Faust is an expression of the advanced ideas of the Enlightenment. Philosophical Problems of "Faust" by I. Goethe
The eighteenth century that ended with the Great French Revolution developed under the sign of doubt, destruction, denial and passionate belief in the victory of reason over superstition and prejudice, civilization over barbarism, humanism over tyranny and injustice. Therefore, historians call it the Age of Enlightenment. The ideology of the enlighteners triumphed in an era when the old medieval way of life was crumbling and a new, bourgeois order, progressive for that time, was taking shape. The figures of the Enlightenment ardently defended the ideas of cultural development, self-government, freedom, defended the interests of the masses, branded the yoke of feudalism, inertia and conservatism of the church.
The stormy era gave birth to its titans - Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau in France, Lomonosov in Russia, Schiller and Goethe in Germany. And their heroes - at the end of the century, Danton, Marat, Robespierre rose to the stands of the revolutionary Convention in Paris.
The artistic tastes of the era were diverse. The artsy baroque still prevailed in architecture, Alexandrian verses from the tragedies of Racine and Corneille sounded from the stage. But more and more popular works, the heroes of which were people of the "third estate". In the middle of the century, the genre of a sentimental novel in letters arose - readers with excitement followed the correspondence of lovers, experiencing their sorrows and misadventures. And in Strasbourg, a group of young poets and playwrights appeared, which entered the literature under the title "Storm and Onslaught". The heroes of their works are brave loners who challenge the world of violence and injustice.
Goethe's work was a kind of result of the Age of Enlightenment, the result of his searches and struggles. And the tragedy "Faust", which the poet created for more than thirty years, reflected the movement of not only scientific and philosophical ideas, but also literary trends. Although the time of action in "Faust" is not defined, its scope is infinitely expanded, the whole complex of ideas clearly correlates with the era of Goethe. After all, the first part of it was written in 1797-1800 under the influence of the ideas and achievements of the Great French Revolution, and last scenes written in 1831, when Europe experienced the rise and fall of Napoleon, Restoration.
At the heart of Goethe's tragedy is the folk legend of Faust, which arose in the 16th century. Its hero is a rebel, seeking to penetrate the secrets of nature, opposing the church's idea of slavish obedience and humility. In a semi-fantastic form, the image of Faust embodied the forces of progress that could not be stifled among the people, just as it was impossible to stop the course of history. Goethe was close to this seeker of truth, not satisfied with German reality.
The enlighteners, including Goethe, did not reject the idea of God, they only questioned the doctrines of the church. And in "Faust" God appears as the highest mind, standing over the world, over good and evil. Faust as interpreted by Goethe is, first of all, a scientist who questions everything - from the structure of the world to moral norms and rules of behavior. Mephistopheles for him is an instrument of knowledge. The means of scientific research at the time of Goethe were so imperfect that many scientists would agree to sell their souls to the devil in order to understand how the sun and the planets or the human eye work, why there are plague epidemics and what happened on Earth before the appearance of man.
Faust's rebellion, his torments, repentance and insight, which lies in the fact that only work for the benefit of mankind makes a person invulnerable to boredom and despondency - all this is an artistic embodiment of the ideas of the Enlightenment, one of the geniuses of which was Goethe.
An essay on literature on the topic: Philosophical tragedy of I. V. Goethe "Faust" - an expression of the advanced educational ideas of the era
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The 18th century, which ended with the Great French Revolution, developed under the sign of doubt, destruction, objections and passionate belief in the victory of the mind over superstitions and prejudices, civilization over barbarism, humanism over tyranny and injustice. Therefore, historians call it the century of the Enlightenment. The ideology of the Enlighteners triumphed in an era when the old medieval way of life was crumbling and a new, bourgeois order, progressive for that time, was forming. The figures of the Enlightenment ardently defended the ideas of cultural development, self-government, freedom, defended the interests of the masses, branded the yoke of feudalism, the backwardness and conservatism of the Church.
The stormy era gave birth to its titanites - Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau in France, Lomonosov in Russia, Schiller and Goethe in Germany. And their heroes - at the end of the century, Danton, Marat, Robespierre rose to the stands of the revolutionary Convention in Paris.
