In today's lesson we looked at Act 2 Scene 3, in this scene we meet several new characters (can they be called characters when they're the Seven Deadly Sins?). So yeah, in the scene Faustus meets the Seven Deadly Sins as well as Lucifer and Beelzebub. Mephistopheles returned as well as the Good and Bad Angel.
Anyway, this blog is meant to be about our opinions and impressions of Faustus throughout the scene.
In the past several scenes, well this one and the one where he was signing his soul away, Faustus appears to go through four phases in a sequence. He starts off with doubt, then persuasion, resolve and then finally gains. This sequence of four phases appears to happen again and again, about three times in the scene where he signs away his soul.
The fourth sequence or time is slightly different though. Faustus starts off being doubtful, we can see this because he banishes Mephistopheles to hell, "curse thee wicked Mephistopheles." Additionally, Faustus mention of "repent" further shows his doubt as it suggests he no longer trusts Mephistopheles and regrets selling his soul.
Faustus then enters the phase of persuasion as the Good Angel and the Bad Angel arrive. For the first time in the play Faustus is able to acknowledge the Angels, most notably the Good Angel, "Who buzzeth in mine ears I am a spirit." Faustus ability to acknowledge the Angels may suggest to the audience that Faustus has lost his ability to repent because he has effectively become a spirit as he can hear the spirits. This means he cannot repent, like he appears to want to a few lines earlier, because he has already be judged and well damned because he sell his soul.
After the persuasion becomes the Resolve, this time Faustus is resolving towards virtue. Before Faustus does this he has an argument with Mephistopheles and their relationship thing reaches an all time low, with Mephistopheles leaving with "Remember this". Once he has left Faustus begins to resolve towards virtue as he calls on Christ to save his soul, "Ah Christ my saviour, seek to save distressed Faustus' soul." This is quite the climatic moment in the play as it will trick the audience, as they will believe, as they have done through each occurrence of this sequence of phases, that Faustus is about to be saved and he has the seen the error of his ways. However, the audience is about to be let down again as Faustus ultimately isn't saved. The re-occurrence of this sequence of phases and feelings will overall build tension in the audience as they will continually hope that Faustus will repent and are disappointed each time.
From resolve to repeated persuasion, except this time Faustus is being persuaded by the most powerful devils, Lucifer and Beelzebub, who appear along with Mephistopheles and terrify Faustus in to submission and away from his idea of repenting, "Pardon me in this, and Faustus vows never to look to heaven."
Faustus then begins to resolve once more, however this time it is towards evil, as Faustus vows to think and speak only devilish things, "to burn his scriptures, slay his ministers..."
After this, Faustus enters the final phase of the sequence, gains. Through Faustus submission he is rewarded with a pageant of the Seven Deadly Sins, each of which he questions (although he appears to become bored of them quickly and wants to move on to the next one, " What art thou the first...the second...") It becomes clear that Faustus ultimate curiosity is to see hell and return. The scene closes with Lucifer promising to deliver that hollow privilege and Faustus is thus committed to Mephistopheles again, "Come Mephistopheles."
Faustus change of emotions and feelings, and sometimes the re-occurrence of these feelings, presents and creates the opinion of Faustus as quite a fickle character. It also suggests that Faustus is easily controlled, which would be quite surprising and shocking as Faustus is meant to be of the highest intelligence and therefore above the ability to be controlled, honestly, if you take in to account his arrogance and pride it would make more sense if Faustus was the one controlling someone. However, it appears Faustus is naive and blind to the Devils ability to manipulate and control him - new impression formed.
However, on the other hand, it could be argued that Faustus becomes quite submissive because he is afraid of the devils, he is being scared in to submission. But, depending on how the play is performed this interpretation could become invalid as the presentation of the sins, most notably Gluttony, could be performed as quite comedic which would therefore suggest that Faustus has been mocking the religious idea of repenting and still doesn't truly value his soul (well the soul he gave away) and is not scared of the devils after all.
That's all I have so far, if I think of anything else I'll do a quick update of the blog. Done.
No comments:
Post a Comment