The Seven Deadly Sins

The most notable thing about "Dr Faustus" by Christopher Marlowe to me would be his encounter with the seven deadly sins: Pride, Covetousness, Wrath, Envy, Gluttony, Sloth and Lechery. Lucifer introduced the seven deadly sins to Dr Faustus to show him what hell is. The way the seven deadly sins introduces themselves when being asked are unforgetable. They introduce their nature to us as well as their name: Their character is what they are. These sins can be categorize in 3 different categories:

Perverted love: Pride, wrath and envy

Insufficient love: Sloth

Excessive love of earthy good: Covetouness, gluttony and lechery

Why do I say so? Perverted love means turning away from the right course of love. When one prides, wrath and envy, they do not care about other people, thus lacking in understanding and love. Pride because they love themselves more than anything; wrath because they cannot tolerant others faults; envy because they do not love themselves and hate others for having what they do not have. Insufficient in the other hand is the lacking of love. If one lack the motivation to love or to care about others, it will lead to being a sloth as being indolence. Lastly, even having excessive love of earthly good is a sin because by loving something too much, one tends to loose track of what is important or also temperance in accepting the natural limits of pleasure and preserves of the natural balance. Covetouness or better known as greed is the over obession on things such as being materialistic. Gluttony would be the over need to indulge, the love of being indulge while lechery a.k.a lush would be over desire of something. Usually lechery it is link with sexually desire but it can also be power or image that demises the self control and can suffocate the soul.

In away, while Lucifer introduces the seven deadly sins, it is can be said that Faustus himself had already meet with these sins himself but is unaware of it. This is because he himself had commited the 7 deadly sins before he was introduced to them.

1.Pride, as he saw himself in comparison to others in a competitive nature - he tells about his accomplishments and wishes for more glory from the audience.

2.Covetuoness, when he uses Mephastophilips to gain glory and knowledge.

3.Wrath, demonstrated Faustus impatience with the way he treats other people around him, be it demonic or human

4.Envy, as he is envious of other peoples accomplishments and wanted to exceed their glory.

5.Gluttony, when he evokes the use of dark magic in order to go beyond his earthly knowledge.

6.Sloth, when he was numb to his own consciousness; he no longer abides by what he does.

7. Lechery, performing silly tricks for his self indulgences.

It is stated that hell is everywhere because each one of us had commited at least one of the seven sins. Thus the statement of hell being everywhere is true.

Christopher Marlowe vs William Shakespeare

I was browsing through some facts and link regarding about Christopher Marlowe when this image suddenly strike me in the head. Don't both Christpoher Marlowe(CM) and William Shakespeare(WS) look similar? May be it is because o the beard and hair but the image just won't go away. Is it just me or don't all of you guys agree to it? After this picture, I went and google both great play writters and found out some interesting stuff on both of them. In a way, both of them are link to gether and always being compared with. So, here is what I have to share about them:

The Mystery surrounding the life and death of Christopher Marlowe has intrigued many. It has even lead to serious debate as to whether CM and WS are in fact the same person.

CM moved in high circles within the court of Queen Elizabeth I. The chie advisor to the Queen was Sir Francis Walsingham whose role necessitated a network of spies and it was believed that Marlowe was in his employ in this capacity. Marlowe was reported to have been killed in a tavern in Deptford, a district of London, on May 30th 1593. Marlowe and his friend Ingram Frizer were drinking together and when they were about to leae began to argue over the payment of the bill. He grabbed Ingram Frizer's dagger from its sheath, there was a struggle and Ingram Frizer retrieved the dagger and struck a blow to Marlowe's eye. The blow was a lethal one and CM's body was said to have been buried two days later at an unspecified location in an umarked grave. The mystery is that a week earlier a warrant had been issued by the Church's Star Chamber for the poet's arrest on charges of heresy, which carried the death penalty. Both men were spies and secret agents for Walsingham, hs killer, Frizer, pleaded self-defence and immediately received a Royal pardon from Queen Elizabeth. CM lived between 1564-1593. WS lived between 1564-1616, their writing styles were extremely similar especailly their use of Blank Verse. So the question is, was he really killed? Did he perhaps write some of the plays attributed to WS? The unusual circumstances of his death at the age of 29, his links to Walsingham's spy network, not to mention the lack of a body at the time of the inquest, have helped ensure he is still a topic of dicussion some 400 years after his death.

Sources list for CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE

Something to make our life easier before our exams. Dyce, Alexander, editor. The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe. The Quarto of 1616: Blackmask Online, 2001. http://www.blackmask.com/books15c/drfstadex.htm "Doctor Faustus: Theme Analysis." Retrieved December 8, 2003, at http://www.antistudy.com/free_book_notes/Doctor_Faustus.php. This website is for those who is having a bit trouble understanding the text. http://Marlowe, Christopher. Doctor Faustus. Retrieved Decmber 8, 2003 at http://www.bartleby.com/19/2/ I personally find bartleby really helpful as it gives the explanation of some words that is not in our update vocab. It makes the play much easier to understand rather than guessing the meaning of the words.

