For this post, I'd like you to select a passage from your assigned section of the reading that you find particularly important / interesting / central to meaning.
Type the passage (including citation, of course) and then analyze the heck out of it.
Look at the language and overall connections to the text. What questions does it bring up? Does it have multiple meanings? What Romantic themes are present? Is there a significant motif? Do you see any parallels with other texts we've read?
Don't use the same passage as someone else; however, feel free (and encouraged to)build on / respond to some of your peers' blogs.
Also, be sure to sign your name (first and last initial) at the end!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
"I pledge myself to serve you here and now;/ the slightest hint will put me at your beck and call,/ and if beyond we meet again,/ you shall do the same for me"(129, 1655-1659).
ReplyDeleteMephistopheles lures Faust into his control with the offer of eternal worldy servitude. He tells him he will show him things no man has ever been priviledged enough to see and promises to always fufill his desires. We know that Faust is very vulnerable to this type of trap because he is so weak and fueled by the idea of magic and the other realms. Throughout the book Faust complains that years of study have gained him everything but knowledge, so we see his patience is gone. Mephistopheles is aware of his faults and therefore words the "offer" to his advantadge. By saying I will serve you "here and now" Faust is offered immediate satisfaction for his desires, and Mephistopholes also says that the "slightest beck and call" will conjure his service. The offer seems irresistable, even to an average human. The end of the request, "and if we meet again beyond, you shall do the same for me" serves as an extreme foreshadow to the audience. We understand that if Faust takes up this offer to sell his soul to the devil, he will end up in hell and in return serve him for eternity. Faust does not seem shaken by this, hence displaying his lack of concern for his soul.
-Amanda R.
ReplyDelete"Think of the multitudes I buried!/ Yet there is always fresh blood in circulation./ And so it goes; it drives me to distraction./ In air and earth and water,/ through dryness, dampness, warmth, and cold,/ a thousand seeds will push their way to life" (107, 1371-1376).
ReplyDeleteIn this scene Faust is meeting the devil, Mephistopheles, for the first time. In this section Mephistopheles is explaining to Faust his purpose and role in the world. He describes it as a cycle in that he kills many people but there are always more that will come and they will always keep coming "a thousand seeds will push their way to life". He finds this mundane and pointless as he states "And so it goes; it drives me to distraction". The fact that the devil is bored with having so much power and influence over the events on Earth greatly contrasts with Faust, who desperately craves any kind of influence or powerful knowledge. Also in this passage I noticed some Romantic elements. The concept of nature and the four elements, water, earth, fire, and air, are mentioned when he talks about how humans can generate in any condition. In addition there is a reconciliation of opposites of life vs. death. The devil talks about how he kills people and also how there are always so many that live and are born.
-Allison
Faust: "Yet every man has inward longings/and sweeping, skyward aspirations. when up above, forlorn in azure space,/the lark sends out a lusty melody..." Wagner "One quickly has one's fill of woods and meadows,/and I shall never envy birds their wings" (85).
ReplyDeleteThis passage comes from the scene where Wagner and Faust are out walking on Easter. Faust talks about his longing to have wings and fly free like a bird. Wagner says that he has never felt that longing and never will envy birds. I found this passage significant because it shows how different Faust and Wagner are. Faust is all about stretching for the unreachable, like having a glimpse at all knowledge. Wagner is satisfied with where he is in life and finds all he needs in books. Wagner says "One quickly has one's fill of woods and meadows" which implies that he is even tired of his surroundings now and does not wish to see more. Faust is a man of deep thought and a man who wants more out of everything. While Wagner settles for the bare minimum. He is satisfied with all the information he finds in books and feels no need to dig farther into the meaning of life. Faust is deep while Wagner is shallow.
-Kelsey G.
"You are not yet acclimated/Just as a child does not at first/ Accept its mother's breast quite willingly/ But soon imbibes its nourishment with zest/ You will feel a growing lust/ When clinging to high wisdom's bosom"(147, 1888-1893).
