The Puritan Ethic in Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus and Goethe’s Faust

Abstract

The Faust legend is a folk legend, which inspired generations of writers in Europe.Two of the most prominent writers who employed it are the British dramatist Christopher Marlow in his play The Tragical History of Dr Fausts and the German poet,dramatist and philosopher Goethe in his play Faust: A Tragedy.Despite the temporal and intellectual differences between the two playwrights, they are similar in their employment of the puritan ethic,which were dominant when they were alive. Marlowe used it to warn against using magic and to propagate for his play,while Goethe used it to save his protagonist from damnation.