In Act 5 - Scene One, the image of heaven/hell and God/the devil really come into play -there are, of course, references made prior to this point that they are polar opposites and, on account of that, do mirror each other in a way (for example, Mephistopheles speaks of praying to the prince of hell) - In this scene, as was discussed in class, there's the irony of the traitor (Faustus) repenting to the ultimate traitor (Lucifer) for considering repenting in the first place...oh what a tangled web we weave...it's all getting rather confusing...but my main point is that the clear parallels between Heaven/Hell and God/Lucifer are being shown - Marlowe's really hammering home his concept of those things in this scene and even has an old man randomly popping up as a type of God-like figure. Religious/moral themes at the fore-front keeping the play topical (especially to an Elizabethan audience)
It's an interesting scene because of the little details that make you think twice...for example, in saying 'I think my master means to die shortly', it made me question whether this was just a way of saying 'I think he's going to die shortly' or...as 'means' implies, if it's an indication of Faustus' controlling, power-hungry nature again in that he even wants to control life/death itself...he spoke of wanting to raise the dead initially but seeing as his plans are all going downhill and the magical powers aren't all they're cracked up to be...he's maybe downscaling his ambition...at least he can be in control of his own life. It's ironic that in doing what he thought would give him the power that he so desperately craved (signing his soul away), he sacrificed it all. Another part that made me think twice was the stage direction 'Mephistopheles gives him (Faustus) the dagger' (supposedly to kill himself with) - in this scene, we see a shift in Mephistopheles...he's playing up a bit, making a mock confession saying that Faustus' state is his fault ('I turned the leaves and led thine eye') and I questioned whether M really was willing F to kill himself (maybe so Lucifer could get full ownership of his soul...no danger of attempting repentence again) or whether he was just using reverse psychology. In saying he was the cause of F's state and supposedly urging F to commit suicide, he's almost taking what little power F has left...no control over his own life or destiny.
This scene reinforces previous ideas also...the fact that, just as M and the devils bring 'empty gifts' and 'hollow gestures', F and the scholars, when it comes down to it, only seem to want 'empty gifts' e.g. the 'image' of Helen. The moral issues are also reiterated with Mephistopheles giving an indication of his value of the soul and the importance faith/God has in protecting the soul ('His faith is great. I cannot touch his soul') Also...I finally found the quote I've been trying to find for ages (I mentioned it in my previous blogs when speaking of Mephistopheles)...the old man says 'No mortal can express the pains of hell'...as I've stated before...through M, Marlowe tries.
A change can be noticed in Faustus - it's almost as if he is now experiencing the hell that M described to him earlier - as opposed to before, he accepts hell and doesn't question it ('...with greatest torment that our hell afforded') He's in a horrible place mentally - making enemies of the devil and God - even everything that seems good to him is sourced from evil e.g. Helen - As Mephistopheles says 'His store of pleasures must be sourced with pain'...A really important chunk of act 5, scene two is Mephistopheles' speech summing up F to Lucifer as it bascically reiterates the point about his 'idle fantasies' and how much trouble they've got him into. The Bad Angel exposes itself as a false friend (a point the Third Scholar later confirms 'The devils whom Faustus served have torn him thus') 'Gave ear to me/And now must taste hell's pains perpetually' and, upon the Good Angel's exit from Act 5, Scene 2, the goodness from F's life is lost. Faustus shows how he is in tune with the Bad Angel when he continues its rhyme ('Thou shalt see/Ten thousand tortures that more horrid be'...'O! I have seen enough to torture me!') Also, Faustus who had taken great pride in the knowledge he had got from his books now blames them ('O, would I had never seen Wittenburg, never read book!' and later goes on to say 'I'll burn my books' at the end of the scene.
We didn't talk about this in class but I think Marlowe's portrayal of 'scholars' is quite interesting, especially in this scene - he seems to slate scholars for their ambition (Faustus' ambition...sparked by his reading and studying of books) yet makes those who aren't scholars fools! Like I said in my last blog, I think characters like Benvolio are the 'human' characters and, in a way, the scholars are presented as having their humanity and restraint taken away from them on account of their studies - maybe arrogance and a desire to know even more sets them apart from the others...I haven't quite made my mind up yet! There's certainly a divide between the scholars and everyone else and, while the scholars support Fasutus in his magic, the 'others' don't...as if Marlowe's trying to make the point that, even the peasants, even the fools can see that what Faustus is doing is wrong.
