Text Analysis of Role of Satan in 'The Tragical History of Life and Death of Dr Faustus' by Christopher Marlow and Muslims’ Perception of Satan in Pakistani Society

Abstract

The paper analyzes the role of Satan in the play ‘The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus” by Christopher Marlow. Moreover, it is designed to investigate Muslims’ perception of Satan and his chief characteristics like pride, confidence, anger, lying, temptation and disobedience to God portrayed in the text. The purpose of this study is to focus on the role and characteristics of Satan portrayed in the play through text analysis and to analyze up to what extent this role is similar to the perception of Satan by Muslim participants in Pakistani society. The study was designed on quantitative as well as qualitative method. The analysis of qualitative content formed a base for the questionnaire which was formulated and conducted without referring to the story, to gain maximum objectivity. The results of the qualitative analysis pointed out that the Satan’s role principally is to mislead and tempt humankind to do evil and sin with pride and lying as his chief characteristics. The analysis of the questionnaire further confirmed that the majority of participants consider pride, disobedience to God as satanic characteristics and that Satan’s main role is to lure human beings to commit sins. The paper concludes that the participants’ views about the role of Satan in Muslim Society are somewhat compatible with Satan’s role in “The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus.”