The Seven Deadly Sins that Mephistopheles's devil friends conjure to amuse

Faustus are an allegory in the purest sense of the term.

An allegory is an abstract concept that appears in a material, concrete form. And in
this case, the seven deadly sins (which separate a person from God forever if
they're not repented) appear as actual people.
In front of Faustus, Pride, Covetousness (Greed), Envy, Wrath, Gluttony, Sloth, and
Lechery (Lust) march in the weirdest parade that ever paraded. They describe their
parentagethat is, where and whom they came fromand defining characteristics.
Sometimes, their parentage is a metaphor for the way the sin takes root in the soul.
Covetousness, for example, says he is "begotten of an old churl in a leather bag"
(2.3.120-121), which probably refers to a miser and the sack of gold that's more
important to him than anything else. Pride, on the other hand, "disdain[s] to have
any parents," just as people who have too much pride refuse to recognize any
authority other than their own.
But before you go giving Marlowe props for being so clever, you should know that
he was not the first person to personify the Seven Deadly Sins. In fact, a boatload of
people did so long before he was even born.
Medieval drama had a long tradition of representing the Seven Deadly Sins as
people, so when Doctor Faustus was first performed, the Sins would probably have
come onstage in immediately recognizable costumes. The audience would have
known exactly what was going on.
And even we modern folks are in on the joke. The things the Sins tell Faustus about
themselves are exactly what we'd expect: Gluttony, the sin of overindulgence in
food and drink, complains that his parents left him "only" enough money for thirty
meals and ten snacks a day, while Sloth, the sin of laziness, doesn't even have
enough energy to describe himself (okay, that's pretty funny, Marlowe).
In the medieval tradition of allegory, a character's relationship with the Sins tells us
which side he's onGod's, or the devil's. Three guesses where Faustus falls. He just
laughs about them, which tells us not only that he's on the side of the devil, but also
that he's there because he doesn't take sin as seriously as he should. Not cool,
dude.
These fully allegorised figures Pride, Covetousness (Greed), Wrath, Envy, Gluttony,
Sloth and Lechery (Lust) each has a brief speech in character. They may be
extravagantly and grotesquely costumed in stylised or symbolic ways.
When Marlowe introduces the audience to the seven deadly sins in the sixth scene,
he is doing more than introducing Faustus to the ideas of sin but rather he is setting
the course for Faustus to participate in all of these sins. The first two are quite
apparent from the beginning of the play, the gluttonous thirst for knowledge and
the excessive pride Faustus has that makes him think he is above God. He is also
envious of the emperors, kings, and religious figures because they are renowned
throughout the world and Faustus is not. His envy causes him to seek the
necromancy books in order to have the power and riches that these highly

1 | Page
respected people have. As the story progresses from scene six we see the other sins
acted upon by Faustus. Mephistophilis brings Faustus many gifts of gold and jewels
to demonstrate the sin of Greed and the want of material good. Faustus takes
vengeance upon the knight in the Emperors court by giving him horns on his head
to demonstrate the sin of Wrath. At the end of Faustus twenty- four years, he
commits lechery by seeking the company of Helen of Troy. His lustful mood blinds
him to the point that he actually acts as if he were with Helen of Troy. Mephistophilis
was unable to get him a wife and actually bring back Alexander the Great, so this
figure he conjures is certainly not Helen of Troy. Faustus is such a wicked person at
this point that he commits lechery with a demon in the form of Helen, which makes
the sin that much more sinful. The final sin that Faustus commits is sloth.
Pride and insolence? Those sins sound awfully familiar. In fact, they sound just like
the traits Faustus has. So if those happen to be the sins that got the devil kicked out
of heaven, shouldn't Faustus get the hint? This exchange should be a warning to
Faustus about the wages of sin but, of course, he ignores it.
Act 1, Scene 3

What Faustus proposes to do here is exactly the opposite of the first commandment: to take other
gods before God. These gods don't necessarily have to be Old Testament-type idols (which is
what the ten commandments were warning against). They can be anything a person loves more
than God, in this case, Faustus's own appetite. Yet Faustus expresses his worship in a very Old
Testament way. He wants to build an altar and undergo human sacrifice. The point of this is
probably to emphasize that despite how innovative Faustus thinks he's being by rejecting the old
traditions in favor of magic, his sin is the very same Old Testament idol worship. In other words,
Faustus, we've been there, done that.

Act 2, Scene 1

Aside from this lovely image of a flea creeping into every corner of a wench (pause for gagging),
there's something else going on here, too. Did you notice that Pride was first up in this sinful
stroll? Pride probably begins the parade of the Seven Deadly Sins because folks thought it was
the root of all sin. For example, many believed that at the beginning of creation, the devil fell
from heaven because of his pride, because he didn't want God ruling over him. Our hunch is that
Pride's refusal to "have any parents" is probably an allusion to that event.