That's enough incoherent blogging for one day...if anyone does actually read this, I'm sorry it's made no sense...these few scenes, to me, have been the most interesting yet so it's been difficult documenting my thoughts...as is evident in the shotgun approach to blogging today...let's just say I've flitted from one idea to the next as quickly as Faustus flits between God and the Devil in Act 5 and, like Faustus...it's all going downhill!!
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
Monday, 19 October 2009
Next 2 Scenes...
Mr Francis was off last lesson and we were asked to read the next two scenes...so I thought I'd blog on them.
Act Four, Scene Three - Again in this scene, there's the potential for comedy but also for a serious slant to be put on the scene if desired - if played for laughs, Benvolio, Frederick and Martino realising they have horns on their heads could be quite comical on account of their confusion and unawareness of their own horns ('It is your own you mean. Feel on your head') however, the serious side to scene is that, as Martino said, they have been through a terrible ordeal on account of Fasutus' immense pride having been dented ('the Furies dragged me by the heels') - they've been shamed even more than before - the shame of having horns on his head in the first place led Benvolio to attempt the murder of Faustus...and now it's even worse! His increased sense of shame only adds to his desire for revenge and the audience are left wondering as to what on earth he will do next...the fantastic rhyme at the end of the scene consolidates Benvolio's determination 'Sith black disgrace hath thus eclipsed our fame, We'll rather die with grief than live with shame' In many respects, Benvolio can be viewed as one of the only 'human' characters in Doctor Faustus to be empathised with by the audience - Mephistopheles can only be empathised with to a certain extent as the audience can't relate to his experience of hell and Faustus almost verges on a potrait of an extreme human being...wild ambition, undying pride and a desire for power so strong that he will sell his soul to the devil in pursuit of his goal. Benvolio, like Fasutus, acts because of his pride but a pride that the audience can respect - a pride to protect the honour of himself and his wife (the horns symbolise her infidelity - thus, her shame as well as his) and, as most audience members would do, initially doubts the power of magic - condeming it as work of the devil. Benvolio, despite associating with 'comic characters' is to my mind a very human character - perhaps the most realistic of them all - behaving in the way probably a lot of ordinary people would if they were placed into the world and story of Doctor Faustus. On account of his views (protecting honour, condeming Faustus' magical practises), Benvolio would probably gain quite a lot of respect from the audience...despite having horns on his head!
Act 4, Scene 4 - To me, this scene again is humourous BUT has a clear purpose and serious message in terms of human nature. On my first reading of Doctor Faustus, I noted in my text the the fact that Faustus knows the horse-courser will take the horse in water despite being told not to in the same way that the husband in The Bloody Chamber's title story knew that his wife would use the key to open the door to the Bloody Chamber despite being told not to - human nature - temptation. This scene is quite important, I think, because Faustus knows what the horse-courser is going to do not because he controls him using magic but because he has an understanding of human nature and the way the mind works - can trick the horse-courser psychologically - scary in the sense that he doesn't use a supernatural power but can still control - key trait of many a Gothic protagonist. There is also a show of his magical powers and trickery (the horse turns to hay) but...F doesn't use magic to make the horse-courser go in the water. Shows Faustus to be a con artist, exploiting humn nature to benefit himself - just gets money though had wanted a lot more than that - powers aren't all they're cracked up to be. Also...Faustus sleeps ('confound these passions with quiet sleep') as if to make his troubles go away - asleep/awake link to Gothic literature.
