Tuesday, April 5, 2011

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/