Introduction

Doctor Faustus, a unique creation of Christopher Marlowe, conveys a deep conception of tragedy. In awe inspiring and terror,
the play fulfils one of the true functions of tragedy. It thrills us because there is something of the desire of the moth for the star of
Faustuss desire to conquer human limitation, in all of us, and we are fascinated by the audacity with which he persists in his
desperate course.
Extraordinary Courage and Indomitable Will
Doctor Faustus deals with the heroic struggle of a great souled man doomed to inevitable defeat. The entire interest in a
Marlovian tragedy centres round the personality of the hero, and the pleasure comes from watching the greatness and fall of a
superhuman personality. And ordinary German scholar, in the beginning, Faustuss intellectual endowment raises him to the status
of a great hero. He has the genuine passion for knowledge infinite. With his inordinate ambition he soars beyond the petty
possibilities of humanity, leagues himself with superhuman powers and rides through space in a fiery chariot exploring the secrets of
the universe.
Marlowes Faustus aspires to be more than man and therefore repudiates his humanity and rebels against the ultimate reality.
Being a true Renaissance hero, he surpasses his mortal bounds to be as powerful on earth as Jove in sky. He finds some hope only in
Necromancy. He, therefore, turns to Magic and is elated by its prospects of profit, delight, power, honour, for:
All things that move between the quiet poles
Shall be at my command
A sound magician is a mighty God..
Endowed with extraordinary courage and will to pursue his goal relentlessly and recklessly, without caring for good and evil,
Faustus is really a tragic hero. He strives to satisfy his overriding desires, rejecting the will of God or servitude, and asserting his will
both in opposition to God as well as the Devil.
Tussle between orthodoxy and quest for intellectual freedom: A deep spiritual conflict
Marlowes Faustus, the tragic hero, is afire with an indomitable passion. He discards all moral codes and ethical principles and
plunges headlong to achieve his end. But in rejecting Christian values, there arises in his mind a deep conflict between the pull of
tradition, the Will of God, and the desire to learn more and more to taste the fruits of the forbidden tree. The heart of Faustus turns
out to be the battlefield where the forces of good and evil are trying to overwhelm each other. Faustus makes his own choice to take
to the black art of magic deliberately and then sells his soul to the Devil of his free will. Faustus is a modern man whose conscious
self is opposed by the subconscious self which is deeply attached to the conventional doctrines and dogmas of Christian theology.
Throughout the play, Faustus staggers between doubt and faith symbolised by the warnings of the God Angel and the
seductions of Bad Angel, as he moves towards his inevitable doom. He has been told by Mephistophilis the meaning of Hell, but in
his blind arrogance, he refuses to really grasp the implications of his action. Indeed, before the end of the play Faustus undergoes the
mental torture born out of the opposing pulls of his rational and emotional selves. To Mephistophilis, he can arrogantly assert:
Thinkest thou that Faustus is so fond to imagine
That after this life, there is any pain?
Tush! these are trifles and mere old wives tales.
But Faustus cannot avoid the mental tortures that must follow every act of sin or crime. A guilty conscience pricks him almost from
the beginning to the end of this tragic drama.Doctor Faustus is a tragedy connected with mans intellectual faculties and his rejection
of voluntary subjection of them to an orthodox order of Christianity.
Tragedy the outcome of the heros inherent weakness and presumption
Marlowes Faustus prides himself in his great learning and scholarship. He is dominated by ambition to acquire knowledge
infinite and through it to gain superhuman power and satisfy his sensuous and mundane pleasures of life. His weakness is not a
mechanical outcome of his pact with the Devil. The seeds of decay are in his character from the first, half hidden in the Marlovian
glamour cast about him, though he has intense desire to know the truth and he comes to make his rash and fatal bargain.
Furthermore, in the true Aristotelian sense, he is blind to the actual implications of his action. This is the tragedy. His sensual
pleasures override all other passions and blind him to the dreadful truth. The vision of Helen conceals the vision of Absolute Truth
from the eyes of Faustus. Faustus is conscious of the weakness, but he has no control over his overriding desires. The vision of
Helen allures him and her unrealisable beauty penetrates his spirits to the depths:
Was this the face that launchd a thousand ships
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?
Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.
Faustus, we realize, is doomed, far from being able to reach immortality.
Conclusion
Doctor Faustus is a tragedy of an aspiring intellect which seeks to pierce through to the centre of all knowledge. Such ambition
is doomed to failure because of its very nature, for man is a limited being. The courage of the challenge, however, is awesome.

Othello tragedy

Tragedy
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a "tragedy" all right, and not just because the word "tragedy" appears in the play's
title. We've got a handy list of the features and conventions that are so common in this genre, so let's take a look, shall we?
Dramatic work: Check. And by "Check," we mean that, yes, Othello is a "play."

Serious or somber theme: Hmm. Othello's a study of the consequences of jealousy and racism, so check.

Hero's got a major flaw of character or conflict with some overpowering force: Check. You've probably picked up on the fact
that Othello's a guy with a serious flaw (insane jealousy). Not only that, but Othello's also gullibleit doesn't take much for Iago to
convince Othello that Desdemona's cheating on him (even though she's not).
This, as some literary critics have argued, may have something to do with 1) Othello's suspicion that all women are inherently
promiscuous and/or 2) Othello's fear that he, a black man, is not good enough for his white wife. Check out our theme discussions
on "Race" and "Gender" for more on this.

Hero is destined for destruction and downfall: Checksort of. The important thing to remember is that Othello experiences a
major, major downfall over the course of the play. He starts out as a pretty noble guyhe's a celebrated war hero, he's obviously
overcome quite a bit in order to reach the rank of a military general, he's respected by the Venetian government, he's a loving
husband who has snagged a great wife, he's an eloquent storyteller (kind of like Shakespeare), and so on.
By the end of the play, Othello's an irrational, violent, and insanely jealous husband who murders his own wife. Yet, while the idea of
"destiny" plays an important role in plays like Macbeth and Hamlet, it's not really a factor in Othello. Some critics have argued that
Othello's downfall is the "inevitable" outcome of Iago's masterful scheming and/or the racism Othello is subjected to in the play, but
"destiny" doesn't seem to have much of a role here.

*Shakespearean tragedies always end in death but with some promise of continuity: Not all tragedies end in death, but all
of Shakespeare's tragedies do. By the time we reach the end of the play, Othello has strangled Desdemona, Iago has killed Emilia,
and Othello stabs himself in the guts.
But not everyone on stage is left for deadLodovico promises to return to Venice, where he will relate the tragic story of what has
just happened to his countrymen. This is similar to what happens at the end of Hamlet, when Horatio promises the young prince that
he will tell Hamlet's story to the world.

Othello's influence can also be seen in modern-day psychological suspense thrillers (think writer James Patterson or film director
Stanley Kubrick), because the entire momentum of the play is based on the twisted mind games of two (and often more) characters.