The artistic tastes of the era were different. The bizarre baroque still reigned in architecture, the Alexandrian verses of the tragedies of Racine and Corneille sounded from the theatrical horses. But more and more popularity was gained by works, the heroes of which were people of the "third pledge". In the middle of the century, the genre of a sentimental novel in letters arose - readers with excitement followed the correspondence of lovers, experiencing their troubles and troubles. And in Strasbourg, a group of young poets and playwrights appeared, then entered the literature under the name "Storm and Pressure". The heroes of their works are brave loners who challenge the world of violence and injustice
Goethe's work was a kind of result of the century of the Enlightenment, the result of his searches and struggles. And the tragedy "Faust", which the poet created for over thirty years, repulsed the movement of not only scientific and philosophical ideas, but also literary trends. Although the time of action in "Faust" is not defined, its scope is infinitely expanded, the whole complex of ideas clearly correlates with the era of Goethe. After all, the first part of it was written in 1797-1800 under the influence of the ideas and realizations of the Great French Revolution, and the last scenes were written in 1831, when Europe experienced the rise and fall of Napoleon, the Restoration
At the heart of Goethe's tragedy is the folk legend of Faust, which arose in the 16th century, its hero is a rebel who wants to penetrate the secret of nature, which opposes the church's idea of slavish obedience and humility. In a fantastic form of grievances, Faust embodied the forces of progress that could not be stifled among the people, just as it was impossible to stop the course of history. Goethe was close to this seeker of truth, not satisfied with German reality
The enlighteners, including Goethe, did not reject the idea of God, they only questioned the doctrines of the church. And in Faust, God appears as the highest mind that stands above the world, above good and evil. Faust, as interpreted by Goethe, is first of all a scientist, which casts doubt on everything - from the structure of the world to moral norms and rules of behavior. Raphael is an instrument of knowledge for him. The means of scientific research at the time of Goethe were so imperfect that many scientists would agree to sell their souls to the devil in order to understand how the Sun and the planets or the human eye are arranged, why there are plague epidemics and what was on Earth before the appearance of man. Faust's rebellion, his inner torment, repentance and insight, which consists in the fact that only work for the benefit of humanity makes a person invulnerable to boredom and despondency - all this is an artistic embodiment of the ideas of the Enlightenment, one of the geniuses of which is Buvete.
- 1.XVII century as an independent stage in the development of European literature. The main literary directions. Aesthetics of French classicism. "Poetic Art" n. Boileau
- 2. Literature of the Italian and Spanish Baroque. Lyrics by Marino and Gongora. Baroque theorists.
- 3. Genre features of the rogue novel. "The story of the life of a rascal named Don Pablos" by Quevedo.
- 4. Calderon in the history of the Spanish national drama. Religious and philosophical play "Life is a dream"
- 5.German literature of the 17th century. Martin Opitz and Andreas Griffius. Grimmelshausen's novel "Simplicius Simplicissimus".
- 6.English literature of the 17th century. John Donne. Creativity Milton. Milton's Paradise Lost as a Religious and Philosophical Epic. The image of Satan.
- 7. Theater of French classicism. Two stages in the formation of a classicist tragedy. Pierre Corneille and Jean Racine.
- 8. The classical type of conflict and its resolution in the tragedy "Sid" Corneille.
- 9. The situation of internal discord in the tragedy of Corneille "Horace".
- 10. Arguments of reason and selfishness of passions in the tragedy of Racine "Andromache".
- 11. The religious and philosophical idea of human sinfulness in Racine's tragedy “Phaedra”.
- 12. The work of Moliere.
- 13. Moliere's comedy "Tartuffe". Principles of character creation.
- 14. The image of Don Juan in world literature and in Moliere's comedy.
- 15.Molière's misanthrope as an example of the “high comedy” of classicism.
- 16. The era of the Enlightenment in the history of European literature. A controversy about a person in an English educational novel.
- 17. "The Life and Amazing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe" by D. Defoe as a philosophical parable about man
- 18. The genre of travel in the literature of the 18th century. Gulliver's Travels by J. Swift and A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy by Laurence Stern.
- 19.Creativity p. Richardson and Mr. Fielding. The Story of Tom Jones, the Foundling by Henry Fielding as a "comic epic."
- 20. The artistic discoveries and literary innovation of Laurence Stern. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman "L. Stern as an" Anti-Novel ".
- 21. Romance in Western European literatures of the 17th-18th centuries. Traditions of the rogue and psychological novel in the "History of the Chevalier de Grillot and Manon Lescaut" by Prevost.
- 22. Montesquieu and Voltaire in the history of French literature.
- 23. Aesthetic views and creativity of Denis Diderot. "Bourgeois Drama". The story "The Nun" as a work of enlightenment realism.
- 24. Genre of a philosophical story in French literature of the 18th century. "Candide" and "Innocent" by Voltaire. "Rameau's nephew" by Denis Diderot.
- 26. "The era of sensitivity" in the history of European literature and a new hero in the novels of l. Stern, J.-J. Rousseau and Goethe. New forms of perception of nature in the literature of sentimentalism.
- 27. German literature of the XVIII century. Lessing's aesthetics and drama. Emilia Galotti.
- 28.Schiller's Drama. "Robbers" and "Treachery and Love".
- 29. Literary movement "Storms and Onslaught". Goethe's novel The Suffering of Young Werther. Social and psychological origins of the Werther tragedy.
- 30. The tragedy of Goethe "Faust". Philosophical problems.
- 22. Montesquieu and Voltaire in French literature.
- 26. "The Age of Sensitivity" in the history of European literatures and a new hero in the novels of Stern, Rousseau, Goethe. New methods of perception of nature in sentimentalism.
- Lawrence Stern (1713 - 1768).
- 20. Artistic discoveries and literary innovation by Lawrence Stern. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman "L. Stern as an" Anti-Novel ".
