Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Doctor Faustus, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Temptation, Sin, and Redemption
The Bargain
The Renaissance Individual
Fate vs. Free Will
Education, Knowledge, and Power
Summary
Analysis
A stablehand named Robin enters and announces that he has stolen one of Faustus' conjuring books. He is eager to learn some magic, but is interrupted by Rafe, another stablehand, who comes to tell Robin that a gentleman needs his horse and things looked after. Robin tells Rafe that he has a book of spells and claims that he can do all sorts of fantastic things with magic. They leave to attempt some magic.
Robin and Rafe offer some comic relief. Without Faustus' education, their awkward attempts at magic seem like a counterpoint to Faustus' lofty ambitions of power and knowledge. (But how different their ridiculous motivations really are from Faustus' "lofty" ambitions of gaining knowledge, wealth, and power will soon become more ambiguous.)
Themes
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