The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus is a play written by Christopher Marlowe in 1588 or 1592, based on the story of Dr. Faust, 1587, German anonymous collection of short stories about occult science practitioners. The piece, written in verse part in prose, tells the story of a man who sells his soul to the devil for power and knowledge.
The tragic story of Doctor Faustus is a critique of the beginning of what we know today as "scientism", but at the time it was a phenomenon only in its beginning. Realize that it was the sixteenth century, Renaissance, a period when religion is losing space, and science begins to be constituted - partly because of the discovery or creation of various precision instruments that allowed man to understand natural phenomena that were previously attributed to God.
The irony of this story is that Faust approached the devil for believing that he knew God too much. It seems to me that he really was a scientist, in the deepest sense of the term, for he sought, sought, sought. And there was nothing left. I think he made the pact with the devil not only for wealth and power, but mainly to continue his quest on the unknown. The covenant, indeed, was by power; the wealth, which he did not enjoy, came from the power he had. Faust wanted to be able to do more than others, to know more than others. Thus, I conclude that Marlowe's Faust was imbued with a scientific spirit, his vanity was scientific; otherwise he might have chosen to look young, handsome, and rich, like Dorian Gray.
