“Pursuit of Knowledge”: A Study of

Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor

Faustus and Mary Shelley’s

Frankenstein

From

Bhavya Bhardwaj

Department of English Literature

Kanoria PG Mahila Mahavidyalaya
Abstract:
This research paper attempts to associate Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus with Mary Shelley’s
Frankenstein. The eras, in which both were written, were characterized by an urge to aspire to new
knowledge and new power. They were the historical periods in which man sought control over everything.
Marlowe lived during the period of the Renaissance in England. The age in which Marlowe wrote Doctor
Faustus saw the full flowering of the Renaissance. The Renaissance could be seen as a revolt movement
against the dominance of the Church. During the Renaissance there was curiosity which tended to enlighten
men both about themselves and about the world and the universe around them. An impulse towards
emancipation, a spirit of inquiry, and an assertion of individualism are the leading characteristics of the new
movement. If we take the age in which Frankenstein was written by Mary Shelley, it also witnessed
attempts to search for new forms of knowledge. Humans wanted to enhance their power in every field and
went in search of new nations to establish power and order. Humans wanted to acquire more resources. The
over advancement that brought possibility in each and everything tempted people to question the authority
of God. What follows is everlasting perdition according to traditional Christianity. This is what both Doctor
Faustus and Frankenstein demonstrate. Even though the themes can be elaborated to further levels of
interpretation, this research paper limits its scope only to the above mentioned theme. This particular theme
is perennial, as it is applicable to any society. Adopting qualitative methodology, this research employed
secondary data collection by which ideas and interpretations are elicited from several books.

For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increases knowledge increases sorrow.

It has remained virtually unchanged since time immemorial that man’s thirst for ultimate knowledge and
power has lead him to his doom. This prominent trait in man’s psyche was the reason that even today
stories with this theme are pursued by writers. In this paper we are going to draw parallels between the
works of two different literary eras, The Renaissance and the The Romantic Movement. The pursuit of
knowledge has been a recurring theme in both Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragical History of the Life
and Death of Doctor Faustus (1604) and in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus
(1818). Although the content and the plot of both the literary works written during two different eras are
different, the protagonists of both the works suffer harsh consequences due to the quest for “forbidden”
knowledge.

Renaissance means the Revival of learning, and it denotes in its broadest sense the gradual
enlightenment of the human mind after the darkness of the Middle Ages. The chief characteristic of the
Renaissance was its emphasis on Humanism, which means man’s concern with himself as an object of
contemplation. This movement was started in Italy by Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio in the fourteenth
century, and from there it spread to other countries of Europe. In England it became popular during the
Elizabethan period. This movement focused its interest

on ‘the proper study of mankind’. Marlowe is the typical product of the Renaissance. His heroes,
Tamburlaine, Doctor Faustus and Barabas, the Jew of Malta, are possessed of uncontrolled desire for
ultimate power. Marlowe created characters that reflected his daring atheist side. Doctor John Faustus
has a central character who thinks he knows best and hence rejects conventional morality to pursue his
desire. The play begins with audience getting introduced to Faustus and his ambitions, in the first scene
he voice out his opinion about medicine, law, bible, etc…, he notes that he has achieved great renown as
a doctor already and that this fame has not brought him satisfaction. He runs through all the branches of
human knowledge in his study and finds each of them inadequate to his desire as none of the subjects
can help him to become as powerful “on earth, as Jove in the sky”. Driven by his aspiration to become a
demi-god, he turns his attention to black magic as he believes that it will bring him “a world of profit
and delight, / Of power, of honor, of omnipotence” (1.1.52-53). It is basically his intellectual curiosity
which seduces him to be the ally of the devil and eventually brings about his doom. Eminent Marlovian
critic, Harry Levin notes in The Overreacher: A Study of Christopher Marlowe that Doctor Faustus is a
“tragedy of a scientific libertine who gained control over nature while losing control of himself” ( Levin
134).