30. The tragedy of Goethe "Faust". Philosophical problems.
Shortly before his death in 1831, Goethe completed the tragedy "Faust", the work on which took almost sixty years. The plot source of the tragedy was the medieval legend of Doctor Johann Faust, who made a pact with the devil in order to gain knowledge with which to turn base metals into gold. Goethe fills this legend with deep philosophical and symbolic meaning, creating one of the most significant works of world literature. The title character of Goethe's drama overcomes the sensual temptations prepared by Mephistopheles, his desire for knowledge is the desire for the absolute, and Faust becomes an allegory of humanity, with his indomitable will to knowledge, creation and creativity. In this drama artistic ideas Goethe is closely intertwined with his natural science concepts. So, the unity of the two parts of the tragedy is not due to the principles of classical drama, but is built on the concepts of "polarity" (a term to denote the unity of two opposite elements in one whole), "prefenomenon" and "metamorphosis" - a process of constant development, the cat is the key to all natural phenomena. If 1 part of the tragedy resembles a burgher drama; then in the 2nd part tending to the baroque mystery; the plot loses its external logic, the hero is transported to the endless world of the Universe, world relations take the first place. The epilogue of Faust shows that the action of the drama will never end, for it is the history of mankind.
Tragedy has 2 parts : in the 1st -25 scenes, in the 2nd-5 acts. Mixing the real with the fantastic is a two-pronged narrative. Built on the model of Shakespeare's chronicles with many episodic characters and laconic scenes. The tragedy begins with "Prologue in the theater "- aesthetic views of Goethe. In the conversation between the director, the poet and the comic actor, there are no contradictions, they complement each other and express the aesthetic foundations of the creator F. The poet defends the high purpose of art. Philosophical problems are solved in the buffoonery scene, in the everyday picture. "Prologue in Heaven "Is the key to the whole piece. Before us is God, the archangels and Mephistopheles. Archangels praise the harmony of the world. A hymn to nature, from Goethe's universe passes to Man, a reproach to all mankind, many wars, violence. God looks at man with optimism. Mephistopheles does not believe in fixing him. Between God and Mephistopheles, there is a talk about Faust, the seeker of truth. For God (personification of nature), he is a slave, that is, a slave of nature. M-l deeply reveals the topic of Man. (History, social, psychologist plans) pessimist view. A single theme - Man, Society, Nature. The author's views are revealed. The prologue resembles the book of Job from the Old Testament, but the theme is different - to resist base instincts. God offers a test: Mephistopheles in the role of a demon seduces Faust.
Faust. First part . Faust he devoted many years to science. He is wise, the fame of his knowledge is circulating, but Faust is yearning. His knowledge is insignificant in comparison with all the unsolved mysteries of nature. He opens the book and sees the sign of the macrocosm - everything is illuminated in him. He wants to know nature - this is his power over her. (Intertwining with the theme of nature). Faust is a strong, ardent nature. In a state of despair, he is ready to lay hands on himself (drink a goblet of poison), but the memory of childhood and the beauty of life stops him. It happened on Easter days. A jubilant people, chants to the glory of Christ, the spring sky are symbols of the rebirth of the life forces of Faust. He is full of sarcasm, curses vices and illusions about love that seduce a person. Faust lost faith in the power of knowledge, Met. rejoices, a treaty has been concluded Faust thinks that people have unlimited desires, Met. claims the opposite.
Scene in Auerbach's cellar. Philosopher allegory of vices and delusion of people. Met. Shows Faust the human world, real picture revels of drunken revelers (rude jokes, laughter, songs). Mephistopheles' song about a flea (watered meaning). Scene "Witch's Kitchen" - criticism of idealism and religion. Meth. Brought F to the cave of the witch to restore his youth. The witch and the serving monkeys are one of the forces hostile to reason. A meaningless spell, meditating on the trinity of Christians of God (criticism), Episode with the Bible. An attempt to translate the text of the Bible (In the beginning there was a word (idealists have a thought)). Faust's conversation with Margaret about religion (pantheistic philosophy). Love for a girl, The last page 1 of the part is dark (Walpurgis night), Margaret is awaiting execution in prison, her last words are addressed to Faust.
