Keywords
Abstract
This thesis explores human weakness and moral choice in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus. Both texts examine the psychological and ethical struggles that define human nature, focusing on Hamlet’s hesitation and Faustus’s destructive ambition. Shakespeare portrays moral paralysis caused by doubt, conscience, and intellectual reflection, while Marlowe presents ambition and pride as forces that lead to spiritual collapse. Through comparative literary analysis, this study argues that both protagonists reveal the fragility of human decision-making. The findings demonstrate that moral failure arises not from evil alone but from weakness, inner conflict, and the misuse of human freedom.
References
1. Shakespeare, W. (1601). Hamlet. Arden Shakespeare.
2. Marlowe, C. (1592). Doctor Faustus. Penguin Classics.
3. Bradley, A. C. (1904). Shakespearean Tragedy. Macmillan.
4. Bloom, H. (1998). Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human. Riverhead Books.
5. Bevington, D. (1984). From Mankind to Marlowe. Harvard University Press.
6. Greenblatt, S. (2005). Renaissance Self-Fashioning. University of Chicago Press.
7. Lewis, C. S. (1961). English Literature in the Sixteenth Century. Oxford University Press.