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The Main Themes Of The Supernatural In Christopher Faustus

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In this play we see the occult and supernatural throughout the whole play as this is one of the main themes that is focused upon. The use of the supernatural and occult is very negative as Christopher Marlowe uses them in various ways.

In the first scene Faustus has decided to study dark magic as it’s the most benefiting subject to study. Faustus's wants can be seen as selfish as he’s attracted to the idea of having “power, of honour, of omnipotence” which can be acquired through dark magic. The use of tripling gets across his wants and makes them more memorable so that the audience can remember the reasons as to why faustus turned to magic and thus prevent themselves from following his path. Faustus’s character can be linked to the Renaissance period which leads us to label him as a “Renaissance man” which is an idea that’s talked about by John Butcher the editor of Doctor Faustus by Longman literature. This idea is further implied as Faustus wants to go beyond the knowledge he knows to become a God which he thinks he can achieve by doing magic as he thinks that “A sound magician is a demi-god” which leads us to believe that being a mortal man is not enough for him. A modern reader could argue that a” magician” is someone that uses tricks and illusions rather than real magic whilst someone from this time period would interpret it a magician as a witch/ wizard as someone that is damned and is following lucifer and doing bad deeds. The idea of faustus wanting to become

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