Comparing Christopher Marlow’s Doctor Faustus and William Shakespeare’s

Desire for Knowledge and Power in Christopher Marlows Doctor Faustus and William Shakespeares MacbethPlays written during the Renaissance often show how an single(a) is shaped by that persons deepest ambitions, such as the swear to know, to rule, or to love, and how these aspirations git lead people down dramatic paths. Christopher Marlows Doctor Faustus and William Shakespeares Macbeth two involve noble protagonists who are envisioned as true subjects - tragic heroes their selfhood is defined by their ambition and the decisions that they compete with while attempting to reach their goals. Knowledge and power are the key objects of their wants Faustus desire is intellectual, he seeks omniscience, and Macbeth wants to rule Scotland, absolutely and unconditionally. The desires that Faustus and Macbeth follow lead them to keep assay after more and more. Both protagonists embark on a guiltless Renaissance pursuit - the consummate desire for knowledge and power, and these plays de pict the tragedies that can arise from over-reaching toward those desires. An example of over-reaching on the part of Doctor Faustus and Macbeth is that, to fulfill their ambition, twain characters look to activities that go against the prominent religious beliefs of the time, and that were considered offenses to the Crown. They engage in viciousness through unorthodox disciplines such as witchcraft and black magic, and ghostly elements exist within each play that help to define both protagonists as human beings. The Prologue of Doctor Faustus presents the themes of transgressions and overreaching when the chorus says, his waxen locomote did mount above his reach (Prologue.21). This line alludes to the prover... ...beth as key figures to construe the tragic consequences that can result from over-reaching toward goals, and through their unorthodox endeavors to fulfill their individualised desires, Faustus and Macbeth are defined as subjects with humanistic qualities. Both pr otagonists attain venturesome status by their tragic flaw excessive ambition and stopping point to pursue what they have undertaken to the bitter end Works CitedMarlowe, Christopher Dr Faustus in ed. WB Worthen The Harcourt Brace Anthology of Drama, 2nd edn., Texas Harcourt Brace 1996.Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth. apprentice Hall publications Timeless Voices, Timeless Themes. The British Tradition. Upper Saddle River, NJ Prentice Hall 1999. Sources ConsultedWilliam Shakespeare. BBC Homepage. Online. Available http//www.bbc.co.uk/history/culture/shakespeare.shtml. 26 Mar. 2004.