Doctor Faustus

            I am looking forward to the class discussion about this book because I don’t feel as if I understood or took away what I was hoping to, particularly because I had such a difficult time with the language. I know the beauty of the play is there, so I am going to appreciate my classmates’ perspectives of this play. I don’t think that the language was any more difficult than Everyman, however because Doctor Faustus was significantly longer my attention span did not come through for me in the end. I was also unable to read the play for the second time due to a difficult past couple of days, so I plan on getting through my second reading in the next few days.

            All things considered, I did find that the playwright, Christopher Marlowe, had a very interesting life that is undoubtedly reflected in his work. Particularly, it interests me that Marlowe was supposed to be studying ministry, but instead produced plays such as Doctor Faustus about hell and demons. While the play was definitely used to scare the public, Marlowe used a tactic in which he exemplified to the public what not to do that I would imagine was very controversial during its time.

            From what I could decipher about Faustus himself was that despite his ingenuity, Faustus felt that his life was incomplete—an I think that almost everyone can relate to this flaw in Faustus. Everyone wants to do more and be more than they are, and Faustus was so desperate that he felt a though a short life full of trickery and dark magic would be more fulfilling.