Faust. Second part. It was written already in the 19th century. (French Revolution, Napoleonic Wars, Restoration in Spain and Italy) The domination of the bourgeoisie brought new views, this was reflected in the production. Faust experienced a deep moral crisis, having lost Gretchen, knew an inner struggle. In a restless dream he lies in the meadow, above him are elves, symbols of eternal joy. They awaken him to life and to the accomplishment of great deeds. Then the scene changes-F at the court of the emperor. In the allegories of political problems. F and Meth arrange a masquerade (allegories of the curmudgeon with a piece of gold, the god Pluto, the goddess of fate, weaving the thread of the man of life, the Furies). The fire during the masquerade symbolized revolution (Goethe considers it inevitable). Revol opened the kingdom of money. Meth creates the ghost of wealth - he awakens low instincts, and even a symbolic figure of wisdom cannot overcome this. In the face of Paris and Helena, the revival of ancient art. The ardent heart of F is struck by the beauty of Helena, he is ready to serve her beauty (new goal). F is again in his dark office (meeting with Wagner). The fruit of the Wagner-Homunculus fantasy (a man in a flask), Thales dissolves it in water to bring it back to life and give true life. Walpurgis night among the ghosts of ant mythology, the desire to approach perfect beauty (Elena). He wanders in search of truth. He thought she was in beauty. (Refuted). with the elements, he creates. (this is the purpose of life). He found the truth, he is happy and dies with this thought. The final answer is given by a chorus of incomprehensible truths - the goal of essence-I-in pursuit of the goal
Faust. Images. F He devoted many years to science. He is wise, the fame of his knowledge is circulating, but F is yearning. His knowledge is insignificant in comparison with all the unsolved mysteries of nature.) F-nature is strong, hot, sensitive, energetic, sometimes selfish, always responsive, human ... In a state of despair, he is ready to lay hands on himself (drink a goblet of poison), but memories of childhood and the beauty of life stop him. For Goethe, opposites are important, in the clash of ideas, truth!
The image of Mephistopheles.
The image of Mephistopheles must be viewed in inseparable unity with Faust. If Faust is the embodiment of the creative forces of mankind, then Mephistopheles is a symbol of that destructive force, that destructive criticism that makes you go forward, learn and create. The Lord defines the function of Mephistopheles in the "Prologue in Heaven": A weak man: submitting to his inheritance, He is glad to seek peace, - therefore I will give a restless traveler to him: Like a demon, teasing him, let him excite him to business. Thus, denial is only one of the rounds of progressive development. Denial, "evil", of which Mephistopheles is the embodiment, becomes the impetus for a movement directed against evil. I am part of the power that always wants evil and always does good for Goethe, reflecting in Mephistopheles a special type of person of his time. Mephistopheles becomes denial incarnate. And the 18th century was especially full of skeptics. The flourishing of rationalism fostered the development of a critical spirit. Anything that did not meet the requirements of reason was called into question, and mockery smashed more than angry denunciations. For some, denial has become an overarching life principle, and this is reflected in Mephistopheles. Goethe does not paint Mephistopheles solely as the embodiment of evil. He is smart and perceptive, he criticizes very reasonably and criticizes everything: dissipation and love, craving for knowledge and stupidity: Mephistopheles is a master at noticing human weaknesses and vices, and one cannot deny the justice of many of his caustic remarks: Mephistopheles is also pessimistic. skeptic. Exactly
he says that human life is a pendulum, man himself considers himself "the god of the universe." These are the words of the devil yavl. indicators that Goethe is already abandoning rationalist concepts. Mephistopheles says that the Lord endowed people with a spark of reason, but there is no benefit from this, for he, a man, behaves worse than cattle. Mephistopheles' speech contains a sharp rejection of humanistic philosophy - the philosophy of the Renaissance. People themselves are so wicked that the devil does not need to do evil on earth. Nevertheless, Mephistopheles deceives Faust. Indeed, in fact, Faust does not say: "A moment, wait a second!" Faust, carried away in his dreams into the distant future, uses a conditional mood.
Tatiana Bolshakova
The concept of man in Goethe's tragedy "Faust"
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Modern civilization has gone through more than one stage in its development. The period, which is commonly called the New Time, began after the Renaissance, when culture began to free itself from the power of the church and a person again, as in antiquity, realized himself in the center of the world.
Man has always been in charge actor culture. The development of human self-awareness is inseparable from reflections on human nature. "What is a man?" - many thinkers have tried to illuminate this issue. Some believed, let's say, that human nature is due to the fact of the Fall, others saw it in the rationality of man as a creature, and still others - in its sociality. At earlier stages of development, this question existed in a different form - What does a person depend on? The ways of its comprehension remain relevant in our time. First mythology and later religion gave their own answers to this question.
In the early stages of myth-making, a person is dissolved in nature, he completely depends on it, but by rituals he strives to influence it. In the era of heroes, this desire takes on the features of real deeds - ancient Greek heroes are fighting the gods. This suggests that a person has risen to the next stage in the development of self-awareness, he realized himself as a creature capable of standing up for himself. But the Greek gods were symbols of various forces and phenomena of nature. A person dared to fight natural elements such as water, fire (Neptune, Hephaestus) or rebel against other phenomena in the form of gods, for example, against Ares - the god of war and envy, even against Zeus the thunderer, Prometheus fights with Aeschylus, but every time he speaks shal about fighting limited phenomena. Yet man continued to be a dependent creature, although he created images of anthropomorphic gods.
After the finalization of Christianity, a person began to depend on the church. During the Middle Ages, everything was subordinated to religion - culture, society, state, unbelief was persecuted and severely punished. And during this period, the legend about the contract between man and the devil is formed, in which a man tries to outwit the devil, and later with his help to find and comprehend himself. This has become a symbol of a change in worldview.
