For the folks out there in LJ-land, we met up with my parents last night, and my dad - an electronics engineer by trade - mentioned he'd done a paper in college on the changing interpretations of the Faust legend over the centuries. His conclusion was that Faust's ambition was presented more and more favorably over time, and that he was ultimately cast as a kind of Prometheus figure, braving the fury of the gods for the sake of knowledge.
To me, though, what's interesting about the Marlowe version - at least based on the passages that Svankmajer chose to excerpt - is how, under the tutelage of Mephistopheles, Faust's yearning for enlightenment is gradually debased into a hunger for temporal fame and power, and finally into brute lust as his eleventh-hour repentance is derailed by a timely apparition of Helen of Troy.
And as you point out, there's also some pretty entertaining theological disputation about the nature of hell. They keep returning to the paradox of how Mephistopheles, a devil damned to hell, can wander freely around the earth; Faust doesn't seem convinced by the quotable Gnosticism of "Why this is hell, nor am I out of it." After he's already signed away his soul, Faust confidently proclaims that he doesn't believe hell exists at all:
Faustus Tell me, where is the place that men call hell?
Mephistophilis Under the heavens.
Faustus Ay, so are all things else, but whereabouts?
Mephistophilis Within the bowels of these elements, Where we are tortured, and remain forever. Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscribed, In one self place, but where we are is hell, And where hell is there must we ever be. And to be short, when all the world dissolves, And every creature shall be purified, All places shall be hell that is not heaven.
Faustus I think hell's a fable.
Mephistopheles points out that Faust is contractually obligated to go there, but Faust sticks to his guns:
Faustus Think'st thou that Faustus, is so fond to imagine, That after this life there is any pain? No, these are trifles, and mere old wives tales.
Mephistophilis But I am an instance to prove the contrary, For I tell thee I am damned, and now in hell.
Faustus Nay, and this be hell, I'll willingly be damned. What sleeping, eating, walking and disputing?
As comebacks go, that's a pretty good one. Of course, the devil gets the last laugh in the end...
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For the folks out there in LJ-land, we met up with my parents last night, and my dad - an electronics engineer by trade - mentioned he'd done a paper in college on the changing interpretations of the Faust legend over the centuries. His conclusion was that Faust's ambition was presented more and more favorably over time, and that he was ultimately cast as a kind of Prometheus figure, braving the fury of the gods for the sake of knowledge.
To me, though, what's interesting about the Marlowe version - at least based on the passages that Svankmajer chose to excerpt - is how, under the tutelage of Mephistopheles, Faust's yearning for enlightenment is gradually debased into a hunger for temporal fame and power, and finally into brute lust as his eleventh-hour repentance is derailed by a timely apparition of Helen of Troy.
And as you point out, there's also some pretty entertaining theological disputation about the nature of hell. They keep returning to the paradox of how Mephistopheles, a devil damned to hell, can wander freely around the earth; Faust doesn't seem convinced by the quotable Gnosticism of "Why this is hell, nor am I out of it." After he's already signed away his soul, Faust confidently proclaims that he doesn't believe hell exists at all:
Faustus
Tell me, where is the place that men call hell?
Mephistophilis
Under the heavens.
Faustus
Ay, so are all things else, but whereabouts?
Mephistophilis
Within the bowels of these elements,
Where we are tortured, and remain forever.
Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscribed,
In one self place, but where we are is hell,
And where hell is there must we ever be.
And to be short, when all the world dissolves,
And every creature shall be purified,
All places shall be hell that is not heaven.
Faustus
I think hell's a fable.
Mephistopheles points out that Faust is contractually obligated to go there, but Faust sticks to his guns:
Faustus
Think'st thou that Faustus, is so fond to imagine,
That after this life there is any pain?
No, these are trifles, and mere old wives tales.
Mephistophilis
But I am an instance to prove the contrary,
For I tell thee I am damned, and now in hell.
Faustus
Nay, and this be hell, I'll willingly be damned.
What sleeping, eating, walking and disputing?
As comebacks go, that's a pretty good one. Of course, the devil gets the last laugh in the end...