Faustus and Frogs

Faustus and Frogs

    There is a beautiful poetic adage that I used to hear every now and then growing up. It originated in my memory with my grandfather, but I’m sure other families have also used this or similar maxims to educate their children. This elegant phrase would be spoken as a warning to instruct a child that the path they were taking was not the most beneficial course to take, and that they should change their ways before it was too late. The proverb went something like this: “Don’t let that bull-frog mouth overload that tadpole tail.” The implication behind this statement was a clear one: stop pushing it or else regret would come swiftly. In Christopher Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus, the main character of the same name pushed boundaries more serious than backtalk, and he may have benefited from a wise truism such as this one. Because of pride, Dr. Faustus journeyed into unnatural and evil practices, but in order to get there, he had to force his way and struggle against nature, against others, and against himself, all of which served as divine warnings aimed at trying to save his tadpole tail.

    The play opens with a chorus introducing Faustus as a man born “base of stock” (1). He begins life in a poor, unspecial way, but eventually goes off to school and gains an education. He learns more and more until he eventually surpasses his peers, “excelling all whose sweet delight disputes” (1), and is even described as gracing the “fruitful plot of scholarism” (1). He rises to gain the title of a “doctor’s name,” and “profits in divinity” and “heavenly matters of theology” (1). Yet for all of his learning and knowledge, he allows himself to become “swollen with cunning” (1) and pride. When he first enters the story, he is seeking happiness in his knowledge and praising his own learning, extolling himself to be a “divine in show” (3). He begins by examining philosophy and Aristotle’s works, yet quickly disregards them because he believes he has “attain’d the end” (3). He then proceeds in like manner through the subjects of medicine, law, and divinity, passing by divinity because it is too “hard” (4), and then comes to necromancy and witchcraft. Enamored by the idea of superhuman powers over nature, he misguidedly proclaims that necromancy is “heavenly” (4) and “a world of profit and delight” (5). However, the true reason for his infatuation with this demonic practice is seen when he states that “a sound magician is a mighty god” (5). None of the other subjects are enough for him because none of them offer this lofty lie. Thus, his pride and “self-conceit” (1) lead him to the deplorable art of “cursed necromancy” (1).

    Dr. Faustus becomes a necromancer in command of a demon named Mephistophilis, gaining many supernatural abilities, but continuously encounters obstacles along the way. One of the first deterrents he encounters is his own nature. As soon as he decides to pursue sorcery and picks up a magic book, two angels enter representing the war inside of his conscience, one good and one evil. The good angel, representing the nature of right and good in him, beseeches him, “O Faustus! lay that damned book aside, and gaze not upon it” (5), but is immediately followed by the evil angel, “Go forth, Faustus… be thou on earth as Jove is in the sky” (5). The obstacles only increase as he gets deeper into his decision, and the next obstacle he faces is others. Throughout the story, other characters are constantly providing him with warnings and urgings to turn back. Even the very demon he summons, who comes in the hope of acquiring his soul, gives him warnings about the consequences that will follow his unnatural rebellion against God when he says, “O Faustus! leave these frivolous demands, which strike a terror to my fainting soul” (13). As if these impediments weren’t enough, he is in a constant battle with himself and his own doubt about his path. Numerous times he catches himself thinking about God and debating returning to Him, and each time he talks himself out of it, trying to convince himself that he “needs be damn’d” and can “not be sav’d” (19). He tells himself that God “loves thee not” (19) and that he “cannot repent” (25), and the only way that he is able to continue trodding his unholy path is by forcing himself to ignore his own desire for God and to keep chasing a yearning his heart doesn’t even want.

    Faustus compels himself to ignore all the obstacles on his ungodly road by repeatedly telling himself that it is too late, but each time completely misses the fact that the obstacle was sent as a deterrent from God. As soon as he signs the contract forfeiting his own soul, an inscription appears on his arm urging him to fly (21), but he immediately tell himself that he cannot fly to God because “He’ll throw me down to hell” (21). Later an old man approaches him and urges him to return to “the way of life” (50). Faustus desperately considers his plea, but rather than accept the advice and repent, asks himself, “where is mercy now?” (51) and recklessly reaffirms his promise to Lucifer. God sends him messenger after messenger, warning after warning, chance after chance, but each time Faustus is so enraptured with his sin that he refuses to give it up and convinces himself that his “sins can never be pardoned” (53). Thus, the only way that he was able to continue to gorge his bullfrog mouth was to blatantly ignore the many divine warnings and mercies God sent to save him and his tadpole tail.