Why does faust reject intellectual knowledge

Mephisto , a novel by Klaus Mann, offers a thinly-veiled portrait of an actor who ingratiates himself with the Nazi regime in order to advance his career. Based in part on the life story of Nietzsche, the novel explores how nihilism and primitivism usurp bourgeois culture. Perhaps inevitably, the theme of demonic bribery has been the subject in electoral propaganda. An intriguing example is an unaired broadcast by the Conservative party in the run-up to the UK general election.

The broadcast was cancelled at the last moment on the insistence of Prime Minister John Major, as he feared its negativity would damage his own party and that the analogy would offend Blair, a devout Christian.

Despite its theological underpinning, the Faust legend has thrived in secular consumer societies, particularly in a culture of instant gratification. From credit cards to fast food, we opt for immediate pleasure even in the knowledge that it brings long-term pain.

Your palate also shall be sated, Your nostrils sweetly stimulated, Your sense of touch exhilarated. Faust pursues her, seduces her, and then — unwittingly — destroys her and her family. I, or you? If I had never lived, that which I love Had still been living; had I never loved, That which I love would still be beautiful.

Even when the quest for knowledge is successful, it conjures up dark forces, as in Frankenstein. As the critic Marshall Berman points out, this ambitious scheme of modern development is intolerant of those who do not acquiesce to the plan.

How does Faust again use the imagery of worms and dust in lines ? The skull he sees on his shelf acts as a traditional memento mori: a reminder of death which some devout monks kept by their beside in the Middle Ages to remind them that they were mortal; but why might he realistically have a skull on his shelf?

The bottle which is the next object to catch his eye almost certainly contains laudanum: opium dissolved in alcohol. It was an extremely common drug and relatively cheap. Though it could not cure diseases, it made people feel better—unless they took too large a dose, in which case they would pleasantly drop off to sleep and die.

This quality made it not only the renaissance equivalent of aspirin but the drug of choice for suicide. In lines Faust is contrasting himself with Hamlet in Act 3, Scene 1 of the play ll. Note the Choir of Women. A similar group of women are going to appear at the end of the play, linked to the theme of salvation. Does the song of the angels bring him to religious faith? What effect does it have on him?

What kinds of activities are people engaging in on this Easter morning? Are any of them religious? Can you compare the attitudes of the young women toward love with those of the soldiers? What does Faust seem to feel is the meaning of the Easter holiday?

The song sung by the peasants has the typical folk theme of a young girl seduced and abandoned, and strongly foreshadows the plot of the play.

Why does Faust, who is normally completely skeptical about religion, tell the peasants who praise him for his medical services that they should thank God instead? In using the image of flight to symbolize his longing for transcendence and escape he imagines himself pursuing the setting sun, personified as a god, as by the ancient Greeks and Romans.

As the sun sinks into the west, he pursues it out over the billows waves of the Atlantic Ocean. What is the basic contradiction in human nature that Faust describes in the last part of this speech? In what two directions does Faust then say his soul is torn?

When the black dog appears a large, shaggy animal, not a French toy poodle , what does Faust see that Wagner cannot? Note that at the beginning of this scene Faust seems to be in a more nearly religious mood than at any other point in the play.

When we learn that the poodle is really Mephistopheles, what do we realize he has accomplished in disturbing Faust? During the Renaissance the salamander was thought to live in fire, the undene in water, and the sylph in air, while the kobold is a Germanic spirit associated with the earth.

Thus each represents one of the traditional four elements of the natural world. What is an incubus? Look it up. Mephistopheles sets the tone for their whole relationship by greeting Faust sarcastically, belittling his prowess; but according to the traditions of the conjuring of spirits he is in real danger of being controlled if his intended victim can only identify his name.

How does he distract him from that question? How does Mephistopheles argue that darkness is superior to light in lines ? In what sense did darkness give birth to light? See Genesis Why does Mephistopheles say that his favorite element is fire? Rather than portraying Mephistopheles as a force for evil against good, Faust understands him as sterility against creativity. Which of these two forces do both of them seem to feel is the stronger?

Notice that it is Faust who first raises the possibility of signing a contract with the Devil. Goethe repeatedly emphasizes that Faust is not seduced into evil by Mephistopheles: he is already drawn to it, and tries to make the Devil his tool. Why do you think Mephistopheles is so anxious to leave instead of immediately negotiating the contract?

How does Mephistopheles manage to escape? Faust has to invite Mephistopheles into his study three times to symbolize his willingness to become involved in the evil the spirit represents. Why reasons does Faust give for saying there is nothing Mephistopheles can give him that he wants?

How does Mephistopheles humiliate him when he declares that he wants to die in line ? When Faust gets into one of these melodramatic moods, Mephistopheles usually combats him with humor. What examples does Faust give of the deceptive and transitory gifts the Devil has been known to provide? Why does Faust say that he is willing to die if he ever experiences a moment of complete satisfaction?

Mephistopheles insists on the signature being in blood to force Faust into taking a stereotypically self-damning step. Again and again Faust will seek to gloss over the true nature of his relationship to evil, and again and again Mephistopheles will rub his nose in it. Of the two longings Faust has spoken of before, which one does he say he now wants to pursue?

