Faustus, a tragic hero?

His hubris- Could be his ambition & his pride. (similar to the tale of Iccarus, who flew too close to the sun because he pushed it too far) "All things that move between the quiet poles shall be at my command".

His hubris could also be his arrogance - "Too servile and illiberal for me", He rejects well thought of professions, as well as rejecting influential huge names such as Aristotle, Galen, Justinian and Jerome. In doing so he pushes himself in to a trap..?

He has creates his own high status. It begins with 'his parents base of stock', which implies a very basic standard of living, but Faustus has created his own heir achy, 'graced with doctors name'.

Something tragic has happened to him, not only has he lost his soul, but he is being denied salvation, which is seemingly quite tragic. Mephistopheles has deprived him of heaven, and to the religious audience this would seem increasingly bad.

Little Devil

The Devil (Greek: διάβολος or diávolos = 'slanderer' or 'accuser'^[1]) is believed in certain religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The Devil is commonly associated with heretics, infidels, and other unbelievers. The Abrahamic religions have variously regarded the Devil as a rebellious fallen angel or demon that tempts humans to sin or commitevil deeds. Others regard the Devil as an allegory that represents a crisis of faith, individualism, free will, wisdom and enlightenment.

In mainstream Christianity, God and the Devil are usually portrayed as fighting over the souls of humans, with the Devil seeking to lure people away from God and into Hell. The Devil commands a force of evil angels, commonly known as demons.^[2] The Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament) describes the Adversary (Ha-satan) as an angel who instigates tests upon humankind.^[3][4] Many other religions have a trickster or tempter figure that is similar to the Devil. Modern conceptions of the Devil include the concept that it symbolizes humans' own lower nature or sinfulness.

mr francis

it will no longer let me blog

Opening pages to Dr Faustus - 'Enter Faustus in his study'

'Settle thy studies Faustus and begin' - 'Settle thy studies', implies that Faustus is trying to rationalise what he wants to do, what he wants to study.

The fact that he is talking in 3rd person shows he's trying to view himself objectively and be rational, offering a pensive element to his character, also suggesting he's quite analytical.

Faustus begins by considering Astronomy but rejects it, despite admitting to enjoying the work of Aristotle, he asks himself 'Is to dispute well logic's cheifest end?' Is it just to win arguments? Is the miracle just being able to argue? He dismisses this subject, confident he can argue well.

He then considers medicine. He refers to Galen, an influential Greek physician. The biggest authority of medicine in the middle ages, yet he rejects being a doctor, saying you can achieve so much but at the end of the day you cannot bring some one back to life, you are still only a man. 'Yet art thou still but Faustus'.

He then moves on to Law, referring to the work of Justinian, another founder of thought associated with the profession. He rejects this though, as he seems to think it is nothing worth doing. 'His study fits a mercenary drudge'. So he rejects law for being servile.

(NOTE AT THIS POINT THAT IT SEEMS HE IS BEING VERY NEGATIVE, YET HE IS TALKING IN 3RD PERSON, SUGGESTING HE IS BEING RATIONAL ABOUT HIS DECISION AND WITHOUT PREJUDICE)

He then moves on to consider religion, using this time the influential name 'Jerome', the one who translated the bible into Latin and put it all together.

He goes on to say that if we say we haven't sinned, we are deceiving ourselves therefore we die, however if we sin, we die, there is an inevitability. He rejects the study of God, believing it is below him, and almost mocks it when he says 'che sera sera'.

He then turns to magic. 'He picks up a book of magic'.

'Of power, of honour, of omnipotence' - This links to expectations of our gothic protagonist. The power hungry and high status elements which also tie in with the sadistic features.

He wants everything at his command, 'All things that move between the quiet poles Shall be at my command'.

(ALSO NOTE THAT FAUSTUS IS ON STAGE, IN FRONT OF AN AUDIENCE, AND A RELIGIOUS ONE FOR THAT TIME.)

so it seems he is being massively Blasphemous, Marlow is depicting Faustus as a bad character to the audience.

Protagonist&Prologue - Dr Faustus

What we expect from our gothic protagonist:

A touch of evil, sinister traits,

A high ranking, a title, high social status/class

quite often male

Have an element of mystery, and of the supernatural, unknown elements,

Intimidating appearance, often beast-like, commonly linked to animals (in the way they talk for example growling.)

PROLOGUE

Begins with the phrase 'not' - negative first word.

The next 5 lines imply that the following novel will not revolve around love, fighting, action etc. They will simply revolve around Faustus 'fortunes, good or bad.'

It tells us Faustus' parents were 'base of stock', implying he grew up with a very basic standard of living - which contradicts the expectations of gothic protagonist.

It informs us of Faustus' intelligence, it says 'Of riper years to Wittenberg he went', Wittenburg being the highest ranking place to study in Germany. Also 'graced with doctor's name'.

'So soon he profits in divinity' - He does extremely well in the study of God. (which later contradicts what he says in the first chapter in his study, when he rejects the study of religion)

It then implies he gets too big for his boots, 'His waxen wings did mount above his reach', which is in reference to the tale of Icarus, who flew too close to the sun with his wings and they melted and they fell.

'falling to a devilish exercise' - the devils trick

'necromancy' - calling upon the dead

and then it seems 'sweet as magic is to him' - he turns to magic.

MAUS - Character representation notes

Characters

· The Jews are represented by Mice

· Germans are represented by Cats

· Polish are represented by pigs

· Americans are represented by dogs

· French are represented by frogs

· Swedish are represented by reindeer

· British are represented by fish

· Roma (gypsies) are represented by gypsy moths

It could be argued that the Jews are portrayed as Mice in a satirical fashion, to depict the Nazi’s portrayal of Jews as vermin. However there’s also the fact that Spiegelman’s girlfriend seemingly chose the ‘mouse’ character to depict her.

With the exception of the Americans (dogs), the animal characters are all drawn alike. For instance, most of the Jewish mice resemble each other regardless of sex or age. Clothing and other details are used in order to tell them apart: Spiegelman himself, for instance, is always wearing a white shirt and a black sleeveless over shirt; his French wife, Françoise (herself portrayed as a mouse, because she converted to Judaism), wears a striped t-shirt. When travelling clandestinely in Nazi-occupied areas, the Jews wear pig masks to disguise themselves.

Spiegelman explained that he chose pigs to represent the Polish because of their resemblance to American cartoon characters such as miss piggy and porky pig, as many times in Maus, the Poles are very selfish and don’t want anything to do with the Jews.

The use of animals may also be used in order to detach the reader from reality. This may have been done to appeal to a younger generation of readers, despite it being a story of survival and death during the Holocaust. But instead of fully detaching the reader from the book, Spiegelman shows a human aspect by illustrating how his father tells his story and by showing the emotions and relationships of the characters throughout.