Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus" Review

About the Book

Dr. Faustus is a book about a doctor who desires knowledge of the black arts, because he is unsatisfied with the knowledge he can gain as a man alone.  He assumes that all men commit sins and therefore are doomed to go to Hell anyway, so he gives his soul to the Lucifer in exchange for Mephistophilis a devil to perform his every wish and command for "four and twenty years."  He lives his life making fools of those who oppose him, traveling the world and meeting the Pope and dukes, completing wishes that other people request of him, and having his devil conjure the deceased.  As would be predicted, at the end of his "contract" with Lucifer, he laments his decision and fears eternal damnation.

Review

As a glimpse into the sixteenth century mind, Dr. Faustus is an intriguing book with well-written verse--but, it doesn't go far beyond that.  Although this very short story is a necessity for all literary scholars, I wouldn't recommend it to those who do not have to read it.  The dilemma that Dr. Faustus' faces is, of course, an intriguing one but I believe that the characters are actually rather shallow and their decisions very contrived and forced.   For example, perhaps it is because I am reading with a 21st century perspective, but I cannot see a man such as Dr. Faustus' seeing Mephistophilis, the devil, and yet still doubting that hell exists.