This  Paper  is  a  Tragedy   by  Marina  Manoukian   When  considering  the  question  of  whether  or  not  Faust,  Part  1  is  a  tragedy,   what  tragedy  is  must  first  be  examined,  along  with  underlining  the  difference   between  tragedy  and  comedy.  Both  tragedy  and  comedy  rely  on  incoherence,  the   tension  between  two  poles  in  life.  However,  while  comedy  relieves  the  tension   between  the  two  poles,  often  resulting  in  a  happy  union,  literally,  tragedy  exposes   the  tension,  bringing  it  to  the  surface.  And  the  irony  is  that  what  tragedy  exposes  is   only  the  appearance  of  the  fact  that  we  can  only  get  at  things  through  appearances.   And  in  this  case,  Faust,  Part  1  is  certainly  a  tragedy,  because  not  only  does  it  bring  to   the  surface  and  give  an  appearance  to  the  tension  between  two  poles,  the  play  itself,   and  the  play  within  the  play,  is  about  bringing  to  the  surface,  giving  appearance,  to   what  is  inside.  Faust,  Part  1  is  a  tragedy  that  is  aware  that  it  is  a  tragedy.     The  self-­‐consciousness  of  the  play  is  immediately  presented  to  the  audience,   who  is  in  fact  necessary  to  the  construction  of  the  play  as  a  whole,  in  the  three   prologues  to  the  tragedy;  the  dedication,  the  prelude  in  the  theatre,  and  the   prologue  in  heaven.  With  these  three  prologues,  Goethe  presents,  in  reverse  order,   the  beginning  of  the  world  of  the  play  with  heaven,  the  actual  creators  of  the  play   with  the  theatre,  and  a  reflection  on  the  play  itself  with  the  dedication.  In  order  to   create  a  unified  image,  the  image  must  account  for  one  looking  at  the  image,  hence   the  dedication.  The  reversal  of  the  order  creates  another  level  of  tension,  of  the   feeling  of  moving  back  and  forth  between  two  poles  to  the  point  where  you’ve   created  a  sphere.        

The  entire  play  pulls  and  pushes  between  microcosms  and  macrocosms,  and   these  opening  scenes  are  microcosms  of  the  play  as  a  whole.  The  dedication  calls   forth  appearances,  the  theatre  presents  the  beings  who  create  the  appearance,  and   in  heaven,  light  is  called  forth  as  the  principle  for  distinguishing  appearance.  A  play   striving  to  be  about  unity  cannot  help  but  begin  by  first  creating  what  man  uses  to   distinguish  unity;  the  appearance  of  unity,  the  creators  of  that  appearance,  and  the   principle  of  light  for  distinguishing  that  appearance.  The  very  first  lines  of  the   dedication  call  forth  the  idea  of  appearances,  and  almost  seem  to  be  picking  up   where  something  was  left  off;  “You  come  back,  wavering  shapes,  out  of  the  past/  In   which  you  first  appeared  to  clouded  eyes./  Should  I  attempt  this  time  to  hold  you   fast?”  (1-­‐3)  Words  such  as  “pictures”  and  “shadows”  come  up  as  well,  bringing  to   mind  the  image  of  Plato’s  cave,  where  everything  is  appearance  and  shadows,  and   one  must  turn  around  and  climb  to  reach  what  is  real.  But  despite  these  reflections   on  appearances,  the  word  “heart”  appears  three  times  in  the  dedication,  which  is   only  thirty-­‐two  lines  long.  Even  appearances  are  rooted  in  love  and  passion,  and   even  understanding  is  an  appearance.  If  the  aim  of  the  play  and  of  Faust  is  to  revise   understanding,  right  from  the  beginning  the  dedication  calls  to  attention  the  veil  of   appearances;  the  heart  is  always  where  appearance  is  rooted.        

