Oedipus_Vs_Faustus

Oedipus Vs Faustus Ignorance is Bliss Ignorance is bliss. It is mankind’s quest for true knowledge that plays as a prelude to our demise. This Aristotelian thought of seeking true knowledge when shared with power and pride can lead to ones downfall as seen through the plays of Doctor Faustus and Oedipus Rex. One does not have to look behind the words and actions to discover Faustus’ pride, the willfulness of his falling from God, or his egotistic ambition to become his own god, they are outwardly and directly seen in everything he says and does. The opening Chorus describes the man, his intellectual excellence, and his fatal choice: … swoll’n with cunning of a self-conceit, his waxen wings did mount above his reach, And melting heavens conspired his overthrow; For falling to devilish exercise And glutted now with learning’s golden gifts, He surfeits upon cursed necromancy. Nothing so sweet as magic is to him, Which he prefers before his chiefest bliss… (Fau. Prologue. 20-27). This picture and the issue is clear enough; the allusion to Icarus is representative of Faustus’ career, while the alternative between “cursed necromacy” and “his chiefest bliss” is set forth as Faustus’ deliberate choice to choose magic. One by one Faustus examines knowledge, power, pride, god, oedipus, true, seen, through, thought, seek, play, one, himself, faustus, proud, protect, point, own, must, maybe, look, lead, king, faustus’, downfall, discover, creon, between, being, because, within, whose, while, truth, truly, tragic