The Role of Helen of Troy in Doctor Faustus To adequately describe the role that Helen plays in Doctor Faustus, it is necessary not only to look at the scene in which she presents , but also all the cases in which Faustus derives some form of pleasure from physical and sensual things. We must do this because this is what Helen is the symbol of; represents the attractive nature of evil as well as the depths of depravity into which Faust has fallen. It is fair to say that Faust represents the quintessence of the Renaissance man: it is his thirst for knowledge that pushes him to make a pact with Mephastophilis, indeed he is the evil angel who best summarizes this: Go ahead, Faust, in the famous art, Where all the treasure of nature is contained: Be on earth as Jupiter is in the sky, Lord and commander of these elements. Scene I, lines 74-77 It is the restless spirit of the Renaissance that pushes Faustus to seek knowledge. He has already achieved what he can by more conventional means, his "banknotes (are) hung like monuments" and his "common speeches find aphorisms". Faust compares himself to the most famous characters of the classical period; to Hippocrates, Aristotle and Galen. He considers himself to have reached the end of what he can learn through his human tools; he needs something that allows him to escape the realm of nature, something supernatural. This is why he came into contact with Mephastophilis, as he sought to use the new power that would come to him to deepen his knowledge. It has been said that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely: this is what happened to Faustus. He stops becoming a seeker of knowledge, but becomes... a paper medium... forced into the use of capital punishment as a result of attempting to break his end of the bargain. Faustus's rebellion against his agreement (a repetition of his body's rebellion against signing the contract) is only short-lived, and his downfall is assured when Helen arrives. Elena, therefore, represents the dangerous beauty of evil, the seduction of the past. and the desire for pleasant things. Faustus' desire for her, for the most beautiful woman who ever lived, seems understandable (even if not reasonable) to us, because we all have a bit of Faustus in us. It is, however, unlikely that any of us have a sufficiently Faustian nature to sell our souls to the Devil. Works Cited: Marlowe, Christopher. "The Tragic Story of Doctor Faustus." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. Eds. M. H. Abrams et. al. New York: W. W. Norton and Co, 1993.