Comparing Dr. Faustus and Hamlet

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Introduction

Dr. Faustus was a play written by Christopher Marlowe and it was first published in the year 1604, the play gives an amazing description of how human beings sell their soul for the sake of getting power and knowledge. Christopher Marlowe has made use of the Chorus as seen in any other play of the Elizabethan Plays; the chorus introduces the characters and also helps in concluding the play. The chorus does not interact with any other characters present in the play. This paper will throw light upon how the deadly sin of pride of Dr. Faustus can be compared to the sin of pride of Hamlet written by the legendary Shakespeare.

Main body

Dr. Faustus came of age in the play and became a Doctor of Divinity; he was a genius who could do extraordinary things by making use of his brains. But all this was about to change, he turned his attention towards black magic to attain Magic and powers so that he could become a powerful human being. “Waxen wings did mount above his reach” (l. 21). Faustus turned to magic to become a demi-God and this is where the sin of pride comes into the picture, he thought that he would use his knowledge to conquer the whole world; this was where he made a blunder and overestimated his power. The sin of pride provokes Faustus to even ignore the good angel who advises him to put the black magic book aside. Heedless of all warnings Faustus continues his pursuit of power, ignoring the fact that the sin of pride had completely taken over his senses.

Faustus asks for books for the evil spirits, he wanted to conjure up as many things as possible, this only goes to show his sin of pride ignoring all the warnings of the good spirits he chose the wrong path because of his sin of pride. Faustus fails to realize that his sin of pride gave rise to other abnormal tendencies in him. In Christianity, it is firmly believed that a downfall of a man starts with the sin of pride, and Faustus’s case was no different. He became more prone to other evil things like Flesh, spirits, etc because of the sin of pride which he committed. Had he not committed that then he would not have got into all those other sins too.

Comparison with Hamlet

Shakespeare is a household name; he was a creative genius and produced more masterpieces than one. His popularity knows no bounds, even to date people hold the highest regard for his work. His work constitutes a part of the syllabus in major Universities and colleges. Hamlet is one of his masterpieces, Hamlet is a tragedy and in a tragedy, the tragic hero suffers from a tragic flaw. The tragic flaw in Hamlet is the impulsive nature of Hamlet. Hamlet fails to act when he thinks, the whole process of acting upon a decision never happens in Hamlet and the same is the tragic flaw in Hamlet. One thing which stands out in the play is the ability of Shakespeare to manipulate the language; this has been very effectively done in the play. The play is based upon revenge; Hamlet takes revenge for his father’s death in the play. Revenge is a very dangerous motive but a very powerful one. Hamlet’s sin of pride will be thrown light upon in the remaining paper.

More about Hamlet

As in the case of Faustus, Hamlet also suffers from the sin of pride, Hamlet displays excessive pride in the play and the same Leeds to his downfall. Pride inevitably leads to downfall this has been seen in many a case. Hamlet kills numerous characters in the play and this goes to show his excessive pride or in other words his sin of pride. He thought that he was the strongest and no one was as good as him, this was what led to his downfall. “Wretched, rash, intruding fool.” These were the words of Hamlet after accidentally killing Polonius. He intended to kill Claudius but accidentally ended up killing Polonius but the words that Hamlet spoke after killing Polonius sum up his character. His excessive pride shows and one gets a feeling that he thinks he is invincible.

The character of Hamlet and Faustus have many a similarity, the most noticeable of them all is their sin of pride. Both had excessive pride and could not correct this sin of their and as a result of which got what they truly deserved. Hence it is a lesson for all of us to keep at least a country mile away from the sin of pride to be happy and peaceful in life.

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"Comparing Dr. Faustus and Hamlet." IvyPanda, 19 Oct. 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/literature-and-languages-dr-faustus-and-hamlet/.

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IvyPanda. (2021) 'Comparing Dr. Faustus and Hamlet'. 19 October.

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IvyPanda. 2021. "Comparing Dr. Faustus and Hamlet." October 19, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/literature-and-languages-dr-faustus-and-hamlet/.

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IvyPanda. "Comparing Dr. Faustus and Hamlet." October 19, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/literature-and-languages-dr-faustus-and-hamlet/.

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