One theme in Doctor Faustus is sin. Throughout the play, Faustus is continuously making wrong choices. His first sin was greed. Faustus began his downfall by making a pact with the devil. Doctor Faustus is a German scholar who is well known for his accomplishments. He grows sick of the limitations on human knowledge, which leads him to his interest with magic. Faustus summons a demon, Mephistophilis, ordering him to go to Lucifer with the offer of Faustus’s soul in return for twenty-four years of servitude from Mephistophilis. At the news of acceptance from Lucifer, Faustus begins his years filled with sinful nature. Faustus feeds sin with his need for power, praise, and trickery. He becomes absorbed in the way people look up to him, believing him to be a sort of ‘hero’. In the end, Faustus realises his mistake in believing power will bring him happiness. At the end of his twenty-four years, Faustus is filled with fear and he becomes remorseful for his past actions, yet this comes too late. When fellow scholars find Faustus the next morning, he is torn limb from limb, with his soul carried off to hell.

The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, commonly referred to simply as Doctor Faustus, is a play by Christopher Marlowe, based on the German story Faust, in which a man sells his soul to the devil for power, experience, pleasure and knowledge. Doctor Faustus was first published in 1604, eleven years after Marlowe's death and at least 10 years after the first performance of the play. It is the most controversial Elizabethan play outside of Shakespeare, with few critics coming to any agreement as to the date or the nature of the text.

Christopher Marlowe (26 February 1564 – 30 May 1593) was an English playwright, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. Marlowe was the foremost Elizabethan tragedian of his day. He greatly influenced William Shakespeare, who was born in the same year as Marlowe and who rose to become the pre-eminent Elizabethan playwright after Marlowe's mysterious early death. Marlowe's plays are known for the use of blank verse and their overreaching protagonists.