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?
No comments:
Post a Comment