Loss of Reason- Divided Self of Hamlet and Doctor Faustus - Essay Example

Loss of Reason- Divided Self of Hamlet and Doctor Faustus Introduction The Prince of Denmark, Hamlet shares a common point with Doctor Faustus. Both the characters in two of he most well-known plays went over board with their ambition and aspiration. The common morale of both these plays, is that excess of anything is potentially dangerous because it often leads to moral dilemmas. Such moral dilemmas may ruin the mental equilibrium and existence of a man. For this purpose I have chosen two gems from English Literature- one is William Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus. Hamlet with the desire to avenge his father’s death and Dr. Faustus with immense desire to acquire knowledge and power barters their intellectual ability to Society and Sin respectively. Both Hamlet and Faustus have an aim for which they have to pay price in terms of their conscience and had to embrace death for their actions guided by loss of reason. There are many interesting points that can be picked up to compare and contrast Christopher Marlowe’s play Doctor Faustus and William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. Both dramatic protagonists have a tragic flaw in their character. Their moral dilemmas were based on different perspectives of self-seeking justice (Hamlet) and self-seeking forbidden knowledge (Faustus). The development of divided self is another point of comparison between these two plays. The story of Hamlet is about young prince of Denmark who is asked by the spirit of his dead father to avenge his death. His (King Hamlet) life was snuffed out by his brother, Claudius. After his death Claudius has assumed royalty and he is the man wielding sovereign powers over Denmark. Young Hamlet is entangled in a moral dilemma because he has to kill his uncle if he needs to meet justice. Problem is aggravated by the fact that Claudius has married his widow mother, Queen Gertrude. So, in order to avenge the death of his biological father he has to kill a legal father. So he cannot openly commit an action of bloodshed that will disturb the family order. Moreover, his action might be fatal from the viewpoint of state security. The state of Denmark was under an imminent threat from young Fortinbras in order to gain back lost lands. He resorts to feigned madness in front of all, including his beloved Ophelia. When Ophelia is sent to find the reason of his madness, she is spurned by her beloved Hamlet. This whole episode is eavesdropped by King Claudius and Polonius, father to Ophelia. They come to the conclusion that Hamlet is lovesick and hence he has turned mad with love for Ophelia. But they fail to realize that Hamlet is using his madness for some greater purpose. He decides to expose Claudius’ crime through a traveling troupe of players. Doctor Faustus too is entangled in a dilemma when he sells his soul to Lucifer via the medium of devil Mephostophilis. Doctor Faustus, the German scholar is presented by Christopher Marlowe as a highly knowledgeable man in traditional study fields like logic, law, religion, and medicine. But he was not satisfied with these traditional forms of knowledge. He wanted to learn about magic. Valdes and Cornelius were responsible to initiate him into the dangerous world of black arts. Doctor Faustus summons Mephostophilis and barters his soul to Lucifer for 24 years of black arts magic knowledge and unconditional service from Mephostophilis. Faustus is plagued with initial doubts but his misgivings about the deal are calmed down by Mephostophilis when he conjures up the image of Seven Deadly Sins in front of him. The devil transferred Faustus to make –believe world of Pope, Charles V and Alexander the Great. The devil even conjures up the image of Helen, the most beautiful woman of the world, during the last twenty-four hours of the deal. Faustus had asked the devil to make Helen appear before him with the intention of impressing a bunch of scholars. Actually Faustus wanted the whole world to know of his magical capabilities. Faustus uses magical prowess, attended by Mephostophilis, for twenty years lured him to a world of trickery but it tricked him into death. His sin resulted in death. He was aware of the grave impact from the initial moment of the deal but an apparent loss of reason did not give him any chance to repent before Divine power at the end of the deal and the play. A brief comparison made at this point suggests that both the characters are undergoing a loss of reason and elf sacrifice but there lays a basic difference. Hamlet’s loss of reason is fake and made up in order to avenge his father’s death while Faustus’ loss of rationale is meant for the purpose of demonstrating his skills to the public and impressing others. While both make sacrifice of themselves, Hamlet gives away his intellectual power and reason to appease his father’s soul and hence turns mad in front of others. He is not bothered of what society thought of him. On the contrary Dr Faustus wants to make a good impression