In both “Paradise Lost” and “Doctor Faustus,” the authors draw on the ideas of responsibility, free will, and guilt. Marlowe, in 'Doctor Faustus', blends the conventional religious ideology of the Middle Ages with the relatively new thought of the Renaissance and Reformation, thus creating an effective contrast and an element of ambiguity as to who exactly causes the protagonist's downfall: it is pride of Faustus? , Mephistopheles or God? Milton's "Paradise Lost," by comparison, draws on the radicalism of the English Republic and the fables of the Old Testament to present the enigmatic question of who is to blame for the fall of man; some critics go so far as to suggest that Milton believes God is to blame for giving Adam and Eve free will. In the words of Milton's almost human Satan: “Whom have you then or what to accuse, / But has heaven's free love dealt equally with all? / Therefore, let his love be cursed, since love or hate, / they cause eternal trouble for me too. This questioning embodies the enigmatic deduction, morality, and theology employed by Milton in his masterpiece. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay From the beginning, through the use of the classical chorus, Marlowe draws inspiration from earlier medieval "Mummings" and plays on morality in his use of almost overly poetic, Bardesque imagery: "His waxen wings rose above above his reach, / And the melting heavens conspired for his overthrow." A statement like this only increases the ambiguity of guilt in 'Doctor Faustus': the first line of the passage clearly indicates an active attempt by Faustus to “rise above its reach”; however, a contradiction occurs, with the Old Testament image of a "conspiratorial" and vengeful God. Furthermore, even in short quotes like the one above, the audience is confronted with an entirely contemporary idea: in plays of the early and late Tudor periods, the theater was used as a powerful propaganda tool against the declining influence of the papacy." Machiavellian" on English. and religious affairs. In passages like the one above, Marlowe, contemporary references aside, generates confusion: why does God “conspire” against Faustus? The playwright offers a kind of explanation in sentiments such as: “Be a doctor, Faustus; accumulate gold”. Greed like this is very reminiscent of Chaucer's 'The Pardoner's Tale', with the character of the Old Man, an entity borrowed from Marlowe later in the play, resembling Faust in this case: “So seyde this old man; And each of these rioters ran / until they came to that tree, and there they found / Of gold fyne florins ycoyed rounde. However, although this similarity diminishes the moral status of Marlowe's protagonist, it is only a temporary diminution: "And yet you are still only Faustus, and a man." Such Saint Antonian humility, through an apparently sincere statement, once again has the effect of arousing a sense of confusion in the public: surely a cultured man like Faustus cannot be capable of such immoral behavior, of affiliation with the devil and of self-destruction? In fact, it is precisely Faust's 'new knowledge' that leads him to the pact with Mephistopheles: “What God can harm you, Faust? You are safe” turns out to be almost the exact same feeling and “illusion” that Satan expresses when he tempts Eve in “Paradise Lost,” the latter of which reflects: “What do I fear then, rather than what I know how to fear/Under this ignorance?" of good and evil / Of God or of death, of the law or of punishment?” Therefore both authors, in these cases, present the fall of both Eva and Fausto as born of ignorance, exacerbated by.