The problem of interrelation between such two phenomena as human nature and human morality has always been very important for mankind and always interested people no matter what age group or social group they belonged to. This fact can be easily explained because since the time religion came into people’s lives there was no other question that troubled humans so much as morality. People always tried to combine the two above-mentioned things – natural instincts and morality – and make their lives harmonical.
People of art also took their time to deal with the above-stated issue in their works. The branch of arts that made a great contribution to the development of morality was literature. Literary creators, especially writers of fiction, playwrights, and others contributed greatly to the development of the here considered point in human thought. They speculated in their works on such important points of existence as of right and wrong, faithfulness and betrayal, life and death.
These are the problems we are going to discuss in the current essay, and we are going to address for help with it such masterpieces of literature as the play “Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark” by William Shakespeare and the play “Dr. Faustus” by Christopher Marlowe. These plays address directly and indirectly the problem of human morality and the aspect of it which concerns the phenomena of relations between morality and nature as an integral part of human existence.
The author of the first play, “Hamlet”, William Shakespeare, is the most famous English writer, poet, and playwright of all time. His works touch upon all the most important and burning issues of human life and no one since Shakespeare’s times managed to describe all sides of human existence. Shakespeare lived and worked in the 16 – 17th centuries and depicted the society contemporary to him, but his works are still popular and actual nowadays. This allows us to conclude that only the setting changed and the human is still the same as he/she was several centuries ago, with all the virtues and sins.
Another author mentioned in this essay, Christopher Marlowe, was also a very well-known English poet and playwright, who lived in the same epoch that Shakespeare did but was forgotten unfairly, although his works were considered real masterpieces before Shakespeare came to spotlight. Marlowe was famous for his blank verse in poetry and plays, and for addressing universal philosophical questions in his works.
The works under consideration are chosen among the whole plenty of the two authors’ creations because they concern topics that display certain similarities. “Hamlet” is a philosophical work concerned with the issue of betrayal and revenge, as well as with the point of living and dying. The play by Christopher Marlowe titled “Dr. Faustus” describes the same topic – betrayal and the consequences it had, life and death, and the price of human life. Examining the plays, we can clearly observe the state of things with the moral principles in the 16 – 17th centuries and relate this information to what we have nowadays. So, let us now start the comparative analysis of the two plays on the basis of the above-stated reasons and factors.
To start the brief review of the play “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare we should take a look at the plot of this play. The action takes place in Medieval Denmark, where the King was poisoned by his brother who took the throne and married his wife. The son of the killed monarch, Hamlet, returns from studying in England, and the spirit of his father asks him to take revenge for his death upon the new king – Claudius, and his wife – Gertrude, who did not mourn her dead husband long and married his killer.
Hamlet suffers from hesitation, as he wants to take revenge for his father on the one hand, but on the other hand, he is not ready to kill. This inner conflict of a personality combined with the notions of Claudius and Gertrude’s betrayal constitute the main idea of the play and the end of it leads to the deaths of all the main characters which is a natural consequence of the situation when the principles of morality are confused with something else and are to serve somebody’s personal interests (Shakespeare, 1992). From here we can see that the issue of morality – nature relations has always been important and is vividly described in the play by William Shakespeare.
The plot of the second play under consideration, “Dr. Faustus”, takes place in a different setting but touches the same moral problems. A young doctor busy with divinity realizes that it is not enough for him and decides to take up black magic. The angels sent by God can not persuade him not to make such a mistake and soon Dr. Faustus signs a deal with Lucifer, according to which he gives his soul to the Devil after 24 years of using all the advantages of this deal. Dr. Faustus regrets what he has done more and more but can not change the situation and finally dies and goes to Hell after those 24 years expire. In this story, we face the issue of the Christian moral values that are betrayed and the issue of the personal values of the main character of the play (Marlowe, 2004).
The first point which allows comparing these two plays in respect of the issue of morality is the choice between right and wrong, moral and immoral, made by the main characters of the stories. What is right and what is wrong? Who sets these standards? How to make the right choice of the way to go in this life? All these questions did not let the heroes live quietly, they, like all geniuses, were bothered by the philosophical issues.
