MASTERS OR SERVANTS IN DOCTOR FAUSTUS AND MACBETH: FAUSTUS AND MEPHISTOPHELES VS. MACBETH AND SEYTON
One possible way to understand the two plays is to view them as studies in search of the infinite, more specifically of infinite knowledge and power, or power-knowledge. Not unrelated to this, however, is the basic paradox of early modern tragedies, i.e. the simultaneity of free will and
... [Show full abstract] determination by fate. In Doctor Faustus and Macbeth the deliberate choices made by the two protagonists are moulded to some extent by powers that they think they can manipulate and keep under control when in fact these forces are beyond them. What it means is that our tragic heroes are both masters and servants of fate, and they become doubly entangled in that web of paradoxes for dabbling in the occult. Therefore, in the paper I address the context of magic which can be seen to function as a matrix of transformations, accommodating various discourses on power relations, identity matters, knowledge, ethics and being. The master-servant relationship is thus further complicated by being set in the framework of the supernatural, adding a new dimension to the dialectic to be discovered there. An exploration of the necessary connection between the master-servant relationship, the paradoxical core of early modern tragedy and the context of magic, I believe, can make the tree of knowledge yield more luscious fruits. Diabolical wish or not, scholars will always sympathize with such an all-so-human desire to gain knowledge.