ReplyDeleteThis is Mephistopheles, pretending to be Faust, and speaking to the student. I found this passage interesting because of the Romantic childhood metaphor. Mephistopheles tries to tempt the student into studying at Faust's school. In a way, the passage describes Faust's old lust for book knowledge, and new lust for experience. At first, the environment is intimidating, but Faust soon becomes obsessed with the idea of experience. I also found it interesting that Mephistopheles is creating a "new Faust" in the student, and if he follows Faust's path into knowledge, will one day be miserable as well. This passage shows the true evil sadism of the devil.
Shelby
Spirit: "in the tides of life and action i rise and decend and fling the shuttle back and forth. the cradel and the grave, a perennial sea, a flicking fabric,a glowing life, i toil at the whirrling gloom of time and weave the godhead's living vesture"
ReplyDeleteFaust: "you roam the ample world, my bustling spirit; how close i feel to you!"
Spirit: "you're like the sprit that you grasp. you are not like me"
41-43 lines 502-514
This passage is when Faust is congering the earth spirit. the spirit seems to be bothered by Faust's consistant attempts to bring the spirit to life. Faust is at first scared by this enormous spirit but then he convinces himself that he is on the same level as this spirit. this spirit is clearly very important in the world for he describes that he is bsically what controls the movements of the earth. he is the one that combines all of the elements together to bring forward life on earth and foust is saying that he is just like him? the spirit's only reaction is that there is no way the they can be equals. Faust is simply a young man that is on earth attempting to live his life when this amazing earth spirit is busy making the earth that he lives on a safe environment.
{[Nicole LaBelle]}
Faust:
ReplyDeleteI told you, I am not concerned with peasure. I crave corrosive joy and dissipation, enamored hate and quickening despair. My breast no longer thrists for knowledge and will welcome grief and pain. Whatever is the lot of humankind I want to taste within my deepest self. I want to seize the highest and lowest to load its woe and bliss upon my breast, and thus expand my single self titanically and in the end, go down with all the rest. (p.137 Lines 1765-1775)
I chose this passage because to me it embodied the underlying theme of "Faust" and developed Faust's inadequacies. In this passage, Faust is basically expressing his need to feel human and to reconnect with the world he abandoned for knowledge. Though human emotion and aspects of the soul are studied carefully in Faust's studies, he longs to experience what he has studied and to harness the greatness that humanity and Nature provide. Faust craves the extremes of human emotion to either pain or shock his body into feeling alive and one with the rest of the suffering masses. One of the main points within this story I have garnered is just how crucial empricism is to being human. Faust, as well as Goethe defines truly being human as experiencing human experience and sensations regardless of social status and suffering alongside the masses, joined together by their perserverance in overcoming the human condition.
With enamored hate,
Daniel "Danistopheles" McNulty
"Then let him find the secret mortar/to combine nobility of soul with guile/and show you how to love with youthful fervor/according to a massive plan/I'd like myself to meet with such a person/ whom I would call Mr. Microcosm" (139, 1797-1802).
ReplyDeleteI found this passage to be very interesting mainly due to the words that Mephistopheles chooses to describe the folly of Faust's mentality. One thing in particular is the name which Mephistopheles chooses to bestow upon the perfectly happy individual. This name that he chooses is "Mr. Microcosm". "Microcosm" is a term that describes a small model of something. This model would be of the perfect human being that is theoretically impossible to create. Mephistopheles describes all of the qualities that one would need in order to be perfect. Coupled with these traits is also the impossible means to mix the qualities together into one person. The devil describes a mortar designed to build this concoction as if it were an alchemical formula. This works along with the methods by which Faust developed his potions and poisons in his past.
-Jeff B.
"How differently the Spirit's higher pleasures buoy us up through many books and pages! Those wintry nights hold charm and beauty, a blessed life warms every limb, and ah! when we unroll a precious parchment, the very skies come down to us" (87).
ReplyDeleteContinuing off of what Kelsey G. said, Wagner believes that a higher power comes from books and the knowlage that he can extract from them is all that he needs to be content. He says "when we unroll a precious parchment, the very skies come down to us", meaning the symbolic sense of the skies coming down when he opens a book. However, to Fuast, he desires the Spirit to literally decend from the skies. He feels that it is the Spirit that posseses the power that he has been longing for rather than simply book knowlage.