Writers from the Renaissance and the romantic period created characters that experience just such a
spiritual crisis and growth. In the Christian faith, that played an important part of life in both periods, the
Old Testament told them that God said He would “put [His] law in their mind, and write it in their
hearts” (Holy Bible: King James Version Jer. 31:33); therefore, they believed that with God’s law inside
of them, they were able to discern good from bad, especially as Luther’s teachings grew in popularity.
Ironically, this meant that, in order to turn to God, they had to look inward and away from the church
that existed as a structure of man, imposing rules and legal guidelines. The romantic period, also known
as the Age of Transcendentalism, underwent a similar move away from church dogma and to a self-
governing soul that was able to “discover higher truths” as Murfin states (450). While the romantics
would not define the mysticism they gravitated toward with the succinct Christian language of the
Protestants of the Renaissance, “it was the Protestant cultures of Britain, Germany, and New England
that generated most Gothic literature” (Franklin 3) of the romantic period. With this introspective
purpose in mind, the sensitive reader is aware of the spiritual and social influences that create characters
such as Faustus and Frankenstein, who ask the tough spiritual questions.

In Frankenstein, the ambition shared by Victor Frankenstein is scientific and it re-echoes the ambitions
that followed the progress of science and the Industrial Revolution prevalent in the milieu when Mary
Shelley was writing. The eighteenth century was the Age of Enlightenment or Age of Reason which led
to many scientific discoveries. Since it was an age of reason, supernaturalism and magic were restricted.
Unlike Faustus who was inclined towards necromancy, Frankenstein takes up enlightenment science –
chemistry and anatomy especially. He graduates from the University of Ingolstadt, Germany. Markman
Ellis notes that “[this] university, founded in 1472, was purportedly the alma mater of Faustus” who
practiced “necromancy and alchemy in the early sixteenth century in association with Agrippa” (Ellis 8).
Victor is initially found engaged with a “volume of the works of Cornelius Agrippa” (Shelley 33). He
further reads Paracelsus and Albertus Magnus. He reads and studies the wild fancies of these writers
with delight. He then turns to the new science or science of natural philosophy. He goes beyond the
limits of agreed knowledge and his thirst for discovery lures him on. He remarks, “I became acquainted
with the science of anatomy: but this was not sufficient. I must also observe the natural decay and
corruption of the human body”. He sets to build a gigantic creature from pieces of dead bodies and
endows him with life. However, this monster turns into a vengeful murderer and later on seeks revenge
upon the creator. Ultimately, his pursuit of knowledge leads to both his and his creation’s doom.
Romanticism as a movement was much more prone to the creation of Faustian protagonists. The
Victorian period on the other hand, saw the novels produced at the time, reverberations of the Faustus
myth. Where the natural and societal impediments haunting the contemporary individual act as an
insurmountable obstacle against the overreaching ambitions of the character. To return to Romantic
fiction and to more flagrantly Faustian narratives, in the early nineteenth century English novel, we are
confronted with Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus (1817) in which the protagonist,
Victor Frankenstein’s Faustian ambition of “exploring unknown powers” and exercising them himself is
narrated.

…soon my mind was filled with one thought, one conception, one purpose. So much has been done,
exclaimed the soul of Frankenstein,- more, far more, will I achieve; treading in steps already marked, I
will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of
creation.

When Victor Frankenstein was thirteen years old, he read the works of Cornelius Agrippa and
Paracelsus who were contemporaries of Dr. Faustus. One a magician, the other an alchemist and
physician, they like the sorcerers and practitioners of black magic in the Faustus Myth, became the lords
of Victor’s imagination in creating his creature.