Act Four, Scene Three - Again in this scene, there's the potential for comedy but also for a serious slant to be put on the scene if desired - if played for laughs, Benvolio, Frederick and Martino realising they have horns on their heads could be quite comical on account of their confusion and unawareness of their own horns ('It is your own you mean. Feel on your head') however, the serious side to scene is that, as Martino said, they have been through a terrible ordeal on account of Fasutus' immense pride having been dented ('the Furies dragged me by the heels') - they've been shamed even more than before - the shame of having horns on his head in the first place led Benvolio to attempt the murder of Faustus...and now it's even worse! His increased sense of shame only adds to his desire for revenge and the audience are left wondering as to what on earth he will do next...the fantastic rhyme at the end of the scene consolidates Benvolio's determination 'Sith black disgrace hath thus eclipsed our fame, We'll rather die with grief than live with shame' In many respects, Benvolio can be viewed as one of the only 'human' characters in Doctor Faustus to be empathised with by the audience - Mephistopheles can only be empathised with to a certain extent as the audience can't relate to his experience of hell and Faustus almost verges on a potrait of an extreme human being...wild ambition, undying pride and a desire for power so strong that he will sell his soul to the devil in pursuit of his goal. Benvolio, like Fasutus, acts because of his pride but a pride that the audience can respect - a pride to protect the honour of himself and his wife (the horns symbolise her infidelity - thus, her shame as well as his) and, as most audience members would do, initially doubts the power of magic - condeming it as work of the devil. Benvolio, despite associating with 'comic characters' is to my mind a very human character - perhaps the most realistic of them all - behaving in the way probably a lot of ordinary people would if they were placed into the world and story of Doctor Faustus. On account of his views (protecting honour, condeming Faustus' magical practises), Benvolio would probably gain quite a lot of respect from the audience...despite having horns on his head!
Act 4, Scene 4 - To me, this scene again is humourous BUT has a clear purpose and serious message in terms of human nature. On my first reading of Doctor Faustus, I noted in my text the the fact that Faustus knows the horse-courser will take the horse in water despite being told not to in the same way that the husband in The Bloody Chamber's title story knew that his wife would use the key to open the door to the Bloody Chamber despite being told not to - human nature - temptation. This scene is quite important, I think, because Faustus knows what the horse-courser is going to do not because he controls him using magic but because he has an understanding of human nature and the way the mind works - can trick the horse-courser psychologically - scary in the sense that he doesn't use a supernatural power but can still control - key trait of many a Gothic protagonist. There is also a show of his magical powers and trickery (the horse turns to hay) but...F doesn't use magic to make the horse-courser go in the water. Shows Faustus to be a con artist, exploiting humn nature to benefit himself - just gets money though had wanted a lot more than that - powers aren't all they're cracked up to be. Also...Faustus sleeps ('confound these passions with quiet sleep') as if to make his troubles go away - asleep/awake link to Gothic literature.
Tuesday, 13 October 2009
Thoughts on the false head...and a few other things
The last thing we discussed in the lesson was the false head that features in Act4, Scene 2 so that is what I shall begin with...we talked about different ways that Faustus having his head cut off could be realised on stage. When I first read the scene, I did picture an actual false head being cut off in a rather bizarre and comical way (I think I may have blogged during the Summer about finding the stage direction 'enter Faustus with the false head' amusing) and although it would make sense for the audience to be in on the joke (in that they know that Faustus has a fake head...it would certainly make the staging easier as efforts wouldn't have to be made to make the false head so realistic that the audience buys into the idea that it is Faustus' real head), there are other ways of doing it that would set a more serious tone - of course the way it's done would depend on how the play has been pitched by the director regarding the comical/serious balance spoken of in my last blog. One way of staging this scene that I think would be quite symbolic is if Faustus appears only behind a curtain or screen...so only his shadow is seen...this would make the actual cutting-off-of-the-head easier from a stagecraft perspective and, I think, would be a good way of setting a serious tone...Martino, Benvolio and Frederick could be seen in front of the curtain/screen as in lurking and waiting to pounce on an unsuspecting Faustus (it does say that they intend to hide behind trees) AND in having the head-cutting-off action done in shadows/silhouettes, it would almost be as if Benvolio is fighting the the very part of Faustus that he detests...the fact he, through magic, is just an illusion...a 'show' like the characters he puts before the Emperor - the shadow of Faustus is a trick, it's not really him, it's not really his head but neither Benvolio nor the audience would know this at first but the shadow/silhouette style would symbolise the Faustus' trickery and magic.