Hamlet could not live with the knowledge of his being a killer, although he revenged for his father (Shakespeare, 1992). This moral issue is a leitmotif of Shakespeare’s play:” Bloody, bawdy villain! Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindles villain!” (Shakespeare, 1992). This Hamlet’s words show all the pain he felt inside while making the choice for or against evil. He did not want to take the side of the Evil but he had to if he wanted to punish the killers of his father.
That is why he called himself a “Bloody, bawdy villain”. The conflict of Dr. Faustus has a lot of similarities with the one experienced by Hamlet. He did not saw any sense in dealing with divinity anymore as he was too gifted to study it for so long. But, at the same time, Dr. Faustus realized that taking the side of the Evil would mean for him the betrayal of his own and the universal values (Marlowe, 2004).
Faustus could not resist the fixed idea to start dealing with black magic because Lucifer offered him such a seductive perspective of having everything he could wish in exchange for his soul. With the flow of time he regretted often what he had done but it was too late: “My heart’s so hardened I cannot repent. Scarce can I name salvation, faith, or heaven, but fearful echoes thunder in mine ears, ‘Faustus, thou art damn’d!’” (Marlowe, 2004).
Another important point that demands consideration and that is connected with the previous point, is the issue of faithfulness and betrayal of people or values. It is so significant because both plays considered in this essay are built on the grounds of this issue. King Claudius, the man who killed his own brother in order to take his kingdom and his wife, is the brightest example of the point of betrayal in this Shakespeare’s play. The conflict between Claudius and Hamlet is one of the main lines of the plot of the play: “My father’s brother, but no more like my father
than I to Hercules.” (Shakespeare, 1992). But the betrayal committed by Hamlet himself, betrayal towards his mother, left a trace in the Prince’s soul: “I am justly killed with my own treachery.” (Shakespeare, 1992). Dr. Faustus was also concerned with the issue of betrayal.
He betrayed what made him famous and successful – his science and the Good on the whole – to change it for the Evil and leave all that he believed in: “The stars move still, time runs, the clock will strike, the Devil will come, and Faustus must be damn’d. O, I’ll leap up to my God! Who pulls me down? See, see where Christ’s bloodstreams in the firmament! One drop would save my soul-Half a drop: ah, my Christ! Ah, rend not my heart for naming of my Christ! Yet will I call on him: O spare me, Lucifer!” (Marlowe, 2004).
The final point of this comparative analysis of moral issues in the two above-mentioned plays is the question of living and dying. Its relation to the phenomenon of morality is displayed by the fact that the characters of “Hamlet” and “Dr. Faustus” lived in the conflict with themselves and morality and died as a result of this conflict as if punished for the betrayal of the Truth. Hamlet revenged for his father by killing Claudius but was himself killed at the end of the play, though we can not judge what is moral and what is not: “Now cracks a noble heart. Good-night, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!” (Shakespeare, 1992).
Faustus also paid for his betrayal, although he sought for the ways of escaping his fate: “Accursed Faustus, wretch, what hast thou done? I do repent, and yet I do despair. Hell strives with grace for conquest in my breast. What shall I do to shun the snares of death?” Here we can clearly see how the issue of living and dying is represented in the play by Marlowe. Dr. Faustus had to make the choice between living with God and dying after 24 years of serving the Devil. He chose the second alternative, he regretted it but did not repent: “To God?-He loves thee not. The God thou serv’st is thine own appetite…” (Marlowe, 2004).
All the above said draws us to the conclusion that the issue of morality is rather important. In this essay, we examined its reflections in the masterpieces of world literature – “Hamlet” and “Dr. Faustus”. We saw clearly the consequences of the conflict between human morality and nature. The characters of the two plays experienced the hardness of choice between right and wrong were faithful in some aspects and sometimes betrayed their own ideals or other people, and finally, Hamlet and Dr. Faustus’ examples demonstrate the issue of living and dying of a human being.
One can choose to live a pious life and get to Heavens after death, another can prefer to enjoy the life on Earth and not to think of morality. The heroes of the plays considered here chose the latter. Although Hamlet made the choice not willingly, he was forced by the circumstances. Dr. Faustus made his choice consciously, and despite his regret, he never really take any effort in trying to change something.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. (1992). Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark. Washington Square Press.
Marlowe, Christopher. (2004). Doctor Faustus. Kessinger Publishing.