Victor Frankenstein and John Faustus are two characters that are alienated because of their intellectual
curiosity. Faustus’s and Frankenstein’s pursuits of knowledge begin with an inexorable journey to their
downfalls as they become alienated. Both characters attempt to exceed human ability and are alienated
from God because of their attempts. These men are concerned with the secrets of nature and are
ultimately alienated from the world because of their quests which violate nature. They are alienated from
themselves because of their extreme passions for knowledge. Faustus and Frankenstein could escape
their tragic endings and their alienations if only they had fortitude. According to Webster’s Ninth New
Collegiate Dictionary (1985), alienation is “of or belonging to another person or place, foreign in nature
or character, the action of a stranger, or a state of estrangement, or a withdrawing or separation of a
person or his affections from and object or position of former attachment”. According to the class
lecture on alienation, Raymond Williams defines alienation as “cutting off or being cut off from God, a
state of being cut off or estranged from the knowledge of God or from his mercy or worship, loss of
original human nature, or a loss of connection with one’s deepest feelings and needs or sense of
powerlessness”(notes).Victor Frankenstein’s journey begins with his notable childhood. Victor is
extremely loved by his parents and they bestow upon him a wonderful and educated life as a child.
Victor states, “During every hour of my infant life I received a lesson of patience, of charity, and of self-
control”(39). However his downfall begins as he develops a desire for the knowledge of the
metaphysical or physical secrets of the world. He attends the University of Ingolstadt and begins his
work on the creature. The task consumes him, and he rejects his family and his upbringing that are so
full of love and contentment. Victor states, “And the same feelings which made me neglect the scenes
around me caused me also to forget those friends who were so many miles absent, and whom I had not
seen for so long a time”. Victor disregards the lessons that he learned as a child and becomes obsessed.
He loses his patience and his self-control, which result in his alienation. John Faustus’s journey begins
when he is a young man. His parents send him to school and he studies and becomes a very intelligent
doctor. The chorus says of Faustus, “Excelling all, and sweetly can dispute In th’ heavenly matters of
theology”(Prologue). Faustus begins his downfall as he searches for knowledge but complains that he
has not accomplished any great feat. He becomes obsessed with the power of immortal beings and
desires to obtain such power. He exclaims, “Oh what a world of power and delight, of power, of honor,
and omnipotence is promised to the studious artisan” (1.1.6). Faustus confuses knowledge with power
and wants to learn the black arts so that he can become a supreme being. Victor Frankenstein attempts
and completes one of God’s greatest miracles. He creates a human life. In his attempt and completion of
playing God, he loses all faith and contemplation of his higher being. Victor asserts, “I seemed to have
lost all soul or sensation but for this one pursuit”(39). After the being’s creation, Victor realizes that he
must destroy it. Instead of praying to God and asking for advice, he takes matters into his own hands and
pursues for the death of his creature. Perhaps Victor is alienated from God in the sense that he feels
himself a supreme being, a creator, or an arbiter of who shall live and die. Faustus attempts and succeeds
in surpassing human ability by involving himself with the devil and possessing certain black magic
powers. Faustus gives in to the Seven Deadly Sins and sells his soul to the devil. Faustus states, “Ay,
take it, and the devil give thee good of it”(2.1.22). Selling one’s soul to the devil is essentially alienating
oneself from God and the grace of God. However, although Faustus is deemed a possession of the devil,
he is not completely alienated from God until he devotes his entire life and thoughts to his obsession
with power. John Faustus and Victor Frankenstein are completely alienated because of their intellectual
curiosity. They experience an educated uprise and then a terrible downfall. The men are alienated from
God by their attempts to exceed human ability. Frankenstein and Faustus are estranged from the
knowledge of the world because of their concern for the secrets of nature. They lose a connection with
their deepest feelings and needs because of their desire for knowledge. If the men had fortitude they
could avoid their alienations. These characters are alienated by their intellectual ability and their pursuit
of knowledge beyond the scope of human knowledge. Their human knowledge, or humanity ironically
denotes them from that which nurtured them. Ultimately their thirst for knowledge and power which
leads to their suffering in turn makes them acquire the knowledge that John Milton’s Adam acquires in
Paradise Lost, Book IV: “Knowledge of good bought dear by knowing ill”(222).
 WORKS CITED

Frankenstein or, the Modern Prometheus(1818)

Marlow, Christopher. The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus

Levin, Harry. The Overreacher: A Study of Christopher Marlowe. Boston: Beacon Press, 1952. Print.

Mills, Sara. “Power/Knowledge.”Michel Fouucault.Ed. Robert Eaglestone. London: Routledge, 2003.

Print.

Milton, John. Paradise Lost, Book III and Book IV. Ed. A.W.Verity. United Kingdom: Cambridge

United Press, 1988. Print.

The Faustus Myth in the English Novel By Şeyda Sivrioğlu.