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Hamlet and Faustus: Dynamic Characters

Hamlet and Faustus: Dynamic Characters


Thesis Statement

In the world of literature, Shakespeare and Marlowe are two prominent figures who composed certain dynamic characters from tragic hero point of view. The most outstanding illustration is the characters of Prince Hamlet and Dr. Faustus. These two personalities reflect the genius mind of their composers. These are multi dimensional and capable of similar and dissimilar traits of personality.


Juxtaposition of two Opposites

On one hand, Hamlet is a noble and harmless character not always compromising on certain ethical values and having accommodating bent of mind without any negative tinge of mentality. On the other hand, Faustus is greedy for power and pelf, as well as for all the luxuries of life. His hunger and thirst to become omnipotent and omnipresent is at the extreme. Both of them are learned and scholarly in their education. But, Hamlet is humble and simple enough to fulfill his desire of revenge while Faustus is cunning enough to achieve his end by hook or by crook. This is the ultimate result of his unfair and profane aspirations. Hamlet is lofty and sublime in his determination while Faustus is Machiavellian and mischievous in order to gain his goals.

Hamlet's Distinctive Dynamic Traits

Weaving together different but analogous plots allows the dramatist to create meaningful juxtapositions that complement and enrich the main plot, including the character of the central protagonist. One such device in Hamlet is Shakespeare's placing of the Danish prince in the context of Fortinbras and Laertes as the characters that like Hamlet; find themselves in the role of having to avenge their fathers' deaths. On the other hand, Faustus is worldly-wise character having no interest in emotions and ethics. He has nothing to do or know about revenge or envy. The dramatic contrast in the revenge plots is accordingly achieved by the differing dynamic alignments of the three figures, whereby Fortinbras is presented as an opportunistic and pragmatic endostatic, Laertes as an inflexible, morally rigid (decent) static, and Hamlet as an idealistic and showy exostatic. The differing dynamisms of character thus explain why Fortinbras is less concerned with revenging his father than with regaining the lands lost by his father to Denmark; why Laertes is concerned only with justice in revenging his father, and not with self-advancement or power; and why Hamlet is concerned neither with just revenge, still less with acquiring power, but with the emotive and theatrical effects of his actions. The three sons avenging their fathers thus handle their similar tasks under three different banners: of political ambition in the case of Fortinbras, of justice in Laertes, and of art-cum-philosophy in Hamlet. (Bradley, 2001) While quite opposite to Hamlet, Faustus is keen to be almighty and powerful disregarding all the morality involved in his way.


Dr. Faustus' Dynamics of Personality

Although Hamlet, unlike Faustus, has certain sublimity and loftiness in his personality and ideas as he ponders over every pros and cons of consequences of revenge. Faustus cares least about moral and ethical involvement in his decision. Faustus is giving the appearance of an intelligent man; he comes from a background of developed schooling and has achieved much in his life, with his profession as a Doctor. At first he makes us believe that he wants to sell his soul to the devil in order to be able to help people world wide, to be able do something to make a difference in the world, something that would make him famous. He wants something to make his life mean something, so he wishes to sell his soul to the devil for anything he wishes, which ends up to be wishes for him and not wishes for people who need help. So him and his two dark arts teachers, teach him how to sell his soul to the devil, which is when we meet the demon that we see most often with Faustus. Faustus' arrogance and ignorance will be his downfall; he has turned away from God, yet he says that he wants to be more powerful than God himself.

Faustus wants to be able to control things around him, he wants to be able control nature and use necromancer magic's to raise the dead and other skills along those lines that come with the dark arts that he would be using when in contact with the demonic creatures. Faustus does regularly show doubt in what he is doing, but he never does repent for his sins so he continues on his path to being damned in hell for his acts against God. He gives the thought of an intelligent man, although the things that he is actually doing is just pain ridiculous, he shows no common sense when he is dealing with his soul, he seems to believe he wont be damned with the other souls, but he will be something like Lucifer's right hand man. Although he believes he as evil or powerful as Lucifer, he does not actually have more power than Lucifer because Lucifer cant give more power than he has, and he has less power than God has, so Faustus will be less powerful than the both of them, although he does not realize this. (Sadowski, 2000) On the other hand, if we analyze Hamlet's character, he is quite an embodiment of consideration and rationale judgments.
Faustus' arrogance and ignorance is unbelievable, he is not as intelligent has he makes himself appear, he is lacking common sense, any, at all. He is making foolish decisions against the advice of many people, his ego is boosted to extreme levels along with his self confidence, only his subconscious can control his decisions about what he is going to do, yet even his own "intelligent" mind is against him as he sells his soul to the devil without looking back, even with the signs he has even up until the point right before he signs the deed to his soul. Faustus is not as intelligent as we are led to believe, perhaps he has intelligence from his education, but not from his life experiences, he is not even near to any intelligence it seems as he finals sale to the devil, his soul to be tortured for the rest of eternity after his short life remaining on this planet.


Conclusion

If we compare and contrast both the characters' dynamics, it transpires that both are marvelous and outstanding as far as their creation is concerned. Their characterization is superb and distinctive. Rather, we can say that both are matchless in traits and personality dimensions.

Hamlet's distinction is indeed borne out by Hamlet's conciliatory address to Laertes before their duel, in which the prince offers an extraordinarily accurate self-analysis of his transitional, exostatic character, as broad as Laertes's static character is narrow. Hamlet acknowledges the contradictory impulses in his personality: his present static regret and appeal to Laertes's forgiveness ("Give me your pardon, sir. I have done you wrong," 5.2.222) and his former exodynamic "madness" (5.2.228, 233, 235), from which Hamlet now distances himself. His character indeed seems to have moved slightly toward stasis in act 5, as has often been observed by critics, who found the prince who has returned from England a more stoically mature person. (Stirling, 1999) Hamlet now talks about his former exodynamic outbursts as if they belonged to someone else, because the present, more static Hamlet is now a different person, more of a "brother" to Laertes than an enemy:
On the other hand, Faustus reaches to his tragic end with damnation and his bond kills him before his death. He cries but it was too late to be redeemable and retentive. In the last lines, he cries thus,
"My God! My God! Look not so fierce on me!
Adders and serpents let me breathe awhile!
Ugly hell, gape not! Come not, Lucifer!
I’ll burn my books!—Ah Mephistophilis!"
(Marlowe, 80-84)






References

Bradley, A. C. Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on "Hamlet, "Othello, "King Lear, "Macbeth." 1994. Reprint, London: Penguin Books, 2001.
Marlowe, Christopher. The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus. Vol. A. The Longman Anthology of British Literature. Ed. David Damrosch. 2nd Ed. New York: Pearson Education, 2004.
Sadowski, Piotr. "Psychological Configurations and Literary Characters: A Systems View." Journal of Literary Semantics 29 (2000): 105—22.
Stirling, Brents. Unity in Shakespearian Tragedy: The Interplay of Theme and Character. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.
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Posted by: Kate L. Rizal

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