Seven deadly sins in 'Dr Faustus'

Name: Trivedi Hezal K.

Roll No: 39

PG Reg. No. PG15101040

M.A. – English Regular, Semester-1

Year: 2015

Course No. 1: The Renaissance Literature:

Unit-2: Doctor Faustus: Christopher Marlowe

Assignments Topic- Seven deadly sins in Dr Faustus

Submitted to: S.B. Gardi Department of English

                       Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

                      (Gujarat – India)

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Christopher Marlowe (26 February 1564 – 30 May 1593)

Was an English Dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. Marlowe was the foremost Elizabethan tragedian of his day. He greatly influenced William Shakespeare, who was born in the same year as Marlowe and who rose to become the pre-eminent Elizabethan playwright after Marlowe's mysterious early death. Marlowe's plays are known for the use of blank verse and their overreaching protagonists.

Plot

The tragical history of the life and death of doctor Faustus 

 

Dr. Faustus, a well respected German Scholar, grows dissatisfied with the limits of traditional forms of knowledge- logic, medicine, law and religion- and decides that he wants to learn the practice magic. His friends Valdes and Cornelius instruct him in the black arts, and he begins his new career as a magician by summoning up Mephastophilis, a devil. And he enjoys the power with devil spirits. He is in dilemma with good angel and evil angel but by the time he follows evil and the agreement which plays major role in the drama.

An old man urges Faustus to repent but Faustus shrives him await. They are horror stricken and resolve to pray for him. Despite Mephastophilis ‘s warning about the horrors of hell, Faustus tells the devil to returns to his master Lucifer, with an offer of Faustus’s soul in exchange for twenty-four years of services from Mephastophilis.  Meanwhile Wagner, Faustus’s servant has picked up some magical ability and uses it to press a clown names Robin into his service. On the final night before the expirations of the twenty-four years, Faustus is overcome by fear and remorse. He begs for mercy but it’s too late and after it the scholars find Faustus’s limbs and decide to hold a funeral for him.

Sin According to Christianity

“All unrighteousness is sin”. Sin is a transgression (going beyond) of divine law. They are different to crimes that transgress man’s laws. The Catholic Church had two kinds of sin: venial and mortal. Venial sins were smaller and could be forgiven, but mortal sins threaten to destroy the life of grace and condemn the sinner to eternal damnation, unless they are absolved through confession. Each sin was punished by an appropriate form of suffering in Hell.

Seven deadly sins

Instead of showing scene after scene of Faustus engaging with the sins individually, Marlowe takes the abstract concepts of the sins and parades them before the audience. They are intended to demonstrate that within Faustus’s twenty-four years, he would indulge in all of them in his various experiences. They are presented by Lucifer in the same way a medieval morality play would personify broad religious and philosophical concepts. They would have been costumed for comedy.

(1) Pride

(The mother of all sins: believing too much in our own abilities interferes with us recognising the grace of God).

Pride was considered to be the most serious of the sins. It is identified as excessive self-esteem, especially when the proud person does not accept his/her proper position in the Great Chain of Being. Lucifer was thrown from Heaven because he would not accept the Son of God being placed at God’s right hand, which he believed to be his own rightful place. Those guilty of pride were destined to be broken on the wheel in Hell. In the pageant in Doctor Faustus, Pride is too arrogant to accept the position into which he has been born, and he has an inflated sense of his self-worth. In Dr. Faustus PRIDE appears when he feels that he is more superior to others

(2) Covetousness

(The desire for material wealth or gain, ignoring the realm of the spiritual)

Covetousness is a sin of excess, particularly applied to the acquisition of wealth. Those guilty of avarice were destined to be put into cauldrons of boiling oil. In Faustus’s pageant, covetousness is presented as a miser.  In Dr. Faustus COVETOUSNESS appears when he wants to get more and more and it is sign of this sin.

(3) Wrath

(The desire for others’ traits, status, abilities, or situation)

Wrath refers to excessive and uncontrolled feelings of anger that can lead to such offences as assault and murder. In Marlowe’s time, the sin of wrath also encompassed anger turned against oneself, leading to self-harm. Those guilty of wrath were destined to be dismembered alive. In the pageant, Wrath has been angry since birth with no provocation, and he attacks himself when he has no one else to fight. In Dr. Faustus WRATH appears when he is not able to do anything in his life as he was intelligent.

(4) Envy

(When love is overcome by fury)

Envy is characterised by spite and resentment at seeing the success of another. Those who commit the sin of envy resent the fact that another person has something they see themselves as lacking, and may even gloat if another person loses that something. Those guilty of envy were destined to be put into freezing water. In the pageant, Envy is resentful of anyone who has something he does not, and his resentment prevents him from enjoying what he does have. He wishes to pull everyone down to his level. In Dr. Faustus ENVY appears when he saw a power of God.

(5) Gluttony

(An excessive desire to consume more than that which one requires)

Gluttony is the over-consumption of food and drink to the point of waste. Those guilty of gluttony were destined to be forced to eat rats, toads and snakes. In the pageant, Gluttony over-indulges and is resentful of anyone who does not indulge him. In Dr. Faustus GLUTTAONY appears when he wants much more power and position than others.

(6) Sloth

(The avoidance of physical or spiritual work)

Sloth is idleness, the failure to utilise the talents given to you by God. Those guilty of sloth were destined to be thrown into snake pits. In Faustus’s pageant, Sloth resents any attempts to make him do anything at all. In Dr. Faustus SLOTH appears when he got all kind of knowledge and he feels laziness from over knowledge.

(7) Lechery

(An excessive craving for the pleasures of the body)

Lechery, or lust, refers to excessive and unrestrained indulgence in sexual activity. Sexual intercourse was considered to be purely for the purposes of procreation, so any sexual act that was indulged in for enjoyment rather than to produce children was sinful. Those guilty of lechery were destined to be smothered in fire and brimstone (sulphur). Lechery is the only one in the pageant who is obviously female. In Elizabethan times it was thought that the Devil targeted men through women who, like Eve, were ruled by their appetites rather than reason, given to delusional imaginings and far too feeble to resist temptation. In Dr. Faustus LECHERY appears when dancer who came from another world.

 A video on Dr. Faustus’s Seven Deadly Sins

Conclusion

These seven sins are the reflection of Dr. Faustus personality. He is a self-centred person who only thinks of him and can do each and everything to fulfil his desires. He is a person imprisoned in his own desires and he put his ego above all. The lesson to be learned from Faustus's story was something along these lines—you know, "curiosity killed the cat" and all that. After all, scholars or not, we're all like Faustus. We all have a weakness, something that we're tempted to act unethically just to possess. So maybe the lesson is a broader one, one that applies to us, too.

  

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