Folk legends comprehend the essence of a person with figurative and symbolic means, and alongside with the help of other cultural tools, philosophers are working on this problem. The beginning of the New Age - the era of the Enlightenment, during this period with the development of scientific knowledge and the conquest of nature, the worldview finally changed. Now thinkers were puzzled by another question - What depends on a person? And the answer was unexpected: it depends on the person how the world and he himself. This discovery made the problem of comprehending the human essence, perhaps the most pressing issue of cultural studies.
The philosophers of the Enlightenment considered man from various positions, highlighting one characteristic of human nature: a rational or sensual beginning, individual or social being, conscious or mechanical action. In the process of solving these problems, several main directions have emerged.
Sensualism is a teaching that recognizes sensation as the only source of knowledge. The founder of sensationalism can be considered the English philosopher F. Bacon. His ideas were developed in the philosophical systems of John Locke, George Berkeley, David Huma.
In the philosophy of the 18th century, man appears, on the one hand, as a separate, isolated individual, acting in accordance with his own private interests. On the other hand, abolishing the previous forms of community, the philosophers of the 18th century propose instead of them a new one - legal universality, in the face of which all individuals are equal - this is the state. Worked in this direction: Thomas Hobbes, John Locke.
Julien Ofre La Mettrie viewed a man as a machine. This, he said, is a living personification of continuous movement. We think, according to Lemetri, and in general we are decent people only when we are cheerful or cheerful: it all depends on how our car is turned on. Food and climate have an impact on humans. Different states of mind always correspond to analogous states of the body. ...
Thus, the question of the essence of man in the Age of Enlightenment was considered from various positions, each of which was important and justified, but their general drawback can be considered one-sidedness, linearity.
Spiritual culture, besides science, has another powerful tool for understanding the world. This is art. Its figurative nature always serves as the basis for ideas about the world that are more holistic than those with which scientific knowledge operates.
With the formation of a new anthropocentric civilization, the need for self-consciousness of the European man began to form. The plot of the legend of Faust had a folk origin and expressed an old dream of a strong and free man.
The image of Faust had prototypes that appeared during the development of Christianity - these are the New Testament Simon the Magus, Cyprian and Justin from Antioch, and Theophilus. The Christian God, in contrast to the ancient Greek gods, appears to be an all-encompassing principle and absolute Good. In this regard, in folk tales and legends, a person did not fight with God, but with that which represented universal evil - devils and pagan demons.
In medieval legends, the terrible death of a warlock is viewed from the standpoint of punishing an atheist for a sinful, unrighteous life as a triumph of Christian morality. The plot of ancient legends corresponded to the requirements and views of the Catholic Church, and therefore did not differ in the pluralism of interpretations of the life and death of Faust. If the church insisted on the inevitability of the punishment of the sinner, then public consciousness looked for ways to justify it.
The first who embodied the legend of Faust in a complete literary work, was Johann Spies in the book “The Story of Doctor Johann Faust, the famous sorcerer and warlock, how he signed a treaty with the devil for a certain period of time, what miracles he observed at that time, performed and worked himself, until, finally, he received his well-deserved reward ... Mostly extracted from his own posthumous writings and printed in order to serve as a frightening and disgusting example and a sincere warning to all ungodly and insolent people. Epistle of the Apostle James, IV: Be obedient to the Lord, resist the devil, and he flees from you. Cum Gratia et Privilegio (By gracious permission and privilege (lat.) Printed in Frankfurt am Main by Johannes Spies "[Zhirmunsky VM Legend of Doctor Faust - M: Science, 1978] (1587). In this work Faust was condemned by the author for godlessness, but the fate of the hero is told in it so vividly and vividly that one could enjoy the narration, contrary to the author's moral teachings.
Spies's story about Faust summed up the fifty-year historical and folklore development of Faustian and recorded in detail the Faustian plot, as well as outlined the main circle of issues that are associated with the crime and punishment of the daring hero.
The fate of the second book about Doctor Faust, published in 1599, was the same as the fate of the book of Spies. No matter how sluggish the learned pen of the Honorable Heinrich Widmann was, no matter how overloaded his book was with condemnatory quotations from the Bible and the Church Fathers, it nevertheless quickly won wide circle readers, since it contained a number of new legends about the glorious warlock that were not included in Shpiss's narration.
The legend of Faust is the story of the connection between a proud person and evil spirits. Catholic monks and Lutheran pastors denounced him in every possible way, tried to prove that he was a miserable, unhappy charlatan, died a painful death and was doomed to eternal torment in hell. But despite this, popular rumor attributed to him supernatural feats, brilliant victories in disputes and clashes with enemies, happiness in love. And although all legends also began with the fact that Faust entered into an agreement with the devil, in many cases unknown authors tended to sympathize with the hero and admire him with enthusiasm, rather than condemn and curse him.
It was these characteristics of the legend that inspired one of Shakespeare's predecessors, the remarkable English playwright Christopher Marlowe, who wrote “ Tragic story Doctor Faust "(1588).
Contrary to the judgments of Lutheran theologians and moralists, Marlowe explains the actions of his hero not by his desire for carefree pagan epicureanism and easy profit, but by his insatiable thirst for knowledge. Thus, Marlowe was the first to return this folk fiction to its former ideological meaning, obscured by the legends of the official church.