Does he seek happiness? What warnings does Mephistopheles make about the probable outcome of their contract? Which of the two longings does Mephistopheles urge Faust to pursue? Notice the last two lines before the entry of the student mean in which Mephistopheles confirms that it is not he who is making Faust evil; Faust is evil already. Mephistopheles may in fact be seen in this play as the embodiment of the evil impulses within Faust. Encheiresin naturae l. What career does Mephistopheles finally advise the student to take up, and what typically devilish reason does he give for doing so?

As when he forced him to sign in blood, Mephistopheles is maneuvering Faust into participating in obviously Satanic rituals so that he is forced to confront the evil nature of what he is doing. What alternative to drinking the magic potion does Mephistopheles offer Faust? What does Mephistopheles suggest Faust should do with a beautiful woman should he find one? Compare this with what he actually does. In what ways does Mephistopheles say he has modernized his appearance? Line reflects the state of European civilization in the wake of the enlightenment, shorn of its religious superstitions, but no closer to virtue.

It is important to keep reminding yourself that neither Goethe nor most of his readers believed in the traditional Devil. Mephistopheles is a symbol of evil—a very lively and vivid one—but still ultimately a symbol. The belief that God can be simultaneously one and three persons is one of the most controversial aspects of Christian belief, giving theologians much exercise to explain this paradox in logical terms.

Mephistopheles delights in pointing out such sore spots in conventional religion. Besides making him thirty years younger, what other effect does the magic potion have on Faust? A properly brought up young woman of this time would never allow herself to be picked up on the street. Why does Mephistopheles say he cannot deliver her to him immediately? What devilish reason does he give to justify the delay?

How could Gretchen—the nickname for Margaret by which she is known in the play—recognize that Faust belonged to the upper classes besides the shape of his forehead? How does Mephistopheles shame him into proceeding with the seduction?

Note how cleverly he provides a virtuous motive for doing evil. Gretchen is made both innocent and erotic at the same time as she slowly removes her clothes while singing a romantic song about the king of Thule a mythical far-northern kingdom? The audience becomes voyeurs while Gretchen remains an innocent young girl getting ready for bed. What effect does putting on the jewels have on Gretchen?

How can you tell that Martha is not genuinely grieving for her missing husband? Why is she so eager for news of him? Whereas she had then denied being either a lady or beautiful, now she can deny only the former.

Notice how cleverly Mephistopheles works Martha up into a rage against her missing husband by alternately telling her things that make her eager to be reunited with him and others that make her furious with him. She is angry that he left behind a request to have three hundred masses sung for the repose of his soul because such masses were very expensive. Supposedly he has spent all his wealth on another woman and then tried to impose an enormous debt on his wife.

What is improper about the manner of mourning suggested by Mephistopheles in lines ? Does her answer reveal blissful innocence or a guilty conscience? Watch for a speech by Gretchen later that implies the latter is the truth. Why is Martha so eager to meet the magistrate Mephistopheles says he will bring to her? Faust is eager to seduce Gretchen, which will ruin her; but he is reluctant to tell a lie. What argument does Mephistopheles use to demonstrate that this is an absurd distinction?

Again we see that he is cleverly maneuvering Faust into doing something obviously evil and distasteful in order to gain his ends. What argument does Faust use to maintain that his promises of eternal love for Gretchen will not be a lie?

What is the logical flaw in his argument? What attitude toward his situation does Faust express in his last line in this scene, and is it justified? What does Martha seem to be aiming at in her conversation with Mephistopheles?

Gretchen suffers from an acute case of low self-esteem. Can you describe how the relationship between them has developed between this passage and line , when Faust and Gretchen reappear together as they stroll around the garden? The technique used here is not unlike a scene change in a film, where matters have progressed much farther than one would have expected in the brief moments they have been out of earshot, but because we could not hear what they were saying, we are not bothered by this fact.

What does Gretchen say her reaction was when Faust first spoke to her? Against whom was her anger ultimately directed? Have you ever encountered this sort of emotional reaction in real life? Watch for that reaction to return later in the play.

He considers law, quoting the Byzantine emperor Justinian, but dismisses law as too petty, dealing with trivial matters rather than larger ones. Divinity, the study of religion and theology, seems to offer wider vistas, but he quotes from St.

While they are on their way, a good angel and an evil angel visit Faustus. The good angel urges him to set aside his book of magic and read the Scriptures instead; the evil angel encourages him to go forward in his pursuit of the black arts. After they vanish, it is clear that Faustus is going to heed the evil spirit, since he exults at the great powers that the magical arts will bring him.

Faustus imagines sending spirits to the end of the world to fetch him jewels and delicacies, having them teach him secret knowledge, and using magic to make himself king of all Germany. Valdes and Cornelius appear, and Faustus greets them, declaring that he has set aside all other forms of learning in favor of magic. They agree to teach Faustus the principles of the dark arts and describe the wondrous powers that will be his if he remains committed during his quest to learn magic.

Valdes lists a number of texts that Faustus should read, and the two friends promise to help him become better at magic than even they are. Faustus invites them to dine with him, and they exit. In proceeding through the various intellectual disciplines and citing authorities for each, he is following the dictates of medieval scholarship, which held that learning was based on the authority of the wise rather than on experimentation and new ideas.

In his initial speech, for example, Faustus establishes a hierarchy of disciplines by showing which are nobler than others.