"The Devil to pay" : Temptation and desire in Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus

Abstract: The Faustian myth may not have started with Christopher Marlowe and the staging of his play The Tragical tale of Dr. Faustus, but few adaptions have managed to become as prominent as Marlowe’s in passing on the Faustian myth. Psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan highlights the presence of a more or less conscious catalyst behind each desire, the objet a (the lost object of desire), thus indicating that desiring is not a straight path but rather a constant filling of the void that comes with being human. In an eerie mirroring of this tendency, the play eloquently paints the picture of Faustus’ incessant search for his true desire -his objet a-, by veiling it in other desires (omnipotence and omniscience). This quest ultimately culminates in the demonic pact with Mephistopheles, which, as will be explored and argued in the analysis is what locks Faustus out from achieving his true desire: salvation. Hence, the main investigative aim of this essay is to asses how Lacan’s objet a can be used to explore the development of the theme of unfilled desire displayed by Marlowe’s protagonist Faustus.