Questions to think about as you Read |
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1. Make a list of the scenes in the play and describe in one sentence what happens in each. 2. What is the moral stance of the Prologue? Try to characterize its religious position. 3. Books, writing, eating, classical mythology are all important in this play. Keep a list of all occurrences, with page numbers, of each of these four motifs. 4. Several figures come in pairs, like the magicians. Collect as many examples as you can find of figures that seem multiplied and try to classify them. Are they, for example, twins or opposites? What else is doubled besides characters? 5. What does Faustus ask for? Make a list of as many different things as you can find, with page numbers. 6. Faust's pact with the devil is established in scenes 3,5 and 6. Identify the crucial factors: what is the role of magic? how does the devil tempt Faust? who has what kind of power? are Faustus and Mephistopheles opposites or similar (think about what Faustus asks Mephistopheles for and what the devil gives him). 7. Scenes 7-12 offer quite a different view of Faustus. How do they relate to the tragic fall of the scholar? 8. Scenes 13-14: compare the moral stance of these scenes with that of the Prologue-how is the end of the play different? |
1. Settings-what are the characteristic spaces in which the drama is set? into what types do they fall? how does the drama move among them? with what attitudes or moods are they associated? what larger patterns of setting are established? 2. Motion-watch for the characteristic patterns of movement: who moves in what fashion? what variations or developments of these patterns can you find? 3. Language-in his first speech Faust rejects words as empty. Find as many subsequent references to words and language as you can. How do attitudes toward language change? 4. Images initially associated with elation-Faust's enthusiastic moments in "Night" all involve light, motion, nature, drinking or bathing. Watch for these motifs as the play proceeds and think about how they change. 5. Mediation-we have seen that Faust proceeds by bringing oppositions together. Keep a list of as many different mediators or connectors of opposites in the play as you can find. 6. Plays-within-the-play-the prologues establish the drama itself as a play within multiple frames. Watch for other plays-within-the-play and think about how they develop and change as the play proceeds. 7. Magic and Dream-watch for the use of magic and the appearance of supernatural spirits: who controls them? what function do they serve? how essential are they to the action of the play? what is their relation (if any) to dreaming? 8. Scene function-for each scene try to formulate in a sentence what new element or idea it contributes to the play. |
Act I: 1. How is the relation of nature spirits to Mephistopheles similar to and different from Part I? 2. Identify as many different levels of meaning for the rainbow as you can? What does it say about the play that there are so many? 3. Make a list of episodes in the act that could be considered efforts to "create a rainbow that can be grasped." How do they differ from one another? Why are they arranged in the order they are in? Why do they fail? ("Why" ="what does it mean that") 4. The act falls into three parts and the masque at its center also falls into three parts. Clarify for yourself how these parts relate to one another. What does it mean that the act is structured as two different versions of itself? |
Act II: 1. Compare the Baccalaureus to the Student in Part I. 2. Analyze the speeches in which Faust describes his dreams of Leda and the swan (6903-6920 and 7249-7312). 3. Faust, Mephistopheles and Homunculus all engage in quests in the Classical Walpurgis Night: compare them. What does each seek? What does each find? 4. Try to make some sense out of the progression of setting in this act. 5. What does it mean that the moon stands still in the last scene? 6. Is there any equivalent to the Walpurgis Night's Dream in this act, and if so, what? |
Act III: 1. Who or what is Helen? Analyze her first speech or analyze the speech of Lynceus about her (9218-45). 2. Who or what is Lynceus? Analyze his second speech (9273-9342). 3. Analyze the dialogue between Faust and Helen (9356-9418). What does it make their "marriage" mean? 4. Who or what is Euphorion? Analyze Phorcyas speech (9596 ff.) And /or the following chorus. What does it mean that both speeches are included? 5. Compare Euphorion to Homunculus and Boy-Charioteer. What other figures could one include in this class? 6. Think about Euphorion's death-under what circumstances does it take place and what is their significance? How is it connected to what has happened in Part I? |
