Faustus the Fool

I feel bad for Faustus at the end of the play. I understand that he signed his soul over to the devil, but he was just so helpless at the end. Despite his flaws, I pity him. Or maybe I pity him because of his flaws.
He just had this hope that when he signed his soul over, he would live this awesome life, but I don't think that happened. He plays pranks on the Pope, gives a guy some horns and let's someone take his leg. That just doesn't seem like the grand life Faustus had in mind.
In the last act, it seems like Faustus is still doing the basic magic tricks he was in the beginning of the play. The scholars want to see Helen of Greece, so Faustus makes her appear. I just feel like Faustus didn't really live a life worth giving up his soul for. If he knows he's going to Hell, why didn't he live it up?
We were asked where we think Faustus can no longer receive mercy, and I think that point comes after Faustus sends away the old man and the three scholars who visit him. After the old man leaves, Faustus plans to pledge himself to the devil once again. Faustus says, "Torment, sweet friend, that base and aged man/that durst dissuade me from thy Lucifer" (81, 82-83). The old man is trying to help Faustus be worthy of heaven again, but he just brushes it aside.
After this, Faustus talks about how Mephostophilis robbed him of the joys of heaven, but he doesn't really do anything about. The fact that he waits an hour before he is to be taken to Hell to beg God for forgiveness doesn't really help his situation. If he wanted to be saved, he should have done it sooner.
I feel bad for him because Hell is described in a very terrifying way, but he should have tried to redeem himself a lot sooner if he didn't want to spend eternity there.

Avoidance Behavior...?

Though we've moved on to Doctor Fuastus' rather silly shenanigans, I am still trying to think of why anyone in their right mind would sell their soul to the devil. We were instructed to think of his past. In our last class, we established that he obviously has nothing else to live for, hence his decision to sell his soul to the devil. He's some lonely guy who has nothing better to do than decide to learn all he could about hell. I'm sure if he had a wife and children, he'd be too busy chasing them around to even think about writing away his soul with his own blood. Or maybe he's just some pompous and prideful guy who decides being a doctor just isn't enough ( not enough accolades *rolls eyes*) to feed his ego. Either way he still has way too much time on his hands and no real friends because a real friend would have surely knocked some sense into his head (I hope). Obviously this guy has some serious issues. Anyway I found this cartoon and thought it fit Doctor Faustus so well...

It's not too funny if you don't know what avoidance behavior is, so I did some light research. Basically, avoidance behavior is someone who is socially inhibited, is sensitive to negative criticism, struggles with feelings of inadequacy and avoids social interactions. People with this issue are lonely, anxious, and isolated. I think Doctor Faustus fits the bill. He avoids the world (i.e. no wife, no kids, no friends), becomes isolated and lonely, and then decides to sell his soul to the devil.

Faustus: Expectations vs. Reality

So I think that when Faustus makes his deal with Mephistophilis, he's expecting the rest of his 24 years to be really dramatic. Something sort of like this:

However, what we end up seeing in Acts 3 & 4 are mostly a bunch of juvenile pranks. And they're not even particularly funny, like this one:

So what's up with Faustus? Why doesn't he make the most of the power he's been given? Why settle for a bunch of silly mischief? How are his pranks and the use (or not) of his power connected to his descent into despair? Is he just trying to distract himself?

I'd be very curious to hear what you guys think, either in comments or in posts of your own.

Utopia

     I was in charge of the Literary Lingo powerpoint with Jordan, on allusion. Although I had prior knowledge of allusion and what it entails, I was surprised and my lack of knowledge in its frequency. In my English classes, we are constantly looking for allusion throughout the text, but who knew there were examples of it in everyday life! I am thoroughly enjoying being able to annoy my sister by pointing out examples of allusions when we are out and about. She has completely had it with my repetition of the example using the Odyssey minivan relating back to Homer's story.

     Although I was not in class for the debate about Paradise and Utopia, I have my own idea of the two. I don't believe either exists. Paradise is a make-believe place in my eyes. It is a place where everything is perfect and relaxing. Well, anyone who has ever lived knows there is no place to go without being stressed by one thing or another. I believe paradise is more of a mind set. I think anyone can be in paradise, no matter where they are in the world. It is all about understanding that nothing has to stress you out, make you unhappy, or cause you to make certain decisions. Everything is only what you make it. Somewhat like the offensiveness in The Miller's Tale, it is only what you make it to be.

     Having a place like a Utopia is impossible. That sort of thing could only happen if everyone had the same mind set. It has to include things like war in order to run things "correctly," but that idea of correct is made by people who have lots of different opinions on what is "correct."

    I don't think either place actually exists, really. There will never be a point in time when everyone is on the same page.

A Little Late

     Due to my lack of thumbs, I am a little late on these blog comments. I am officially the person Dr. Mitchell-Buck warned us about in the beginning of the class! Oh well, better late than never...right?

     Bringing us back to the Miller's Tale, I wanted to point out a few things about the story. I was extremely surprised by the amount of people who were offended by this type of writing. Not to sound like I am giving a lecture or anything, but doesn't everyone witness worse things in every day life? I think I could definitely be more offended listening to a conversation on the street rather than reading this particular story.

