Abhishek JainR. Sumanth

The Legend of Dr. Faust(us)

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

• 1749 – 1832• Born in Frankfurt• Supreme Genius of

Modern German Literature

• Poet, Dramatist, Novelist and Scientist

• Major sources of inspiration for drama, poetry, Opera and even Music!!

Inspired Beethoven!

“…like an edifice erected by SPIRIT hands DRIVES me and exalts me to WRITE MUSIC. The SECRET of the HARMONIES is engrafted in it.”

You’re GAWD!!

C'mon! You’re no less.

“When your poems reach my brain, I am filled with pride so intense that I long to climb the height of your grandeur….”

Weimar Classicism• From 1772 until 1805• To establish a new

humanism by synthesizing Romantic, classical and Enlightenment ideas.

• Goethe and Schiller – main figures

Weimar’s Courtyard of Muses

Reception of Goethe

• In 19th c. Germany, he was admired for his breadth of vision & his liberal ideas

• During Hitler’s time Goethe was appropriated as a nationalist, and was used for the Nazi propaganda

• In England, he was translated by Thomas Carlyle, and impacted the English Romantic Age.

A wager with the DEVIL

Thomas Mann -Won NOBEL PRIZE for LITERATURE in 1929-Compared Faust’s Pact with German people’s support to Hitler

CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE• 6th Feb 1564- 30th May

1593.• He foremost Elizabethan

Tragedian.• An English Dramatist who

is considered to be Father of English Tragedy.

• Instaurator of Dramatic Blank Verse.

• His plays known for their overreaching Protagonists.

Genre?

TRAGEDY

NOT Again!

Seriously!!!

Main Characters

Faust

Gretchen

WagnerMephistopheles

Faustus

Mephistopheles• Lucifer’s

Servant

Goethe’s Faust Marlowe’s Faustus

Faustus

• Proud• Arrogant• Discontent• Lustful• Fails to repent till

the end

Faust

• Proud• Arrogant• Discontent• Suicidal (beginning)• Experiences True

Love• Realizes his

mistakes early on

Mephastophillis• Goethe– Trickster– Makes the pact– Purely Evil– Admires God in the beginning!

• Marlowe– Trickster – Mediates the pact– Gray Shade!

Gretchen

• Archetypal Earthly Female• Love of Faust• Corrupted by Faust’s ideologies

57 yearsFirst Part appeared in 1808Second Part published in 1833

One of the BEST and most INFLUENTIAL

German Literature

And the Story goes like this...

Prologue

May you get SUN-BURNS!

Earth is SPLENDID!

After I deal with this one, you’re NEXT!

Earth is full of S#!T!

CUT the CRAP!!

Gabriel

Michael

Raphael

Mephistopheles – The BADMAN

The Wager FAUST will be MINE

We’ll See.

Sounds Familiar?

Somewhere on Earth• Faust sitting in despair• Longs to live in

harmony with nature• Summons a spirit and

seeks higher knowledge• Spirit refuses to share.

“Thou'rt like the spirit, thou dost comprehend, Not me!”

• Faust attempts suicideFaust in his study

Wager Again!!• Later, a dog interrupts

Faust in his study.• Dog transforms into

MEPHISTOPHELES.• Mephistopheles makes

another WAGER – now with Faust

• “If e'er upon my couch, stretched at my ease, I'm found, Then may my life that instant cease!”

The Devil promises to SERVE Faust and to give Faust a moment of transcendence, a MOMENT in which he hopes to

STAY FOREVER. If Mephistopheles succeeds, Faust must then be his SERVANT for the rest of eternity in HELL.

Faust – The BadMan!?!• Faust goes crazy!• Tempts his student

to pursue women.• Plays tricks on men

at Auerbach’s Cellar• Goes to Witches

Cave and indulge in stupid games.

• Meets Gretchen outside the cave! Auerbach’s Cellar

Love at First Sight• Faust falls in love with Gretchen, love beyond lust.• Faust had complex feelings. He wanted her body

too.• He corrupts Gretchen and her Christian beliefs.• He gives sleeping potion to her mother and they

consummate their relationship. Mother dies!• Gretchen is pregnant.• Faust visits her. Her brother Valentine rebukes.• They fight and Valentine is killed.• Gretchen runs away from Faust, to church. Evil

spirits secure her damnation.

Walpurgis Night• Gretchen attends

Walpurgis Night• Faust learns that Gretchen

killed their infant• She was arrested• Faust curses

Mephistopheles for creating such circumstances.

• Faust orders him to help him free Gretchen from prison.

Rescuing his Love• Faust sneaks into prison and meets Gretchen• She has grown mad due to all the suffering

and doesn’t recognize him.• She confuses him with her executioner• He pleads her to escape with him• Filled with shame and guilt, she refuses and

accepts death.• Gretchen surrenders her soul to GOD• Faust is left devastated. Even with all the

power, he could not save her.

PLOT

Rising

Action

• Study of Necromancy (Dark Magic).• Initial Conversation with Mephastophillis.

Climax

• Sealing the ‘Pact’ with Lucifer.

Falling Action

• Faustus becomes the Clown among Clowns.• Faustus soul is dragged to hell.

24 Years!?!• Time passes quickly when you are

ignorant• Analogous to cycle of 24 hours • Tragedy is intensified

Themes

Utopianism and Enlightenment

• Goethe's Faust expressed the 'modern world-system coming into being.‘ – Utopia

• He wanted to create a social world in which persons were liberated from tradition and could experience the wonders which he did.

Science and Spirituality

• Humanity would eventually perfect itself through the advancement of knowledge and technology – Technological Utopianism. Goethe REJECTED this!

• Evident from the peom’s beginning - Faust attempts to perfect himself through learning and science, yet he finds that at the end of his intellectual journey, he has destroyed his faith and his reason to live.

• EXISTENTIAL CRISIS!!

Is Rationality Enough? - Modernism

• Rational thought alone can never perfect or complete humanity, Goethe argues, because human knowledge has fundamental limits when it comes to the spiritual world.

• Humanity would only have the question of whether life should be continued or simply ended.

Whether life is worth more than the peace that death

offers?

Fate and Free Will

• Salvation through Constant Striving• Goethe’s suggests that humans are free to err

and that error, in fact, is inevitable for one who strives towards salvation.

In short, Goethe advocated FREE WILL!

Is SOMEONE really watching over us?

•  If humanity cannot adequately name God, does God actually exist for humanity?

• Faust’s own subjective experience of this problem destroys his faith and leads him to an extreme nihilism and the verge of suicide at the play’s beginning.

Morally ambivalent libertine!

• Modern rationalism destroys the need for religion or social constraints, then this creates a moral vacuum in the human condition.

• Faust destroys Gretchen's faith and moral support through his own moral ambivalence.

• Such a condition can only lead to tragedy, just as it does for both Faust and Gretchen.

“If god did not exist, everything is permitted”- Dostoevsky

Power corrupts

• Once Faust(us) actually gains the practically limitless power that he so desires his horizons seem to narrow. 

• He indulges into petty tricks and somehow finds happiness in it.

• The border between good and bad blurrs.

Conflict between Renaissance and Medieval Values

Renaissance

• Emphasis on individual classical learning

• Secularism took center stage

Medieval

• God was center of existence

• THEOLOGY was queen of sciences

THANK YOU