Doctor Faustus - Act 1, Scene 3 Flashcards
“Gloomy shadow” / “drizzling look” / “Antarctic world”
-Motif of darkness and cold
- Symbolic of Faustus’ transgression being unnatural and blasphemous
“Begin thine incantations”
- Imperative : being consumed by evil
- Contemporaneous at the time due to fear of witchcraft and necromancy
“Magic can perform”
- Metaphor : presents magic as performative and entertainment
- Highlights the superficial nature and lack of meaning
“I charge thee”
- Imperative : dismissive of Mephistopheles
- Emphasises the foolishness of Faustus
- Inability to perceive his own status
- Anaphoric repetition highlights his ignorance
“Thou art too ugly to attend on me”
- Highlights Faustus’ superficiality
- Mocking of physical appearance which undermines his studies
- Facetious nature and comedic
“Old Franciscan Friar”
- Uses trope to mock the church
- Highlights the anti-catholic sentiment : corruption
- Imperatives used beforehand to command Mephistopheles, misunderstanding of power dynamic
“There’s virtue in my heavenly words”
- Ironic metaphor : presents the foolishness of Faustus.
- Despite having transgressed still sees himself as omnipotent and holy
“[exit devil]”
- The staging immediately emphasises his corrupt nature
“How pliant is this Mephistopheles”
- Irony : failure to recognise the corrupt force of Mephistopheles
- Highlights Faustus’ foolishness and the hubristic nature of undermining him
- “pliant” : flexible and obedient to Faustus’ will
[“Enter MEPHISTOPHELES disguised as a friar]”
- Staging indicates the facetiousness of Mephistopheles
- Proleptic Irony : bends to Faustus’ will
“I am servant to great Lucifer”
- Power dynamic emphasises humility : status of Mephistopheles is undermined
- Subservient to Faustus : still very powerful
- Contrasts Faustus who has servants of his own
“I came now hither of mine own accord”
- Juxtaposition : creates uncertainty surrounding the power of Mephistopheles
- Highlights Faustus’ ignorance for undermining him despite his power
“Speak”
- Imperative : highlights arrogance of Faustus trying to act powerful
- Comedic / bathos
- Overlooks the power of Mephistopheles at face value (hubristic)
“For when we hear one rack the name of God” / “We fly in hope to get his glorious soul”
- Acts as a warning, presents Mephistopheles as honest
- Provides reasoning for his arrival as Faustus asked : outlines Faustus’ fate (Proleptic irony)
“Pray devoutly to the prince of hell”
- Imperative : rejection of Christ to swap deity to Lucifer
- “Prince” undermines the power of hell potentially highlighting the mistake he will make. Not king. emphasises a lack of superiority.
- Highlights the foolish nature of Faustus
“This word ‘damnation’ terrifies not him”
- Provides Calvinist reading (pre-destination)
- Dissociates Lucifers actions emphasising his foolishness, only sees half truth
- Blinded by promise
“O, by aspiring pride and insolence”
- Apostrophe : mirrors Faustus’ harmartia
- Faustus failure to acknowledge this highlights hubris and foolishness
“Lucifer”
- Epistrophe : emphasises Lucifer’s eternal state
- Further emphasises the eternal nature of those that sin, lack of agency
“tasted the eternal joys of heaven” / “tormented with ten thousand hells” / “deprived of everlasting bliss?”
- Hyperbolic language : reinforces the morality play. Acts as a warning against Faustus condemning himself
- Warns Faustus and the audience
- Extent of the language emphasises the irreversibility of the act of transgression
- Undermining the motif of eternity emphasises the disadvantages
“O Faustus, leave these frivolous demands”
- Imperative : trying to warn against transgression
- Undermines Faustus’ intelligence as he fails to see what is right in front of him
“Four-and-twenty years” / “live in all voluptuousness”
- Irony : previously criticised the finite nature of knowledge coming to an “end” but now exchanged his soul for temporary gain.
- Submitted to desire and temptation (base desires)
- Highlights his foolishness
“Go and return to mighty Lucifer”
- Imperative language : fails to understand the evil nature
- Highlights Lucifer as superior and idolises him
“Had I as many souls as there be stars I’d give them all for Mephistopheles”
- Hyperbolic simile : melodramatic emphasising the foolish nature of necromancy
- Foolish as he studied divinity : infinite number of stars
- Enthralled / entranced
- Conflicted awareness of his overreaching
“Make a bridge” / “Pass the ocean” / “Join the hills”
- Motif of extravagance and size : focus’ on the physical of the world rather than metaphysical
- Emphasises foolishness and desire