    Granted,  my amusement with the story may have something to do with the fact that I grew up with five other brothers and sisters. Maybe it is just programmed into my system to find fart jokes hilarious at this point.

    I was not offended by any of the characters, either! Yes, Alisuon may have been fibbing a bit when she made her marital vows, but I don't believe she can be dubbed a "bad person" just for acting that way. She was clearly unhappy with her life and relationship, so, she found someone who made her feel better! Her husband, John, was not really deserving of the husband award himself and was a bit old for her anyway.

    Nicholas was young just like Alisoun and it makes sense to me that they would have an attraction for each other. The way he gets Alisoun's "attention" was a bit harsh, but, hey, it worked! I know it is easy for someone to read that and feel mad at Alisoun's lack of anger in being violated, but if you can look at the story as a whole, it won't be as offensive. The teller of this story is drunk and so as a reader, you can't expect it not to involve anything vulgar or potentially offensive. Plus, I give major props to Nicholas for allowing her to feel comfortable enough to fart in front of him! It is easy to see it as karma coming back to bite him (literally in the butt) when you see his fate at the end of the story.

   It is really hard for me to dislike or even be annoyed by any of the characters or humor used in the story. In my opinion, it is all about not taking life too seriously. That plays into something as simple as an old story.

I can't handle you, Doctor Faustus

This is just based off of the class discussion last week, but I still just...I can't find it in me yet to like Doctor Faustus. I guess I can see where the hearts break and pity sets in for a guy who just wants a friend, but I mean. Come on there are plenty of ways to make friends that don't involve getting into bed with necromancy and calling forth a demon from Hell to follow you around for 24 years.

I guess his first monologue already really turned me off from him. He doesn't want to be a doctor anymore because he isn't getting the praises and "celebrity status" he feels he deserves for his work? Last time I checked, you should going into that field because you like to help people, not because you want to be awarded for it. I'm just not sorry that he doesn't feel he's being rewarded enough for doing his job. Especially when it's a job where I feel like the reward should be saving someone's life. So being a doctor is out the window. But then he throws out Law because...it's "too servile" for him. So he doesn't want to go unnoticed in his work, but he also doesn't to serve other people...so he turns next to the dark arts of Necromancy (a logical jump, I'm sure).

And then, with his new found love of demons and waking the dead, Faustus decides he's going to call forth a devil so he can become the King of Germany or some such nonsense. Because I guess if you can't make your own friends, you have to make people to be your friend, right (that's how that works, right?)? So some Latin words and loud shouting later, he calls forth this demon who seems less than ecstatic to be there, and asks for 24 years of this demon's servitude in exchange for his soul. His soul!

I feel like 24 years of forced friendship isn't worth an eternity of Damnation. So sure, his loneliness pulls at my heartstrings for maybe 5 minutes. Because then he turns around and makes this half-assed deal with Lucifer. It's like he called up Mephostophilis and simply picked 24 years because it was a lucky number on his fortune cookie that afternoon.

I just can't fathom ever making this deal, no matter how lonely I got. And if he had nothing to live for, you'd think he would use this deal with the hefty price tag of "one soul in eternal damnation" to make his life, I don't know...worth something to him? Not 24 measly years of control over a demon and a steak dinner.

Utopia isn't so perfect after all

Like many of us, I grew up believing that utopia was both a perfect place and one where the people has complete say over how to run the country. After reading Thomas More’s Utopia, it’s safe to say that my vision of utopia has completely changed.

The way the idea of utopia was presented, it has more of a “big brother” feel to it. If the people of utopia, came on their own free will, on the basis they would have say in how the country works; is it necessary to have someone/something always watching? Or appear to be. The fact that people can just walk into your house, without knocking, is not only creepy, but just downright weird. Regardless of the fact that some rules are meant to be broken, someone’s house is their personal paradise, you cannot have people just perusing around.

In my opinion, the idea of utopia presented in this novel, is nothing more than a new way to fool people into living in a place where they believe life will be different and perhaps better than where they currently reside. When in reality, it is more similar to the world they left than they realize. 

So many footnotes so little time.

Normally, I’m the type of person that likes, and dare I say it, enjoys footnotes. Obviously for the fact that they help clarify what I’m reading, but in their own manner, they teach me a new fact/idea that I can (and probably will) look up at a later date. However, the footnotes for Utopia were like a novel in themselves. I feel as though I spent more time reading them than I did the novel. While I’m grateful for someone who makes it their job to put them in to text, there is such a thing as going overboard. To say the footnotes in Utopia went overboard would be an understatement. 

Utopia

When I started reading Book II of Utopia, I instantly thought it was better than the first section that we read because it was much easier to read and understand. Book I is very dull and boring, and I just found it difficult to get through because it is so wordy. I felt like Thomas More was just rambling a lot of the time, which makes it difficult to find the point he was making. I found Book II easier to read because More was describing this so called “perfect” world, and it wasn’t as hard to understand. At first, Utopia sounded interesting to me—not in the “I would like to live there” way, but more because it was a different take on what an ideal society would look like. But as I read on I realized that it’s not as perfect as Thomas More makes it out to be.