on people and society around him and for that sake he trades his soul. However Hamlet also gives greater priority at times to morality over plain reasoning and hence grants Claudius his life while he repents for his guilt to God. Hamartia Aristotle’s concept of Greek tragedy is based on the salient point of hamartia. It translates to ‘error’ in Greek and means “a flaw or moral weakness in the character that could be used to justify the catastrophe” (Hiltunen, p.16) It refers to a moral flaw (Aritotle, 1997, p. 94) in the character of the hero, which eventually brings ruin upon him. This concept is equally applicable for any kind of tragic play written in any age of English Literature. Hamlet and Doctor Faustus had a tragic flaw in them, which hastened their death. Hamlet’s hamartia is his hesitation to commit an action. His inaction fails him to provide justice for death of his father. In his hesitation to kill his uncle he sows the seeds of his emotional ruin and untimely death. The tragic flaw in the character of Doctor Faustus is that he wanted to stretch the domain beyond the limits of reason. He rejects divinity and sells off his Christian ideals when he foolishly subjugates himself to the deal of Lucifer. He should have remained satisfied with his existing traditional knowledge but he entered into a world of forbidden knowledge. Consumed by a desire to know more and more, Faustus failed to see the overall picture of the horrible deal he makes with Lucifer, the Devil. Doctor Faustus represented the Renaissance humanist spirit” but he once again pointed towards misfortunes of those who obliterated their faith on God. His story is that of moral corruption. His world reflects the “limitless depravity of human nature” (Marlowe, Bevington, Rasmussen, 1993, p. 11). The statement “What can cause the will’s evil, the will being the sole cause of all evil” points to this fact. (Marlowe, Bevington, Rasmussen, 1993, p. 11) Doctor Faustus is not a bad man; he is simply a foolish man who deviated from the path of permissible limits. At the end the readers pity the character. He too is affected by his indecision; he sways between repentance and his pride, which keeps him away from asking God for forgiveness. Moral Dilemmas Tragic flaws lead to moral dilemmas. In Hamlet we find hesitation plagues him with numerous thoughts that ultimately fail to achieve the purpose. “The play’s the thing, Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King” (Shakespeare, 2003, Act II, Scene III, p. 155) He decides but cannot fully compete the action. This heightens his dilemma. Doctor Faustus is a tragic fool who did not realize what is best for him. Just before the deal he asks Mephostophilis who is the creator of the Universe; he does not receive any answer. It should have made him realize that God is still the superior power presiding over all. But sin took the upper hand and he sacrificed his life for attainment of earthly gains and pleasures. His dilemma is that of Renaissance man oscillating between rational world and divine faith. Divided Self The divided self of Hamlet is best reflected in the lines: “To be, or not to be, -that is the question:- Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles” (Shakespeare, 2003, Act III, Scene I, p. 158) Both the characters are torn between their divided self. Doctor Faustus has full knowledge of what sin means, yet he commits the blunder of selling his soul to Lucifer, enemy of God. He says: “If we say that we have no sin/ We deceive ourselves, and there is no truth in us”. (Marlowe, 2001, Act I, Scene I, p. 5) These tragic characters show that all human beings have a faculty of reason but sometimes the present circumstances and future prospects blur the vision of reason. Conclusion Both Hamlet and Dr. Faustus are deprived of their reasoning faculty in the course of the drama. They trip over to disturbed mental state, which finally brings death upon them. In fact their aim and aspirations were fatally doomed by destiny. “There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will”. (Shakespeare, 2003, Act I, Scene IV, p. 237) adequately explains the role of destiny in all our moral actions. We cannot escape from the clutches of divine destiny. However revenge is what leads Hamlet to commit the sin of murder while temptation drives Dr. Faustus towards giving away his soul. Both lose reasoning power and a period of divided self in the process. They meet their end through gradual self-sacrifice. References 1. Aristotle and Whalley, G. and Baxter, J. and Atherton, P, (1997) Aristotle’s Poetics. McGill-Queen’s Press-MQUOP 2. Hiltunen, A. (2002). Aristotle in Hollywood: the anatomy of successful storytelling, Bristol: Intellect Books 3. Marlowe, C. (2001). Doctor Faustus. Signet Classic 4. Marlowe, C. and Bevington D.M. and Rasmussen E. (1993) Doctor Faustus A-and B-Texts: Christopher Marlowe and his collaborators and revisers. The Revel Plays. Manchester: Manchester University Press. 5. Shakespeare, W. (2003) Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Read More