Among the humanists of the late Renaissance, there were also different, in comparison with Marlowe, points of view on the legend of Faust. If the radical-minded supporter of the titanic "striving" Marlowe revealed the tragic aspect of the legend, then the humanist of the burgher orientation, the conservative Ben Johnson, in the comedy "The Alchemist" (1610) illuminated its comic side.
In addition to charlatanism, Ben Johnson saw delusion and stupidity in the activities of Faust. This side of Faust's image is embodied in the character of the "Alchemist", named after Sir Epicurus Mammon. Like Faust, he seeks magical ways to master the world with the help of spirits. Stupidity feeds this belief in magic, and it was born of the individualistic moods of Sir Mammon, and in particular his "epicureanism." The idea of an exclusive attachment to earthly life and carnal pleasures is connected here with "epicureanism".
The hero of the Renaissance and Reformation era seemed to be rejuvenated again in the Age of Enlightenment. The image of Faust attracted the attention of the most revolutionary writer of that time, Lessing, who, referring to the legend of Faust, was the first to plan to end the drama not by casting the hero into hell, but with loud rejoicing of the heavenly hordes to the glory of an inquisitive and zealous seeker of truth. Death prevented Lessing from completing the drama, and only a small fragment of it survived.
Maximilian Klinger, a friend of Goethe, in 1791 published the novel "The Life, Deeds and the Fall of Faust into Hell", in which, among other things, Faust was credited with the invention of printing. Many pages of this book are full of passionate antifeudal satire, but at the same time it also embodies the motives of bitter disappointment, a pessimistic rejection of some of the ideals of the Enlightenment.
Klinger's Faust, the first printer, depicted in the concrete historical conditions of the European Renaissance, is not so much a mythological character with his timeless existence as a historical person in typical circumstances of a particular era.
Paganism often embodied the idea of the power of man in the image of a magician, a sorcerer, subjugating mysterious forces. The Middle Ages gave rise to the legend of a daring man striving for power at any cost, up to a deal with the devil. Christian culture she reinterpreted this legend into the story of the death of a sinful soul, but with the growth of the process of secularization, the goals of culture changed, and the image of Faust also changed. The peak of the literary trend and the transformation of the image of the medieval warlock was Goethe's tragedy "Faust". In the image of Faust, the author combined all the philosophical problems of the Enlightenment and this image became a symbol of the philosophical quest of the era, the main trends of which were the dissemination and popularization of scientific knowledge.
Goethe summarized actual problems era and considered on the example of one person, on the example of Faust. Goethe used a "wandering plot", but saturated it with contemporary philosophical content, showing in the fate of the hero a generalized and large-scale image of human fate.
Opposites colliding in the world in tragedy are embodied in two mythological images- Lord and Mephistopheles. The first expresses goodness and creation, the second - negation and destruction. Traditionally in legends, the images of God and the Devil are symbols of good and evil fighting for human soul... But Goethe reinterprets this opposition from the standpoint of contemporary philosophy.
A dispute arises between the Lord and Mephistopheles about the possibilities human personality... Mephistopheles - expresses the medieval, obsolete idea of man - oddly enough, quite recently it was the point of view of the church. Mephistopheles considers a person insignificant, miserable, subordinate to the flesh, prone to sin. The Lord presents a different point of view. Man is the crown of creation, the beloved creation of God. The Lord expresses humanistic views on a person - he believes in his ability to strive for good and fight for it.
Goethe's God is knowledge, truth and Universal Reason. God personifies the highest principle, but in accordance with the concept of deists does not interfere in the life of people and only occasionally pronounces a sentence over them. God trusts man, gives him freedom of choice.
The embodiment of evil in the work is Mephistopheles. But his role is at least twofold. In his attempts to awaken the base in Faust, he acts as a devil-tempter. In Christian ideology, the devil is not equal to God, he is the absence of grace, he is darkness, the lack of light. In Goethe, this trait takes on a philosophical understanding. Always and in everything, Mephistopheles is a negative force. By his denial of the existing, Mephistopheles constantly not only tempts Faust, but also pushes him to search for a new one, thereby contributing to the transition to new stages in the development of self-consciousness. The proud Faustian impulse, combined with the Mephistophelian decisiveness in practical matters, turns out to be the lever that ultimately leads Faust to movement, search and development.
At the beginning of the tragedy, we see Faust as a scientist of advanced age, when he cursed his dreams of glory, and most of all - vulgar patience - this marks the moment of awakening of self-consciousness. The turning point has come. Faust saw the enemy of his development, this is inner isolation and aimless absorption of other people's knowledge. True spiritual development in the opposite - in purposeful cognition, productive thinking and vigorous activity. Being in such a state of mind, he concludes an agreement with Mephistopheles.
The essence of Faust's pact with Mephistopheles is that Mephistopheles will receive the soul of Faust in his power if he feels completely satisfied. This will mean that a person is insignificant in his aspirations. Faust needs youth to search and test. The first thing that Mephistopheles does for Faust is to restore his youth and strength.
