Dr. Faustus Essay: The Role of Helen of Troy -- Doctor Faustus Essays

The office of Helen of Troy in Doctor Faustus To adequately describe the role that Helen plays in Doctor Faustus, it is necessary non further to look at the look in which she features, but also each(prenominal) the instances that Faustus takes some form of amusement from physical and sensual things. We need to do this because this is what Helen is symbolic of she represents the attractive spirit of evil in addition to the depths of depravity that Faustus has fallen to. It is fair to grade that Faustus represents the quintessential renaissance man - it is his thirst for knowledge that drives him into his pact with Mephastophilis, thusly it is the Evil Angel that best summarises this Go forward, Faustus, in the famous art, Wherein all tempers treasury is contained Be thou on earth as Jove is in the sky, Lord and commander of these elements. Scene I, lines 74-77 It is the restless spirit of the renaissance that drives Faustus to prove knowledge. He has already attained wha t he can through much conventional means, his bills (are) hung up as monuments, and his common talk found aphorisms. Faustus compares himself to the some famous figures of the classical period to Hippocrates, to Aristotle and to Galen. He sees himself as having come to the eat up of what he can learn through his human tools he inevitably something that will allow him to move outside the realm of nature, something supernatural. This is the reason wherefore he came into contact with Mephastophilis, as he sought to use the newborn power that would come to him to further his own knowledge. It has been said that power corrupts, and downright power corrupts absolutely - this is what has happened to Faustus. He ceases to become the seeker of knowledge, but become... ...ed in the use of capital punishment as the result of trying to smash up his end of the bargain. Faustus rebellion against his deal (a repetition of his bodys rebellion against his signing of the contract) is only sh ort lived, and his downfall is assured when Helen arrives. Helen, then, represents the dangerous beauty of evil, the seduction of the past, and the swear for things pleasurable. Faustus desire for her, for the most beautiful woman who has ever lived, seems understandable (though not reasonable) to us, because we all have a little bit of Faustus in us. It is, however, supposed(prenominal) that any of us have a sufficiently Faustian nature to sell our soul to the Devil.Works CitedMarlowe, Christopher. The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus. The Norton Anthology of face Literature. 6th ed. Eds. M.H. Abrams et. al. New York W.W. Norton and Co, 1993.