Today in
class we approached the question: Why does Faust willingly make a pact with the
devil, trading his soul in exchange for unearthly knowledge and pleasure? I
believe that Faust sells his soul to satiate a desire to live divinely. He sees
the Sign of the Macrocosm in his book and asks himself, "Am I a god? My
mind's so clear!" (16). Shortly after, a Spirit calls him
"superman" (18). He is infatuated with the gap between the heavens
and his condemnation to the earth, where he writhes like a snake on its belly
in the dust (22).
The general
public is depicted as an unintelligent, unmotivated mass. Outside the city
gate, people are milling about: “I like a pint and a damn good smoke, but
still/ There’s nothing like a housemaid dressed to kill” (27). A student
persuades another to go after a group of servant girls: “They’re much more fun;
believe me, if you want to score” (28). These are the mindless, vulgar multitudes that
the Director is asking the Poet to cater to, prostitute his talents to, in the
introduction. But, Faust is not interested in socializing or chasing after
women. He is obsessed with the mechanics of the world around him. Natural
imagery- valleys, mountains, and oceans, incessantly flows from Faust’s lips.
This reminded me of the concept of the “transparent eyeball” advocated in
Emerson’s essay Nature later in 1836.This transcendentalist essay urged the American public to genuinely appreciate
and see the world through the lens of the phenomenon that is nature.
Faust’s conflict
is that “Two souls are locked in conflict in [his] heart,/ they fight to
separate and pull apart./ The one clings stubbornly to worldly things,/ And
craves the pleasure of our carnal appetites,/ the other has an inborn urge to
spread its wings, Shake off the dust of the earth and soar to loftier heights”
(35). Faust struggles to find pleasure in earthly things- a good smoke and
beautiful women, but his intelligence as a scholar and doctor leave him
unsatisfied even though he is revered by the community. Ultimately, he sells
his soul to the devil because of an arrogant belief that “man is fit to stand
at the immortals’ side” (24). He craves answers, and it is his conceited conviction
that he deserves to know the mechanics of the cosmos that leads him to forfeit
the core of his being and his entrance to heaven.
I think it's interesting that Faust's desire to live divinely eventually manifests itself in a pact with the devil. Is this simply because Mephistopheles is the only divine being that would grant such a pact, or is Goethe drawing a parallel? The man who trust in the Devil is granted divine knowledge and pleasures, while those who are God fearing wallow in mediocrity. It's interesting.
ReplyDeleteI see what you're saying, and I agree that it's interesting. I was asking myself a similar question as I finished up Crime and Punishment for another course. Raskolnikov has an egoist, Napoleonic theory that killing for a greater cause is justified if you are an "extraordinary man." But, why do you need to commit such a violent, atrocious act in order to prove your own self-worth?
DeleteAs Greg mentioned, the possible comment that Faust was meant to prove that those who follow God are left to "wallow in mediocrity" is a very interesting discussion. I have heard many an argument from atheist literature and athiest people in general that all that Catholicism does is teach people to be week. It allows us to not take responsibilities for our actions and provide us with the human condition as an alibi and excuse.
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