Fun with Dr Faustus creater: Marlowe

Here is a fun link on Marlowe to see how much do you really know about him. As we all know it is not only the play that plays the mega role in it but the writter as well. By going through the quiz, I had actually found some interesting facts about him. So let's see how well do you know our writter! http://www.gradesaver.com/dr-faustus/study-guide/quiz1/

Time

What's gone, and what's past help, should be past grief. -Paulina (3.1.223-224) A very interesting quote by Paulina which is brief yet deep in meaning. Before I talk about the quote stated ubove, I would first like to give a brief descrision on Paulina. Paulina is a noblewoman of Sicilia and a loyal friend of Queen Hermione. She has apologized for her condemnation of King Leontes, whose insane jealousy has brought great uhappineess and despair to his kingdom. Her outburst comes at the apparent death of Hermione, who had been standing trial for unfounded charges of treason and infidelity, and who has just learned of her ill son's death. Hermione faints, and is carried away while Paulina returns to announce that the innocent queen has died. She goes on to catalog Leontes' horrible deeds: betraying his friend Polixenes, damning Camillo for refusing to poison Polixenes, accusing Hermione of unfaithfulness, casting their newborn child into the wild to be eaten by animals, allowing his older son to die, and now killing Hermione herself. Leontes is horrified by his acts at last, and Paulina feels a momentary respite from her own rage, apologizing for being so harsh with the repentet king in this tragi-comedy. She will, however, upon his request, continue to remind him of his horrible deeds for years and years to come. Often good things can come from the worse possible tragedies. Pauline said this after the distressed has realise all the harm done by his jealousy. I personally think that the quote is very meaningful because it teaches us that we should not be looking at the past as it is our history. To live in your past, you can never move forward to the future and thus you will never see the joy of living to your fullest. If you are to be trap in the incident you regarted doing, you can never learn from you mistake, instead you choose to stay on and not improve yourself. This can be also link to putting gruges on someone. If we are to hold on to a gruge on someone, we can never be happy or feel at ease as we will be constantly reminded that we are holding againts someone we do not like. So, why not forget about our past grief and live on to the future?

Perdita

Perdita is one of the heroines in The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare. She is the daughter of Leonte, King of Sicilia, and his wife Hermione.

Perdita is born in prison, where her father has sent her mother because he wrongly believes she has been unfaithful to him. Paulina, a noblewoman of Sicilia, takes the baby to Leontes to try to convince him that it is his daughter, but he refuses to believe it. He thinks instead that she is the result of an affair between Hermione and Polixenes, King of Bohemia. He sends Antigonus to leave the infant Perdita on the seacoast of Bohemia. In a dream, Hermione appears to Antigonus and tells him to name her child Perdita, which means "lost" in Latin and , in Italian, "loss". He takes pity on her, but is suddenly pursued and eaten by a bear. Luckily, Perdita is rescued by a shepherd who takes her in and raises her.

Early in the play, Perdita is described as being a beauty of conception. Sixteen years later, Perdita has grown into a beautiful young woman, unaware of her royal heritage. Ironically, Prince Florizel, the prince of Bohemia, falls in love with her and plans to marry her. His father, however, disapproves of the marriage and threatens the couple, so they flee to Sicilia with the help of Camillo. Prince Florizel disguises himself as a merchant in order to be able to see Perdita. Later on in life, it is revealed that Perdita is the princess of Sicily thanks to Autolycus, a comical rogue or pickpocket. Perdita is reunited with her father and mother (who apparently dies of grief just after being vindicated by the Oracle of Delphos, but is restored to life at the when Perdita came back to the castle). She lived her life thinking she was one person and found out she was another. She only knew the life of a simple girl. Leontes and Polixines reconcile and both approve of Florizel and Perdita's marriage. It is assumed that Florizel and Perdita lived happily ever after.

One thing I would like to comment on Perdita is, she is a very cliche character in most play. A beautiful young lady, unaware of her blue blood, in love with a prince, who apparently is her unknown father rival, rejected to marry the prince by the King because of her heritage, finally knowing her origin, accepted, rejoice, happy ever after...... Even though her character is cliche and is seen all over (or can be predicted), readers never get bored over it. Maybe this is due to the fact that every one wants to have a happy ending. Let's image if she was adopted by the shepherd but the prince was not in love with her, or she was not beautiful? What would be the outcome of the play? What if she married another young shepherd and live happily ever after, unaware of her royal heritage, and live on in a normal common life? Is that not a happy ending too? Why must happy ending associate with being wealthy or being well known? It seems this would not make a great play and there for like all play, she would know her "real" identity in the end, and I would have to repeat the statement I proved above. So what is a play? Is it happy ever after? Is everyone's life "Perdita"? Can this kind of thing really happen in reality? This is just a thought that went through my mind when reading the play and I would like to share. Do comment what you think about the character or any other character you think makes you ponder.

http://vimeo.com/13479574

Another interesting Othello play done in dance form yet with speeches too. This is very extract play which is really a new twist on how to act on a old classic play such as Shakespears. Notice how they use the props such as the piano :clashing against the key to make the angry sound effect. The way they express affections through dance. etc.