The two scenes in this act show what Faustus can achieve with Mephistophilis, and to be honest, it isn't all that much, at least compared to his ambitions. He has summoned the spirits of Alexander the Great and his paramour at the request of the Emperor of Germany and made a knight who insulted him wear a pair of horns. So much for "The Emperor shall not live but by my leave"; he seems more of a 'court jester' type entertaining the emperor he wanted to be superior to for a "bounteous reward". The Knight is unconvinced by Faustus' magic, suggesting his power is "nothing at all", and is punished by horns being placed on his head. Even then, it is when the Emperor asks for the horns to be removed that Faustus does so, saying it is "to delight you with some mirth". The impression I got from this scene is that Faustus has not achieved anything like what he desired, and has reduced to demonstrating his power as thought he was a casual magician. Perhaps this is another example of Mephistophilis deceiving Faustus, that rather than being able to help him in becoming a kind of God on Earth he has kept the influence Faustus would make to a minimum, deception being a typical thing to expect from a devil, particularly for the Elizabethan audience.
It seems that by the second scene of this Act that Faustus is ageing, and so wants to "Make haste to Wittenberg". He is perhaps becoming more afraid of what will happen to him after his contract with the Devil ends and begins to be concerned about his "fatal end". Meanwhile, he has sold his horse to a horse-courser for forty dollars, despite wanting fifty. He warns the horse-courser not to ride the horse into water, which he does anyway and ends up "sat upon a bottle of hay". Maybe Faustus was irritated at selling his horse for a lower price so he put a spell on it, or maybe it was sent from Hell by the Devil so would be deceptive. So after the horse-courser nearly drowns he returns to Faustus demanding his money back, but is informed by Mephistophilis that Faustus is asleep. The horse-courser tries to wake him up and succeeds after he pulls his leg off. He then swears to give Faustus an extra forty dollars to "let me go", but the leg grows back anyway after he leaves. No doubt this is an ability given to him by magic, I think it was a trick to get more money from the horse-courser and shows that Faustus is having to resort to tricks like these to get money. So basically this scene represents the fact that he has still achieved none of his big ambitions, despite his contract with the Devil coming to a close.
Sunday 9 October 2011
Monday 3 October 2011
Whatever we did last lesson
OK I'll be honest I've basically forgotten what we were supposed to write about but anyways...
So Faustus has sealed a pact with Mephistopheles to sell his soul, yet already he seems disenchanted with this deal. Now he has been drawn over to the Devil, Mephistopheles appears less persuasive, and Faustus does not get what he wants. He requests a wife, yet Mephistopheles only offers "the fairest courtesans", so Faustus cannot experience happiness which would require the prescience of God, ie. marriage. Furthermore, the greater knowledge he seeks to possess from the realm of magic is also lacking, with Mephistopheles giving vague answers to Faustus' questions, which he claims even "Wagner can decide" and all the knowledge he would need being obtained from one book. The latter has clearly confused Faustus, who tells Mephistopheles "O, thou art deceived.". It is as though the devil has tempted Faustus with false promises of wealth and power, when really all that will happen is that he will be damned forever. The assertion that it was "God that made the world" would emphasise that hell is really under God's control and that the Devil has no power to offer to Faustus. The introduction of the Seven Deadly Sins is one last attempt to persuade Faustus that turning against God can enable him to get what he desires, and this seems to have worked as he exclaims "O, this feeds my soul!".
Another big element to this part of the play are the roles of the Good Angel and Evil Angel. The Good Angel repeatedly offers hope through repentance and forgiveness, whilst the Evil Angel insists Faustus is beyond God's help. The Evil Angel seems to be able to more easily control Faustus, for instance the words "Ay, but Faustus never shall repent" turns him away from God. A little further on he does try to repent ("Christ my Saviour/ Seek to save distressed Faustus' soul), but Lucifer and Belzebub appear, along with Mephistopheles, and insist that there is no point in repenting now, similar to what the Evil Angel says.
A possibility is that the Evil Angel is Fuastus' true conscience, while the Good Angel is a messenger from God informing him there is always forgiveness- a key element of the Christian faith. There is the question about how the roles of these characters should be played, and this would depend on whether they are viewed as solid figures or are within Faustus's mind. Personally, I would have the character of Faustus also playing the part of the Good/Evil Angel as a kind of Gollum/Smeagol thing. In my opinion these angels are different parts of Faustus' mind; the Good Angel representing his loyalty to God (being a doctor of divinity) and the Evil Angel representing his curiosity into matters beyond his reasoning (after all, curiosity killed the cat...)
One final thing we touched on was the issue of homosexuality in the play. Mephistopheles informs Faustus that Heaven is "not half so fair as thou" and dissuades him from wanting a wife, saying "if thou lovest me, think no more of it". Though this last remark may have been more of a platonic love than a sexual one, their conversations are still a bit more than 'friendship'. This would also provide more evidence for Mephistopheles wanting Faustus' soul, that is because of this sexual tension. Some have suggested that the reason for this is because Marlowe himself was a homosexual, though now this is just pure speculation.
So Faustus has sealed a pact with Mephistopheles to sell his soul, yet already he seems disenchanted with this deal. Now he has been drawn over to the Devil, Mephistopheles appears less persuasive, and Faustus does not get what he wants. He requests a wife, yet Mephistopheles only offers "the fairest courtesans", so Faustus cannot experience happiness which would require the prescience of God, ie. marriage. Furthermore, the greater knowledge he seeks to possess from the realm of magic is also lacking, with Mephistopheles giving vague answers to Faustus' questions, which he claims even "Wagner can decide" and all the knowledge he would need being obtained from one book. The latter has clearly confused Faustus, who tells Mephistopheles "O, thou art deceived.". It is as though the devil has tempted Faustus with false promises of wealth and power, when really all that will happen is that he will be damned forever. The assertion that it was "God that made the world" would emphasise that hell is really under God's control and that the Devil has no power to offer to Faustus. The introduction of the Seven Deadly Sins is one last attempt to persuade Faustus that turning against God can enable him to get what he desires, and this seems to have worked as he exclaims "O, this feeds my soul!".
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| What the Good/Evil angels may look like |
A possibility is that the Evil Angel is Fuastus' true conscience, while the Good Angel is a messenger from God informing him there is always forgiveness- a key element of the Christian faith. There is the question about how the roles of these characters should be played, and this would depend on whether they are viewed as solid figures or are within Faustus's mind. Personally, I would have the character of Faustus also playing the part of the Good/Evil Angel as a kind of Gollum/Smeagol thing. In my opinion these angels are different parts of Faustus' mind; the Good Angel representing his loyalty to God (being a doctor of divinity) and the Evil Angel representing his curiosity into matters beyond his reasoning (after all, curiosity killed the cat...)
One final thing we touched on was the issue of homosexuality in the play. Mephistopheles informs Faustus that Heaven is "not half so fair as thou" and dissuades him from wanting a wife, saying "if thou lovest me, think no more of it". Though this last remark may have been more of a platonic love than a sexual one, their conversations are still a bit more than 'friendship'. This would also provide more evidence for Mephistopheles wanting Faustus' soul, that is because of this sexual tension. Some have suggested that the reason for this is because Marlowe himself was a homosexual, though now this is just pure speculation.
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