Doctor Faustus too is entangled in a dilemma when he sells his soul to Lucifer via the medium of devil Mephostophilis. Doctor Faustus, the German scholar is presented by Christopher Marlowe as a highly knowledgeable man in traditional study fields like logic, law, religion, and medicine. But he was not satisfied with these traditional forms of knowledge. He wanted to learn about magic. Valdes and Cornelius were responsible to initiate him into the dangerous world of black arts. Doctor Faustus summons Mephostophilis and barters his soul to Lucifer for 24 years of black arts magic knowledge and unconditional service from Mephostophilis.

Faustus is plagued with initial doubts but his misgivings about the deal are calmed down by Mephostophilis when he conjures up the image of Seven Deadly Sins in front of him. The devil transferred Faustus to make –believe world of Pope, Charles V and Alexander the Great. The devil even conjures up the image of Helen, the most beautiful woman of the world, during the last twenty-four hours of the deal. Faustus had asked the devil to make Helen appear before him with the intention of impressing a bunch of scholars.

Actually Faustus wanted the whole world to know of his magical capabilities. Faustus uses magical prowess, attended by Mephostophilis, for twenty years lured him to a world of trickery but it tricked him into death. His sin resulted in death. He was aware of the grave impact from the initial moment of the deal but an apparent loss of reason did not give him any chance to repent before Divine power at the end of the deal and the play. A brief comparison made at this point suggests that both the characters are undergoing a loss of reason and elf sacrifice but there lays a basic difference.

Hamlet’s loss of reason is fake and made up in order to avenge his father’s death while Faustus’ loss of rationale is meant for the purpose of demonstrating his skills to the public and impressing others. While both make sacrifice of themselves, Hamlet gives away his intellectual power and reason to appease his father’s soul and hence turns mad in front of others. He is not bothered of what society thought of him. On the contrary Dr Faustus wants to make a good impression on people and society around him and for that sake he trades his soul.

However Hamlet also gives greater priority at times to morality over plain reasoning and hence grants Claudius his life while he repents for his guilt to God. Hamartia Aristotle’s concept of Greek tragedy is based on the salient point of hamartia. It translates to ‘error’ in Greek and means “a flaw or moral weakness in the character that could be used to justify the catastrophe” (Hiltunen, p.16) It refers to a moral flaw (Aritotle, 1997, p. 94) in the character of the hero, which eventually brings ruin upon him.

This concept is equally applicable for any kind of tragic play written in any age of English Literature. Hamlet and Doctor Faustus had a tragic flaw in them, which hastened their death. Hamlet’s hamartia is his hesitation to commit an action. His inaction fails him to provide justice for death of his father. In his hesitation to kill his uncle he sows the seeds of his emotional ruin and untimely death. The tragic flaw in the character of Doctor Faustus is that he wanted to stretch the domain beyond the limits of reason.

He rejects divinity and sells off his Christian ideals when he foolishly subjugates himself to the deal of Lucifer. He should have remained satisfied with his existing traditional knowledge but he entered into a world of forbidden knowledge. Consumed by a desire to know more and more, Faustus failed to see the overall picture of the horrible deal he makes with Lucifer, the Devil. Doctor Faustus represented the Renaissance humanist spirit” but he once again pointed towards misfortunes of those who obliterated their faith on God.

His story is that of moral corruption. His world reflects the “limitless depravity of human nature” (Marlowe, Bevington, Rasmussen, 1993, p. 11).

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