Helen in dr faustus. Doctor Faustus: Important Quotes Explained 2022-10-30
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In Christopher Marlowe's play "Doctor Faustus," Helen of Troy serves as a symbol of beauty and temptation. She appears in Act II as a vision to Faustus, who is promised her as a reward for signing a contract with the Devil.
Helen is often referred to as the "face that launched a thousand ships," as her beauty was said to have caused the Trojan War. In Marlowe's play, this beauty is a powerful force that tempts Faustus to give in to his desires and sell his soul to the Devil.
However, Helen's appearance also serves as a reminder of the destructive power of desire and the dangers of giving in to temptation. In the play, Faustus is warned by the Good Angel and the Bad Angel to resist the temptation of Helen, as it will ultimately lead to his downfall.
Despite these warnings, Faustus is unable to resist the allure of Helen and chooses to pursue her at the expense of his own soul. In the end, Faustus's desire for Helen leads to his tragic demise, as he is unable to repent and is damned to hell.
In conclusion, Helen serves as a symbol of beauty and temptation in Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus," representing the destructive power of desire and the dangers of giving in to temptation.
Doctor Faustus Scene 12 Summary & Analysis
At the mention of repentance, Mephastophilis threatens him, holding tight to the agreed-upon bargain. Having come to what he believes is the limits of traditional knowledge, he decides to sell his soul to the devil in exchange for twenty-four years of unlimited knowledge and power. This is contrasted with the Old Man who is immune to the full glory fury of the Devil because of the strength of his belief in God. Faust succeeds in restoring Helen to life, but Phorkyas-Mephistopheles spiritually vexes the Greek woman such that she is, although unchanged in beauty, doubtful of herself. This idea is echoed in the use of capital punishment as the result of trying to break his end of the bargain. It is easier to give in to ones baser desires, to want to make love to Helen, than it is to uphold the principles of the Church.
Indeed, when the scholars ask to see Helen, Faustus treats it as if it were just another conjuring trick, as was summoning Alexander the Great. It is fair to say that Faustus represents the quintessential renaissance man - it is his thirst for knowledge that drives him into his pact with Mephastophilis, indeed it is the Evil Angel that best summarises this: Go forward, Faustus, in the famous art, Wherein all nature's treasury is contained: Be thou on earth as Jove is in the sky, Lord and commander of these elements. Revolt, or I'll in piecemeal tear thy flesh. Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss: Her lips sucks forth my soul, see where it flies! In Faust, however, Helen and her culture of the good, the beautiful, and the true have long since departed from the world. Faustus' treatment of the Pope and other clergy reveals his preferred method of dealing with the church.
At midnight, a host of devils appears and carries his soul off to hell. The scholars ask Faustus to summon Helen and Faustus later asks Mephastophilis to make Helen his lover, so that her beauty can distract him from his impending doom. The idea that Faustus is coming close to seeking forgiveness would seem to be vindicated by Mephastophilis' response: Thou traitor, Faustus: I arrest thy soul For disobedience to my sovereign lord. Helen walks across the stage, to the awe and delight of the scholars, who leave after Helen disappears. An old man enters and tries to attempt Faustus to repent. This is what sparks the war.
How am I glutted with conceit of this! He begs for mercy, but it is too late. He has already attained what he can through more conventional means, his "bills are hung up as monuments", and his "common talk found aphorisms". Was this the face that launched a thousand ships, And burnt the topless towers of Ilium? However, Helen also represents Faustus's inner lust for knowledge and to power. Shall I make spirits fetch me what I please, Resolve me of all ambiguities, Perform what desperate enterprise I will? Faustus experiences some misgivings and wonders if he should repent and save his soul; in the end, though, he agrees to the deal, signing it with his blood. The old man plays a similar role to that of the Good Angel, urging Faustus to repent and telling him that redemption is still possible. Indeed, when the scholars ask to see Helen, Faustus treats it as if it were just another conjuring trick, as was summoning Alexander the Great.
Classical Greece is supposed to be a time of great thinkers, plays and writers, so Faustus desires to go to this time. Faustus inability to change his fate and accept the grace the Old Man says is with him makes him commit even further sins. Faustus compares himself to the most famous figures of the classical period; to Hippocrates, to Aristotle and to Galen. Mephastophilis gives Faustus a dagger. At the beginning of the play, he dismisses religious transcendence in favor of magic; now, after squandering his powers in petty, self-indulgent behavior, he looks for transcendence in a woman, one who may be an illusion and not even real flesh and blood. An old man urges Faustus to repent, but Faustus drives him away.
Spectacle of Helen in Euripides’ Helen and Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus
This is, however, no ordinary conjuring trick; it has the most dire consequences for Faustus - the loss of his soul. Therefore, the entrance of the character of Helen of Troy is representative of the Renaissance ideal of revisiting all things Greek. Scene 5, lines 139-141 This marks the descent of Faustus from the intellectual seeking pleasures of the mind, to the hedonist seeking more sensual pleasures. Faustus makes his sin even greater by embracing Helen as his spiritual guide. He at once falls in love with her, but thinks that he cannot possess her until he understands Greek culture in full, so he journeys to Greece for Classical Walpurgis Night. Paris, a prince of Troy, elopes with her it is not ascertained whether she was kidnapped or if she goes voluntarily thinking that Helen is the beautiful gift that Aprhodite had promised him.
A group of devils appear to torment the old man, who says that his faith in God will triumph over the devils. It is, however, unlikely that any of us have a sufficiently Faustian nature to sell our soul to the Devil. This is the reason why he came into contact with Mephastophilis, as he sought to use the new power that would come to him to further his own knowledge. One of them asks Faustus to conjure up Helen, the mythical Greek woman who was supposedly the most beautiful woman in the world. Helen's arrival is attended by the scholars, people of learning, who, by their dumb-foundedness, show the beauty of Helen: Since we have seen the pride of Nature's works, And only paragon of excellence, Let us depart; and for this glorious deed Happy and lest be Faustus evermore.
Faustus is enraged and shouts that he is damned and ought to die. The old man says he sees an angel over Faustus' head, offering him mercy. Scene I, lines 74-77 It is the restless spirit of the renaissance that drives Faustus to seek knowledge. But time is growing short. His faith in God is not great enough to overcome his fear of pain. Faustus' desire to return to the ancient world is represented by not only Helen, the most beautiful woman that the ancient world produced, but also by the presence of the scholars. As the twenty-four years of his deal with Lucifer come to a close, Faustus begins to dread his impending death.
After the message of the Old Man, we see Faustus realizing the extent of his folly and feeling despair. Here will I dwell, for heaven be in these lips, And all is dross that is not Helena! In Homer's The Iliad , as well as in The Odyssey, Helen is the reason behind the Trojan War. We need to do this because this is what Helen is symbolic of; she represents the attractive nature of evil in addition to the depths of depravity that Faustus has fallen to. Faustus' rebellion against his deal a repetition of his body's rebellion against his signing of the contract is only short lived, and his downfall is assured when Helen arrives. The appearance of Helen not only represents the fall from high minded intellectualism, but also the seduction of the classical, pagan, world. Helen, then, represents the dangerous beauty of evil, the seduction of the past, and the desire for things pleasurable. Following this incident, he travels through the courts of Europe, with his fame spreading as he goes.
