Look, I actually did a blog... and it's on time!!

In Thursday's lesson we looked at Act 5, the final Act of the play. The first line of Act 5 Scene 1 Wagner says; "I think my master means to die shortly...", this suggests that in this Act we will see the demise of Doctor Faustus.

After talking to three scholars and conjouring 'Heln of Greece' for them an old man appears on stage who tries to reason with Faustus and convince him that there is still time to save himself. He talks of "repentant heaviness" and "celestial rest" and suggests that Faustus can repent his sins and God will forgive him; "But mercy, Faustus, of thy saviour sweet, whose blood alone must wash away thy guilt". Faustus' immediate reaction to this is to request a dagger so that he may 'dispair and die', which is contradictory to what the old man has just suggested. The old man reasons with Faustus and says that he should 'call for mercy and avoid dispair' instead of killing himself, which Faustus subsiquently agrees to do.

Mephistopheles refers to Faustus as a 'traitor' for disobeying the 'soverign lord' and orders him to go back on his word (not repent) or he will "in piecemeal tear thy flesh". On hearing this Faustus asks Mephistopheles to beg for Lucifer's forgiveness and requests that Mephistopheles torments and punishes the old man. This happens but the old man's faith is too strong and he cannot be destroyed; "my faith, vile hell, shall triumph over thee".

In Act 5 Scene 2, the last scene of the play, Faustus is preparing himself for death as the end of his 'four-and-twenty years' draws nearer. He is again talking to the three scholars, who try to convince him that he can turn to God and be saved but he is adament that he cannot be forgiven and therefore must be ready to face death/hell.
In his final speech Faustus wishes that time would stop and that he could be saved; "Christ's blood streams in the firmament! One drop would save my soul, half a drop." As his impending doom draws ever nearer he wishes that he hadn't jad a soul to sell in the first place or that he will be reincarnated after death or dissappear into oblivion instead of suffering eternal hell.

All this hoping and wishing is in vain as at the end of the scene he is taken away by devils with one final appeal to Mephistopheles.

The blog that I should have done, but did not... now done!

In Thursday's lesson we looked at Act 4 Scene 1 in which Faustus' meets an Emperor. The way in which he talks to the Emperor is slightly controversial as he says things such as "I am content to do whatsoever your majesty shall command me" which contradicts what Faustus' said in Act 1 Scene1 (line 59); "...Shall be at my command. Emperors and kings are but obeyed in their several provinces, nor can they raise the wind or rend the clouds..." which suggests that he wants to be of higher status than Emperors rather than serving them.
The Emperor asks Faustus to prove his abilities in magic by raising Alexander the Great from the dead. Faustus tells the Emperor that he cannot raise a body 'which long since are consumed to dust' but that he can raise an apparition of Alexander. But does Faustus not know his own power or is it Mephistopheles who is performing the magic for him? as he manages to raise the bodies of Alexander and his Paramour!
Faustus then turns from performing fantastic magical feats to exploiting his magical powers to perform stupid tricks on people as he gives the Knight, who mocked his magical abilities, horns which is a mockery of his family and his manhood by suggesting that his wife has been unfaithful.
He then tricks a horse-courser by selling him a horse which subsequently turns into hay when it's ridden into water.
Why is Faustus exploiting his abilities and using them for stupidity when his first intentions were to use his magical abilities to perform great deeds?