Doctor Faustus The Aristotelian Hero Essay Research free essay sample

Doctor Faustus, The Aristotelean Hero Essay, Research Paper Heros envelop the thought of a baronial individual who fights for the rights of the? small? people. He or she commits a title that goes above and beyond the call. This type of hero exists in the modern idea, but at that place besides exists another hero, an Aristotelean Hero. This tragic hero starts out in the aristocracy of society, yet he merely like any other adult male. This hero has but one mistake and that mistake, tragic flaw, is a fatal mistake or defect that in the terminal causes the ruin of the hero. This ruin leads to a katharsis that causes commiseration and panic in the audience. Doctor Faustus resembles most of Aristotle? s thought of a hero. He was adult male like the remainder of us in that he was a regular adult male who was able to lift of a adult male of high estate. Still, he had a tragic flaw and that caused his ruin. Faustus does non hold the complete demands of being a hero because he does non come full circle in his ordeal. A tragic hero becomes enlightened at the terminal of the narrative, yet Faustus does non. Faustus resembles a tragic hero in that is a regular adult male and has high purposes, he exemplifies tragic flaw, yet he does non hold all the demands to do him a full tragic hero. Doctor Faustus, in seeking to travel beyond his current province of cognition, has high purposes. Faustus is a regular adult male who raised himself from the underside of society to a high place in society. ? Now is he born of parents base of stock? ( prologue, 11 ) . He wants to increase in wisdom and cognition so that he may break himself in this universe. He wants cognition and power because he has learned all that a adult male of that clip could larn. He has four grades, yet he wants more. He throws down the books of Aristotle. ? # 8230 ; And unreco rded and die in Aristotle? s works./ Sweet Analytics, ? Ti 1000 hast ravished me? ( I, i, 5-6 ) . Faustus believes that there is nil he can make more on this Earth. He wonders why certain things happen and why with all the grades he has that he can non work out everything. # 8220 ; Whereby whole metropoliss have escaped the plague/ And thousand despairing maladies been cured? / Yet art 1000 still Faustus and a adult male? ( I, i, 19-21 ) . Faustus besides wonders if all this is all there is to life. ? Ay, we must decease an everlasting decease? ( I, i, 44 ) . Faustus is but a regular adult male who wants by any agencies to increase his cognition and power of this universe and the following. Faustus lives up to his tragic hero theoretical account when it is revealed that he has a tragic flaw, a defect that will do his ruin. Faustus seems to hold a strong will, a will that forces him to travel towards what is right. Still, there is a portion of him that wants more. This portion makes him recognize that there is no more on this Earth that he can make. He must turn to necromancy and thing otherworldly to derive more power and cognition. ? These metaphysics of magicians/ And negromantic books are heavenly ; / Lines, circles, letters, characters # 8211 ; / Ay, these are those that Faustus most desires? ( I, i, 47-50 ) . Faustus realizes that he must raise up the liquors of Black Magic to assist him make a higher degree of understanding. Upon raising the a ppropriate spirits Mephostophilis, a devil, comes to Faustus to strike a deal with him so that Lucifer, prince of darkness, may have his soul. After much persuading Faustus hands over his soul to Lucifer to live in a life of luxury and to do what ever he wants to do. ?Consummatum est! This bill is ended:/ And Faustus hath bequeathed his soul to Lucifer?(II, i, 75-76). His flaw was that he gave over his soul, his own immortality, for a mortal life of only twenty-four years. His intentions to increase his knowledge and power fall to the power of material wealth. After having the Seven Deadly Sins paraded in front of him, he realizes just what he could have on earth. ?Wealth!/ Why, the signory of Emden shall be mine!?(II, i, 23-24). Faustus shows his true side. He vanity gets the best of him and instead of knowledge he wants all things worldly. Faustus almost completes the set criteria for being a true tragic hero, yet he does not come full circle to become enlightened. Faustus, after twenty-four luxurious years on earth realizes that his time is up in this life. He knows that he has signed over his soul to Lucifer for an eternity of damnation and there is only one way to get it back. He must ask God for forgiveness and since God forgives all he will be returned to the world of the just. Still, he cannot say the words ?I am sorry? and receive God?s forgiveness. ?Stand still, you ever-moving spheres of Heaven/ That time may cease and midnight never come?(V, ii, 143-144). Instead of asking for redemption, he wants time to stop do that he may have more time on earth. He knows this will never happen, but he says it anyway. He believes that there is only one thing that can save him. ?See, see where Christ?s blood streams in the firmament!/ One drop of blood will save me. O my Christ!?(V, ii, 153-154). Christ is the only one who can save him now, yet he does not ask for mercy. In the last seconds of his life he almost comes to ask for redemption. ?My God, my God! Look not so fierce on me!?(V, ii, 194). Faustus is almost a true tragic hero up to this point. He wants to be forgiven, but without asking it. He is not forgiven, so therefor he is not enlightened and does not become a true tragic hero. Faustus resembles a regular man of good intentions, but he comes with a flaw that will cause his downfall into becoming a tragic hero, yet he does not complete all the criteria for being a tragic hero because he does not become enlightened. Faustus wants to be forgiven, but does not ask for it so he is not. He does not achieve the title of an Aristotelian hero because he does not realize enlightenment at the end of the story. Faustus has a fault and that fault is that he is too concerned with all that is worldly. Faustus is vain and he shows this when he receives all his powers. At the beginning Faustus is just a regular man, who went beyond all expectations to achieve his four degrees and his social standing. Faustus is almost an Aristotelian hero for h e had most of the traits, yet he does not ask for forgiveness and therefore is not enlightened. This is his greatest mistake.