Romanticism Goethe Faust Volume E Romanticism 1780 1830

Romanticism Goethe: Faust (Volume E)

Romanticism (1780 -1830) • a reaction to the Industrial Revolution • a revolt against aristocratic social and political norms of the Enlightenment • a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature • rigid ideas about the structure and purpose of society and the universe were breaking down • emphasis on such emotions as apprehension, horror and terror, and awe

Romanticism • validated strong emotion as an authentic source of aesthetic experience • elevated folk art and ancient custom to something noble • made spontaneity a desirable characteristic • reached beyond the rational and Classicist ideal models • elevated and revived medievalism in an attempt to escape the confines of population growth, urban sprawl, and industrialism • attempted to embrace the exotic, unfamiliar, and distant

Romantic literature • emphasized the dream, or inner, world of the individual and valued the individual’s experience. • use of visionary, fantastic, or drug-induced imagery • growing suspicion of the established church, and a turn toward pantheism (the belief that God is a part of the universe rather than separate from it).

Romantic literature • The concept of “the sublime” (a thrilling emotional experience that combines awe, magnificence, and horror) was introduced. • Feeling and emotion were viewed as superior to logic and analysis. • For the romantics, poetry was believed to be the highest form of literature, and novels were regarded as a lower form of writing, often as “trash, ” even by those most addicted to reading them.

Romantic literature • Most novels of the time were written by women and were therefore widely regarded as a threat to serious, intellectual culture.

Key words • • • Nature, wild, untamed Ordinary individual Solitary soul Nationalism Outcast Exoticism Excess Spontaneity Freedom Revolution

Goethe (1749– 1832) • Initiated the Sturm und Drang movement with Sorrows of Young Werther (1774) • The movement emphasized the expression of feelings over the strictures of literary form

Faust: Background • Folk legend/ medieval morality tale • Relation between abstract learning and sensuous experience • Goethe changes the story, having Faust escape Mephistopholes’ clutches at the end of Faust II. Goethe’s Faust (1918) by Richard Roland Holst

Faust I • Two parts: (1) an introduction to the medieval Doctor, who has mastered all the higher disciplines of the university but has not learned the inner essence of the world; (2) Mephistopheles tries to satisfy Faust’s demands and yearnings.

Style • rejection of Aristotelian rules that limited time and space and focused on plot • instead Goethe composed an epic play of loosely connected scenes • varied meter and rhyme • hybrid art form: includes prose, interludes, allegorical dream, satire, erotic songs, and bacchanalia • Goethe did not consider Faust fit for the stage(? )

Gretchen • Through Gretchen’s character Faust earns its title to tragedy. • Gretchen represents different pleasures from other experiences. • Faust falls in love with her, praising her innocence and simple religious faith. • After he achieves his physical satisfaction he abandons her, leading to a tragic end (? ).

Mephistopheles • Mephistopheles is the spirit of negation that criticizes authority, who questions inherited religious belief and orthodoxies. • Mephistopheles is considered the main protagonist of the play by critics. (? ) Mephistopheles (1884) by Mark Antokolski

Walpurgis Night Scene • The delirious meeting of all creatures of the night in a famous, orgiastic moment in the drama. • The festival is still celebrated today, six months before Halloween. Witches’ Sabbath (1668) by Johannes Praetorius

Faust: Important passages “Thinking is done with for me, I’m through…we’ll plunge into time’s racing current, the vortex of activity, Where pleasure and distress, Setbacks and success, May come as they come, by turn-about, however; To be always up and doing is man’s nature!” (I: 1530– 41). Illustration by Eugene Delacroix for Faust I

Faust: Important passages “My heart is heavy, My peace is gone, I’ll never know any peace again. For me it’s death Where he is not, The whole green earth All waste, all rot. ” (p. 177).

Faust: Important passages “Despite learning, heap contempt on reason, the human race’s best possession…. Fate’s given him a spirit knows no measure, On and on it strives relentlessly, It soars away disdaining every pleasure, Yet I will lead him deep into debauchery” (I: 1636– 46).

Faust: Important passages “The God that made you girls and boys, Himself was first to recognize, And practice, what’s the noblest calling, The furnishing of opportunities” (I: 3162 – 65).

Faust: Important passages “The witches ride up to the Brocken, Stubble’s yellow, new grain green. The great host meets upon the peak and There Urian mounts his throne. So over stock and stone go stumping, Witches farting, billy goats stinking! “ (I: 3806– 11).

Discussion Questions Speculate what it will require for Faust to redeem himself in Faust II. Do you think redemption is possible?

Discussion Questions How does Goethe’s description of the celestial realm in the “Prologue in Heaven” (pp. 102– 05) differ from the traditional Christian understanding of heaven? What elements of the classical world present in Goethe’s portrait?

Discussion Questions What is the relationship between desire and dishonesty in Faust’s seduction of Gretchen? Was Gretchen justified in committing infanticide, or do you believe execution is a befitting punishment for her crime?

Discussion Questions Take a look at the “Garden” scene beginning at line 2873. How does the staging of the couples strolling reinforce and amplify the act of seduction?