Short stories and Other Whatnots

My junior essay #1

DOCTOR FAUSTUS

Doctor Faustus is something that you call a “tragic hero”. A tragic hero is clearly the hero of a tragedy drama that suffers the consequences of his/her actions, and views himself or herself higher than other people. Faustus is a villain, he had a thirst for knowledge which was forbidden to him and as to others but he had determination to get that knowledge, he wanted to thrive on power which he wanted to succeed in getting and he was willing to do anything to get there. Let’s put a child as an example, once you tell that it can’t have or that, immediate desire for the thing will rise and they will plot to have the thing in their grasp; that is much like Faustus. He is neither guilty nor good, he knew what he was getting into and he dealt with it. He made a deal with the devil for crying out loud, Faustus knew what was going on. Faustus wanted new knowledge, he wanted absolute dominance and apparently he only knew one solution to get just that and it was making a deal with Satan himself. Another great example of this is the character from Captain America, Red Skull. He, like Faustus, wanted knowledge. He craved it. Red Skull desired knowledge so much that he got himself damned for it, much like what happened to Faustus after his contract with the Devil ended. Red Skull and Faustus are much alike with their longing for knowledge and dominance, their ambition and determination to get what they want and their Apatheism towards whatever might happen to them when getting what they want. Red Skull wanted to get the Tesseract, a power source from another dimension, and when he got his hands on it he died immediately, sounds familiar? Faustus wanted knowledge and he got it by the means of dealing with Mephistopheles and in the exchange for his soul.

Forbidden knowledge, it’s like Adam and Eve again is it not? It has been done before and it is bound to happen again, more or less. Faustus was tired of his life, bored out of his mind; he wanted new knowledge to perk him up, wanted something to spice up life. Faustus wanted power, long life and something he couldn’t but wanted to have and that was black magic. We all know that black magic or Witchcraft is frowned upon in the old ages since now when we think of “magic”, we think of the little boy who lived in a cupboard named Harry Potter. Faustus, like I said many times, wanted that kind knowledge which was ironically cannot be learnt by him since that kind of knowledge is not for mere mortals. Faustus had everything, he was a scholar and probably abundant in riches but he was unhappy with life, bored with it so maybe he thought, “Hmmm, nothing to do today. Maybe I’ll go make a deal with the Devil and ask for 24 years of service and black magic!” Well, life wouldn’t seem as boring as that, wouldn’t it?

With his new profound power and knowledge, he does the most absurd things. Faustus was gifted with a book of spells, answers to his questions and powers that anyone could dream of having and he wastes all of that by going invisible and disrupt the Pope’s banquet. You’d think with that power Faustus would proclaim a world war? Nope, he’d rather make fun of the Pope. Later on he met the enemy of the Pope, Charles v who request for the presence of the deceased Alexander the Great. Of course, Faustus was able to conjure him up and alongside of that, he managed to give knight antlers for his head. Oh Faustus, you were on your knees for knowledge and when you got it, you just wanted to horse around with your powers and fool the Pope. Such pettiness, the least I expected from him was world domination or maybe engaging in genocide all over the world in 80 days but no, the most we can get out of Faustus is horse playing with the Pope and an apparition from Alexander the Great. When the end of the contract came, he summoned Helen of Troy. He thought of her in his last moments of being on the earth? Before he was about to be dragged to hell? I think selling your soul for 24 years of absolute power was wasted seeing what you did with that power was a waste.