The Deep Meaning of Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus I disagree with the oft-repeated comment that Doctor Faustus is an anti-intellectualist play that preaches that curiosity is dangerous. It is too easy to see Faustus as a scholar seeking knowledge and whose desire for knowledge leads to his downfall. To limit the piece to something so narrow is to ignore the deeper meaning of the piece. I believe this deeper meaning is more important than the superficial idea that curiosity is false. I believe the deepest meaning of the play lies in the idea that in losing sight of the spiritual level of existence, we lose sight of God. In doing so, we can no longer see God's mercy and love, and therefore ignore them. By ignoring it, we deny it, and for that we are damned. It is fair to say that Faustus represents the quintessence of the Renaissance man - it is his thirst for knowledge which pushes him to make his pact with Mephastophilis, indeed it is the Evil Angel who pushes him to make a pact with Mephastophilis. The best summary of this is: Advance, Faustus, into the famous art, Where all the treasure of nature is contained: Be on earth as Jupiter is in heaven, Lord and commander of these elements. Scene I, lines 74-77 It is the restless mind. of the rebirth which pushes Faustus to seek knowledge. He had already achieved what he could by more conventional means, his "bills (are) hung like monuments" and his "common speech found aphorisms". Faustus compares himself to the most famous figures of the classical period; to Hippocrates, Aristotle and Galen. He considers himself to have reached the end of what he can learn thanks to his human tools; he needs something that will allow him to get out of the kingdom of nature, somewhere...... middle of paper ...... indeed, the proverb says that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. If Faustus had not become so preoccupied with indulging in his physical pleasures (which he did to such an extent that his reasoning and judgment began to atrophy and blur), to the point of being blinded by God's infinite mercy, he could have been saved. , even at the last moment. Faustus is damned because he was too preoccupied with the mortal material world, and this preoccupation blinded him to the immortal, immaterial world. He chose to give up the infinite happiness of Heaven, in order to indulge in fleeting happiness here on earth. This concern for material beauty (Helen) damned him eternally. Works Cited: Marlowe, Christopher. “The Tragic Story of Doctor Faustus.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. Ed. MH Abrams et. al. New York: WW Norton and Co., 1993.