Scene IV- comic scene

Though this scene may be described as comedic in terms of a play, it can hardly be called 'funny'. A few examples of wordplay and puns can't make a scene humourous. Most likely it is regarding as 'comedic' when compared to the serious tone of the rest of the play. Faustus is preparing to sell his soul to the Devil, whilst these two characters are being more jovial in tone- they use a ligther tone of speech, for instance when Wagner asks "hast thou any comings in?" the clown replies "Ay, and goings out too.". Visual humour is emloyed as well; the clown 'runs up and down crying' upon seeing a pair of devils, despite earlier talking about how he would show bravado when facing the devils.Though it may only be simple humour, the effect may be to loosen the audience, in other words to give them a light-hearted scene in the midst of the disturbing facts of Faustus selling his soul.
 
This scene, however, is so vastly different styilistically from the rest of the play, for example it uses prose (a 'lower-status' form of speech) rather than verse which is used in the rest of the text. Not suprisingly, there has been doubt cast over whether Marlowe actually wrote this scene at all. Perhaps it was written by a contributor some time after the main play who decided to add it to give a sense of comic relief, or maybe Marlowe did indeed write it and simply could not write comic scenes very well. Either way, it does little to add to the progression of the play, and the only real reason for it's inclusion appears to be as a break for the audience so they are not overwhelmed by too much gothic imagery.

Mephistopheles

The first impression I had of this devil was different to what I expected. I presumed Mephistopheles would be an evil tempting demon who would do everything he could to gain Fuastus' soul. However, he seems reluctant to draw Faustus away from God, and even tries to actively dissuade him form pursuing this matter further- "O Faustus! Leave these frivolous demands,/ Which strike a terror to my fainting soul.". In fact, it is as though Mephistopheles is more sympathetic than Faustus, who is too arrogant to heed the warnings of this devil. He remains convinced he will gain incredible power from the Devil, and that he''ll be a "great Emperor of the world", though he is too focused on this he fails to see the downside. Mephistopheles in this scene is, in my opinion, a more human character than Faustus, as he displays compassion and concern for Faustus' soul, though the latter remains cold-hearted against God and oblivious to what his fate could be.

Faustus is being drawn away from the study of divinity into this dangerous world of magic, and is tempted by this chance for superhuman power- I'm not talking x-ray vision or flight, just more power over people than anyone has ever had- and is prepared to go against God, something which the contemporary audience would have found appalling. His blasphemous incantation to summon Mephistopheles is completely disowning his religion,which the audience would know must only end terribly.That he orders Mephistopheles to return "an old Franciscan friar" could show evidence of Marlowe poking fun at Catholics at a time when practising other than Protestantism would have meant taking a huge risk. Faustus appears to be somewhat surprised himself at how simple it was to summon a devil ("Who would not be proficient in this art?"), and remains undeterred from attempting to bargain with Hell. In their conversations about the Devil, Mephistopheles explains how God "threw him from the face of heaven", which would suggest the Devil is still subordinate to God, and that even though Faustus switches his allegiance to Lucifer he is still under the influence of God.

The primary reason for Fautus' downfall is further apparent in this scene, and this is his arrogance. Despite Mephistopheles informing him of the eternal joys of Heaven compared to the damnation of Hell, he simply tells of his "manly fortitude" and that he "confounds hell in Elysium". To me, it appears that Faustus is so assured by his own intelligence that he feels that he does not need information from outside sources and is able to make decisions based on little but his own interpretations. He still refers to himself in the third person ("Faustus, begin thy incantations") which could suggest he is showing detachment from emotions and is trying to reach an impartial decision, although to me it sounds slightly disturbing. Fautus' reliance on himself only for advice would show he is heading inevitably towards disaster as he cannot see what danger may come from becoming involved with something that would be considered the utmost blasphemy. 

Perceptions of the Gothic

What do I think of when I say 'gothic'? Vampires, of course, and bats, churchyards at night, Frankenstein, moonless nights, blood,evil spirits, emos... When it comes to literature, 'gothic' style definitely contains elements of these. They mostly feature darkness in one form or another, perhaps literally in the case of 'Dracula', where scenes take place at night, or the 'dark' nature of tales such as 'Frankenstein', where the protagonist's creation of a monster can be seen as rather disturbing.

Really, Gothic can be pretty much anything which pertains to darkness or especially the supernatural. So Dr Faustus can be defined as Gothic for it's use of both evil and the supernatural (devil). The dark nature of the play is evident in Faustus' summoning of Mephistophilis, and it is even more worrying to see Faustus being so unconcerned about his own soul. Gothic literature appears to be as much about frightening the reader than about entertainment.


   

First impressions of Faustus

So now down to some proper blogging. Faustus- first impressions? OK, this guy is some sort of mega genius- reading Latin, questioning Aristotle, disregarding Galen and so on. Trouble is, this seems to have led to arrogance; he's so clever he feels like he can rule the world. To me he also seems to be getting a bit deranged and slmost believes he can usurp God, talking about power and omnipotence. The Chorus says he was born from pretty ordinary stock so unlikely,at first, to be anything special. Is it a surprise then, to see a man so capable of achieving vast amounts of power? He is not of noble blood, yet wants to excel the power of emperors and kings.

A typical gothic protagonist? It could be argued, particularly with his dangerous ambitions and remarkable intelligence, that he can be described as such, though his rather standard social status is not in line with the conventions of such characters e.g. Count Dracula.

Personally, my reaction to his introduction is that I find him a thoroughly disagreeable character. His disregard of major intellectuals thought of as the top of their fields is annoyingly arrogant, and I won't be surprised if Marlowe intended this reaction so the audience would feel little sympathy for him. Maybe his wish to be able to "make men live eternally", comparable to the powers of God, could have angered some of the contemporary audience, as though they felt he was almost mocking religion.

In short, Dr Faustus is clearly a very intelligent and ambitious man, though his arrogance and determination to get powers that would triumph anyone living are no doubt going to lead to his downfall. He may think he is amazingly bright, but his wish to explore the use of magic makes me think otherwise.

First post :)

Here's a pretty neat site I found about Marlowe's death