preview

Examples Of The Seven Deadly Sins In Dr. Faustus

Satisfactory Essays

Cristopher Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus, while proving itself to be an allegory for the power repentance holds for the sinner, loudly echoes the maxim “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9).” The play had a cataclysmic impact on literature, as it revitalized the Faust legend and was one of the innumerable catalysts that characterize the Renaissance, yet the vices the protagonist must deal with stretch back to Creation. The Seven Deadly Sins – gluttony, lust, greed, envy, wrath, sloth, and pride – whisper and make themselves known through every character struggle, antagonist, and tragic hero; they are fundamental to the human condition, unavoidable, and are known as the “cardinal sins.” Where one cardinal sin is found, little effort is required to find the reciprocal. Although no combination is exclusive, the father of the seven deadly sins – pride – is indubitably the blood source other sins leech from. The glutton consumes pride equal to what he swallows, and the lustful man looks back on those he has seduced taking pride in every notch on his belt. The greedy man withdraws his pride from his net worth, the number he mistakes for his identity. Envy is the intangible pull towards objects and accomplishments that the prideful boast in, the wrathful takes pride in the power resulting from their vile behavior, and the sloth’s pride places his status above the very acts he refuses to carry out. Seldom does an author write without leaving traces of his or her own beliefs littered among the text, and Dr. Faustus is frankly used as a mouthpiece for Christopher Marlowe’s critique of Christian ideology. The play was published in 1592, a time that had newly coined the term “atheist”, which included a nasty and dangerous stigma when used as a label. In fact, an accusation of atheism, before it could be refuted, is what ultimately led to Marlowe’s murder. The playwright’s beliefs are important because all work is in part autobiographical. Following in the footsteps of all those who rebel against God, from the first, Lucifer, to the modern day leaders of the New Atheist movement, such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, Christopher

Get Access