In the world of theater, there are many plays in which the central character is one who primarily exploits extreme personality traits. For example, Sophocles' Oedipus is a paternal king with great ambition and strength; and Shakespeare's Macbeth is diabolically ambitious, while Romeo and Juliet are motivated solely by their love for each other. These traits give these characters incredible success… for a time. In these stories, these attributes bring about the downfall and death of each character, marking each of them as a tragic hero, whose strength leads to weakness. Christopher Marlowe's Dr. Faustus is a definite member of this class of character, an arrogant but incredibly ambitious scholar who desires grandiose knowledge without the help and guidance of the world's major religion, Christianity. In Dr. Faustus, Marlowe uses tragic irony regarding Faustus' misunderstanding and rejection of God to illustrate the downfall of this tragic hero. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Faustus' character is established with his first soliloquy in the very first scene. Eager to gain knowledge, he distrusts logic, medicine, and law, claiming that he "has reached [the] end(s)" and mastered these areas (253, lines 1-36). When considering religion, "godliness," he cites Romans 6:23 which says, "The reward for sin is death," and continues with 1 John 1:8, saying that all people sin and therefore there is “no truth in us.” (253, lines 37, 40, 44). From here Faustus concludes that there is no reason to believe in a seemingly hopeless faith where the only way out is death, and so, with a haughty farewell, he says: "What doctrine calls you thus?... . Divinity, farewell! » (253, line 49). Faustus is entirely too quick to jump to conclusions. If he wants to know, the last step he should take is not to learn everything about a possible defect. Modern journalist Lee Strobel says in his faith-building book, The Case for Faith, about the difficult questions people ask about the Bible: "Because [someone is not] able to answering it does not mean that there is no answer. ] answers" (196). The astonishing irony of this scene is that Faustus did not read the next verse after 1 John 1:8: "If we confess our sins, [God] is faithful and just, he will forgive us our sins and will cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Faustus' arrogance and vanity will not allow him to become fully informed to see hope, and that is why he personally lost all hope. for his dreams by portraying Christianity in a negative light Faustus further condemns himself by turning to magic for being a "demigod", but even more so by believing that a pact with the greatest devil, Lucifer, will give him his dreams (253, line 63 He gives a message to Mephistophilis, a devil, who says: He abandons to [Lucifer] his soul, He will therefore spare him twenty-four years, letting him live in all pleasure. ,... To give [him] anything [he] will ask (256, lines 91-93, 95) In his quest for knowledge, now believing that his sale of souls has been successful, Faustus poses. to Mephistophilis questions about the planet and the heavens, which are very easy to answer. However, when Faustus asks, “[T]ell me who made the world,” Mephistophilis responds, “I will not” (260, lines 71-73). Now that Faustus believes he has obtained all knowledge, the irony lies in his inability to discover the answers to the questions, 2000.