From that moment on, each episode of the tragedy becomes, as it were, an experiment, a breakdown of the forces of Faust in the stream of real life. Mephistopheles invites Faust to first get acquainted with the "small world", that is, people in their private life, and then enter " Big world"- state life, sphere public life... On the path of external life, consciousness can stop at the level family life, but it can also reach a state, wider scale.
In the tragedy, Goethe both accuses and justifies his heroes. The author shows that in the collision of the social and the individual, a person must make a choice. In the episode with Margarita, Mephistopheles laughs at what appears to be conventions in love. However, society does not allow violation of its age-old foundations - and Goethe leaves us to reflect on their essence. The heroes are justified by their ability to feel guilty and to be held accountable for their actions. At the everyday level, the question of happiness turns into questions about the ways to achieve it, about sin and atonement. It turns out that these concepts cannot be abolished by Mephistopheles' mockery.
In addition to the metaphysical side, which Mephistopheles represents with his wiles, evil in the work has another real side. These are social and social conditions of human life. For Goethe, evil is the remnants of society, habits, prejudices and stable patterns of behavior. And in the second part of the tragedy, Goethe expands the understanding of the real side of evil. This part of the tragedy is replete with Goethe's caustic allusions to the political situation of his time and expresses educational criticism of the failure of monarchical regimes in Europe. Evil is the state apparatus and the imperial power, whose aspirations are very base - wealth and entertainment. Goethe vividly depicts a historical impasse - the intentions of the authorities do not lead to the prosperity of society, the people live in poverty, the state does not develop either economically or socio-culturally.
Passing trials, Faust is gradually purified, passing to a higher and higher level of self-awareness. Faust is close to absolute power. And even at this stage of development, which not many reach, he remains subject to well-established social patterns of behavior. Inadvertently, he becomes the killer of Philemon and Baucis: Faust did not give a direct order to kill them, but the dominant principle recognizes only his own interest, trampling on the old morality and ethics.
At the end of the tragedy, Goethe draws his hero as a deep old man. But, in spite of his old age, his imminent death, Goethe's Faust still looks optimistically to the future, still affirms the activity of human action as the most important principle of human life.
Faust at the end of his life does not utter the phrase “Stop a moment, you are wonderful!”, In his last monologue he dreams of a time when he can see his people happy. For Faust, not a complete immersion in the individual blessings of life, not getting pleasure was an end in itself, but a search and improvement, a constant struggle.
Goethe created the image of an integral personality, but at the same time showed the complexity of the essence of man as such. The contradictions between the personal and the public, between reason and feelings, become a tragic condition for human existence. Throughout his life, a person resolves them and, constantly making a choice, develops. The man of the Enlightenment is endowed with will, but not always his choice, as Goethe shows, leads to positive consequences.
The medieval treaty of Faust and the devil takes on a new interpretation in Goethe's tragedy, is endowed with a different one, symbolic meaning... And the point is that movement is the only way life exists. Stopping leads to regression and degradation.
Goethe in his work affirms faith in man, in the unlimited possibilities of reason for development. The struggle according to Goethe becomes the vital law of eternal becoming, which, in turn, becomes an eternal test.
Faust, as he is shown in the tragedy, is a titanic personality, equal in power to the capabilities of the heroes of the Renaissance. Faust is not a warlock, not a magician, as he appears in the legend, he is above all free man, striving by the power of his thoughts to penetrate the secrets of being. Faust, as a true man, is dissatisfied with what has been achieved, uncomfortable. In this Goethe sees the guarantee of the eternal perfection of the human person.
Goethe showed in Faust the same features that worried the philosophers - the enlighteners, but in a contradictory unity: Faust thinks and feels, he is able to act mechanically and at the same time is able to make deep conscious decisions. He is an individual who strives for freedom, and at the same time finds the meaning of life in actions for the benefit of other people. But the most important discovery of Goethe is Faust's ability to search and develop in conditions of tragic internal contradiction.
Literature:
1. Anikst A. A. Goethe and Faust. From conception to accomplishment. - Moscow, "Book", 1983 - 271s.
2. Zhirmunsky V. M. Legend of Doctor Faust - M: Science, 1978.
3. Locke J. Experience of human understanding // Man. M., 1991
4. Russell Bertrand. The history of Western philosophy and its connection with political and social conditions from antiquity to the present day - Novosibirsk: Novosibirsk University Press: 1994. - 393 p.
In the historical change of cultural eras, the enlightenment draws attention to the intense concentration of ideas in a limited time space. A new reader in this critical era demanded a new artistic reality, writers intensively used new ways of reflecting reality. Such a new work can rightfully be considered the tragedy of I. Goethe "Faust".
The writer worked on this work almost all his life. The first idea came to him when he was a little over twenty, and he completed the composition of "Faust" a few years before his death.
Considering that Goethe lived in the world for almost eighty-two years, it is easy to calculate that about sixty years elapsed from the beginning of work on Faust to its completion.
