History of the Production and Mephistopheles Discussion

In the lesson we spoke about the character of Mephistopheles; audience expectations of a devil (trickster, shape-shifter, liar), his character traits and messages e.t.c. Two words that stick in my mind when thinking about M are 'tormented' and 'deprived' and, I have to admit, I do sympathise with him a tiny bit when he's talking about hell being to have known and lost what heaven is. Firstly, I think that's a wonderful way to describe hell - In the play, someone (I can't quite remember who!) refers to the fact that you can't know or describe hell until you've been there...yet Marlowe attempts this through Mephistopheles. Mephistopheles, I think, is an interesting character because he can be compared to Faustus (almost like a foil) ... One could argue that Faustus lives up to audience expectations of a devil more than Mephistopheles as, at least M values souls, seems to have learnt his lesson and is, in a way God/Devil-fearing in a way that Faustus is not ('O Faustus, leave these frivolous demands/Which strike a terror to my fainting soul!'

A couple of things that got me thinking when we read through the opening scenes...when Faustus' blood congeals, it's almost a signal that his body is urging him not to continue with the contract (signing his soul to Lucifer) - as if his body is God's and God is urging him not to continue but his free will that is, according to the Bible, his own allows him to continue with the deal. Also, the fact that Mephistopheles fetches fire to dissolve the blood is interesting as it brings in the 'traditional' image of hell...fire, flames e.t.c. as if the fire (the product of hell) is destroying Faustus' God-given life force.

Something else that dawned on me when we were reading was that, the fact that Faustus is constantly trying to work things out logically and rationally is just like it is in Dracula and The Bloody Chamber - a key gothic theme. Although Faustus chooses to believe in magic and devils e.t.c. he dismisses ideas that he doesn't want to be true, finding logical solutions as to why they cannot be (when he thinks he sees the warning written on his arm, he says 'My senses are deceived; here's nothing writ'.

I also just wanted to blog about some of the things I found out about the history of the production seeing as we didn't really discuss it in class - I discovered there have been 49 amateur productions, 54 professional productions, 4 film productions (one of which stars Elizabeth Taylor as Helen of Troy) and, suprisingly 14 radio productions (to me, it seems quite a visual play) I was also interested to find that in an RSC production of Doctor Faustus (where Ian McKellen made his RSC debut in the title role) puppets were used for the good and bad angels and life-size puppets were used to portray the seven deadly sins! Even Helen of Troy was a puppet! It seems that puppets have been used in one way or another in a few of the productions.

I also found out that between 1594 and 1597, the play was featured in the repertoire of Lord Admiral's Men (a drama society) and was performed at the Rose Theatre...this was at the same time that Shakespeare was writing plays to be performed at there - 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' and 'Romeo and Juliet'. Also...from one extreme to the other, I discovered that there's been a musical adaptation of Doctor Fautus called 'Doctor Foster' which involves the modern female equivalent to Doctor Faustus buying a spellbook on eBay!!