So Faustus, Mr. High and Mighty, Mr. Hey You Get Off Of My Cloud. So far I am not the biggest fan of this novel to be honest. It is not that I cannot follow what is going on, it is the long speeches that are not dumbed down enough for ol' simpleton me that even re-reading, then re-reading again does not really help. I had the same problem with Shakespeare too, and I made it through that so I am giving it my best shot!
One thing that I cannot get figured out in my own mind is whether or not I'm cheering for him or if I'm supposed to be like yelling into my book "No don't do it Faustus!!!" Maybe I will find out later? Either way this who Black Magic thing seems iffy to say the least. Me personally I would take a little more time to think when it comes to selling my soul for wealth and honor, however they define honor. Also in regards to that we found ourselves back to the greedy element that "wealth and honor" will bring someone like we read in the Canterbury Tales, which I found was interesting how we made another connection within this classroom. It was almost fun how they brought the two angels into this because I feel like we all do that kind of thinking to ourselves when we have to convince ourselves to do the more complicated thing.
I know Abby brought up Kronk in
her post too, but I pictured it the exact same way! Too good to pass up.
I just found this story interesting that
Magic was the sign of power, I thought that in this time magic would have been
more feared than desired to grant one power. Clearly Faustus had his mind
pretty much made up given how passionately he disagreed with the good angel.
What do you guys think? Because I am having a very
rough time figuring out what to think of this guy. Is he simply greedy? Is he
power mad? Will his beef with the Bible be his motive to act rashly? Me
personally I cannot get my head around it if we are supposed to cheer this guy
on or simply sit back and wait for an inevitable downfall because of his greed.
I completely agree with you, Rory. No doubt greed will be Faustus' downfall. He is already extremely well educated and can do a multitude of good with his knowledge, but he is still unsatisfied. However, I am still uncertain as to how I feel about this character. He is clearly power-hungry and greedy enough to sell his soul to the devil, but he also has moments when he doubts if he should be doing what he is doing and, to me, this shows a possible turn of heart and the possibility of good rather than the greed and darkness he is falling into.
ReplyDeleteRory, I think we should be yelling, "Don't do it, Faustus!" However, I also think that, out of curiosity, we want to see what will happen to Faustus by making this deal with the devil. How entertaining would the play be really if Faustus didn't make a deal with the devil? Think about it: if he doesn't go back and forth on his belief and trust in God, but rather repented, it'd be a pretty dull play, yeah? So, while I'm certainly not cheering for him, I am curious to see where Faustus' curiosity leads him!
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you too, I think the reason Faustus behaves this way is because he has no inner resources. He never took the time to develop any because he was studying other things. I think his studying so many things was also a kind of avoidance of himself. A person who liked themselves, genuinely, not in the narcissistic way Faustus likes himself, would not have had the same outcome.
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