Goethe's work defies clear definition in the light of generally accepted literary categories such as, for example, classicism, romanticism or realism. Faust is a poetic work of a special, extremely rare style. The researcher of Goethe's creativity A. Anikst defines genre feature"Faust" as a kind of artistic universalism, since it includes elements that are different in their artistic nature.
First of all, when reading "Faust", attention is drawn to the subtle interweaving of elements of real, sometimes even naturalistic, and explicit fiction, fantasy. So, real-life scenes include a revelry of students in Auerbach's cellar, lyric scenes - the hero's meeting with Margarita, tragic - Gretchen in a dungeon. Episodes of Faust's pact with the devil, Witch's Kitchen, Walpurgis Night are completely unreal and generated by the poet's fantasy. However, Goethe's fiction is ultimately always connected with reality. At the same time, real images are imbued in "Faust" with a meaning that goes beyond the limits of a particular case, and have a generalized, symbolic character.
In addition, cutting-edge educational ideas are reflected in the work of Goethe. First of all, the Enlightenment developed as a movement for the study of nature, comprehension of its laws and the use of scientific discoveries for the benefit of mankind. These ideas were of a general European character, but were especially developed in Germany. The striving of the best people for a new life was manifested not in political struggle or even in practical activity, but in mental activity. The highest embodiment of advanced philosophical thought and artistic creation Goethe's Faust was at that time.
Interestingly, the writer himself was against attempts to find concrete answers to difficult life questions in his work. He said that he himself did not know the idea of his work and could not express: “Indeed, it would be a good thing if I tried such a rich, variegated and extremely diverse life that I put into my Faust, strung on a skinny string of one and only idea for the whole work. " However, the poet's words should not be taken literally, in the sense that he denies the presence of an idea as such in his work. There is an organizing center in his work - this is the personality of the protagonist, Faust, who is a symbolic figure that embodies all of humanity.
Faust is undoubtedly a living person with passions and feelings inherent in other people. He is capable of delusion, suffering, error. In his nature, as in the nature of any other person, two principles were embodied - good and evil. Meanwhile, Faust is well aware of his imperfection. His fairest feature- eternal dissatisfaction with oneself and the world around him, the desire to become better and make the world a more perfect place for the life and development of people. Life path Fausta is the path of relentless pursuit.
Faust's father was a doctor and instilled in him a love of science. But his father's healing turned out to be powerless against diseases that afflicted people. During an epidemic of plague, Faust turns with prayer to heaven, but help does not come from there, from which Faust concludes that appeals to God are meaningless. Disappointed in religion, he decides to devote himself entirely to science. Faust devotes many years to the study of scientific wisdom, but gradually comes to the conclusion that all his attempts are fruitless:
Parchments don't quench your thirst.
The key of wisdom is not in the pages of books.
Who strives to the secrets of life with the thought of each,
In his soul he finds their source.
Faust's despair reaches such an extent that he decides to commit suicide, but at the decisive moment bells ringing and choral singing are heard, and a glass of poison falls from the hands of a suicidal loser. But it is not a reminder of God and not a consciousness of the sinfulness of suicide that prompts Faust to abandon the intention to commit suicide. He recalls how, as a child, the mysterious hum of bells gave birth to what is pure and light in his heart. In the prayer of completely strangers and strangers, Faust hears the call of mankind for help: just as he in childhood in difficult times turned to God with prayer, so now people who pray, who do not know how to find a way out of difficulties, turn to religion, seeking in her support.
Faust decides to return to the scientific knowledge of life, but now he is not interested in bookish knowledge, since they are dead and far from life. The knowledge that the hero is looking for is concentrated in the very thick of life's events.
At this critical moment on the path of Faust, Mephistopheles meets, embodying the forces of evil, he is sure that the human race is ungrateful and that in life a person is guided only by his own passions. Goethe's image of a devil seducing a person is far from popular beliefs. Mephistopheles is shrewd and "devilishly" clever. He himself says about himself that "he does good, desiring evil for everything." As we remember, a similar vision of the forces of evil was inherent in the Russian writer M. Bulgakov, who took Goethe's words as an epigraph to the novel The Master and Margarita: “I am part of the power that always wants evil, but always does good.” Mephistopheles plays a very important role in the tragedy. He constantly pushes Faust to the wrong, but, without expecting it, awakens in him the best sides of nature.
Faust acquires the highest wisdom only at the end of his life. He understands that the true happiness of any person lies in seeking, struggle and work. Faust's soul is overshadowed by "divine grace." Goethe's concept of "divine grace" was rethought in accordance with the advanced ideas of the era. Even Aristotle wrote in Poetics: “Character is that in which the direction of the will is revealed”; "This character will be noble if it reveals a noble direction of will." Faust goes to his achievements, suffering losses, suffering, suffering, tormented by doubts and constant dissatisfaction. But he shows noble willpower, his aspirations are pure and selfless. The image of Faust embodied the human ideal in the minds of the enlighteners, who believed that the meaning of human life is in the struggle for eternal truth and justice.