THEME OF DAMNATION

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Faustus limits his subjects in the beginning himself. He rejects medicine, physics,
logic, law and divinity as well, on the ground that it is grounded in morality. When
he reads from divinity, he doesn’t read full and that leads to out of context
understanding. e.g. the reward of sin is death (which sin?) He brings his own
damnation because he thinks other subjects are limited but magic is limitless and
glorious. He uses these words when practicing, power, honor and omnipotence,
what profit and delight of necromancy.

We can see Faustus’ damnation in the beginning when he aspires for

omnipotence, aspires for something above his order, beyond natural order. It is
against nature and rule or law of creation.

Then we see in him the sin of PRESUMPTION and the sin of DESPAIR. He takes
God for granted and doesn’t acknowledge Him being omnipotent. Faustus’ high
creative powers lead him to defy God and later he wants to escape from his own
existence and aspires for annihilation. He abjures God and His scriptures and the
love of God which is root cause of all. This evil comes from sin of pride. The whole
thing leads to further indulgence in other sins. This pride takes away the fear of
God when it sides with the sin of presumption. This pride takes away the love of
God when it sides with the sin of despair.

Then we can see Faustus’ damnation because he believes in the power of Lucifer,
the way he should believe in the power of God. He puts his trust in Lucifer instead
of God and in this course he forgets about the fear of God and the love of God
and it all calls for damnation.

Faustus misunderstands his relationship with God and reduces theology to only
the garb of pitiless damnation. Faustus makes lots of gods including despair of
God, Lucifer, and Mephistopheles. He blinds himself to all possibilities and aims to
gain control through magic but Mephistopheles is a scrupulous corruptor and
controls him with one master.

In the theme of damnation, we see a reversal of things or Faustus’ state from the
first to the last scene. We see a transition in him from presumption to despair and
transition from doubt to belief. In the beginning he doubts the existence of
heaven and hell and in the end he believes on it. It all generates from the desire
to become more than human. Then we see transition in him from disbelief in the
recognition of the salvation of the Christ to belief in Christ in the end. We see
transition from aspiration of omnipotence to realization of extinction. He
experiences omnipotence for 24 years but he realizes that it’s a losing battle and
unprofitable barter. At the time he signs pact he doesn’t realize that omnipotence
is limited. In the beginning he wants to rise above humanity but in the end he
wants to become water droplets. Faustus doesn’t want to serve anybody but
ultimately he is serving Mephistopheles. He changes his master and blindly
follows him. Mephistopheles is with Faustus for 24 years. He thinks hell as a fable
till Mephistopheles tells him and opens his eyes.

The theme of damnation also becomes evident when he asks for a wife. This is
the only place where blank verse gets distorted. It shows that right in the
beginning when he asks for a legitimate wife, he is shown the portent of a devil
with firework. He could have come to senses but he is damned so he couldn’t
realize.

He exchanges one kind of limitation with another because satisfaction of one kind
always demands the sacrifice of another. Dr. Faustus exchanges knowledge for
shadows and similarly exchanges power of a human being for slavery of the devil.
His ultimate reward is only a set of practical jokes and delights of imagination.