#93306 - 04/24/01 10:55 AM
Re: FAUST, chat with Arxel
|
Adept Boomer
Registered: 11/01/99
Posts: 10323
|
Emma,
You brought up some very interesting points that I hadn't thought about. There was some elements of self-serving actions on Mephisto's part. Hmmmmm
Really neat slant on the end motives.
Laura
_________________________
|
Top
|
|
|
|
#93308 - 04/25/01 03:39 AM
Re: FAUST, chat with Arxel
|
Shy Boomer
Registered: 04/17/01
Posts: 25
Loc: Paris France
|
Dear Boomers,
The problem I have here is that we are talking about Mephisto, a very powerful archetype. Mephisto is a demon, not the devil. In Goethe's play, he is obeying the orders of God, his only master. Let's go back to the roots, so to speak
|
Top
|
|
|
|
#93309 - 04/25/01 04:00 AM
Re: FAUST, chat with Arxel
|
Shy Boomer
Registered: 04/17/01
Posts: 25
Loc: Paris France
|
Extract from "Faust" prologue :
Mephistopheles
Since thou, O Lord, approachest us once more, And how it fares with us, to ask art fain, Since thou hast kindly welcom'd me of yore, Thou see'st me also now among thy train. Excuse me, fine harangues I cannot make, Though all the circle look on me with scorn; My pathos soon thy laughter would awake, Hadst thou the laughing mood not long forsworn. Of suns and worlds I nothing have to say, I see alone mankind's self - torturing pains. The little world - god still the self - same stamp retains, And is as wondrous now as on the primal day. Better he might have fared, poor wight, Hadst thou not given him a gleam of heavenly light; Reason, he names it, and doth so Use it, than brutes more brutish still to grow. With deference to your grace, he seems to me Like any long - legged grasshopper to be, Which ever flies, and flying springs, And in the grass its ancient ditty sings. Would he but always in the grass repose! In every heap of dung he thrusts his nose.
The Lord
Hast thou naught else to say/ Is blame In coming here, as ever, thy sole aim? Does nothing on the earth to thee seem right?
Mephistopheles
No, Lord! I find things there, as ever, in sad plight. Men, in their evil days, move my compassion; Such sorry things to plague is nothing worth.
|
Top
|
|
|
|
#93312 - 04/26/01 11:03 PM
Re: FAUST, chat with Arxel
|
Addicted Boomer
Registered: 06/05/99
Posts: 2027
Loc: USA
|
No you're not, JENNY100. I detected some wry humor in him and even a bit of sentimentality. As I am sure ARXEL_STEPHEN knows, whatever a poet produces, once it is published, its interpretation is no longer in his hands. I am sure many a poet has wondered, "How did they get that idea out of my poem!"
_________________________
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. -- Aristotle
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
|