In regards to our
discussion on the south today in class (10/10), here is an essay that may shed
some light on Karen’s question concerning the south. Check JSTOR for the article:
Notes on Negro Folk-Lore and Witchcraft in the South
Louis Pendleton
Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 3, No. 10 (Jul. - Sep., 1890), pp.
201-207
NOTES: DOCTOR FAUSTUS AS A MORALITY PLAY
Doctor Faustus has many features of a morality play:
- the conflict between good and evil
- the creation of Good and Bad Angels
- the Old Man as Good Counsel
- the pageant of the Seven Deadly Sins
1. Sloth *
2. Pride *
3. Gluttony *
4. Wrath *
5. Lechery *
6. Envy *
7. Covetousness *
The Roman Catholic 7 deadly sins
are as follows:
1. Pride
2. Avarice (Greed)
3. Envy
4. Wrath
5. Lust
6. Gluttony
7. Sloth
- The appearance of Faustus’ enemies to ambush and kill him.
Themes, Motifs, and Symbols
- Sin, Redemption, and Damnation
- The Conflict between Medieval
and Renaissance Values - Scholar R.M. Dawkins famously remarked that Doctor
Faustus tells “the story of a Renaissance man who had to
pay the medieval price for being one.”
- Power as a Corrupting
Influence
- The Divided Nature of Man
- The differences b/t flesh and
spirit characters (angels vs. Faustus; Mephistopheles (bad) vs. good angel
(good)
Motifs: Motifs are recurring
structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform
the text's major themes.
- Magic and the Supernatural
- Practical Jokes
Symbols: Symbols are objects,
characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.
- Blood
- Faustus's Rejection of the
Ancient Authorities
- The Good Angel and the Evil
Angel
Witch's Kitchen
What is Faust's attitude toward
witchcraft? As when he forced him to sign in blood, Mephistopheles is
maneuvering Faust into participating in obviously
satanic rituals so that he is forced to confront the evil nature of what he is
doing. What alternative to drinking the magic potion does Mephistopheles offer
Faust?
Lines 2441-2442 sarcastically allude to the fact that in the Biblical account
of creation God looks at each day's work and sees that it is good (see Genesis
1).
What does Mephistopheles suggest Faust should do with a beautiful woman should
he find one? Compare this with what he actually does. In what ways does
Mephistopheles say he has modernized his appearance? Line 2509 reflects the
state of European civilization in the wake of the enlightenment, shorn of its
religious
superstitions, but no closer to virtue. It is important to keep reminding
yourself that neither Goethe nor most of his readers believed in the
traditional Devil.
Mephistopheles is a symbol of evil--a very lively and vivid one--but still
ultimately a symbol. In lines 2526-2527 he says that Faust can safely drink the
potion because
the latter is no novice at evil; he is sufficiently corrupted already to be
"inoculated" against its dangerous effects. When Mephistopheles says
that "Three in One and One
in Three" is "illusion and not truth" he is of course mocking
the Christian doctrine of the Holy Trinity. The belief that God can be
simultaneously one and three persons is
one of the most controversial aspects of Christian belief, giving theologians
much exercise to explain this paradox in logical terms. Mephistopheles delights
in pointing out
such sore spots in conventional religion. Besides making him thirty years
younger, what other effect does the magic potion have on Faust?
DOCTOR FAUSTUS AS A MORALITY PLAY
Doctor Faustus has many features of a morality play: the conflict between
good and evil, the creation of Good and Bad Angels, the
Old Man as Good Counsel, the pageant of the Seven Deadly Sins and the appearance
of Faustus’ enemies to ambush and kill him.
The conflict between Good and Evil was a recurring theme in the medieval
morality plays. From this point of view, Marlowe’s play
is a dramatization of the medieval morality play, Everyman. Doctor Faustus becomes
a morality play in which heaven struggles
for the soul of a Renaissance Everyman, namely Doctor Faustus.
