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.
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