Yeah, on the face of it it seems like an almost Gnostic explanation - that hell is anywhere that isn't heaven, and so Earth technically falls under the devil's purview. But on the other hand we have Mephistopheles's prediction that "when all the world dissolves... all places shall be hell that is not heaven," which smacks of the choose-your-side imagery of the Book of Revelations. Perhaps, then, our world is where the two realms overlap, a battleground that will ultimately be entirely divvied up entirely between heaven and hell. For the time being, angels and devils alike are free to roam this world nudging us in one direction or the other, as depicted in Marlowe's play...
he's trying to reach for understanding of the universe, what is heaven, what is hell, while every immortal being he asks just prances around insisting that he's too dumb to get it even if they explained
That was certainly how it played in the movie, although as far as I can tell, the passage in the movie where Mephistopheles sneers at the ability of human language to comprehend the ineffable doesn't seem to appear in Marlowe's play. Is it perhaps from Goethe, or might it be Svankmajer's own addition?
Looking at Marlowe's version, the impression I get is that Mephistopheles is perfectly happy to entertain Faust's cosmological questions until they get to the why part:
Faustus Now tell me, who made the world?
Mephistophilis I will not.
Faustus Sweet Mephistophilis, tell me.
Mephistophilis Move me not, Faustus.
Faustus Villain, have not I bound thee to tell me anything?
Mephistophilis Ay, that is not against our kingdom. This is. Thou art damned; think thou of hell.
In other words, when Faust begins inquiring directly into the nature of God, Mephistopheles digs in his heels and says he's not going to talk about the guys on the other side. It's at this point that Faust has his first spasm of anxiety about what he's done, and he falls to his knees in prayer, whereupon Lucifer and Beelzebub appear in person to divert him with an entertaining parade of the Seven Deady Sins. Lo and behold, Faust is quite happily distracted:
Faustus O, how this sight doth delight my soul.
Lucifer But, Faustus, in hell is all manner of delight.
Faustus O, might I see hell, and return again safe. How happy were I then.
Of course, even when Mephistopheles is treating Faust to cosmology lecture, one gets the impression that it's a bit of a sham. At one point Faust compares the devil's knowledge to that of his manservant: "These slender questions Wagner can decide. Hath Mephistophilis no greater skill? Who knows not the double motion of the planets?" Mephistopheles eventually blows Faust off with a few Latin slogans, but one's left wondering if, like the apparitions of David and Goliath and the resurrection of Helen of Troy, the devil's philosophical explanations are really just shoddy conjurer's tricks...
no subject
he's trying to reach for understanding of the universe, what is heaven, what is hell, while every immortal being he asks just prances around insisting that he's too dumb to get it even if they explained
That was certainly how it played in the movie, although as far as I can tell, the passage in the movie where Mephistopheles sneers at the ability of human language to comprehend the ineffable doesn't seem to appear in Marlowe's play. Is it perhaps from Goethe, or might it be Svankmajer's own addition?
Looking at Marlowe's version, the impression I get is that Mephistopheles is perfectly happy to entertain Faust's cosmological questions until they get to the why part:
Faustus
Now tell me, who made the world?
Mephistophilis
I will not.
Faustus
Sweet Mephistophilis, tell me.
Mephistophilis
Move me not, Faustus.
Faustus
Villain, have not I bound thee to tell me anything?
Mephistophilis
Ay, that is not against our kingdom.
This is. Thou art damned; think thou of hell.
In other words, when Faust begins inquiring directly into the nature of God, Mephistopheles digs in his heels and says he's not going to talk about the guys on the other side. It's at this point that Faust has his first spasm of anxiety about what he's done, and he falls to his knees in prayer, whereupon Lucifer and Beelzebub appear in person to divert him with an entertaining parade of the Seven Deady Sins. Lo and behold, Faust is quite happily distracted:
Faustus
O, how this sight doth delight my soul.
Lucifer
But, Faustus, in hell is all manner of delight.
Faustus
O, might I see hell, and return again safe. How
happy were I then.
Of course, even when Mephistopheles is treating Faust to cosmology lecture, one gets the impression that it's a bit of a sham. At one point Faust compares the devil's knowledge to that of his manservant: "These slender questions Wagner can decide. Hath Mephistophilis no greater skill? Who knows not the double motion of the planets?" Mephistopheles eventually blows Faust off with a few Latin slogans, but one's left wondering if, like the apparitions of David and Goliath and the resurrection of Helen of Troy, the devil's philosophical explanations are really just shoddy conjurer's tricks...