Humanism In Literature: Comparing Doctor Faustus And Prospero

Humanism has been represented as a philosophy that is believed to be someone’s person act to fulfill their own individual potential. When asking about a person representing humanism it is important to study the person as a whole, especially as they go about their life and constantly are developing in different ways. You study their motivations, goals, interests, and how they tend to make decisions.

The elements in the Tempest are composed of quest for knowledge and power, a sense of adventure, exploring unfamiliar places, finding the presence of evil, and the interest in magic. The main comparison between the two Prospero and Faustus and how they represent humanism is very unique and shown in different ways.

Prospero is more on the mysterious side as he was treated wrongly by his own brother making his also very sympathetic. Prospero gave many tense speeches throughout the story and continued to hold power over the other characters making some readers choose to not like him. On the other hand, Faustus is more of a contradictory character who is capable of possessing an awesome amount of ambition, yet his blindness has been the primary source of him wasting his powers. When it gets close to the end Prospero rejects the magic and frees the nobleman to show that the men should be able to control their own lives and make their own decisions. Prospero is a main character who mainly wants to achieve all his desires and also gain power over others with the use of that power.

Doctor Faustus had a major fascination with education, his love for studies made him the strong willed and highly arrogant character he is. When he has obtained all the information he thought was possible he then turned to magic. Doctor Faustus and The Tempest both present similar definitions of power through the different circumstances of their characters. Although Faustus and Prospero are extremely intelligent and powerful magicians Prospero has more of an advantage when it comes to applying power over the rest of the characters simply because he is more aware of the things that are happening.

During the Renaissance time period magic and other supernatural powers became very popular topics to read about and perform on stage. Even though churches rejected the idea of magic it was a major topic of interest for play writers incorporating their work full of magical characters and scenes. An example of that being Dr Faustus with trading his soul for the chance to disobey the real order and be put to work, or also Prospero when he used his magic to create the storms, protecting his daughter, and torturing anyone to chose to disobey his orders. Although both Prospero and Faustus begin a dangerous situation with good intentions it was also the magic that created some of their failures. The only difference being Prospero’sdownfall had already happened before the events of the play so the rest lead up to his rise back to power. Where as Faustus failures was the main point of Marlowe’s work. When it comes down to who is a better example of the humanist philosophy Prospero portrays a few more factors than Faustus.

Prospero is all about the quest for perfection, knowledge, and power. He devotes himself to learning even if it interferes with his duties as a ruler. He strives for perfection and uses magic to the best of his ability in order to attain that. On the island he picks up the status of God as he assigns different roles and seperate jobs all of the people on the island. If any fail to complete their job he will punish them and command them when they do wrong. Prospero eventually leaves the island and accidently comes across a new body of land. This incident of traveling through the sea, facing the unknown, and finding a new island is a representation of adventure.