I won't waffle quite as much as I normally do as I'm still in the process of Faustus quote-learning but I just wanted to blog on a few things that the hand-out we got last lesson brought to my attention (the commentary on 'The Hero').
Reading the hand-out really helped me as it drew the same sort of conclusions that I'd been drawing...and blogging about, which was rather reassuring and also useful as it explained the ideas in a much clearer way than the way in which I've been trying to explain them!...I'm getting the ideas alright but I really need to work on exam skills. Anyway, there were a few ideas that the hand-out presented that were new to me and that I found quite interesting - I liked the way in which it linked the play to its context of reception referring to Faustus as a 'Renaissance man' and speaking of the significance of Wittenburg with regard to the Elizabethan audience - something I've been trying to do but, because I haven't researched the period fully yet, haven't really been able to do that well. Also found interesting the idea that Faustus recognises 'no boundaries to human endeavour' and that 'he uses his magical powers frivolously, for entertainment rather than social change' - the quotes I've being attempting to learn in preparation for the test certainly match up with that statement...for example, Faustus is easily talked into valuing the 'empty shows' that Mephistopheles brings...after the first show, F asks what its meaning is but after M says 'nothing but to delight thy mind', F seems content with that response and goes onto to say of the next show 'oh, this feeds my soul'.
Also...I know I have a tendency to go off on a tangent about the presentation of 'theatre' as a concept within Faustus...I won't go off on a tangent but a section of the handout did made me think about it again - according to the handout, part of Fasutus sinning is that he enjoys things such as the devil's 'shows' which are 'self-sufficient pleasures' (with no real meaning other than 'to delight thy mind') - if the hand-out is right in thinking that Marlowe was attempting to convey this message, he must have been confident in the fact that his 'show' did have meaning and depth to it and wasn't, like the handout says the devil's shows were intended as 'art-for-art's-sake'. Either that or...Marlowe is making an observation and joke of the fact that it is part of human nature just to want something to 'delight thy mind' occasionally...the people watching are watching theatre just as Faustus is watching the theatre of the devils.
A key feature of the conclusion of Faustus, I think, is the change that is seen in the title character - he goes from having such faith in and arrogance because of education and the knowledge that it has given him yet ends up blaming this education and wishing it away 'O would I had never seen Wittenburg, never read book!'...the fact that the hand-out explains the significance of Wittenburg (where the Reformation began) means I can make more sense of that line...however...I was wondering whether this is simply Fautus blaming anything and everything other than himself for his downfall...It seems strange that he would be saying, to a Protestant audience that he wishes he'd never been to Wittenburg...then again, I presume Wittenburg was simply a place of scholars. I'm going round in circles here a bit...I'll think that through and blog when I've made my mind up as to what I think!
After reading the final acts of the play again, I also began to think about how I'd stage it - although there are many elements that almost beg for a 'traditional' production, I think a more abstract, minimalist production would really hone in on the themes of the play with regard to mental and emotional issues (so the universal, timeless themes of the play live on and the dated Elizabethan 'quirks' are shed to avoid them being lost in translation) and cut down on the slapstick, gory side to it that, in a way, takes away from the play's real messages. I'll have a think on that one...the play and how it 'deserves' to be staged is a mass of contradictions, rather like Fautus himself...
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