Devils, the Divine, and Despair in <i>Doctor Faustus</i>

Abstract

Many scholars have noted that in Marlowe’s play, Faustus’s damnation is justified by his religious despair which prevents him from seeking repentance from God. But it is my contention that Faustus experiences both a religious and an intellectual despair, and it is the latter of the two which makes his ending truly tragic. Because of his inability to reconcile spiritual mysteries with earthly knowledge, Faustus loses faith in his own penchant for mastery; thus, in the end he laments not his turn towards the demonic, but his decision to ever extend his curiosity beyond the earthly world in the first place.