English 2610

I couldn't help, but think of Dr. Faustus as I was reading Paradise Lost. This very well could be because of the immediate mention of Satan and Beelzebub, but I first noticed it fully in lines 242-45: "Is this the Region, this the Soil, The Clime,/Said then the lost Arch-Angel, this the seat/That we must change for Heav'n, thi mournful gloom/For that celestial light?" These lines made me think of Mephostophilis specifically in the beginning of Faustus, when he is warning Faustus and telling him he knows the joys of Heaven and knows what he is missing. Then in line 261 he begins to say "Here we may reign secure, and in my choice/To reign is worth ambition though in Hell", which signifies the attitude Faustus has. He chooses power and knowledge for a few short years in exchange to suffer in hell. In line 33o when it says"Awake, arise, or be for ever fall'n", I think of the Good Angel who was constantly telling Faustus to realize that he could repent and escape hell and damnation. And finally in lines 603-608, I am reminded of a mixture of Faustus and Mephostophilis. "Of dauntless courage and considerate Pride/Waiting revenge"(the scene where Mephostophilis and Faustus are messing with the Pope) "cruel his eye, but cast/Signs of remorse"(This reminds me of all of the warnings Mephostophilis gives to Faustus and also of Faustus' internal struggles and remorse of what he has done) "The fellows of his crime, the followers rather/(Far other once beheld in bliss) condemned/For ever now to have thir lot in pain" (These lines make me think of Faustus as the follower of Mephostophilis and other devils who now is condemned and suffers great pain and anguish in the last scene of the text)

Maybe I read too much into it, but lines 244-45 really made the idea stick in my mind.