Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe - Corrupted by an insatiable desire for knowledge, wealth and power The Renaissance period is characterized by a great desire for the acquisition of knowledge and by a passion for emerging individuality. “Students and educators…began to emphasize the capabilities of the human mind and the achievements of human culture, in contrast to the medieval emphasis on God and contempt for the things of this world” (Slights 129). However, the whirlwind of change brought about by the budding ideas of humanist thinkers was met with a cautious warning by one of the greatest writers of the age. Christopher Marlowe's Dr. Faustus serves as a mask, containing and masking the playwright's criticisms of Renaissance thought. Christopher Marlowe's Dr. Faustus reflects, in many ways, humanity's struggle to balance new ideas with existing traditional thoughts as the world approached the 17th century. At the time this play was written, "Elizabethans saw the world as a vast unified hierarchical order, or 'Great Chain of Being,' created by God" (139). Deep within this hierarchy sat the innate objects, and at the top sat God and the angels, with the plant and animal kingdoms falling somewhere in between. Humans were believed to sit just above animals, as they possessed souls and free will. It is said that humans could develop and reside "a little below the angels" or degenerate and fall to the level of animals (139). Faustus is trying to rise up to the angels in his quest for human progress, but, ironically, ends up falling into the depths of Hell. The play Dr. Faustus illustrates Marlowe's two major concerns with the human mind at the turn of the 17th. .... middle of paper ...... weaves together the great differences with prolific language and a shocking plot. The play's tragic conclusion marks Marlowe's departure from the moral comedies of his generation. Its tragic conclusion leaves Renaissance audiences with a sense of despair, but also with a resolve to avoid the evil desires embodied by Faustus. Works Cited Barnett, Sylvan, ed. Doctor Faustus / Christopher Marowe: edited and with an introduction. by Sylvan Barnett. New York: New American Library, 1969. Etienne, Gilson. Reasons and revelations in the Middle Ages. New York: New York, 1938.Marlowe, Christopher. "Doctor Faustus." The genius of early English theatre. Sylvan Barnet, Morton Berman, and William Burto, eds. New York: Meridian, 1990. 95-161. Slights, William. New ways of looking at the Renaissance. Binghamton, New York: Renaissance English Text Society, 1993.