Doctor Faustus Faustus Quotes

The praise the emperor heaps upon Faustus here is exactly what Faustus wished for in Act 1, Scene 1. Flattery will get you everywhere with this guy. But there's just one problem with that flattery. The emperor makes the point that the good, useful deed Faustus has done in setting Bruno free is much more important than the magic itself. Of course this important lesson falls on deaf ears. No one ever said Faustus was a good listener.

Faustus is angry with Benvolio for mocking him by doubting his magical mojo. For this reason, he puts horns on the guy's head. The fact that Faustus is unable to let Benvolio's teasing roll off his back shows just how important his abilities are to him. He can't stand to let someone even imply that he doesn't have the skills.

The riches that Faustus imagines are all from exotic, foreign lands, and ones that had all recently been discovered by Europeans: India, the Orient (Asia), and the "new-found world" (the Americas). These riches would've been tough to get and, therefore, more expensive, but Faustus's desire for them also suggests that he wants to be like a conqueror or explorer. Could that mean he's also power hungry, too?

Hey, that's not such a bad goal, right? Faustus seems downright charitable here. Silk is an expensive fabric, which tells us that Faustus wants to help impoverished scholars enjoy a life more luxurious than the one to which they're accustomed. Sounds good to Shmoop.

Okay, now he's not so charitable. Here, Faustus's desire for wealth is strongly linked to his desire for power. Many of Faustus's fellow citizens would be pumped if he ran the Prince of Parma out of out town, since they no doubt believe he rules them unjustly. But Faustus would do this not out of the goodness of his heart, but out of a desire to rule over them, himself.

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.

When Faustus calls Mephistopheles he's all about his expectation of commanding god-like power. But the response from Mephistopheles acts as a reality-check: all power has limits, even that of the spirits. This response should act as a warning to Faustus that what he desires is really out of his reach. He doesn't register that, though. He's too busy daydreaming about gold and far-off places.

Faustus thinks that something he has done caused Mephistopheles to appear. What Mephistopheles explains to him here is that his speech did cause him to appear, sure, but not because of Faustus's power. Mephistopheles appearance was just a side effect of Faustus's blasphemy. As Mephistopheles explains after this passage, devils always appear when someone rejects God, in the hopes of gaining that sinner's soul. In fact, Mephistopheles' appearance is as a master (Lucifer) hoping to win a slave—Faustus—and not the other way around, as Faustus believes.

Are we supposed to believe that Faustus doesn't know who Lucifer is? What, has he been living under a rock? What happened to all that studying he was supposed to have been doing?

Aw, Faustus wants to bring the whole world together. That's kind of sweet. Oh, wait. This is not some high-minded idea about the value of community. Nope, Faustus is all about having power over all the nations. So sure, he wants to bring the world together, but only under his rule. That's not so warm and fuzzy.

Faustus's contract with Lucifer is written "in manner of a deed of gift" (2.1.58), a document that assigns ownership of something away from one person to another. Mephistopheles insists that Faustus write the document and then also read it aloud, probably to help give it all the pomp and circumstance needed to make the whole deal legit. Of course we think it's totally not legit. The absurdity of giving away a soul in a deed of gift raises the possibility that other similar transactions—like slavery, for example—are equally absurd.

Or maybe Faustus isn't quite convinced that he has zero hope of heaven. In this quote, he's still considering the possibility of salvation for himself. He seems almost desperate here, like he's clinging to one last hope, no matter how pathetic. But of course, he'll soon be distracted by the devils, so no matter.