Doctor Faustus Faustus Quotes

Faustus's interaction with the horse-dealer doesn't exactly make him look like a good person. He has tricked the poor guy into paying forty bucks for an enchanted bundle of hay (that currently looks like a horse) for no other reason than he thought it was funny. You know what, Dr. F? You're a bully.

Notice that Faustus isn't asking for just any power: he's asking for power over everything between the poles—In other words, in the whole stinkin' world. This kind of power is not the kind that emperors and kings have, as Faustus makes clear. Of course, only God has that kind of power, which is precisely the point. Faustus believes that "a sound magician is a demigod," or little god. It's ironic that Faustus calls the magician a "studious artisan." The word "artisan," or craftsman, refers to one who creates something (and in this way is like God). But after Faustus achieves his powers, he never creates anything new with them. He is, therefore, not actually like God at all.

Faustus is quite the nationalist here, focused totally on what his power can get his nation—Germany. Faustus does not like being ruled by an Italian, the Prince of Parma, and it brings out his more violent side. He imagines his spirits inventing war-weapons to rival the burning ship that Dutch forces sent against the Parmese blockade of the Belgian port city of Antwerp in 1585. But when Faustus actually uses his spirits to help him in war, against the forces of Benvolio (in Act 4, Scene 2), it's over an individual matter of honor rather than one of nationalist pride. So his actions fall just a wee bit shy of his ambitions. Okay, a lot shy.