Faust: Night (1): Difference between revisions

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Faust makes several references to dust one being “I am, wriggling through the dust” (428).  He also makes a reference to “you, empty skull there” (439).  Faust spends most of this scene alone in isolation.  He “sees his immediate environment as the symbol of a dead past, as a prison which cuts him off from life and light” (Atkins 27). He is left in isolation by the Earth Spirit and is then “spiritually isolated for there is no effective communication between himself and Wagner” Atkins (27).  Both the isolation of man left to contemplate his own thoughts and desires as well as death are running themes through this scene.
Faust makes several references to dust one being “I am, wriggling through the dust” (428).  He also makes a reference to “you, empty skull there” (439).  Faust spends most of this scene alone in isolation.  He “sees his immediate environment as the symbol of a dead past, as a prison which cuts him off from life and light” (Atkins 27). He is left in isolation by the Earth Spirit and is then “spiritually isolated for there is no effective communication between himself and Wagner” Atkins (27).  Both the isolation of man left to contemplate his own thoughts and desires as well as death are running themes through this scene.
Faust is saved from drinking the vial of poison by the coming of daylight and the church bells ringing in Easter morning.  Both sunlight and Easter represent resurrection, rebirth, and a new chance.


==Study Questions==
==Study Questions==
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