Monday, April 20, 2015

Would you define the title character of Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus as a Renaissance man?

The title character of Christopher Marlowe's play
Doctor Faustus has often been called a "Renaissance man," and the
designation seems appropriate in number of different ways.  Those ways include the
following:


  • He is, quite literally, a man living
    during the historical period commonly thought of as "the Renaissance" (that is, the
    sixteenth century, at least in England).

  • He exemplifes
    the strong interest in classical literature and culture that was typical of that
    period.

  • At the same time, he shows the influence of
    Christian ideas, which were also extremely important during that
    era.

  • He exemplifies the greater social mobility common
    during that period. His parents were "base of stock" (Prologue, 10), but their son
    nevertheless rose to great social prominence and
    power.

  • He exemplifies the growing importance of formal
    education and especially university training that was common during this time. He has
    been to a university and is extremely well educated (which makes his later foolish
    choices all the more difficult to understand).

  • He is
    interested in, and even expert in, many different areas of learning -- a sense in which
    we still use the phrase "Renaissance man" today.

  • He has
    the kind of high-flying aspirations that were typical of many people during the
    Renaissance -- a period (for instance) of enormous geographical
    exploration.

  • He is a "Faustian man" in Oswald Spengler's
    sense: a man always striving for another achievement, never content with what he already
    has (although the achievements in this case seem ultimately
    trivial).

  • His chief focus seems to be earthly rather than
    heavenly, although the main purpose of the play seems to be to check and warn against
    precisely the kinds of materialistic impulses that motivate
    Faustus.

  • He is an "over-reacher," as was true of many
    people in the Renaissance. Therefore, almost the final words of the play warn us to

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. . . Regard his hellish
fall,


Whose fiendful fortune may exhort the
wise


Only to wonder at [that is, merely regard with wonder,
not actually perform] unlawful things.  (Epilogue,
4-6)


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