-Danielle
"How all things are weaving one in one; each lives and works within the other. Heaven's angles dip and soar and hold their golden pails aloft; with fragrant blessings on their wings, they penetrate the earthly real from Heaven... where shall I clasp you, infinity of Nature?... Toward you my parched soul is straining. You flow, nourish, yet I crave in vain" (37)
ReplyDeleteThis passage holds many motifs that can be seen throughout the novel. At the beginning the motif of weaving is present. It is used to show how everything in life, death, and the heavens is interwined. This is later shown when Faust says that the heavens "dip and soar.. [and] penetrate the earthly real". He then asks where he can find this connection with the heaven and the supernatural to obtain the knowledge that is above humans and that he has been striving for. I believe that within these weavings there are breaks, such as Faust not being able reach the ultimate form of knowledge, until Mephostophles comes, which is the missing link to Faust's fabric. Faust wants to get this knowledge so bad that his "soul is straining". I also find it interesting how he uses the word "parched" to describe his soul. This makes it seem as though it is completely dried out and he has done everything humanly possible to attain knowledge. Lastly he admits that he wants this knowledge but it is vain, which shows how the only reason why he really wants this is for himself.
- Haley
"...that a poodle ran away from me?" (pg.119, line 1529)
ReplyDeletei just thought that was really funny. anyway. carrying on...
"MEPH.: Observe my scarlet dress with golden trim, the cloak of stiffened silk, the rooster's feather in my hat, the rapier hanging at my side. I now suggest, yo make it brief, that you move in similar attire, that you, without restraints and ties, may learn what life is all about."
"FAUST: In every garment, I suppose, I'm bound to feel the misery of Earth's constricted life. I am too old for mere amusement and still too young to be without desire. What has the world to offer me?...to be is nothing but a burden; my life is odious and I long to die." (122-123, lines 1536-1571)
these excerpts from FAUST stuck out to me in particular. i gain more and more respect for Mephistopheles as the novel grows and i feel more and more annoyed by Faust himself. the sly meph is always deceiving, but in a rather respectful way (as respectful as the devil can be, i suppose...) Faust is always belittling himself, comparing himself and his human knowledge to that of the devil. not a fair trade if you ask me. meph describes his clothing, seeming to mock the desire that Faust has to be as pristine as him. but he then continues on by saying that that is not what life is about, and to find that out, Faust must learn it on his own. Faust seems to misunderstand what he is saying and goes on about how miserable his own life is. he has not the power nor the knowledge (nor the material things, as this excerpt uses) to become as high and mighty as he wishes. he is stuck in a place between young and old and feels as though he has gotten nowhere, and because of this, he wants to die. will he ever really understand what Meph is trying to get him to see?
~*julia*~
“’In every garment, I suppose, I’m bound to feel the misery of earth’s constricted life… I awake with horror in the morning and bitter tears well up in me when I must face each day that in its course cannot fulfill a single wish, not one!’” (121, 1545-1557).
ReplyDeleteThis quote is spoken by Faust to Mephistopheles. I think this excerpt shows a lot about Faust, specifically how vulnerable he really is. It is clear that he is very unhappy with his life, and does not see its meaning or purpose. He verbalizes this very clearly, in saying he feels “bound” to his life, awaking “with horror in the morning,” feeling utterly devastated that he is forced to be a prisoner of the world. While obviously showing his discontent with his life, he is simultaneously almost pleading with the devil to use him at his disposal – perhaps to show him a different way of life, and rid him from this constant cycle of disappointment. The way he says this, in a childlike outcry, just confirms how he is latently begging Mephistopheles to free him from this binding. Instead of being grateful for making up a part of the world, for being one with the earth, Faust feels as though he is a slave to it, as he states in the first part of this quote. He sees no visible escape from his misfortune and pours his heart out to this queer stranger, not knowing that this is the first step he is taking in bargaining his soul with the devil.
-Kelsey F.
Amanda- great job analyzing every little piece of the quote!
