Doctor Faustus, Cut between the eyes, Power and Christianity
...(Marlowe 1, iii, 23-25) Faustus is disgusted by the ugly appearance of the devil and asks him to return as a Franciscan friar. Right from this point Faustus leaves the reader wondering what kind of power he is really looking for. Faustus is at a point of transformation in the play but he is summoning a higher being to gain power and yet he is forcing that power to change into a symbol of Christianity. Even though just lines prior to this action he is renouncing the very subject he is supporting through the use of his language. “Now that the gloomy shadow of the earth, Longing to view Orion’s drizzling look, Leaps from the’antarctic world unto the sky And dims the welkin with her pitchy breath, Faustus, begin thine incantations, And try if devils will obey thy hest, Seeing thou hast pray’d and sacrific’d to them. Within this circle is Jehovah’s name, Forward and backward anagrammatiz’d, The breviated names of holy saints, Figures of every adjunct to the heavens, And characters of signs and erring stars By which the spirits are enforc’d to rise; Then fear not, Faustus, but be resolute, And try the uttermost magic can perform.”(Marlowe 1, iii, 1-15) But to cover his strong and apparent background in Christianity he arrogantly uses ugliness as a shallow reason for the devil to change. Faustus automatically ruins his cover because of the shape he asks the devil to return as. Faustus also might react in this way because he is not quite ready to take on all the obligations of hell. Faustus is striving for an alternative to God and heavenly things but it seems that the abrupt entrance of the devil sends Faustus into a hysterical frenzy. This is a result because Faustus moves from one extreme to the next. This movement is performed so rapidly that sending Mephastophilis away is really not because of his appearance but to allow himself time to familiarize with the choice he is made to move from God as a higher power to the devil. It is apparent after Faustus re-evaluates his original impulse and again agrees with himself that he can the converse with Mephastophilis. But he is not able to accept Mephastophilis’ true form as a devil. Faustus can only view Mephastophilis as a Christian symbol. These purposeful flaws in the text have been strategically placed by Marlowe to again re-enforce Faustus’ dis-attachment at this early moment in the play. Faustus shows great disattachment late in the scene when he is conversing with Mephastophilis. Faustus “‘Was Faustus, and most dearly an angel once?’ Mephastophilis ‘Yes Faustus, and most dearly lov’d of God.’ Faustus ‘How comes it then that he is prince of devils?’ Mephastophilis ‘O, by aspiring pride and insolence, For which God threw him from the face of heaven.’” (Marlowe, 1, iii, 65-69) Faustus asks if Lucifer was once an angel of God. It is implied by the organization of the text that Marlowe wanted the reader/audience to be aware that because Faustus has extensive knowledge of the Christian religion, he already knew that Lucifer was thrown from the face of heaven. Faustus asks this question because Christianity is a comfortable subject matter for him to converse about. Faustus views himself as an elevated human being so he uses familiar territory to keep the conversation in his control. Faustus’ high perception of himself also allows him to recall this fact and then disregard it. Marlowe show the reader/audience Faustus’ false curiosity of Lucifer being an angel to show that Christianity is so deeply rooted in him that even this movement to escape from it still ends with him wanting more knowledge on the subject. Again Faustus’ language use through this portion of the scene brings you to conclude that without his knowledge of Christianity his conversations would be simplistic. Faustus’ most strongly shows his extensive knowledge of Christianity in his Latin Chant at the beginning of the scene. This is the chant that raises the devil to serve him. The great translation of this speech reveals that Faustus’ intent is to gain power by bringing the devil to him but to do this he is using Christianity as his foundation. “May the gods of Acheron be propitious to me. Away with the threefold divinity of Jehovah! Hail, spirits of fire, air, and...