Doctor Faustus Scene 5 Analysis

604 Words3 Pages
DOCTOR FAUSTUS SCENE 5 ANALYSIS. This text belongs to Marlowe’s master piece ‘Doctor Faustus’. In this scene only two characters are on stage: Faustus and Mephastophilis. It takes place once Faustus has sold his soul. He has sealed the bargain by signing a contract with blood. He has done this because he is not satisfied with the limitations of human knowledge and power, and thinks this is the only way to get the answers to the questions he has been wondering for years. Faustus asks his first question, where hell is. Hell it’s a big concern for him, he is curious about it, he has always been, but there is more to it. He is scared now. He has done something forbidden and terrible and he is afraid of the consequences of it. He doesn’t want to go to hell. Mephastophilis, gives him the simplest of answers: Under the heavens. Faustus is deceived with his answer. At this point, we can already tell that Faustus has committed a big mistake. He sold his soul in his desperate seek for knowledge, but he won’t get answers here. The control he thinks he has over Mephastophilis is imaginary. The demon won’t reveal anything he doesn’t want to tell him. He’s clever, and he has Faustus under his influence, but poor Faustus is blind to the reality. Faustus doesn’t give up. He wants his answers and he asks again, this time more specifically. Mephastophilis answer is very important, and highly revealing. Mephastophilis tells Faustus that hell has no limits, and that it can’t be circumscribed, that all places shall be hell that is not heaven. Apparently he has done the exact same than before. It may look like he is avoiding the question, but he is not. For once, the demon is enlightening him. Mephastophilis has just revealed him that he is already in hell. Faustus is scared. Deep down he understands what the demon has just told him, but he doesn’t want to believe it. He wants to
Open Document