Keywords
Abstract
This thesis investigates how human ambition leads to downfall in Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus and John Milton’s Paradise Lost. Both authors depict ambition as a powerful yet destructive force that pushes individuals to rebel against moral and divine boundaries. Faustus, driven by intellectual pride, and Satan, driven by spiritual arrogance, demonstrate how ambition blinds characters to consequence, responsibility, and redemption. Through close analysis of key passages and scholarly interpretations, this study reveals that ambition in both texts evolves from aspiration to self-destruction, illustrating a central concern of early modern literature: the danger of human overreaching and the tragedy of misused free will.
References
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5. Marlowe, C. (2003). Doctor Faustus (D. Ormerod, Ed.). Broadview Press.
6. Milton, J. (2005). Paradise Lost (A. Fowler, Ed.). Pearson Longman.