THINKING ACTIVITY - 3

Hello Readers ,

           welcome to my blog. I am composing this blog on the grounds of a task assigned to me by my Professor ,to know more about the task CLICK HERE .today's blog is about a famous play Dr. Faustus written by Christopher Marlowe. whenever men tried to go against the will of God he was left with nothing but miseries. Dr. Faustus a scholar who masters all the arts of the world including Geography, Science, Philosophy , Medicine and practices  necromancy and sold his soul to Lucifer, the fallen angel and lost his life in order to become a demi God.

1) THE PLAY DIRECTED BY MATTHEW DUNSTER FOR GLOBE THEATER ENDS WITH THIS SCENE ( SEE THE IMAGE OF LUCIFER) WHAT DOES IT SIGNIFY?

The Glob Theater 

GLOBE THERATER, LONDON

     The GLOBE THEATER was a theater in LONDON associated with WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. It was built in 1599 by SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYING COMPANY. the LORD CHAMBERLAINS MAN. on land owned by THOMAS BREND and inherited by his son NICHOLAS BREND and grandson SIR MATTHEW BRAND, and was destroyed by fire on 29th JUNE 1613. A SECOND GLOBE THEATER was built on the same site by JUNE 1614 an closed by an ORDINANCE issued on 6 SEPTEMBER 1642. A modern reconstruction of the GLOBE, named SHAKESPEARE'S GLOBE opened in 1997 approximately 750 feet from the site of the original theater.

LUCIFER WITH WIDE WINGS

              FAUSTUS German scholar practices NECROMANCY to  BECOME DEMI - GOD with the help of the his two friends VALDES and CORNELIUS. HE SELLS his SOUL to LUCIFER THE PRINCE OF HELL, in exchange of FOUR TWENTY years service from MEPHISTOPHELES. GOOD ANGEL, OLD MAN AND EVEN MEPHISTOPHELES tries to worn him as this path will lead him to his doom but he ignores everything and signs the contract with his own blood. After gaining power FAUSTUS becomes more arrogant and wastes his life in doing foolish things such as harresing POPE, THE HORSE Courserer, CALLING HELEN OF TROY TO impress the scholars and at the end of the play he comes to his senses and begs for forgiveness and repent but the evil wins and LUCIFER takes away his soul, above picture from MATTHEW DUNSTER'S PLAY signifies the message of the wining of evil, if you do bad you'll definitely burn in hell.

2) IS GOD PRESENT IN THE PLAY? IF YES, WHERE AND HOW? IF NO WHY?

         YES, the God was percent in the Last scene of the play though MARLOWE himself didn't specify him as God he introduced him to us as OLD MAN. In the last scene he represents him as an enigmatic figure. The old man urges FAUSTUS to repent and to ask God for mercy. He seems to replace good and evil angels, who in the first scene tries to influence FAUSTUS'S behavior.

 The OLD MAN says to Faustus :

'O Gentle Faustus ,leave this  damned art, this magic that will charm  thy soul to hell and quit bereave thee to of salvation.Though thou has now offended like a man, do not preserve in it like a Devil, yet,ye thou hast an amiable soul if sin by custom grew not into nature then, Faustus , will repentance come too late! then, thou art banished from the sight of heaven! no mortal can can express the pains of hell! ...for gentle son , i speak of not in wrath or envy of thee but in tender love...and so have hope that this my kind rebuke, checking thy body, may amend thy soul. 

3) WHAT READING AND INTERPRETATION CAN BE GIVEN TO THIS IMAGE (SEE THE IMAGE IN OF DAEDALUS AND ICARUS) WITH REFERENCE TO THE CENTRAL THEME OF THE PLAY DOCTOR FAUSTUS?

The Myth Of Daedalus and Icarus 

Watch This Short Video

               In GREEK mythology, DAEDALUS was a skillful craftsman and artist and was seen as a symbol of wisdom, knowledge and power. He is the father of ICARUS. He invented and built the labyrinth for KING MINOS of CRETE but shortly after finishing KING MINOS had DAEDALUS imprisoned within the labyrinth. He and ICARUS devised a plan to escape by using wings made of wax that DAEDALUS had invented. They escaped, but sadly ICARUS did not heard his fathers warnings and flew too close to the sun. The wax melted and ICARUS fell to his death. This left DAEDALUS heartbroken, but instead of giving up he flew to the island of SICILY.

 The central theme of DOCTOR FAUSTUS is the POWER AS A CORRUPTING INFLUENCE, we have seen that FAUSTUS soled his soul to LUCIFER to be a DEMI - GOD but when he gains the powers he forgets his aim for which he soled his soul and he wastes his FOUR TWENTY YEARS time in harassing  POPE, TRICKING HORSE COURSERER, and calling HELEN OF TROY just to impress his scholar friends and at the end he repents and begs for mercy but Lucifer captures  his soul and he dies. Likewise ICARUS also didn't listened his father and fly high  near to the sun  and because of the melting of wax dies.

4) HOW DO YOU INTERPRET THIS IMAGE?

        This painting is made by DUTCH artist PIETER BRUEGEL THE ELDER, the name of this painting is LANDSCAPE WITH THE FALL OF ICARUS, in the above  painting we can see that one person ICARUS is falling from the sky into the sea but no one noticed it, the farmer is busy in his field, the shepherd is busy with his sheep even we can see a man near the bank of the sea but no one noticed about the death of  ICARUS. The  picture Point out the ignorance of people towards  fellow men's sufferings. 

5) READ THIS ARTICLE BY BHAGAT SINGH. IN LIGHT OF THE ARGUMENTS MADE BY BHAGAT SINGH IN THIS ARTICLE, CAN YOU RE WRITE LAST MONOLOGUE OF DOCTOR FAUSTUS? 

 BHAGAT SINGH :

DON'T WORRY I'M NOT AFRAID OF ANYTHING,

O MEPHISTOPHELES, THE SERVANT TO THE PRINCE OF HELL, 

O SWEET MEPHISTOPHELES! COME FAST AND TAKE ME TO THEE, 

DON'T WORRY, YOU DO YOUR DUTY, COME AND TAKE MY SOUL, 

I AM ALLOWING YOU TO CUTE MY HEAD, I'M ALLOWING YOU TO BURN MY SOUL IN THE FIRE OF HELL, 

I DON'T HAVE ANY REGRETS IN LIFE, I LIVED MY LIFE TO THE FULLEST, 

SOME USED CALL ME DICTATOR and Bossy.

FOR SUCH PETTY AND SELFISH MOTIVES I SHALL NOT PRAY 

(THUNDER, ENTERS DEVIL) 

AT LAST YOU CAME SWEET MEPHISTOPHELES! COME,COME AND TAKE ME TO THE HELL. LIVE LONG FREEDOM! 

(EXEUNT DEVILS WITH BHAGAT SINGH) 

6)SUMMARIZE  ARTICLES DISCUSSED IN THE CLASS. 

(A) MYTH, MYTHOLOGY AND MARLOWE'S DOCTOR FAUSTUS by KENNETH L. Golden, we can compare DOCTOR FAUSTUS with DAEDALUS AND ICARUS they both becomes corrupt by the influence of power and meets pitiful death according to A. N. OKERLUND, humans always  chooses things which they wants to do the most whether the way is good or bad, FAUSTUS practices necromancy and sold his soul to Lucifer knowing it's bad, in scene one he only sees the parts about sin and death, he ignores the rest of the passage offering eternal life to those who trusts in Christ. 

                                                                                                        THANK YOU .....