In my opinion, we can all agree that a story of any kind with a good message is considered a good story, and is therefore popular. People love stories that you can learn good moral lessons in life. In general a story with a deep meaning is what people have always went for. Famous people who were known for their constant works of successful writing, were simply the ones to always give people what they looked for which is deep, meaningful stories. Some writers were successful in only a few or maybe just one of their works, that is also because they were able to give people what they looked for, but only that particular writing was the one that people favored. Their other works could’ve been not known as much, because that wasn’t something people seeked.
Going back to the topic of why the theme remained popular since 1587, this story about Dr. Faustus has such a good moral point that people continued to talk about it. The story is basically how Faustus sold his soul to the devil. First of all, he was interested in all that sorcery magic stuff. Second, his relationship with God wasn’t close at all, so he didn’t feel shame or in other words didn’t have that fear of the lord when actually doing the ritual. He made a deal with the spirit for 24 years he would have this temporary magic and after that, his soul would be collected.
Throughout his journey of this temporary sorcery power, he has used his magic to play mean tricks on peasants and courtiers like poor Benvolio, sometimes he would use it for good terms such as putting the 2 people together. During the near times of the ending contract, he began to turn to God, while his friends asked him to repent and to call on him, but he couldn’t. As a result, he died a gruesome death and the devil didn’t save his soul just like he ‘promised ‘ he would.
The moral of the adventures of Dr. Faustus is that there is “no shortcut to success”. Faustus believed that signing this contract would fulfill his lustful desires, but he wasn’t fulfilled in the end. Instead he regretted everything he used this temporary power for.
Many movies and literature today have a very similar theme to this story. For instance, the movie “Shortcut to Happiness,” It may be because people are trying to get a message out to the world to know that success isn’t gained but earned, and happiness isn’t gained but made. I also think it is an interesting concept because no one has really sold their soul to the Devil and people who are inspired by this idea can be as creative as they would like; they could produce different outcomes after a certain time period is up rather than just death, which is what Faustus’s was.
In conclusion, this idea of there is no shortcut to success is what people really liked and what they took for themselves to apply in their lives.
Thanks for reading this essay. I hope you liked it or learned something new from it. I’ll be posting more soon and have a great rest of your day!
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