The Tragic Fall of Doctor FaustusChristopher Marlowe's play, its genre is a 16th century English tragedy, presents the tragic conflict of the Faust theme in the medieval tradition morality games. The concepts of good and evil in these plays and their psychological implications reflect a historical context in which the Church dominates the ethical and moral concepts of its time. Faust challenges the norms of society and embraces the devil with courageous desperation, fully aware of the inevitable consequences, but unable to be content with his human limitations. The opera is divided into five acts, each of which represents a progressive phase of Faust's fall, his moral and ethical decline. In the prologue preceding the first act, written in the form of a poetic commentary, Faust is allegorically compared to Icarus, the Greek mythological figure, through the alliteration of "wax wings" (line 20 of the prologue). The true flight of Ikarus symbolically represents Faustus' intellectual efforts towards unattained heights. The melting of Ikarus' wings finds its parallel in the fall and destruction of Faustus. The language used reveals a hierarchical thinking pattern: academic activities have a high value. The proximity to the sun that causes Ikarus' fall foreshadows the destruction of Faustus and his desire to become like God. This reflects the pre-Renaissance conception of social order: people must remain in their "God-given" place in society . But the image of Ikarus' death must also be taken literally. "The heavens have conspired for his overthrow" (prologue, line 21) predicts Faustus' actual death while the blame for this is assigned with contempt and s...... middle of paper ......t of sin , "but Faustus, in hell there is all sorts of joy" (II,ii,179). The struggle between Faustus's superego/good angel and his id/bad angel continues throughout the work and the possibility of reaching a balance does not seem to exist. In 16th century society, repressive moral norms prohibited a possible balance between ethical needs and human passions, causing psychological trauma as the reader can observe in this work. The society of this time, by imposing its limited understanding of God on people, caused thinkers like Faust to miss the possibility of a supernatural experience with God that could solve their problems. It would take another two hundred years before in the period of the Enlightenment a new Faust, created by Goethe, retained his noble character and defeated with reason the banal attempts of Mephistopheles..