One of the first things we dicussed last lesson was theatre (seeing as Doctor Faustus is a play!) and, for fear of waffling on, I'll make a conscious effort to keep this short...theatre is my very favourite art form...of them all. Ok - maybe I need to justify that a little bit. With theatre, you are there...in that moment, in that scene, with those people. No performance is ever exactly the same which, I think, is why each theatre-going experience is so special...and why I go and see some of the same shows repeatedly. Theatre and the gothic genre almost go hand in hand because in theatre, you are watching real people (admittedly playing roles) in the way that you could watch people in 'everyday life' (who, most of the time, aren't playing roles) therefore the bounds between reality and fiction are blurred (a key element to the gothic). Also, I think the gothic genre is about personal experiences - especially when it comes down to the psychological impact that the gothic genre has and there is, a lot of the time, an element of mystery and intrigue...theatre, unlike cinema, I think is a very personal experience - you can look where you want to look, at who you want to look at as opposed to being forced to look at one person or one thing on account of a camera shot...this gives a lot of freedom and allows the audience to work things out for themselves without being directed (as obviously as in film) making the 'piecing together of the mystery' all the more enjoyable.
We spoke also, in the last lesson and the lesson before about the character of Faustus - what opinions we have on him, what his personality traits are, what his motives and dreams are. The lesson before last, I questioned whether Faustus was simply arrogant or whether some of his faith in the potential and power that knowledge and learning offers was being misconstrued as arrogance...now I think he actually is just arrogant! Ok...I do think he values greatly what education can offer him (and what power it can give to him) but I also think that he's just plain arrogant...and, in some ways, for good reason...the point that he is intelligent is repeatedly emphasized and his friends Valdes and Cornelius do little to suppress his mighty ego and ambition ('Faustus, these books, thy wit, and our experience/Shall make all nations to canonize us'. Another thing I intend to refer to in my essay plan is the fact that, although he goes along with Valdes and Cornelius as if he's a member of a team, when they're not there it's all about him and he seems to be out for himself...which gives a huge insight into his personality - the way characters are during their soliloquies and solo moments in contrast to how they are when they are alongside other characters always fascinates me...that's where you get a glimpse of the multi-dimensional nature of characters...how they are on their own/how they change when other people are there.
Going back to how Doctor Faustus works well as a stage play...I think I spoke in one of my first blogs on the texts about the scenes that would be very interesting to see realised on stage...I'll check to see if I did talk about that...if I didn't...I've still got a bit more theatre-related waffle to blog about! To my mind, Doctor Faustus is one of those plays that you have to actually see to get the full impact of...there are scenes that aren't that impressive or thought-provoking to read that could be amazing on stage...which really is the mark of a good play...although it is very well written...it's written with a purpose behind it that can only be exposed when it's consumed in its intended form...theatre!!
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