Another thing I wanted to pick up on...in my last blog, I said I thought I was going off on a tangent about how everything is theatre but actually...I don't think I was digressing at all really. In the section that we read today, there was another example of how Marlowe, through his work (as Shakespeare does) glorifies the art form of theatre by having a 'play within a play'...with reagrd to the 'show' put on by Faustus for the Emperor.
One major thing that I picked up from today's lesson was the questioning of Faustus' motives (and indeed those of Benvolio) - Benvolio says 'Take you the wealth; leave us the victory' which gives the impression that he acts only because of pride as opposed to greed (he wants to get revenge and clear both his name as well as his wife's) and thinks Faustus is only concerned with money. Although initially it may seem that Fasutus IS only motivated by a desire and greed - for power, money and fame - it can be argued that, like Benvolio, he only acts (giving Benvolio the horns) because his pride has been dented - Benvolio doubts Faustus and Faustus wants, not only to prove him wrong but to punish him for speaking ill of him. In this sense, both Benvolio and Faustus, despite their differences have the same motives and, in that, display quite a common human instinct - to protect your honour.
I found the pointers about the play's structure with regard to prose/blank verse interesting and think that one of the key things that that does (in the section we read) is that it emphasizes the fact that Faustus doesn't know what he wants - he had said that he wanted Emperors to serve him, yet he speaks in blank verse to the Emperor (most of the time) as if grovelling and wanting to serve him (it's like when he speaks of wanting immense power and then when he has the opportunity to ask Mephistopheles for anything, simply asks for a wife) Faustus is confused as to what he wants and it's almost as if he can't live up to his own expectations and dreams - he thinks big (as was demonstrated in his opening soliloquy) BUT when it comes down to it, he only seems to work towards things that can be achieved without magic.
Another thing I wanted to pick up on...in my last blog, I said I thought I was going off on a tangent about how everything is theatre but actually...I don't think I was digressing at all really. In the section that we read today, there was another example of how Marlowe, through his work (as Shakespeare does) glorifies the art form of theatre by having a 'play within a play'...with reagrd to the 'show' put on by Faustus for the Emperor.
One major thing that I picked up from today's lesson was the questioning of Faustus' motives (and indeed those of Benvolio) - Benvolio says 'Take you the wealth; leave us the victory' which gives the impression that he acts only because of pride as opposed to greed (he wants to get revenge and clear both his name as well as his wife's) and thinks Faustus is only concerned with money. Although initially it may seem that Fasutus IS only motivated by a desire and greed - for power, money and fame - it can be argued that, like Benvolio, he only acts (giving Benvolio the horns) because his pride has been dented - Benvolio doubts Faustus and Faustus wants, not only to prove him wrong but to punish him for speaking ill of him. In this sense, both Benvolio and Faustus, despite their differences have the same motives and, in that, display quite a common human instinct - to protect your honour.
I found the pointers about the play's structure with regard to prose/blank verse interesting and think that one of the key things that that does (in the section we read) is that it emphasizes the fact that Faustus doesn't know what he wants - he had said that he wanted Emperors to serve him, yet he speaks in blank verse to the Emperor (most of the time) as if grovelling and wanting to serve him (it's like when he speaks of wanting immense power and then when he has the opportunity to ask Mephistopheles for anything, simply asks for a wife) Faustus is confused as to what he wants and it's almost as if he can't live up to his own expectations and dreams - he thinks big (as was demonstrated in his opening soliloquy) BUT when it comes down to it, he only seems to work towards things that can be achieved without magic.
Monday, 12 October 2009
Serious/Funny in Act 3, Scenes 2 and 3
I missed the last two lessons because I've been ill so this isn't exactly a lesson blog but...in my attempts to catch-up with the work I've missed, I'm going to blog on the topic I've been reliably informed you discussed last lesson - the link between the serious and humourous themes in Act 3, Scenes 2 and 3.
