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Essay / Enron by Lucy Prebble and Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe: comparison of the construction of the theme of excess of power and its abuse
Is Doctor Faustus or Enron more successful as a morality play ? Playwrights display lessons that the audience must learn by watching the performance. However, although the authors arguably have different goals, Marlowe projects a moral warning about going beyond what "heavenly power permits." Written in the 16th century, it naturally falls into the category of a morality play. While Enron seeks to give an ultra-theatrical demonstration of how corporate madness works, it lacks the universal relevance that Marlow creates by presenting Faustus as an ordinary man. Instead, Enron's goal is to make the public question its trust in and the reliability of the capitalist system that enabled Enron's disaster. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay. Primarily, both pieces offer a similar message about the danger of going too far. Indeed, Marlowe creates a protagonist whose downfall occurs because “his wax wings are mounted.” beyond its reach. “wax” suggests that Faustus is in fact vulnerable and that the knowledge he possesses only places him on a flimsy pedestal, as wax is soft and melts easily. It is essentially the fragility of man that is conveyed. Similarly, the danger of over-expansion is demonstrated in Prebble's presentation of Skilling's arrogance that "countries are meaningless." Both protagonists are seduced by the lure of power and convey a moral message about the corrupting nature of greed. This is further illustrated in Enron when the LJM, the power holder, is created in "a dark place deep inside Enron", creating the illusion that this hell, especially since "the box glows red and throbs.” Red is closely associated with hell and danger, especially since it takes place in the bowels of Enron. However, "beat" has connotations with a heart; suggesting that hell has become the heart of society, Enron, a society in which much of the contemporary population trusts and invests, depends on and worships hell. Doctor Faustus follows in many parts the allegorical genre of a morality play which was the main genre that made the transition from the medieval to the early modern period, thus suggesting that it aspires to be a morality tale . The essence of a morality play was that it had universal relevance in representing an ordinary man, Faustus is the very embodiment of this since he was “born of natural parents”. Therefore, the moral message of the play is accessible to all members of society, whereas Enron seems more like a window into corporate activities, which is not necessarily relevant to society as a whole. Furthermore, the simplistic characterization of the seven deadly sins and the angels is typical of a morality play where the moral message is clear to the extent that the characters take on a Brechtian function by being created to represent a message opposed to the priority of in-depth character development, or even in-depth character development. Bad Angel is used to illustrate the horror of "perpetually the pains of hell." The use of alliteration gives the illusion of an eternal hell, while the harsh consonant sounds provide insight into the horror and unforgiving nature of hell. This is where the success of Faustus as a morality tale might be called into question since Marlowe creates Faustus himself as a «.