Faust: Difference between revisions

==Bible Refernces And Interpretations==

Line 59 “Do you know Faust?”

Job 1.8 “Have you considered my servant Job?”

This parallel sets the entire stage for the play.  God and the Devil (Mephistopheles) make a bet about the fate of Job (Faust) if God removes his protection from around him and allows the Devil to use whatever means he wants to tempt him.

Line 95 “Dust he will eat..”

Genesis 3.14  “And the Lord God said unto the serpent, because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly thou shalt do, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.”

This is an important verse and metaphor throughout the text.  According to the history of the bible, the reason why Satan was cast down from heaven is because he refused to prostrate before the new creature (man) that was created, thus disobeying God’s command.  After the war in heaven, Satan and those that fought at his side were cast down to hell and earth.  After Satan induced Eve into biting the apple from the tree of good and evil, he was cursed as referenced in Genesis 3.14.

Faust tells the spirit that comes to visit him that “We’re equals, I know” (282) expressing his feelings of equal rank to the spirit being.  Mephistopheles feels that humans “act more beastly than beast ever do” (46).  The parallel made between the two lines shows a direct connection between how  Mephistopheles feels that man should be condemned to the same fate as he is.

Line 2147-2148 “Go out into the fields right now, this minute, start digging and hoeing away, working hard.”

Genesis 3.19 “in the Sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.”

Genesis 3. 23 “The Lord god sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.”

Mephistopheles makes a reference to the curse that was placed upon Adam to till the ground and he would now have to work very hard for food which was at one time given to him in the garden of Eden.  Mephistopheles uses it as a threat to Faust who immediately says that it is “not my sort of thing, humbling myself to work with a spade” (2155-2156).  Fear is used in this case to get Faust to do what Mephistopheles wants him to do.  He uses Fasut’s fear that he will be returned to the same life as he had before which would be a condemnation or punishment.

Line 288- 289 “Me, made in God’s own image, not even equal to you”

Genesis 1.26 “And God said let us make man in our image and after our likeness.”

Faust misinterprets the quote.  He is saying that he was made in the image of God when the quote clearly refers to the God using the plural pronouns us and our when referring to the image. This parallel is both two fold.  During the Romantic period writers would contemplate their singular relationship to God and the universe.  It also would explain why Faust and Mephistopheles see the position of man very differently.

Line 1819-1822 “All theory, my dear fellow, is gray, and green the golden tree of life.”

Genesis 3.22  “and now lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”   

This line is important because Mephistopheles is speaking to a young, fresh, impressionable student.  As he did in the story of Eve, the devil is uses the word gray which is a word meaning some confusion, doubt or haziness as when he told Eve in the bible that God had lied to her and it was not as cut and dry as God had said.  This is the same way he is speaking with the college student saying that choosing another path will be better or the grass is greener on the other side of the fence.

Line 1829 “Eritus sicut Deus, scientes bonum et malum.”

Genesis 3.5 “Ye shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil.”

At this verse Mephistopheles writes in the student’s book an encouragement, the very same encouragement he gave Eve was according to the bible to eat from the tree.  With the college student he uses this same statement in the sense of seeking out knowledge which is two fold corresponding with the two natures that exist with in man.