Betham Essays - Works Based On The Faust Legend, Deal With The Devil

Betham The story of Doctor Faustus is a familiar myth, in which the main character sells his soul , makes a deal with the devil, for something he speciously holds more valuable. There are many versions of this story in our culture, and it would take quite a time to make note of them all. Most people will have seen or heard one of the various stories in the for of a book, play, movie, or television show. The original story of Doctor Faustus, as created by Christopher Marlow, was prevalent to society at the time because it spoke to peoples growing dizzy awareness of their possibilities and capabilities at this time. By that explanation it seems that the classic Marlow play, Doctor Faustus, would also be a hit because in the countries of the world there are many a growing multicultural society, for whom there are continually growing possibilities and capabilities. This is also a similar state of affairs for how one might perceive the womens movement, as women are gaining more equality inside a nd outside o f the workplace. Also, for society as a whole, one is being exposed to the ever growing world of computers and the world wide web. The largest and most significant change I would make in an attempt to adapt Doctor Faustus so that it would be more engineered towards to todays audience is that I would make Doctor Faustus a Dr. Faustesse. I would make an attempt to portray the main character Faustus, as a women, Faustesse, in an attempt to update the concerns for which the play represents. By having a female character fall to the devil to gain power over society it symbolizes and signifies the constant struggle of women, even in todays society, to get past the very patriarchal dominated social structures and institutions and inequalities. That Dr. Faustesse is an educated women also represents the good of the changing such that it is a normal state of affairs for a female to have gone through an immense amount of schooling , which used to me more common for only males, and that she as a female has a variety of opportunities open to her, even though none satisfy Faustesse, and that is the reason she makes a pact with the devil in first place. In order to complete the adaptation of the play to todays standards, keeping in mind the main character is a female, and in an attempt to involve the audience in what is going on both metatheatrically and thematically in the play, there a few scenes in particular which I would highlight to get some newly made effects and concepts of the story across more effectively. One scene I would highlight is act 1, scene 3. This is the scene where Faustesse sets out the terms of her pact with the devil. I would highlight this part for a number of reasons. First off, Faustesse jumps when she first sees Mephostophilis. I feel this is a very important aspect of the play because in one moment it shows a theme which is as prevalent at the end of the play as much as it is at the beginning. When Faustesse jumps at the sight of the Devil and orders him back in a different shape it shows that maybe she is not necessarily ready to take on the Devil to get what she wants, and that Hell and other such things in the same league are not really what Faustesse is looking for to solve her problems, and that such experiences are not really suited to her, and this is seen at the end, as Faustesses time draws to and end and she tries to look towards God to help. Another reason I would highlight this part of the play is because this scene where Faustesse decides that she is going to bargain with the devil and sell her soul for power, where she bargains the contract under which she will sell her soul is the basis of the play itself, and sets the stage for the rest of the play. Since Faustesse is a female, it expresses the limit to which Faustesse is willing to go