As I've spoken about before in past blogs, to my mind, Doctor Faustus is quite a visual, physical play that I don't think you'd get the full impact of it without actually seeing - there are aspects that would obviously be physically funny for example, Dick riding on Robin's back as they exit Scene 3 and the transformations into apes and dogs. To a certain extent, I think an element of slapstick physical comedy was expected in Elizabethan theatre, however, coming on to the serious side to the comedy, I think there is a point. The frivolity and stupidity of magic and all it entails is brought up on numerous occasions throughout the play and I think the fact that magic can have such 'silly' consequences (turning people into dogs and apes) re-emphasizes the idea that magic is full of 'empty gestures' and 'hollow gifts' like we were talking about with regard to Mephistopheles...'Nothing...but to delight thy mind'. And in a way...the physical comedy does delight the mind of the audience - just as Faustus is treated to 'shows' e.g. the 7 Deadly Sins display, the audience watching Doctor Fasutus will want to see a bit of spectacle. It's nothingness really but it does 'delight the mind' in that it's interesting/funny to watch - the physical humour involved in Act 3, Scenes 2 and 3 is, in this sense, not mere slapstick but a reflection of the shows of magic put on for Faustus. Lucifer says 'Mark the show' in reference to the 7 Deadly Sins display...it's all theatre...in the words of Shakespeare...'all the world's a stage'. I think I might be digressing slightly...
Onto the 'serious' side - the rhyming of the magic spells make them sound slightly menacing ('With magic spells so compass thee/That no eye may thy body see'). In Act 3, Scene 2 - we see Faustus greed again (admittedly on a smaller scale) in that he's snatching meat and dishes from the Pope - this would be humourous to a Protestant audience, not only because it's topical but also because it would probably still have been a taboo subject. Yes, Faustus' greed is watered down to a level of 'mischief' but he's still making a nuisance of himself - the fact that we can laugh at Mephistopheles disrespecting the Pope and causing confusion says something about human nature - his bad qualities can be criticized one minute and laughed at the next - all because the plots become 'mischief' and the victim becomes the Pope. Rhyming I'd normally expect to go hand in hand with humour, however in these scenes, I think the rhyme is used to highlight severity as opposed to folly...the spells as mentioned before and the re-emphasizing of Faustus' doom (Faustus may say it in a mocking may but...the rhyming does sort of make it more ominous...Faustus still not afraid despite knowing fate...serious) 'Bell, book and candle; candle, book and bell,/Forward and backward to curse Faustus to hell' ... the Pope and the Friars don't take kindly to Faustus' mischief and whereas it's all a joke to him...they 'curse' the one who hits the Pope and steals the meat e.t.c. In other words what Faustus thinks is funny has serious repercussions...theme of the play.
Act 3, Scene 3 has the physical humour I was speaking of early as well as the two comic characters of Robin and Dick...the clowns...the ones that make me think Marlowe was just sort of ticking a box with regard to the crowd-pleasing comic characters to lighten the mood every so often. There are humourous lines alongside the physical comedy ('We look not like cup-stealers, I can tell you') - great potential for comedy but...the underlying meaning behind the comedy that I mentioned before is still there. In a way, Scene 2 and 3 are opposites - in Scene 2 it is Faustus who is making mischief and testing his new powers afforded to him by Mephistopheles and is 'cursed' by the Friars who deem his deeds to be going against God...but in Scene 3, it is Dick and Robin who are making the mischief - trying to conjure a devil...in this instance, it's not those associated with God that curse him but Mephistopheles for misusing magic and wasting his time - he turns the two into animals 'to purge the rashness of this cursed deed' - the underlying serious message behind the humour is that if you meddle with something you don't know much about - in this case magic - with the incentive to cause mayhem or mischief...you'll offend someone or another - be it the devil or God. This balance between the 'powers' of the devil and God are a serious theme in the play, I think as Faustus ultimately gets himself in the bad books of God and the devil...got to be careful who you're upsetting and whose side you're on!!
Also...my correct Doctor Faustus text STILL hasn't come through...surprise, surprise...I hate Waterstones. And I've done the essay that I missed but to be honest, I think I explained the points I was trying to make better in my past blog posts so...yey for the blog.
