Wednesday 2 November 2011

Is Faustus a gothic/tragic character?

So Dr. Faustus has sold his soul to the Devil and has a little demon (Mephistophilis) as a servant- sounds pretty gothic so far. In my opinion gothic is all about the dark side of things- so it might be the dark side of the day (night), the dark side of human emotion (evil) or in the case of Faustus the dark side of religion. He summons Mephistophilis in the first place by writing "Jehovah's name forward and backward anagrammatis'd", landing him on the 'evil' side of Christianity. Whilst siding with the Devil, Faustus has learnt the art of magic; associated with witches and pagans and so Faustus himself is connected with the supernatural. Though we think of the gothic as something to do with bats and vampires and haunted castles (or at least I do anyway), the story of Dr. Faustus can perhaps be seen as a gothic tale due to its elements of something other than human.

On the other hand, Dr. Faustus could also be perceived as a tragic character. To be honest, I felt pretty sympathetic towards him in his lat speech as he is desperate to have one last chance at redemption- "The Devil will come, and Faustus must be damn'd. O, I'll leap up to my God! Who pulls me down?" To  me it seems he deeply regrets his pact with Lucifer, and maybe this is because he made this deal for the wrong reasons. He didn't really want to be damned forever; it was his arrogance that caused his desire to be superior to anyone else which led him into selling his soul and this could be said to be his hubris. He used Hell as a means to an end and failed to realise what that would inevitability lead to. The result of his eternal damnation in Hell was therefore a mistake as he could not see the gravity of the situation as he was blind to everything but the promise of great power.

Overall I would say Dr. Faustus is a tragic character who has become entangled with the gothic. His hubris is the inevitable lead to his downfall as he can't see beyond his goal of massive power and has almost forced him into interfering with the evil side of Christianity. Gothic elements are definitely present, in the form of darkness and temptation, and these help portray Faustus as a character who is corrupted as a result of his own miscalculations, although he does not necessarily believe in this dark side of Christianity (unsurprising given he was a doctor of divinity). Therefore, I believe Faustus is a tragic character who is drawn into the realm of the gothic Hell and demons imagery through his hubris.

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