The  prelude  in  the  theatre  brings  forth  the  creators  of  appearances,  the  

director,  the  poet,  and  the  clown.  The  director  especially  draws  attention  to  the   audience’s  act  of  participation  in  seeing  a  play.  “It’s  easy  to  invent,  and  easy  to   unroll./  What  good  is  it,  if  you  construct  a  whole?/  The  public  takes  it  all  apart   again”  (101-­‐3).  The  fact  that  even  when  a  whole  is  constructed,  the  viewer  

inevitability  will  take  it  apart,  but  it  is  then  up  to  the  viewer  to  reconstruct  it  back  as   a  whole,  because  the  whole  did  not  actually  exist  without  the  viewer.  This  also   reinforces  the  state  of  the  audience  as  actors  and  spectators,  just  like  Faust  the   character.  The  director  believes  that  “a  lot  of  action”  (89)  must  be  had,  because   “each  likes  some  part  of  what  has  been  presented”  (96);  the  form  comes  first,   because  everyone  in  the  audience  will  pick  a  piece  and  assign  their  own  value  to  it,   “and  everybody  will  go  home  contented”  (98).  And  it  is  the  director’s  job  to  put   together  actors  and  spectators,  form  and  content.  In  this  case,  the  poet  provides  the   content,  and  the  clown  provides  a  form  that  the  poet  is  comfortable  placing  his   content  in.  The  poet  takes  convincing  by  the  clown,  believing  that  his  noble  words   are  going  to  be  corrupted;  “Go  hence  and  seek  yourself  another  slave!/  The  noblest   right  the  poet  ought  to  wave?/  The  right  of  man  that  nature  granted  him,/  And   waste  it  frivolously  for  your  gain?”  (134-­‐7).  The  noble  job  of  the  poet,  who  takes  “the   strength  of  man,  in  poets  become  flesh”  (157),  is  one  of  the  highest  acts  of  creation,   and  the  poet  does  not  want  it  reduced  to  a  paltry  form  upon  a  stage.  The  clown,  who   is  also  concerned  with  context,  provides  the  poet  with  a  form  that  will  not  lower  the   content;  a  love  story.  Since  heart  and  passion  are  the  root  of  everything,  even   appearances,  the  appearance  of  that  heart  and  passion  would  be  the  highest   reflection  of  life  in  art.  And  this  appeals  to  the  will  of  the  director,  who  knows  that   the  audience  will  takes  pieces  home  for  themselves,  because  “one  thrills  to  this,  one   finds  that  in  your  art/  Each  sees  precisely  what  is  in  his  heart”  (178-­‐9).  What  better   thing  to  show  the  audience  than  that  which  “all  live  in  it,  not  many  know  it  well”  

(168).  The  heart  of  the  world  is  gotten  at  by  affecting  the  heart  of  the  audience  by   creating  a  play  about  the  heart  of  the  actor.      

This  is  one  of  the  things  that  makes  Faust  the  character  so  intriguing  and  

tragic.  He  is  the  actor  in  this  tragedy,  in  this  world,  but  he  is  also  a  spectator  of  the   physical  manifestation,  the  appearance,  of  his  own  tragedy.  The  play  begins  at   nighttime  in  Faust’s  isolated  study,  where  he  sits  by  himself,  restless,  condemning   the  fact  that  “we  can  know  nothing”  (365).  He  is  sitting  in  the  cave,  and  he  knows  he   is  in  the  cave.  This  is  a  play  about  the  problem  of  perception,  and  it  begins  with   Faust  lamenting  because  of  this  problem.  He  wants  to  externalize  “what  secret   force/Hides  in  the  world  and  rules  its  course/  Envisage  the  creative  blazes/  Instead   of  rummaging  in  phrases”  (382-­‐5).  Faust  is  well  studied  in  philosophy,   jurisprudence,  medicine,  and  theology,  but  none  of  these  have  led  him  any  closer  to   the  truth  he  wishes  to  behold.  He  understands  that  he  has  failed  in  his  attempt  to   understand  the  true  nature  of  the  world,  but  he  does  not  understand  why.  Faust   never  reveals  his  motives  behind  wanting  to  know  and  see  the  secret  force  that   rules  the  world.  The  passion  at  the  root  of  his  intentions  is  never  revealed;  he  wants   to  understand  the  motion  of  the  world  without  taking  into  account  his  own  motion   which  is  a  part  of  the  world.     If  tragedy  is  the  ego’s  experience  of  itself  as  an  individuated  being  from   nature,  and  a  tragic  play  is  the  appearance  of  this  experience,  Faust  is  unique   because  it  is  the  appearance  of  Faust’s  experience  not  only  for  the  audience,  but  for   Faust  himself.  Faust  wants  to  understand  the  motion  of  the  world,  the  becoming  of  

