In the world of theater, there are many plays in which the central figure is the one who exploits extreme personality traits above all others. For example, Sophocles' Oedipus is a paternal king with great ambition and strength; and Shakespeare's Macbeth is wickedly ambitious, while Romeo and Juliet are driven solely by their love for each other. These traits make these characters incredibly successful... for a time. In these stories, these attributes determine each character's downfall and death, qualifying each as a tragic hero, whose strength leads to weakness. Christopher Marlowe's Dr. Faustus is a definite member of this character class, an arrogant but extraordinarily ambitious scholar who desires grand knowledge without the aid and guidance of the world's major religion, Christianity. In Dr. Faustus, Marlowe uses tragic irony regarding Faustus's misunderstanding and rejection of God to illustrate this tragic hero's downfall. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The character of Faustus is established with his first soliloquy in the very first scene. Wishing to gain knowledge, he distrusts logic, medicine, and law, claiming to have "achieved[s] ends" and mastered these areas (253, lines 1-36). When considering religion, “godliness,” he cites Romans 6:23 which says, “The reward of sin is death,” and continues with 1 John 1:8, saying that all sin and therefore “there is no truth in us " (253, lines 37, 40, 44). From this Faustus concludes that there is no reason to believe in a seemingly hopeless faith, where the only outcome is death, and so with a haughty farewell he says: "What doctrine calls you so? ... Divinity, farewell! "(253), line 49). Faustus is entirely too hasty in drawing conclusions. If he wants knowledge, the last action he should take is not to learn everything about a possible flaw. Modern journalist Lee Strobel, in his faith-building book The Case for Faith, says of the difficult questions people ask about the Bible, "[B]ecause [someone is] unable to answer [doesn't] mean that [there are] ] answers" (196). The striking irony of this scene is Faust's failure to read the verse following 1 John 1:8: "If we confess our sins, [God] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" ( 1 John 1:9). Faustus' arrogance and conceit will not allow him to become fully aware of seeing hope, and therefore he has personally lost all hope for his dreams by painting Christianity in a negative light. Faustus also condemns himself by looking to magic to be a "demi -god", but even more so by believing in a pact with the supreme devil, Lucifer, will give him his dreams (253, line 63). He gives a message to Mephistopheles, a devil, who says: He surrenders to [Lucifer] his soul, so he will spare him twenty-four years, letting him live in all voluptuousness, ... To give him whatever [he] will ask. (256, lines 91-93, 95) In his quest for knowledge, now believing that his selling of souls has proven to be a success, Faustus asks Mephistopheles questions about the planet and the heavens, which are answered very promptly. However, when Faust asks, "[Tell me who created the world," Mephistopheles replies, "I will not" (260, lines 71-73). Now that Faustus believes he has been granted all knowledge, the irony lies in his inability to discover the answers to the ultimate questions of how the universe came to be and, more importantly, who created the universe. If he knew, knowing it would lead him directly back to God, 2000.