Act 2, Scene 2

Meet Sin #2, everyone. Covetousness is another word for plain old-fashioned greed, so it makes
sense that the embodiment of this sin would want to get its hands on, well, everything. And of
course having everything isn't enough; Covetousness wants it all to turn to gold, too. We guess
greed only creates more greed.

Act 2, Scene 3

2 | Page
The lesson to be learned from Wrath seems to be that it hurts the angry person as much as the
person he's angry at, since Wrath wounds himself when he has no one to fight with. Whoops.

Act 2, Scene 3

GLUTTONY
I am Gluttony. My parents are all dead, and the devil a penny they have left me but
a small pension, and that buys me thirty meals a day and ten beversa small trifle
to suffice nature. (2.3.139-142)

Gluttony is the sin of eating and drinking in excess. Gluttony, for example, eats thirty meals a
day and ten "bevers," or snacks, but is still ready for more. Here's hoping he's a Costco member.

Act 2, Scene 3

SLOTH
I am Sloth. I was begotten on a sunny bank. Heigh-ho! I'll not speak a word more for
a king's ransom. (2.3.152-154)

True to his nature, Sloth, the product of lazy days lying in the sunshine on a hill, is too lazy to
even describe himself as the other sins have done. He'd rather just sit and sit.

Act 2, Scene 3
LECHERY
I am one that loves an inch of raw mutton better than an ell of fried stock-fish, and the first letter
of my name begins with lechery. (2.3.156-158)

Lechery, or lust, tells a dirty joke here. The "inch of raw mutton" likely refers to an erect penis,
whereas "fried stockfish" (a textual error for "dried stockfish") is a slang expression that refers to
sexual impotence. You get the idea

As Faustuss fascination for Helen, The only paragon of excellence reveals the
Renaissance characteristics of love and adoration of classical art and beauty, Helen
epitomizes the charms of classical art, learning and beauty. And her shade of apparition
may also be the symbol of sensual pleasures of life which is but transient, and leads to
despair and damnation. Helen is symbolic of; she represents the attractive nature of evil in
addition to the depths of depravity that Faustus has fallen to.

It is fair to say that Faustus represents the quintessential renaissance man - it is his thirst for
knowledge that drives him into his pact with Mephastophilis, indeed it is the Evil Angel that best
summarises this:

Go forward, Faustus, in the famous art,

Wherein all nature's treasury is contained:

3 | Page
Be thou on earth as Jove is in the sky,
Lord and commander of these elements.
The appearance of Helen not only represents the fall from high minded intellectualism, but also
the seduction of the classical, pagan, world. Faustus' desire to return to the ancient world is
represented by not only Helen, the most beautiful woman that the ancient world produced, but
also by the presence of the scholars. Classical Greece is supposed to be a time of great thinkers,
plays and writers, so Faustus desires to go to this time. Helen's arrival is attended by the scholars,
people of learning, who, by their dumb-foundedness, show the beauty of Helen

Helen represents is beyond mortal comprehension - her beauty, and what that beauty represent,
are far more serious than Faustus gives them credit for. Indeed, when the scholars ask to see
Helen, Faustus treats it as if it were just another conjuring trick, as was summoning Alexander
the Great. This is, however, no ordinary conjuring trick; it has the most dire consequences for
Faustus - the loss of his soul.

When we look at the attractive nature that Helen has (or the Devil that has taken her form), we
can see how seductive evil is. As proverb would have it, the road to hell is the straight and easy
one. It is easier to give in to ones baser desires, to want to make love to Helen, than it is to
uphold the principles of the Church. This is why Faustus' wants to retreat to the past, to a time
where the church didn't exist. Faustus' speech is characterised by classical allusions, describing
Helen in mythological terms:

O thou art fairer than the evening air,

Clad in the beauty of a thousand stars,
Brighter art thou than flaming Jupiter
When he appeared to hapless Semele;
More lovely than the monarch of the sky
In wanton Arethusa's azured arms.

The comparison to Semele is highly appropriate as Semele wanted to see Jupiter in all his glory,
and was then consumed by this glory. This is very much the case that Faustus is in; he wants to
see the most beautiful woman that the world has to offer, the Devil's secret weapon if you will,
and he is consumed by it. This is contrasted with the Old Man who is immune to the full glory
(fury) of the Devil because of the strength of his belief in God.

The Old Man, having endured the attacks of the Devils and remaining unscathed, curses Faustus
for his unwillingness to seek God. To seek God, however, would require Faustus' to give up his
pride and humbly ask for forgiveness. Faustus' treatment of the Pope and other clergy reveals his
preferred method of dealing with the church. Faustus, at the cost of his soul, is unwilling to seek
forgiveness, to reach for the blood streaming in the firmament. Had it not been for Helen, I
believe that Faustus would have repented and sought forgiveness, as he starts to acknowledge the
extent of his deeds:

What art thou Faustus? Wretch, what has thou done!