My cons list ended up being much, much longer than my pros list. The first aspect that hit me that I didn’t like was the fact that in this “perfect” society, there were still slaves. I know that during the 16^th century, slaves were a common thing, and were different from how we think of them. That doesn’t stop me from thinking that a utopia should not have slaves, because then this would not be a perfect world for everyone; only some. I also didn’t like the same routine every single day, no privacy, and the fact that everybody wore generally the same clothes. There is no individuality in this, and to me it seems like this world would get very boring, very fast.

Thomas More’s version of Utopia feels like the world itself is trying too hard to be perfect, if that makes any sense. Like someone just thought “Hey, if we make everybody look the same and have the same job, then there won’t be any problems in the world.” This reminds me of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 because in that world, the government made books illegal and burned them all to prevent the people from having individuality or having any opinions and beliefs of their own. To the people in the book, other than Guy Montag and Clarisse, this was a perfect world because there were no problems, and nobody argued or had a different opinion, but it was really a dystopia. I feel like More’s Utopia is going to eventually become a dystopia, because it is not, in fact, perfect.

Doctor Faustus just wants a friend!

After reading the first two acts of this, disturbing?, play I can actually say I feel bad for Doctor Faustus. At first, I didn't like this guy and I definitely didn't like his ego. He's accomplished so much and helped so many people, yet he still wants more. Envy and greed are clearly two sins friendly to Doctor F. 

I can relate to Doctor Faustus's sudden emptiness. He doesn't have anything, or more importantly anyone, to live for. Sure you should always do things for yourself, it's the first rule of self-esteem; and lesbihonest, Doctor F. Has no problem boasting about himself.

Besides that, he's alone. No one is there to tell him they're proud of him or anything. No wonder he's having this self absorbing crisis. 

I can relate to this fully, but I would not sell my soul just because I'm upset. That's what ice cream or a bottle of liquor are for! Instead he sells his soul and is given a demon, Mephostophilis. He has this demon for exactly twenty four years, (I don't know why twenty four) in service.  Despite the fact Doctor Faustus sold his soul, he does however gets what I think he needed most. A friend. Even though he is a demon and doesn't really fit with the ideals of the definition of "friendship", he is still there for Doctor Faustus. 

Doctor Faustus and The Clowns!

Okay, so we were told to find out what the clowns in act 3 symbolized? To be honest, I thought this was a very difficult question. I read this section about three times and I finally came up with something! Please don't mark me on this, I could be wrong! Robin (who was one of the clowns) says, " 'Tis no matter, let him come! An he follow us I'll conjure him as he was never conjured in his life, I warrant him. Let me see the cup"(50). This whole conversation between Robin and Dick (the clowns) is about stealing a simple cup. In my opinion, they are providing comic relief to show how Faustus wants magic for simple things. He has no real reason for why he wants to have magic. It seems that he only wants to use it because he has nothing else better to do with his life. When Vintner asked Dick and Robin did they steal the cup, they both said no. In reality, Robin uses his magic to make the cup disappear while Vintner is looking for it. This can relate to Doctor Faustus because it's basically stating how he will use his magic to tease people with immature tactics. Also, he is using the magic for his advantage. In addition, Robin calls on Mephostophilis and the other devils to enter for assistance. Doctor Faustus usually calls on Mephostophilis for assistance with his conniving duties.  If you  noticed every time Faustus calls on Mephostophilis, he is begging him for some type of information or help. This is exactly what the clowns did. With that being said, I realized that the clowns were just used to provide humor to the play. In reality Robin is used to resemble Doctor Faustus and his use of magic. 

Utopia

So, I am so glad we are done with Middle English. I mean, even though I did like the stories and how the language sounded read aloud (by other people of course…not me…that just sounded…just no.), I really like reading something that I can pronounce.

Sure, I may not be able to understand the high class philosophy and jokes that were clearly written to be funny in Latin or to someone with a brain the size of Modok (if you don’t know who he is Google it and rethink your life), but God dangit I can tell what a word is saying!

Anyways, to the actual text.

I entered this text having no prior experience with it other than knowing that it exists. I expected it to be like a typical experience about how, in a perfect world, everything is sunshines and rainbows. I thought it would be a relatively easy concept to grasp, you know? Like, Thomas More writes a scene where it is definitely hinting at how people of that time should rethink society or something.

But I have never been so wrong (Couldn't find the right Hobbit meme to fit this so deal with it).

Instead, I actually found Thomas More's utopia to be kind of disturbing. I mean, in an ideal world, shouldn't stuff like war, getting older, and dying be some kind of a myth? And what kind of peaceful and noble country would be so cowardly as to hire mercenaries to do the dirty work instead of confronting whatever problem themselves (and yes, I'm aware that there are many countries who may or may not do that even today)?

I know More's Utopia is a social critique and junk, but I just can't wrap my mind around the fact that there are still so many problems that exist in such a "perfect" society. And yes...I consider having no privacy a MAJOR problem.

Also, I know these aren't sheep, but use your imagination. And if you're offended by the language then, well, sorry I didn't make the dang thing.