March monthly blog, a bit late

Of the many stories we read this year, I think Dr. Faustus surprised me the most.
While it is not my favorite piece, I think the reason I like it as much as I do is because of it's unique depiction of traditionally evil beings, particularly in the character of Mephistopheles, but even Dr. Faustus himself. So, for this monthly blog I will briefly analyze their characters and why they are notable to me.

First, Dr. Faustus. My initial impression/guess of his character was "pretty awful guy sells soul to Satan because of some greed-driven purpose" and that's it. Instead I actually liked how he was represented in the play...certainly not the most moral or perfect individual, and quite dramatic in his initial reasoning, but I think I prefer jumping on the Black Magic bandwagon over uninteresting selling-soul-for-billion-dollars any day. Still, humor aside, I think looking back I understand why Faustus did what he did, initially. He felt unsatisfied with his knowledge and what he had accomplished, as great as it was in the scope of mortal deeds, and he saw necromancy as the solution...getting a step up on the divine ladder, using almost infinite knowledge to be a little closer to godliness...there is something kind of sympathetic, or at least understandable, about that. My only significant quarrel with him is his indecisiveness regarding redemption or no...he had MANY chances to repent, let's be honest here, and he completely deserves damnation for not taking those chances until it was literally a few minutes too late...but the more I think about it, the more I understand why he did what he did. On one hand, Faustus is a pretty impressionable man. He's easy to sway to a life of sin, and honestly, as mortal beings, I kind of understand that. We are not as invincible as we think, and I believe that Faustus represents that human weakness, in part. Coupled with the fact that he is being swayed by SATAN HIMSELF I think most of us would probably be a bit too afraid of repercussions to do much.

Onto Mephistopheles. I think the reason I like Mephistopheles so much is because his character is relatively simple, but much more complex than I initially considered. I'm very fond of traditional fairy tales/folk tales/legends myself, and my favorite ones are probably the ones related to Death, Satan, or imps/demons/fairies. The best ones show them as complex individuals mostly driven by their own fairly understandable morals or conditions, and are typically driven by curiosity or mischievousness (imps/fairies) and are often helpful (most of them) but come with ONE VERY SPECIFIC CLAUSE that, when broken, leads to the hero/characters downfall...which honestly makes sense, as they don't like being taken advantage of, as nobody does. Back to Mephistopheles, much of his character reminded me of these traditional demons/spooks. I like how, like them, he is not completely evil, but is driven primarily by his own desires and feelings even though he serves the devil, and is relatively helpful and complex. I really enjoy his little speeches and interesting commentary on the nature of Heaven and Hell, and his little warnings to Faustus, as if he actually cares. Which he might! But true to his demon nature I like how he still has his "evil" and "sinful" desires and actions, which is good, in a way...it shows very well how he is not completely evil, but also not a completely good natured person hidden in a spooky demon body.

All in all...it is these two characters who made the play so interesting, and actually enjoyable. I think it's very good to see characters based around UNDERSTANDABLE human flaws and interests, but I also like how they aren't all good or all evil and most of all I'm glad the "evil" characters don't hide their evil deeds entirely, if that makes sense. The nature of good and evil is so complex and muddled, and it's just refreshing to see two characters in such an old play be as surprisingly complex and sympathetic as these two.