Damned art thou Faustus, damned; despair and die!
Scene 12, lines 38-39

4 | Page
The repeated long "D" sounds make this realisation of his guilt sound mournful, and like the
sentence it is for the crime he has committed. The idea that Faustus is coming close to seeking
forgiveness would seem to be vindicated by Mephastophilis' response:

Thou traitor, Faustus: I arrest thy soul

For disobedience to my sovereign lord.
Revolt, or I'll in piecemeal tear thy flesh.
Scene 12, lines 57-59

The phraseology used by Mephastophilis would suggest a legalistic punishment, much like
Shylock demanding his pound of flesh. This idea is echoed in the use of capital punishment as
the result of trying to break his end of the bargain. Faustus' rebellion against his deal (a repetition
of his body's rebellion against his signing of the contract) is only short lived, and his downfall is
assured when Helen arrives.

Helen, then, represents the dangerous beauty of evil, the seduction of the past, and the desire for
things pleasurable. Faustus' desire for her, for the most beautiful woman who has ever lived,
seems understandable (though not reasonable) to us, because we all have a little bit of Faustus in
us. It is, however, unlikely that any of us have a sufficiently Faustian nature to sell our soul to the
Devil.

In his never ending quest to obtain knowledge, Faustus conjures Helen of Troy so that he
may marvel at her beauty: "Was this the face that launched a thousand ships/ And burnt the
topless towers of Illium? / Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss./ Her kiss suck forth my
soul.

See where it flies!" (5.1.95-99). Helen is an apt person for Faustus to gawk at. She was
considered to be the most beautiful women in all the world. However, Faustus lives in a time and
place of sexual repression. Thus, Helen represents sin and sexual freedom - an end to Medieval
morals. The word 'immortal' implies that Helen's kiss allows men to live forever and that Helen
herself is 'immortal'.

This ironical comparison demonstrates that Faustus is still in denial about death. However, with
'Her kiss suck forth my soul', Faustus suggests that Helen has taken his life. This is ironic on
many levels, most noticeably being that many men died to rescue Helen from the Trojans. In
addition, Faustus is the only one responsible for his lost soul. The conjuring of Helen of Troy
represents Faustus's decision to accept what he has done with his life and follow his Renaissance
persona. In calling on Helen, Faustus has yielded himself to immortal sins.

First and foremost, Faustus has sinned by using black magic to call on Helen. Lastly, Faustus is
openly sexual with Helen of Troy. His kissing of Helen is ultimately a symbol of accepting that
which has already been done and preparing to face eternal damnation. Faustus's epic battle
between Medieval morals and Renaissance ideals results in his eternal damnation. Faustus has
many chances to repent, yet not once does he decided to put an end to seeking knowledge and

5 | Page
practicing magic. His decision is ultimately a signal for the end of Medieval beliefs in 'religion
being the key' and the emergence of free thinking.

Faustus has been said to be "a Renaissance man who paid the Medieval price for being one"
( R.M. Dawkins). He was an intellectual in a society of ignorance imposed upon by the clergy of
the Catholic Church. Though Faustus is the tragic hero of the play one must really consider if in
fact Faustus's demise is tragic. Faustus makes his own decisions and knows where they will take
him to in the end. He refuses to see that heaven and hell do exist and despite the many warnings
given to him about the heinousness of hell, he still follows the path of damnation.

Faustus's greatest scene is his soliloquy to Helen of Troy. As he proclaims her beauty and kisses
her fair lips he cements himself as a man of a new era, free both sexually and spiritually. Faustus
proves not to be completely sure of what he has done with his life via his last words "Ugly Hell,
gape not! Come not Lucifer!/ I'll burn my books!"(5.2.196-197). With, 'I'll burn my books!',
Faustus unintentionally reveals, yet again, his medieval self. Faustus's harrowing demise results
in eternal damnation is tragic. Though he is a man with the charisma and courage to follow his
passions in life despite the duality within society and the constant pulling of morals and ideals.

Faustus is told time after time that he can still repent and save himself from the wrath of God.
Several times he does in fact repent, yet because of his inner conflict he 'takes it back'. Not till
Faustus utters his last words is one completely sure that Faustus's story is tragic, at best. Faustus
proves to be a man of high and heroic temper by refusing to relinquish his passions and by
bearing one heavy mischance after another. Yet, before his death, he is still questioning his life
and the decisions he has made. Ultimately, he dies unhappy and still a combatant in his own
internal war.

6 | Page