Faustus Soliloquy Analysis

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Dr. Faustus is generally regarded as one of the greatest tragedy of Elizabethan era, written by Christopher Marlowe carrying universal themes of wisdom, knowledge, salvation, damnation, greed, pride and sin. Based on a German story, the play depicts a man named Faustus who is highly dissatisfied with the amount of knowledge he has. He had the knowledge of law, theology, medicine, philosophy and what not but he craves for a higher knowledge, the knowledge of concealed arts, which is known as the knowledge of NECROMANCY. Therefore, he approaches to two German magicians Cornelius and Valdes for this purpose. Subsequently, in scene 1 what spectators see is that Faustus is in his study and he is talking to himself about different kinds of knowledge he has and is performing a soliloquy in front of audience. Soliloquy means when a person is alone in front of some audience and is talking to himself, it was the great technique of Elizabethan dramatists which used to provide the useful information about the character and his innermost feelings and what secret move he or she is about to take. Especially in Faustus’s case the audience realizes the growth of ideas in Faustus’s mind before the play begins. In his case these soliloquies provides us with the information of the ambitious nature of Dr. Faustus and also about his fascination for black magic and the troubled wavering of his mind about his passion for it and the conflict between the nobility of his conscience when he says, “A