Act IV: 1. The clouds described in Faust's monologue are usually taken to represent Helen and Margareta: how is each characterized and what does it mean that they are confronted now? 2. Faust has now returned to the real world (whatever "real" can be taken to mean at this point). Find as many ways as you can that it connects to and differs from the world of act 3. How have the implied attitudes toward time and toward nature changed? How has Faust changed? 3. What does it mean that Mephistopheles takes over the remainder of the act? Find as many motifs as you can that connect to earlier elements of the play (think about gold, the four elements, nature, the relation of spirit to world, the court, money, music, plays). How are they the same or different? On this basis, how does act 4 connect to the earlier parts of Part II? |
Act V: 1. Identify the points of view offered on Faust's dikes, on his anger at Baucis and Philemon, on his association with Mephistopheles and the three mighty men, on the death of Baucis and Philemon. How does the judgment or (judgments) on each relate to the judgment suggested by the larger context of Faust? 2. What does it mean that Lynceus is Faust's watchman? What happens to classical mythology? 3. Collect references to and images of time. How do they connect to time earlier in the play? 4. What does it mean that only Care can punish Faust? For what is he punished? What does it mean that he is blinded? 5. What does it mean that Mephistopheles' last scene is so silly? 6. Who wins the bet? 7. How seriously is the final scene to be taken? Why? |
Think about the differences between the libretto of Gounod's Faust and Goethe's version. How are the themes of morality and knowledge treated differently? Why does Faust make the pact with the devil in Gound's opera, and how does this difference from both Marlowe and Goethe alter our understanding of the conflict? |
Use the following list of scenes from Russell's film to take notes on costumes, props, set design, placement of characters on stage, and any other actions or images that strike you as important. |
Act I: Faust's Study 1. Faust's monologue and call for Satan 2. Faust and Mephistopheles: the pact Act II: The Gates of the City 3. Chorus: students, soldiers, young girls, etc. 4. Valentin's introduction. 5. Mephisto's song and tricks 6. Mephisto and Faust. Encounter with Marguerite Act III: Marguerite's Garden 7. Siebel and the flowers / Jewels planted 8. Marguerite: King of Thule, jewel box. 9. Martha, Mephisto. Faust woos Marguerite |
10. Mephisto's spell / invocation of the
night 11. Faust and Marguerite, parting for the night. 12. Faust, Mephisto, Marguerite: seduction Act IV: City in Winter 13. Marguerite, then Marguerite and Siebel 14. Soldier's Chorus / The return of Valentin 15. Mephisto's serenade / Swordfight with Valentin 16. Death of Valentin 17. Marguerite in church Act V: Prison 18. Faust/Marguerite/Mephisto |
1. Murnau's film combines material from Marlowe's Dr. Faustus, Goethe's Faust, and Gounod's Faust.Use the list of episode titles given at the end of the questions to keep track of what you have seen in the film, and then try to identify where Murnau follows which of these treatments of the Faust legend. Think about what the mixture and the particular choice of episodes might tell us about the meaning of the Faust legend in the 1920s. 2. Compare especially the prologue and epilogue, the conjuring and the pact scenes to Goethe's treatment? How are the themes of morality and knowledge affected by the differences? 3. This film is famous as a pioneer in special effects in the cinema. Think about how the special effects work? In what ways are they comparable to the staginess and play-within-the-play effects in Goethe'sFaust? |
Episodes (these correspond to the units on the DVD) |
1. Opening Titles 2. Prologue 3. Plague 4. Despair 5. Conjuring 6. Pact 7. Journey through the air 8. Duchess of Parma 9. Encounter with Margareta |
10. Casket 11. Visit to Frau Marthe 12. Garden scene 13. Love affair 14. Margareta punished 15. Margareta in winter 16. Faust to the rescue 17. Salvation 18. Epilogue |
1. Svankmajer draws on Marlowe's Faust, Goethe's Faust, the Czech Faust puppet play, Gounod's Faust, as well as other materials. Use the list of episodes below to keep track of what you see and try to identify how Svankmajer uses motifs from these different treatments of the Faust legend. 2. This film obviously exploits the mixture of media and the play within the play motif. What rationale can you see for them? Time and space also function in rather arbitrary fashion in the film; we should talk about whether, and if so how, their peculiarity relate to the play motif. 3. Doors, keys, dolls/puppets, feet and food are all repeated motifs. What others can you notice, and what sense can you make of them? 4. Just as The Master and Margarita is set in the Moscow of Bulgakov's day, Svankmajer's Faust is set in his home city Prague, and in his own day. What kinds of social statements do you see being made in the film? |
1. Opening Titles 2. Map for a lonely man 3. Becoming Faust 4. Baby and Marionettes 5. Mephistopheles summoned 6. No mercy for the devil |
7. Old man and leg 8. Ballet and Opera 9. Sign with blood 10. King of Portugal 11. Chasing Helen 12. Deal is done |