language, are similar. One of the
first requests he makes of Mephistopheles is for a
wife, but he is content with a devil in the shape of a
“hot whore,” and his last request is to have Helen of
Troy for his mistress. By drawing parallels between
these fools’ fleshly ambitions and those of Faustus,
Marlowe demonstrates that, despite his supposed
superiority, he is driven by the appetites and sins
common to all men.
Marlowe may have intended Doctor Faustus to
be a warning to the ambitious self-made man so
prominent in early-modern London society—a
contradiction, perhaps, considering the playwright’s
own ambitions and his reputation as a scoundrel,
blasphemer, and man of questionable appetites.
Ironically, Marlowe is best remembered for this
creation of a character whose excessive ambition led
him onto the path of self-destruction.
Deborah Montouripride in Doctor Faustus
As the prologue tells us, Faustus is a man of excep-
tional talents and intellect. Coming from humble
beginnings, he earned a place in the university,
where he excelled in argument and was awarded
a doctorate in theology. He has learned that any
theory, true or false, can be defended using the prin-
ciples of logic and the power of language. His skill
in debate, however, combined with his confidence
in his own mind, results in an exaggerated pride, or
hubris, that brings about his fall.
We first encounter Faustus as he considers the
various professions that he might pursue. But what
appears to be an exploration is really a one-sided
debate in defense of the path he has already chosen:
magic and the occult. While Faustus admits that
doctors can earn gold and fame, he rejects the occu-
pation because the dead cannot be brought back to
life, ignoring the satisfaction to be gained through
lessening others’ suffering. Similarly, he scratches
the legal profession off his list because he views
lawyers as mere servants hired to make money for
others through loopholes and technicalities. Finally,
he casts off divinity because it cannot prevent men
from sin, death, and damnation, but it is his deliber-
ate partial reading of the Scriptures that allows him
to ignore the possibility of salvation and eternal life.