The Devils of Faustus and Paradise Lost, Essay Example

The Warpath of the Devil’s Eternal Envy and Pride

The Devil acts differently in the telling of Christopher Marlowe’s “Faustus” and John Milton’s Paradise Lost. Marlowe portrays him as the ruthless pragmatist who boldly and openly shows his wares: the damned soul of his subjects, and Milton shows him as a bitter, sneaky wretch seeking vengeance. Although the devil in character differs, neither miss the two deadly sins which caused his fall and influenced his eternal life afterward: pride and envy. For these same two sins, the devil keeps his means to himself, working so mysteriously that each writer only guesses at his many methods and faces.

The Devil’s Agents in “Doctor Faustus”

Someone once said: “It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all”. That person never met Marlowe’s Mephistophilis, who claims that hell eternally plagues him since he “saw the face of God… And tasted the eternal joys of heaven…[now] depriv’d of everlasting bliss”. (Marlowe 15).Marlowe’s demon puts on the classic pity party of an antihero, a being who, once condemned to his fate, cannot escape the results of his past decisions and continues to suffer with every new turn. However, he and Beelzebub take an active role in the seduction of souls undecided. During the visit from the Duke and Duchess, Mephistophilis plays the role of servant during his bid to impress the gentry (Marlowe 59-60) He fills his roles seamlessly, turning sinister when Faustus again wavers, threatening to “in piece-meal tear thy flesh” (Marlowe 66). This gruesome prospect frightens Faustus back into line- enough so that he agrees to the torture of the old man who bids him call for mercy to redeem his soul. Mephistophilis, the able chameleon laughs in Faustus’ face about his role in redirecting the doctor toward the wide path to hell (Marlowe 71).

Beelzebub considers his duty somberly and drily. Having been made a demon he resents the human choice between good and evil, between faith and disbelief, and between Heaven and Hell. When the time for Faustus’ collection arrives, Mephistophilis comments on the gloominess of the place where the doctor’s damned soul will stay, but Beelzebub stays to “mark him how he demeans himself” (Marlowe 68). From this statement, Beelzebub recommends against the path which he has sworn to hold these souls to and seems to both resent and appreciate the choice that the humans have. He carries out his orders with the dispassionate efficiency of a soldier, because Lucifer issues his marching orders. Either these men with a choice fill the dam of souls or he feels Lucifer’s torture for eternity.

By contrast, Lucifer- being by no means the model of honesty and good ethics- boldly scolds Faustus for questioning his deal and calling upon God in his torment. When Faustus’ mind turns to the paradise at the beginning of the world, the cunning Lucifer swiftly steers his mind away from a devilish history of half-truths and deception. How clever is the fallen angel who runs Hell- that he can show Faustus the disgusting nature of the seven deadly sins and leave the learned doctor picking one out as cheerfully as though he were ordering from a catalogue. Lucifer himself later describes these souls as “the subjects of our monarchy…the black sons of hell” (Marlowe 68). Lucifer plays the puppeteer, pulling the strings on an entire fiery dominion, demons with extensive powers, and his future residents.

The Devil in Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost portrays Lucifer in a much more active role in the ruination of souls. Although ultimately the first sin of Eve to disobey God’s one rule- which might remind the modern readers of the paternal nature of the relationship between God and humanity- resulted from her own misguided decision, Satan proved the conduit through which bad decision arrive. Frequently in the human life- regardless of faith- each person faces decisions which he believes to be wrong but that can be rationalized away, as a silver-tongued Satan dismisses Eve’s concerns about God’s command. Milton tells his readers that it was Satan “whose guile, stirr’d up with envy and revenge, deceiv’d the mother of mankind, what time his pride had cast him out from Heaven” (2). The reader may note that Milton takes a direct approach in his condemnation of the devil, adding detail and yet a more distant, sweeping look at the history of Satan’s evil. At times, Satan appears sympathetic, as in Book IV, when he wrestles with the decision to strike again, considers his losses after his fall, and predicts the much pain will follow regardless of victory or defeat. He tries to think clearly and cries that all he ever found for looking upon God’s glories was greater malice (Milton 73).

Smilie writes that the devil and his cohorts literally transform into snakes after the fall of humanity as a fitting punishment on behalf of God and His children. He quotes a source who calls this ‘poetic justice’ (91). Although this sounds like a probable description, the reader must remember that these events happened at the beginning of human time and that the Old Testament judgments of God often featured a sweeping, heavy-handed sentence against those whose sins were great. When Milton’s Book 10 portrayal of their punishment arrives, it bears a softer, ironic sentence seen more in the New Testament- closer to the time in which Milton writes. Ethan Smilie argues that this increasing drop in self-value shows in the choice of animals which the devil and his minions transform into. After the innocent-seeming animals, such as the lion, the toad, or the serpent, the devilish crew began to take on the forms of fantastic creatures: dragons, dwarfs, pygmies, and elves (94). The enticement to sin became an entire fantastic production in the mold of Marlowe’s “Faustus”.

Discussion

Perhaps one of the most poignant lines comes from the demon Mephistophilis: “Fools that will laugh on Earth must weep in hell” (Marlowe 71). By this reasoning, both accounts of the devil make him the biggest fool in all of creation, the fallen angel who attempted to “set himself in glory above his peers… and against God…in vain attempt” (Milton 2). A reader could rightly argue that these two accounts show the devil as guilty of all seven deadly sins, but pride and envy motivate his eternally unrepentant nature. If, as Faustus did, he repented and clung faithfully to the truth of God, then the good angel told us that redemption was possible and that it was never too late. An angel who holds a grudge throughout eternity holds himself too high in the face of his Creator (2-4). He wants power unimaginable and does not bother to imagine a better future if he obtained every power of Heaven, Earth, and Hell.

