A Book Review Of - The Tragic History of Dr Faustus

There are a multitude of stories throughout history depicting an overzealous character with a desire for power or knowledge. The first and most important of these tales is the story that ignited our human desires for unreachable power: Adam and Eve and their disobedience of God by partaking of the fruit from the tree of knowledge. In the play The Tragic History of Dr. Faustus, the battle that has raged in all humans since the earliest of written words is exhibited in Dr. Faustus. His battle encompasses the inevitable battle fought in all humans to know perfection and strive for it, forever incapable of achieving that perfection because of their inherent nature to never feel satisfaction.

Faustus continually being offered salvation, always turns it down. This play is a classic piece of literature through its display of Faustus with great knowledge before him but passing it by, as he continues to strive beyond. Our human nature causes us to work against having blind faith in accepting the path in front of us, greedily reaching in gluttony. Dr. Faustus was given mortal choices of right and wrong. Thanks to the inherent Fall of Adam and Eve, Dr. Faustus lived constantly seeking more than what was offered him, thus leaving him empty in the end, never fully contented.

The natural man is cursed with the constant battle against the three parts of the psychic apparatus, defined by Sigmund Freud in his structural model of the psyche. The id, ego, and super-ego are the three terms bound together, though constantly clashing. The id is defined as that which controls the instinctual, animalistic trends in the mind: Dr. Faustus wants knowledge and he will do anything to obtain. The ego is that organized and realistic part of the mind: Dr. Faustus realizes that he needs to complete certain steps in life in order to obtain the deep longing. The superego controls all morals and critical thinking functions in the mind: Dr. Faustus realizes that he cannot simply, brutally force his way to obtaining all that he wants at the expense of all others. These structures of the mind work together to keep a sound balance in the psyche. Without the ego to balance to moral and instinctual sections, we are overwhelmed trying to satisfy the id.

The chorus prepares the audience for the Tragic History of Dr. Faustus. Dr. Faustus is immediately planning on learning too much, “his waxen wings did mount above his reach, and melting, heavens conspired his overthrow.” From the start Dr. Faustus is overzealous and to juxtapose his plan, the Heaven’s plan to bring him down. Similarly, the tale of Phaedon exudes those qualities for a path Dr. Faustus is progressing down. The prologue foreshadowed his downfall through allusions to the legendary Icarus. “Be thou on earth as Jove is in the sky”

Overall, this literary classic is written to support the inherent need to obtain more and how that gluttony will constantly bring us back along the path leading to dissatisfaction.

A Book Review Of - The Tragic History of Dr Faustus