Why Faustus Is More Than Just A Reproduction Of Sin

The power of poetry provides mankind much more than an artistic well articulated rhythmic pattern of words. Poets provide mankind, through poetry, the ability to explore intimately the wit, will, virtues, vices, and nature of man’s soul. At first glance it appears that Christopher Marlowe’s, The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus follows the Calvinistic teaching, â€Å"†¦that man is a fallen creature whose will is fatally polluted by Original Sin, but also that a poet, by willfully creating verisimilitudes of this fallen world only ever reproduces sin.† (Reisner 332-3) Using Sir Philip Sidney’s The Defense of Poesy and applying it to Marlowe’s Faustus, will allow exploring and understanding as to why Faustus is more than just a reproduction of sin, but more an artistic imitation to provide a different approach in demonstrating the power of poetry. Faustus’s corrupt reality can be used as a means to â€Å"teach and delight† mankind so that he might seek to better the, â€Å"infected will† that â€Å"keepth us from teaching unto it.† (Sidney 10) Marlowe uses Faustus as a paradox of sin in order to prove the true power poets have; the same power Sidney defends in his work. From the very beginning Faustus demonstrates his ability to understand Sidney’s â€Å"erected wit†, â€Å"If we say that we have no sin,/We deceive ourselves, and there’s no truth in us.† (Marlowe 42-3) Faustus knows that he is a sinner therefore, recognizes the virtue of truth. Yet, since he has been taught that â€Å"†¦the reward of sin isShow MoreRelatedDuchess Of Malf Open Learn10864 Words   |  44 PagesThe Duchess of Malfi does indeed have ‘plenty of blood’, but this is nothing unusual in Renaissance tragedies. Webster’s play is a tragedy about a forbidden love, more specifically a forbidden marriage, which leads ultimately to the deaths of the lovers and many others. Webster’s focus in his tragedy of love is class, or rank, to use a more authentically early modern term. Historians of the period often prefer the term ‘rank’ on the grounds that it better captures relationships in a highly stratifiedRead MoreMetz Film Language a Semiotics of the Cinema PDF100902 Words   |  316 Pages(break up, break down analysis, etc.), would more easily be translated by segmenting when used in the linguistic sense, and by dà ©coupage when used to describe the final stage of a shooting script. Michael Taylor also coined the expression mirror construction to translate construction en abà ®me, to describe embedded narrative structures like a film within a film. This is not really very accurate but I have not found any solution better than embedded structure; see his explanation on page