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Expanding Eyes: A Visionary Education Michael Dolzani
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This podcast is aimed at a non-specialist audience interested in acquiring what Northrop Frye called, in the title of one of his books, an educated imagination. Its materials are drawn from the many courses in literature and mythology that I taught, combined with material from my book The Productions of Time, for which I hope the podcast may provide an accessible introduction, with concrete examples. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/michael-dolzani/support
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Episode 170: Goethe’s Faust, Part 2. Faust as Antihero, Not Tragic Hero, Redeemed, by the Sacrifice of an Innocent Female Figure. Act 1: The Rainbow of the Waterfall, Spirit Immanent in This World.
Goethe does judge Faust morally, but not in the Aristotelian framework of the tragic hero, which is how he’d like to see himself. He is instead an antihero, redeemed, but not by the sacrifice of Christ: instead, perhaps unfortunately, through that of an innocent female figure, saving an unworthy man. The metaphor of the waterfall, the rainbow created by the sun within its spray: spirit immanent in this material world.
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Episode 169: Goethe’s Faust. End of Part 1, The Opening of Part 2, Act 1. Gretchen’s Tragedy. Can Faust Be Judged Morally? Part 2: Move into the Larger Social World, and into Psychological Depths.
For stark power, the end of Part 1 is almost unequalled in modern literature. Gretchen, mad, will not leave the dungeon, and Faust leaves her. Why is there a Part 2? In it, Faust moves in new directions: into the larger sociopolitical realm, and into transpersonal psychological depths. The difficulty of making a moral judgment of Faust.
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Episode 168: Goethe’s Faust, Part 1. The Walpurgis Night Festival: Demonic Sexuality on the Mountain. Meanwhile, Elsewhere, Gretchen Descends into Madness and Tragedy
Walpurgis Night, April 30, the day before May Day, an old fertility festival demonized by northern Christianity into a witches’ Sabbath. Goethe backs away from initial plans to show an orgy, substituting a strange “Intermezzo,” but there is a catalogue of demonic female spirits, from Lilith to a figure who looks like Gretchen, with a red line across her neck.
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Episode 167: Goethe’s Faust, Part 1. The Tragedy of Gretchen, Continued. Faust Kills Valentine, Gretchen’s Brother. Faust and Mephistopheles Attend the Witches’ Sabbath on Walpurgis Night.
Gretchen distrusts Faust’s lack of religion. What does he think about God? “Feeling is all,” he says. Faust, with Mephistopheles’ help, kills Gretchen’s brother Valentine in a sword fight. Then Faust and Mephistopheles begin ascending a mountain to attend the witches’ sabbath on Walpurgis Night.
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Episode 166: Goethe’s Faust, Part 1. The So-Called “Gretchen Tragedy.” Faust Seduces Gretchen, Whose Friend Martha Encourages Her.
The “Gretchen tragedy” is not a tragedy at all but Aristotelian or Shakespearean standards, not to fall of a great and elite figure but of a common and unknown one. Perhaps more accurately called “melodrama,” an important genre in the 19th century. Faust seduces Gretchen, who falls in love with him. Her friend Martha, a much more down-to-earth figure.
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Episode 165: Goethe’s Faust, Part 1. The Witch’s Kitchen. A Youth Potion for Faust. The Ideal Feminine in a Mirror. Faust Sees Margarete. He and Mephistopheles Invade Her Bedroom and Leave Jewels.
The Witch’s Kitchen episode is satiric—the Witch’s servants are marmosets, and the spell by which she makes a youth potion for Faust parodies the symbolism of alchemy. Faust sees an ideal Feminine image in a mirror. On the street, he sees and is infatuated with Margarete, or Gretchen. He and Mephistopheles snoop in her bedroom and leave jewels.
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Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/michael-dolzani/support
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