ReplyDeleteAllison- when I saw you chose this quote I immediately thought "Vonnegut!"...And so it goes
Kelsey G- Good point about illumination of contrasts. Wagner is used at the beginning as a foil to Faust. Perhaps, in a way, Wagner is like Faust years ago when he was content on his quest for knowledge in his study surrounded by walls of books?
Shelby- Yes, Meph does play some nasty mind games with that hopeful and naive student
Nicole- one of my favorite quotes. What do you think of Faust's synopsis of what the spirit does?
Danistopheles- Very well said, my demonic friend.
Jeff- Interesting choice and great points about it. Indeed, Meph loves to make fun of Faust.
Danielle- pretty choice with good points!
Haley- Great insights into the pieces you pulled, although instead of vanity, I think the last part refers to it being in vain becuaser he has not found success.
-Ms Coppens
Julia- Yes, Faust's whining gets a bit old. I'm glad you appreciate Meph's sense of humor and intellect.
ReplyDeleteKelsey F- Woah! How crazy that you and Julia were writing at the same time about the same passage. Bizarro. I love how you see him in this passage so differently- more empathetically.
-Ms. Coppens
What really stood out to me while I was reading this was more and more Faust shows that he knows what he's doing, ultimately selling himself to the devil, and that it is wrong. But, he does not believe anything bad could happen to him--a result of the lifestyle he's been living. We don't know if he's able to believe without some kind of logic behind that belief: this is his mind-set, he runs on facts.
ReplyDelete"FAUST. No, no! The devil is an egoist/and does not easily, for heaven's sake,/do what is useful for another./ State clearly your conditions./ A servant of your kind is full of present danger." (pg 129)
To me, this passage really stuck out. First of all, he knows he's speaking to the devil...yet he's telling the devil how the devil is. (>>out of the two of them, who might know better about the devil?) And 'for heaven's sake!' That was very ironic as he's speaking to the devil...and actually, I think the person Faust was describing, was himself, and not really the devil. Faust knows he's in danger, but he doesn't care...
*present* danger but it is the future that is a danger to him...the 'beyond' Meph was talking about, and Faust claims he is not afraid of it--this was a big thing in this encounter with the devil...present and future consequince...
ReplyDelete(forgot to add this in, sorry)
(still Annalise!)
“Ever since the mighty spirit turned from me, Nature kept her doorway closed. The threads of thought are torn to pieces, and learning has become repugnant. Let in the throes of raging senses seething passions quench my thirst! In never lifted magic veils let every miracle take form! Let me plunge into the rush of passing time, into the rolling tide of circumstance! Then let sorrow and delight, frustration or success, occur in turn as happenstance; restless action is the state of man.” (pages 135-136)
ReplyDeleteIn this passage, Faust talks about his reasoning for agreeing to Mephistopheles offer. He talks about how “Nature kept her doorway closed” on him. This is interesting to me because he is blaming Nature instead of himself. He claims that the mighty sprit and the supernatural forces “turned from him”. This is a concept that I hadn’t considered previously, for I always had blamed his own goals as the cause of his depression and disconnect from Nature. He capitalizes Nature which signifies its importance and omnipotence, an important aspect of Romanticism. Faust often uses woven cloth as a parallel to Nature for he perceives nature has the ability to bring different parts, or threads, together in harmony. In this passage, he talks about how the “threads of thought are torn to pieces” which I interpret as meaning that in his world there is a different cloth of thought, since the Nature cloth is not present in his world. He talks about how his cloth of thought is “torn to pieces” which shows how much damage his goals have caused him and about how his knowledge has failed to harmonize and satisfy him. He is done with the life he is trapped in and instead is in search of a new life filled with “seething passions”. He talks about “never lifted magic veils” which I think touches upon how unreachable this magic seems to him. He is begging to be freed from the life he leads and to be joined in harmony with nature. He believes he will reach fulfillment through becoming a part of the supernatural forces that continue throughout eternity. He wants to “plunge into the rush of passing time” and become a part of something bigger than himself, something he hasn’t been able to do through knowledge. At the end of the passage he states, “Restless action is the state of man.” At this point it seems to me like he recognizes that he can’t control his fortune, but he still argues that it is natural for a man to think they can.
Sydney