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Faust: Difference between revisions
→Bible Refernces And Interpretations
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Job 1.8 “Have you considered my servant Job?” | 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. | 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. Faust is not used exactly “as prototype of human goodness at this point… [but] is offered as an exception to Mephistopheles’ generalizations about mankind” (Atkins18) . | ||
Line 95 “Dust he will eat..” | 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.” | 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. | 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. | ||
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 is the lowest of creatures. The dust referred to in these quotes is also a reference to death. From the clay of the ground man came and to ashes he will return. “The pact is that Faust will die when he stops striving” (Brown 51). It is Mephistopheles’ job to keep Faust from focusing on striving and return to dust or death. | |||
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Genesis 3. 23 “The Lord god sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.” | 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 | 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 Faust’s fear that he will be returned to the same life as he had before which would be a condemnation or punishment. | ||
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Genesis 1.26 “And God said let us make man in our image and after our likeness.” | 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. | 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. Faust shows his arrogance and ignorance during the dialogue with the Earth Spirit. Although he is clearly able to call the spirit to him, he is unable to maintain control of it. 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. Faust is “constrained to admit that the sources of all being remain [still] inaccessible to him” (Atkins 27) after the Earth Spirit leaves him and that he in fact does not understand it. | ||
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Genesis 3.22 “and now lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” | 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. | 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. As the deal was set between The Lord and Mephistopheles, Faust is an individual who is “given the freedom to prove himself conscious of the right path” (Heffner 68). | ||
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Genesis 3.5 “Ye shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil.” | 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. | 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. It is Faust’s desire to seek knowledge by way of the occult (evil) that leads him into a pact with the devil but it is ultimately “not on the strength of [his] good deeds but of his human striving that Faust is granted ultimate salvation” (Heffner 67). | ||
==Critical Perspectives== | ==Critical Perspectives== | ||