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What does Faustus receive in exchange for his soul in Doctor Faustus?
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Christopher Marlowe
Detail of a portrait thought to be of Christopher Marlowe, dated 1585, artist unknown; in the collection of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, England.
In Christopher Marlowe's play Doctor Faustus, the protagonist, a doctor-turned-necromancer, sells his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge and power.12
Faustus enters into this pact through the devil's intermediary, Mephistopheles, a fallen angel who serves the doctor for a set period before ultimately claiming his soul for damnation. Marlowe portrays these intellectual ambitions as ultimately futile, self-destructive, and absurd, leading to the tragic downfall of the protagonist.12