Faust: Night (1)
Summary
Faust languishes in his study in a state of ennui. He has studied it all, received every degree, and still feels he knows nothing. All of this effort has lost him his "mirth" (l. 134). He has now turned to "magic" to do what science and philosophy could not. Faust figures by using magic he will be able to learn beyond what humans understand. He then conjures up a spirit that rejects him and brings Faust into a worse mood. "It's your idea of me your equal to, Not me!" (l. 283) Wagner then comes in and talks to Faust. They talk briefly and then Wagner departs to leave Faust alone. While Faust is alone he talks more about the spirit that rejected him and talks himself into a more depressed mood. Faust then pulls down a vial of poison and when he just about drinks his life away a choir of angels begins singing. He then thinks back when he was young and happy. This makes him not drink the poison. "Tears fill my eyes, earth claims me again!" (l. 560)
Notes
Nostradamus
"And this strange book of secret lore by Nostradamus' own hand..." (l. 190). Faust here is talking about reading one of the book of quatrains (a poem with four lines) written by Nostradamus. Nostradamus lived from 1503 to 1566. He received a bachelor's degree and a license to practice medicine at the age of nineteen. Nostradamus later studied alchemy and the works of magic. He was known as a good healer during the plague. Although Nostradamus was best known for his writings, The Centuries. He wrote ten of these that each contained one hundred quatrains. The books held prophecies that covered almost two thousand years. One that has been causing great debate here lately is from one of Nostradamus' quatrains that holds close reference to the September 11th attacks. "Earthshaking fire from the world's centre will cause tremors around the New City"(Wilson 11).
Lines 116-179
In these lines Faust is talking about why he is unhappy. He has read and studied all that people have been able to give up to that certain point. Faust talks of all the degrees he has received and all the students he has taught over the years. After all of these accomplishments he feels there is nothing more he can learn and feels he is left with nothing. "A dog wouldn't put up with this life!"(l. 140) This is when Faust begins to want to use magic to further his studies to find something more gratifying.
Lines 494-583
Faust is now on the verge of committing suicide. The only thing that keeps him from not drinking the poison is when a chorus of angels begins to sing. When Faust thinks about Easter he then gets flashbacks of his childhood when he was happy. "True, the bells and the music of Easter stay his hand, but, as the text makes clear, not because Faust is a believer, but because the sounds of Easter remind him of childhood"(Swales 130). Just as Easter was the rebirth of Christ, it is also Faust's rebirth and gives him a reason to go on.
Commentary
In the very first lines of the "Night" it is revealed that Faust is a learned man with multiple degrees. He feels as though he is “cleaver than these stuffed shirts, these doctors, Masters, Jurists, Priests” (130-131). “Faust personifies [the] Romantic man yearning for emotional freedom” Paldiel 1.During the Age of Reason, thought and the ability for the mind to control the emotions are emphasized. Although Faust has reached what he feels like is the height of knowledge, he discloses that his “mirth’s all gone” (134) leaving him searching for more. He remarks to Wagner that the only “the only true refreshment that exists you get from where? Yourself-where all things start” (343-344).
“[Wagner] represents the 18th century Enlightenment [and] embodies trends peculiar to Goethe’s own day” (Haile 15) evidenced by his opposition to the character of Faust. Wagner is young, energetic, enthusiastic about the “greek tragedy” (295), he has zeal about “enter[ing] into another age’s spirit” (345), and “his aim at knowing everything” (375). Faust on the other hand, after reaching his peak of earthly knowledge based upon degrees and doctorates, searches on the other side.
During the night Faust witnesses the personification of supernatural elements. These are the sign of Macrocosm, the rose of Aurora, and the spirit of the Earth. He is able to use a book in order to conjure or call the spirit to him. The “supernatural motifs, deriving from beliefs no longer taken seriously could only be reconciled with its secular theme of innate human potential” Atkins 1 These symbols are climatic to the plot of the play as Faust is seeking control and power. He desires to both control and experience the elements of nature.
Human anatomy, botany, and zoology, are all studies consisting of elements of nature and particles. Understanding how these things work together through scientific experimentation is how Enlightenment thinkers dealt with these issues and how they relate to man, God, and the universe. “The quest for such insight by spiritual and alchemical means is …was called Occultism” (Haile 17) something more prominent in Romantic literature.
With the appearance of the Earth spirit from Faust’s casting of the spell he has a moment of “knowledge and self actualization” (Melaney 464). It is here that he may essentially achieve“reconciliation to [the] mundane reality” Melaney 464 which he experiences. It is this yearning that leads him into a deal with Mephistopheles.
By conjuring the Earth Spirit and his inability to control it we see how Faust has in his own life failed. It is his efforts to “solve the problem by futile speculation about it, instead of studying it in life itself” (Andrews 44). Here we may examine the problem Faust now faces after living his life cooped up in his study having “an unproductive speculation about life, having no connection with life itself” (Andrews 45).
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.
Study Questions
- Why does Faust feel as though he must turn to the occult?
- Explain why this is more likely to appear in a text written during the period of Romanticism than during the age of Enlightenment?
- How does the spirit feel about being summoned by Faust?
- What reason does Faust offer the spirit as to why he called it?
- How does Wagner feel about the knowledge he seeks?
- How does Faust feel about the ideas Wagner expresses?
- What advice is offered by Faust to Wagner?
- How does the Faust’s encounter with the spirit, aid in his decision to commit suicide?
- What stops Faust from drinking the poison?
- What is the significance of the line ‘certain assurance of a new covenant” (523)?
External Resources
Works Cited
- Andrews, William. Goethe’s Key to Faust. Port Washington : Kennikat Press,1968.
- Atkins, Stuart. Goethe’s Faust: A Literary Analysis. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1958.
- --- “Faust: Overview.” Reference Guide to World Literature 2nd edition (1995): 1.
- Haile, Harry. Invitation to Goethe’s Faust. Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 1978.
- Melaney, William. “Ambiguous Difference: Ethical Concern in Byron’s Manfred.” New Literary History Vol.36 Issue 3 (2005): 461-475.
- Paldiel, Mordecai. “Faust and the Human condition: Duality and the teaching of the sages on the two spirits.” Judaism Spring 91 vol. 91 Issue 2:15
- Swales, Martin and Swales, Erika. "Reading Goethe." New York: Camben House, 2002.
- Wilson, Ian. "Nostradamus." New York: St. Martin's Press, 2003.