'How does Marlowe explore the Gothic themes of over-reaching ambition, sin and evil in the First Act of Dr Faustus?'
From the first reference in the Prologue to the myth of Icarus, Marlowe introduces the the idea of over-reaching and the idea of going beyond one's limits that often involve transgressing the boundary of mankind's ambitions. This is a typical Gothic convention as it involves stepping into the unknown and the desire of wanting something that over steps nature's or God's laws for mankind; a curiosity that leads to the 'fall' Icarus physically has.
Faustus becomes the protagonist that represents this thirst for knowledge. A knowledge that to the audience and reader's can relate to due to human instinct for curiosity thus perhaps making Faustus an anti-hero as he exemplifies the Renaissance thinking, showing a clear need to question God and Heaven; demanding that stories aren't proof. His long monologues in Scene 1 dramatise this command of - and impatience with - established branches of knowledge and his desire to move beyond them. Within his monologue the audience witness his bitterness towards his collective knowledge exclaiming that 'Yet art thou still but Faustus, and a man' in which he essentially complains about his frustration that he is limited to human understanding and capacity for action. Medicine is limited by the human skill and he has no control over life or death; a reserved quality to God alone. Here we observe the beginnings of Faustus' turn against God perhaps fuelled by jealousy but more so arrogance towards the traditional disciplines due to his omissions in his references to the Bible; he talks of 'reward of sin is death' though does not complete the sentence in the Bible which refers to God's promises of repentance. This ironically is an example of Faustus' foolishness despite his great knowledge, displaying his flaw as arrogance or a reference to the sin of pride. Furthermore the crave to be something more than just a 'man'; a status which has not changed despite his great achievements and knowledge also show's the sins of jealousy and greed leading to his to turn on God- 'Divinity adieu!' This turning back shows how he possibly believes he is already a sinner, and has no possibility of repentance. He supports his belief claiming that 'We deceive ourselves, and there's no truth in us./Why then belike we must sin' for every human is born a sinner due to our descendants of Adam and Eve's sin in the Garden of Eden and thus already eternally damned. This relates to not only the Renaissance values and humanist ideals at the time but enhances the Gothic power of the text as Marlowe explores through Faustus the idea of sin and whether salvation can occur.By the penultimate line of Faustus' monologue: 'A sound magician is a mighty god' we see the final decision of Faustus' desire to break away from human constraints to become a 'god' himself and learn the arts of 'heavenly' necromancy. The clear sign of over-reaching as he attempts to become the ultimate being.
Marlowe explores further later in the Act with the character of Mephistopheles to show the commanding tone of Faustus, and his attempts of over-reaching; controlling something that is beyond his control. The force of the Iambic Pentameter and Blank verse creates an authoritative tone to Faustus' speech to Mephistopheles as he complains 'Thou art too ugly to attend me'. His arrogance and pride to become this 'deity' is almost ironic as he attempts to command a being that will essentially be the power for Faustus illustrating the theme of over-reaching.
Within this Act, through the form of Binary opposition, Marlowe not only produces an irony in Faustus' beliefs but also exemplifies the gothical belief of Good and Evil as a more merged subject than previously conceived. When Faustus claims the 'necromantic books are heavenly' a paradox is created as Faustus uses a religious term related to all that is good to describe the most evil art of conjuring and commanding the dead. Such paradox created explores the Gothic conventions of transgression between boundaries and divulges into the idea of how close the two oppositions could be.
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