Date of Award

2019

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Sutherland, Wendy

Area of Concentration

English

Abstract

To lay the groundwork for interpreting Faust and Dr. Faustus as a prototypical Individual and as a protégé of the Devil, I establish definitions of Individualism (both for the Renaissance and for the Enlightenment) to be used alongside biblical characterizations of Lucifer, which guide my textual analysis. For Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragicall history of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, I make use of Jacob Burckhardt’s definition of the Renaissance Individual in his Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien (The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy) and interpret Dr. Faustus’ self-concernedness as an expression of his Individualism. In the case of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust: Erster Teil (Faust: The First Part), I claim that the Sturm und Drang movement, alongside the Sündenfall (Fall of Man) biblical narrative, birthed Faust’s individualistic motives.

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