the  world,  which  is  what  the  Erdgeist  represents,  but  he  does  not  incorporate  his   own  becoming;  he  individuates  himself.     His  becoming  is  then  manifested  in  Mephistopheles,  allowing  Faust  to   experience  the  motion  of  his  becoming  while  simultaneously  being  a  spectator  of  his   becoming  acting  as  part  of  the  world.  Mephistopheles  does  this  to  show  to  Faust  the   importance  of  images  because  appearances  are  the  only  articulation  of  becoming  we   have  access  to  in  order  to  understand.  This  is  the  purpose  of  tragedy  for  the   audience,  and  this  becoming  the  purpose  of  the  tragedy  for  Faust  himself;  to  show   the  importance  of  appearance.  Faust  wants  to  understand  the  idea  that  cannot   appear,  becoming,  but  understanding  requires  articulation,  which  requires   language,  which  is  an  image.  Faust  greatly  disparages  appearances,  which  clouds  his   appreciation  of  his  access  to  the  being  of  appearances.  He  is  disgusted  with  the   image  of  the  macrocosm  because  he  cannot  find  his  “boundless  nature”  to  “hold  fast”   (455);  it’s  all  just  a  play.  The  problem  is  that  the  image  of  the  macrocosm  does  not   account  for  the  movement  between  man  and  the  universe,  the  act  of  looking  at  the   image  of  the  macrocosm,  but  that  movement  is  impossible  to  pin  down  because   once  it  is  pinned  down  it  is  just  another  image.  Faust  even  says  to  Wagner  “What   you  don’t  feel,  you  will  not  grasp  by  art”  (534).  Images  are  an  illusion,  but  the  power   of  language  is  the  power  to  create  an  illusion,  and  one  cannot  get  at  becoming   without  being.  By  dismissing  the  image  as  a  mere  image,  a  mere  form,  Faust  does   not  account  for  his  own  heart  in  the  act  of  reflection.  Faust  wants  to  get  at  the  pure   content  of  the  world  without  taking  into  account  his  own  content  and  motion,  which   is  a  part  of  the  world.  His  participation  is  needed  to  create  an  image,  to  allow  for  

understanding.  And  he  doesn’t  realize  that  the  only  way  to  get  access  understanding   is  through  images,  even  if  the  image  is  inadequate.  This  disenchantment  with   appearances  and  language  is  what  almost  drives  him  to  suicide,  before   Mephistopheles  wagers  that  he  can  satisfy  Faust,  who  believes  that  nothing  earthly   can  satisfy  him,  because  everything  early  is  appearance,  and  to  escape  appearance   and  the  cave  he  must  kill  himself  and  get  out  of  the  cave,  reaching  heaven.   Mephistopheles  reintroduces  striving  into  Faust’s  life,  even  though  Faust  believes  he   has  nothing  left  to  strive  for,  and  Mephistopheles  refocuses  Faust’s  eye  to  earthly   passions,  which  is  the  purpose  of  the  love  story,  exactly  what  the  clown   recommended.     Mephistopheles  reintroduces  striving  into  Faust’s  world.  Striving  is  the  heart   of  man,  which  is  what  Faust  has  been  denying  all  this  time.  However,  this  striving   only  comes  up  as  failures.  This  is  what  forces  man  to  keep  striving.  This  is  the   tragedy  of  life,  the  tragedy  of  the  play,  and  the  tragedy  that  Faust  is  a  participant  and   a  spectator  of.              

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