As I've spoken about before in past blogs, to my mind, Doctor Faustus is quite a visual, physical play that I don't think you'd get the full impact of it without actually seeing - there are aspects that would obviously be physically funny for example, Dick riding on Robin's back as they exit Scene 3 and the transformations into apes and dogs. To a certain extent, I think an element of slapstick physical comedy was expected in Elizabethan theatre, however, coming on to the serious side to the comedy, I think there is a point. The frivolity and stupidity of magic and all it entails is brought up on numerous occasions throughout the play and I think the fact that magic can have such 'silly' consequences (turning people into dogs and apes) re-emphasizes the idea that magic is full of 'empty gestures' and 'hollow gifts' like we were talking about with regard to Mephistopheles...'Nothing...but to delight thy mind'. And in a way...the physical comedy does delight the mind of the audience - just as Faustus is treated to 'shows' e.g. the 7 Deadly Sins display, the audience watching Doctor Fasutus will want to see a bit of spectacle. It's nothingness really but it does 'delight the mind' in that it's interesting/funny to watch - the physical humour involved in Act 3, Scenes 2 and 3 is, in this sense, not mere slapstick but a reflection of the shows of magic put on for Faustus. Lucifer says 'Mark the show' in reference to the 7 Deadly Sins display...it's all theatre...in the words of Shakespeare...'all the world's a stage'. I think I might be digressing slightly...
Onto the 'serious' side - the rhyming of the magic spells make them sound slightly menacing ('With magic spells so compass thee/That no eye may thy body see'). In Act 3, Scene 2 - we see Faustus greed again (admittedly on a smaller scale) in that he's snatching meat and dishes from the Pope - this would be humourous to a Protestant audience, not only because it's topical but also because it would probably still have been a taboo subject. Yes, Faustus' greed is watered down to a level of 'mischief' but he's still making a nuisance of himself - the fact that we can laugh at Mephistopheles disrespecting the Pope and causing confusion says something about human nature - his bad qualities can be criticized one minute and laughed at the next - all because the plots become 'mischief' and the victim becomes the Pope. Rhyming I'd normally expect to go hand in hand with humour, however in these scenes, I think the rhyme is used to highlight severity as opposed to folly...the spells as mentioned before and the re-emphasizing of Faustus' doom (Faustus may say it in a mocking may but...the rhyming does sort of make it more ominous...Faustus still not afraid despite knowing fate...serious) 'Bell, book and candle; candle, book and bell,/Forward and backward to curse Faustus to hell' ... the Pope and the Friars don't take kindly to Faustus' mischief and whereas it's all a joke to him...they 'curse' the one who hits the Pope and steals the meat e.t.c. In other words what Faustus thinks is funny has serious repercussions...theme of the play.
Act 3, Scene 3 has the physical humour I was speaking of early as well as the two comic characters of Robin and Dick...the clowns...the ones that make me think Marlowe was just sort of ticking a box with regard to the crowd-pleasing comic characters to lighten the mood every so often. There are humourous lines alongside the physical comedy ('We look not like cup-stealers, I can tell you') - great potential for comedy but...the underlying meaning behind the comedy that I mentioned before is still there. In a way, Scene 2 and 3 are opposites - in Scene 2 it is Faustus who is making mischief and testing his new powers afforded to him by Mephistopheles and is 'cursed' by the Friars who deem his deeds to be going against God...but in Scene 3, it is Dick and Robin who are making the mischief - trying to conjure a devil...in this instance, it's not those associated with God that curse him but Mephistopheles for misusing magic and wasting his time - he turns the two into animals 'to purge the rashness of this cursed deed' - the underlying serious message behind the humour is that if you meddle with something you don't know much about - in this case magic - with the incentive to cause mayhem or mischief...you'll offend someone or another - be it the devil or God. This balance between the 'powers' of the devil and God are a serious theme in the play, I think as Faustus ultimately gets himself in the bad books of God and the devil...got to be careful who you're upsetting and whose side you're on!!
Also...my correct Doctor Faustus text STILL hasn't come through...surprise, surprise...I hate Waterstones. And I've done the essay that I missed but to be honest, I think I explained the points I was trying to make better in my past blog posts so...yey for the blog.
Monday, 5 October 2009
More Mephistopheles...
The more I think about it, the more I think Mephistopheles is there to highlight quite how devilish and wildly fearless and ambitious Faustus is...the way Mephistopheles is scared of the way Faustus talks about (and dismisses) God and the way he talks in such a nonchalant way about the devil and what the devil can do.