The Good Angel and the Bad Angel are characters derived from the medieval
morality plays like The
are sometimes regarded as an externalization of the thoughts of Faustus. This
is a twentieth-century view. The Angels are
independent absolutes, one wholly good and one wholly evil. They appear in Doctor
Faustus like allegorical figures of a morality
play. They reflect the possibility of both damnation and redemption being open
to Faustus. A close examination shows that
the Evil Angel declines in importance as the play advances. The angles work by
suggestion, as allegorical characters in morality
plays do.
The audience also observes the pageant of the Seven Deadly Sins in Doctor
Faustus. This is another feature borrowed by Marlowe
from the tradition of the morality play. In Marlowe’s play, to divert Faustus’
attention from Christ, his savior, Lucifer, comes with his
attendant devils to rebuke him for invoking Christ and then presents the
pageant of the Seven Deadly Sins as a diversion.
Benvolio’s attempts to ambush and take revenge on Faustus is also a device
taken from the medieval morality play. Faustus loses his
head, only for it to be revealed as a false one. This theatrical device was
originally used in the medieval morality play, Mankind.
Similarly, Faustus’ attempt to strike Dick, Robin and the others dumb in the
Vanholt show scene is also derived from the medieval
morality play. Doctor Faustus has many features of the morality play of
the Middle Ages.
See monkeynotes for details from directly above.
Also read Faust by
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dr. Faustus by Marlowe
Class Discussion Notes
“Faustus was not satisfied with
his subjects…”
“I was surprised by the ending, yet semi-satisfied”
“I saw hell coming”
“Allusion to Icarus”
“I noticed a lot of Eastern influences (Mephistophiles, Beelzebub, Belial,
dragon chariot (Asian and Egyptian))”
“Does nothing major with his worldly powers”
A. Themes
1. Center of the universe God or Man
2. God vs. Satan
3. Knowledge vs. Belief
4. Greed
5. Good vs. Evil
6. Science vs. Religion
7. Temptation
8. * Power = Corruption (much like Lucifer had power, Faustus wanted more)
B. Conflicts
1. Faustus against humanity
-- he wants to become a God (black magic)
2. Faustus against society
-- he’s greedy
-- not happy with what he already has
3. Man against man
-- Faustus against himself
-- sells his soul
-- M. is sent to collect F’s soul yet he doesn’t want to see him go
-- becomes non-human
4. Faustus against mortality
-- b/c he wants to cheat death with his black magic
-- 24 years more
C. Comic Relief
1. The leg
2. The horse parts
3. The three women (demons dressed as women) – fireworks
4. The clown
5. Wagner
6. The Pope
D. So what’s it all about, anyway?
1. Don’t seek too much knowledge or it will be your downfall
2. Even Faustus is disgusted by the 7 deadly sins (does this mean there is
a bit of redemption in this character?)
3. Don’t sign your soul to the devil
“Liked it b/c he was given a choice.
It was a story about a bad guy”
“I thought it was really funny, a comedy at times”
“I like the transformation in the character opf Faust from the beginning to
the end”
“I had a difficult time. It was hard for me to understand the reading”
“I thought the Latin added to the play. It briught a different element to
the play”
“For ot being written in the 16th cenmturey, the language seemed semi-modern”
Themes:
Corruption
1. Faust in general
2. F.’s magicians that defy God for the power of knowledge
3. Robin conjures women with the book
4. Wagner (when the two scholars annoy him, he fires back and mocksd)
Pride
1. B/c of pride, F. thought he could understand Heaven and Hell
2. When the Pope is eating
Comic Relief (absurdity (hyperbole))
1. The Pope Scene (with the dish)
2. The chanting
3. The horse turning into a bottle of straw
4. Wagner (two scholar scene)
5. Wagner and the Clown
Passion
1. Faustus is passionate about his work (much like Victor Frankenstein)
2. The knight is passionately against Faustus (K. thinks F. is fake)