FREE-WILL AND REPENTANCE IN DR FAUSTUS

Free-Will and Repentance in Dr. Faustus In Christopher Marlowe's The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus, the theme of free-will is manifested throughout the play but the necessity of repentance is not actually demonstrated. Dr. Faustus was a scholar like no other in his time, but he felt that the knowledge of Human scholarship - whether Philosophy (Aristotle), Medicine (Galen), Law (Justinian), or Theology (Jerome /Hieronymus) was not enough to satisfy the thirst of knowledge of …

…by asking for Helen to be his lover before he dies. The Doctor was unable to repent because it was easier for him to be afraid of the devil then of God. Faustus began the play, the pride of Wittenberg, longing to be more than human; at the end, finally aware of and accepting responsibility for self-damnation, the Doctor begs to be chanced into something sub-human, into a beast, into air, into drops of water.