The Faustian bargain is that you go to hell for bargaining with the devil to get what you want in this life. If you do not bargain with the devil, does that mean you will not get the things you want in this life? Why is getting what you want in this life associated with suffering punishment in an afterlife?

In Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, the doctor is already the wisest and most accomplished of men. He knows what he is getting into when bargaining with the devil. Joe Faust, on the other hand, is a sheltered 17-year-old. Would the devil enter into a contract with someone too innocent and young to strike a legal bargain? Why?

If Joe had not been reading Doctor Faustus in his English class, would the devil still have tried to do a deal with him? Did the devil somehow induce Miss Mitchell to have her class read the play just to inform, prime, and tempt Joe? What if Joe had not been named Faust—would the devil still have tried to tempt him?