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.