The devil comes when called, and the appearance of God’s agents proves subtle. The reason for the appearance of the devil and his agents seems mysterious. Traditional Roman Catholic audiences before the Renaissance believed that devils and demons were bound to names in summons or commands. Genevieve Guenther argues that this belief only shows that the devil knew enough of pride and envy to give men a false sense of power and a belief that each “may rise above their fundamentally wretched place in the cosmos…[and] escape their irreducible dependence on God’s grace” (53). In essence, the trials of life are of God and to a greater glory for which it is vanity to believe escape possible.

Faustus tells his scholarly friends that the demons Mephistophilis and Beelzebub are always with him, guarding against his return to the path of righteousness, whereas God’s representatives fly in for brief moments with the weight of free will (Marlowe 72-76). Anything resembling a trick was compared to magic, sorcery, and evil, and the many forms which the characters assume shows the possibility of evil entering any person’s life and misleading or tempting others (Guenther 48-50). Private reflection becomes the enemy of an evil life- where a sound soul exists. We see the opposite effect as Milton’s Satan considers his plan before he arranges the fall of Eve. Before him always is the power of Christ, this new favorite of God and now also the humans. Satan added his punishment upon Christ and humanity, whom he envied, to the overblown pride which led him to quarrel with God. Satan wanted the drama; he wanted to rain fire if it provided him the same result, but Milton describes his encounter with the Son as much more confusing. The Son’s ‘creative powers’, which caused Satan’s envy to flourish, appeared and calmly summoned flowers and sweet smells. Barbeau writes that these miracles seem only to make the devil’s hordes more envious and explains that the Son simply dons his warrior garb to fight the good fight (92-93). The reader can easily imagine the devil’s tantrum at this display of peace and calm in the face of this great battle, a turmoil which he enacts again and again within each person whom he tempts, his course of subtle revenge.

Conclusion

In the end, the weight of Evil deprives the devil of the vanity within his pride, as both accounts describe his transformation as repulsive- only further fueling his envy and desperation to return to the state of his favor. Even if- as Smilie poses the possibility- this transformation is not literal but is the result of the “not Satan’s grotesqueness but his pride… in his descriptions of the monster” (92-93). While this debate proves an interesting, the devil became something monstrous, full of false pride and demeaning himself in the same sad, head-shaking way that Beelzebub describes Doctor Faustus. Yet the devil holds the power to pull the strings for the weakened, the kindred damned souls he punishes.

Works Cited

Barbeau, Anne T. “Satan’s Envy Of The Son And The Third Day Of War.” Papers On Language & Literature 13.4 (1977): 362. Academic Search Complete. Web. 5 Apr. 2014.

Guenther, Genevieve. “Why Devils Came When Faustus Called Them.” Modern Philology 109.1 (2011): 46-70. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 Apr. 2014.

Marlowe, Christopher. The Tragic History of Doctor Faustus. 2012. Pennsylvania State University.  Web. Retrieved 29 March 2014 from <http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/marlowe/faustus.pdf>.

Milton, John. Paradise Lost. 1838. Web. Retrieved 30 March 2014 from <http://books.google.com/books?id=O8F0Cw5e2AgC&source=gbs_slider_cls_metadata_7_mylibrary>.

Smilie, Ethan. “Satan’s Unconquerable Will And Milton’s Use Of Dantean Contrapasso In Paradise Lost.” Renascence65.2 (2013): 91-102. Academic Search Complete. Web. 2 Apr. 2014.

Bibliography

Barbeau, Anne T. “Satan’s Envy Of The Son And The Third Day Of War.” Papers On Language & Literature 13.4 (1977): 362. Academic Search Complete. Web. 5 Apr. 2014.

Anne Barbeau in greater detail describes the nature of envy with the arrival of God’s Son. With great descriptions of the way in which the devil might think and react to the early battles against Heaven, Barbeau sets the scene for his future obsession. This article will be useful in understanding more of the reasons for envy and how that applies to the devil’s actions against God, the Son, and humanity.

Guenther, Genevieve. “Why Devils Came When Faustus Called Them.” Modern Philology 109.1 (2011): 46-70. Academic Search Complete. Web.4 Apr. 2014.

Genevieve Guenther provides a detailed history of the relationship between the time period, religion, the theater, and the changing customs happening at time in which Marlowe wrote “Doctor Faustus”. This source contains surprising claims about why the nature of the devil’s new style was acceptable to those audiences and about the nature of appearances in the acceptance of the truth. Much of Guenther’s article should be read simply to understand the time period better and get a better idea of the way that Marlowe wrote. Her analysis about human pride being useful to the devil should be included in this paper.

Smilie, Ethan. “Satan’s Unconquerable Will And Milton’s Use Of Dantean Contrapasso In Paradise Lost.” Renascence65.2 (2013): 91-102. Academic Search Complete. Web. 2 Apr. 2014.

Ethan Smilie describes Milton’s account of the fall of Satan very well and uses many quotes from a variety of sources to strengthen his claims. Since this source writes from a literary view, he captures many similes and metaphors which apply not only to Paradise Lost but also to the world of Milton’s time and the impact which the book continues to have. However, this source also directly ties much of Milton’s work to Dante’s Inferno. Some of these claims will not be usable without an explanation which might lead the reader off-topic. Still, the source does not take everything that Milton writes as literally- or personally- as similar Christian articles on related subjects.