Faustus is an incredibly smart character who is the possible best intellectual among the academicians herein as portrayed in doctor Faustus. He is quite intelligent that he turns out arrogant and full of himself with a cunning attribute that drives him to self-destruction. This is actually the root of his downfall. He perceives himself as a better source of knowledge and beyond comparison to contemporary and ancient thinkers as well as philosophers in the fields of law, medicine, and theology. He is technically a power hungry individual seeking personal gratification. He makes it known and well known that his aim is to become a magician because it would raise his stand to the stature of a demigod (Shakespeare para 10).
He is incredibly arrogant such that he can barely learn from anyone not even great scholars who preceded him as well contemporary thinkers of his time. He has a stiff obsession to magic that it leads him astray with negligible chances of redemption. He taps into the power of magic to amuse himself and make fun of his fellow citizens especially peasants such as Benvolio. Faustus makes terrible decisions with his skills and powers of magic. He ends a totally wrecked individual selling himself for the power. Although he had hoped to contain himself and rid himself off ambiguities, he ends up otherwise. The conviction to learn and attain strange knowledge took him a greater aspiration of becoming king of his native land. The catastrophic outcome of his aspirations and use of magic power render him a fated tragic hero. As soon as he gains his classy powers, his lofty ambitions fade into complex web of confusion without a particular focus. In fact, it as though an element of Marxism eats him up. His new powers corrupt him wholly not only his personality, but also his goals. The ultimate destruction comes about from his ambition to achieve sophistication. Arguably, his lack of virtue makes him the worse villain in comparison to Edmund. In his cunningness to get power and the act of selling his soul for are a matter of dehumanizing himself and despicable (Shakespeare para 12)
He acquires a character of a mean arrogant spirit. After selling his soul to the devil with his eyes on the prize of power, control and wealth, is a clear indication that his pessimism had lead him to believe his inevitability of ending up in hell-like life with no prospect of redemption. In additionally, it emphasizes his fate with no chance at salvation at all. The damnation that befalls him is a fate he created and actualized hence his doom meets him because of his actions. The standpoint he has pertaining to life further nails his fate as he is uncertain of his chances to salvation since he is stuck with delightful incentives that offer him a way to accomplish his goal that is desire for power and weak to turn about and leave that chapter of his life (Shakespeare para 14).
Edmund is absolutely an interesting character to watch. Throughout King, Lear as he pursues his desire for familial love that he observes around him. Similar to Faustus, his actions define his fate and totally turn his life around such that his villainy is a result of his fixation with achieving his desire. Edmund’s life features a consummate yet sympathetic schemer eager to land a chance of actualizing his goals. Ambition is a reflection of greed and thirst to grasp power just as Faustus in his conviction. This greed is protracted to a greater goal of recognition to avenge his low status as a bastard. He turns into as serial treacherous individual to rebel his label as a bastard among his community. Thus, he becomes a self-made man asserting himself and his will upon the society. The eventual turn of events portrays his wounded-self suffering the consequences of his actions especially engineering the death of Cordelia (Christopher 124).
Works Cited
William Shakespeare. King Lear. Shakespeare Theatre, n.d Web, December 11, 2014
Christopher Marlowe. Dr. Faustus. The Evolution of Faustian Legend, Cambridge Univ. Press, 2004. Print