A subject that we spoke about last lesson that interested me was the idea of Mephistopheles and his hollow gifts (the 'shows' with the 7 deadly sins, for example) - I think this concept embodies an idea Marlowe was attempting to convey with regard to the fact all Faustus wants is 'nothingness' - it's shallow in a way and unattainable...he wants everything...and because everything is infinite, he doesn't really know what he wants - he's never truly satisfied - early on, we found that, despite being able to cure people's illnesses, he wasn't satisfied as he couldn't raise the dead and this idea of an insatiable desire for 'everything' is reaffirmed when Faustus is presented with the 'magic book' and basically asks 'is this it?'. In stark contrast to this, I think Mephistopheles words (most of the time) are anything but hollow (admittedly he does make meaningless, intentionally ambiguous conversation with Faustus with regard to the planets and stars e.t.c but that's because he doesn't want to give him the gift of knowledge...and perhaps doesn't know the answers himself!) I think there's a real truth to Faustus - what he says about hell and his fear of Faustus' blasé attitude towards the devil and to God seem genuine...as I've mentioned in past blogs, I think he's quite a tormented character - he is, after all, a person who has experienced hell - he was perhaps like Faustus but has learnt his lesson the hard way (by going to hell) - in that sense I feel quite sorry for him and although, in a way, he's tormenting Faustus, I think he's quite pleased that he's got some company. As part of the research I did on the production history of Faustus, I found pictures of Mephistopheles as represented by puppets (as spoken of in my last blog) and by people and the image I have in my head of the character is a real person...a tormented, broken down shell of a person, filled with the knowledge of horrors beyond the bounds of Faustus' and probably any human's comprehension - ironically, I think M has what F wants (or at least thinks he wants) - knowledge...a boundless knowledge of heaven and hell (hell in that he's known and lost heaven).
As for the new copy of Doctor Faustus...since the last lesson, I've been in Waterstones twice and have been told that, according to the database, they should have 6 copies in store but having 'searched the shop' they can't find any of them...rather frustrating : I've ordered one but they said it could take up to 3 weeks.
A subject that we spoke about last lesson that interested me was the idea of Mephistopheles and his hollow gifts (the 'shows' with the 7 deadly sins, for example) - I think this concept embodies an idea Marlowe was attempting to convey with regard to the fact all Faustus wants is 'nothingness' - it's shallow in a way and unattainable...he wants everything...and because everything is infinite, he doesn't really know what he wants - he's never truly satisfied - early on, we found that, despite being able to cure people's illnesses, he wasn't satisfied as he couldn't raise the dead and this idea of an insatiable desire for 'everything' is reaffirmed when Faustus is presented with the 'magic book' and basically asks 'is this it?'. In stark contrast to this, I think Mephistopheles words (most of the time) are anything but hollow (admittedly he does make meaningless, intentionally ambiguous conversation with Faustus with regard to the planets and stars e.t.c but that's because he doesn't want to give him the gift of knowledge...and perhaps doesn't know the answers himself!) I think there's a real truth to Faustus - what he says about hell and his fear of Faustus' blasé attitude towards the devil and to God seem genuine...as I've mentioned in past blogs, I think he's quite a tormented character - he is, after all, a person who has experienced hell - he was perhaps like Faustus but has learnt his lesson the hard way (by going to hell) - in that sense I feel quite sorry for him and although, in a way, he's tormenting Faustus, I think he's quite pleased that he's got some company. As part of the research I did on the production history of Faustus, I found pictures of Mephistopheles as represented by puppets (as spoken of in my last blog) and by people and the image I have in my head of the character is a real person...a tormented, broken down shell of a person, filled with the knowledge of horrors beyond the bounds of Faustus' and probably any human's comprehension - ironically, I think M has what F wants (or at least thinks he wants) - knowledge...a boundless knowledge of heaven and hell (hell in that he's known and lost heaven).
As for the new copy of Doctor Faustus...since the last lesson, I've been in Waterstones twice and have been told that, according to the database, they should have 6 copies in store but having 'searched the shop' they can't find any of them...rather frustrating : I've ordered one but they said it could take up to 3 weeks.
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