Faust's entanglement

Ming Tong is a professor of English at California State University, Los Angeles

One

Turning to Goethe's long poem "Faust", reading the entanglement of Faust's heart in the final chapter, I was shocked by his prophetic revelation, but the things and reasons in it are long.

Hegel famously said in The Principles of the Philosophy of Law: "Was vernünftig ist, das ist Wirklich; und was wirklich ist, das ist vernünftig".) "Reasonable" means "rational", which can also be translated as "rational": "Everything that is rational is realistic; what is realistic is rational."

Hegel Herch is also a representative of the modern rationalist tradition, and this tradition is the philosophical basis of modernization. Famous quotes, quite intimidating. When I was young, I saw these two whatevers and felt domineering.

After many years, it has been realized that logical rationality is only a part of speculation and only a part of human nature; if reason overrides human desires, instincts, wills, and emotions, it will deviate from human nature. Therefore, intuitively, there is a question: many irrationalities in reality can be rationalized according to logic?

There is Hegel in the world, and there are people who question Hegel. Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov contains a story from The Grand Judge. The two brothers, Aleutian and Ivan, had a heart-to-heart conversation, and his brother Ivan was a college student and told him a fictional story. It is said that in medieval Europe, God came early to save the suffering, and the Supreme Leader of the Inquisition, the High Judge, arrested God in the name of demagoguery, interrogated him all night, denied God's gift of "free will" to mankind, and argued that he was right to rule mankind in a material, powerful, and obedient manner; God did not say a word, and the only answer was to kiss his lips and teeth lightly, and the kiss was like a fiery seal on the heart of the Judge. Listening patiently, Aleutian suddenly understood the logic of the Grand Inquisitor and asked his brother, "Is 'everything that is reasonable realistic?'" When Alessan asked Ivan, it was Dostoevsky who was asking Hegel.

Chernyshevsky, the author of What to Do, was a nineteenth-century Russian utopian socialist whose ideas also derived from Hegel's rational tradition, representing the "men of reason" of Russia at that time. Dostoevsky asked Chernyshevsky in the Basement Notebook: 2 + 2 = 4, is this mathematical law equal to the law of human nature? "Rational people" are asked urgently, so they come to a cruel sentence: You are irrational! Dostoevsky is superior, he can not only think rationally, but also synthesize the various functional thinking of human nature; he can see not only what the "rational people" see and think, but also see and think what they cannot see and think. There is not only logic in human wisdom, but also fraternity, willpower, understanding, sensibility, intuition, imagination, rhetoric, and so on.

Two

A few years ago, I took classes at a university in a city, and at night I stayed at the university's hotel, next to the construction site of the real estate. During the day, it was extremely hot, and the construction site began at nine o'clock in the evening, all night long, completely disregarding the neighbors. The roar of the machine, late at night sounds like a wounded beast, and the sound hits the deep eardrums. The moment the decibel surges, it is the roar of the beast!

Turn on the TV and you can't stop the noise. Put on headphones to listen to Chopin, who is also devoured by wild beasts. The noise didn't stop until five o'clock in the morning. The next day's class was barely available.

Insomnia is difficult, posting the situation in the circle of friends, getting all kinds of sympathy and advice.

"Move out tonight."

"It's not a big deal, we've been putting up with it in the student dormitory for almost a year."

There is a very specific suggestion: "Prepare a pair of security earplugs, you can cut 20 to 30 decibels; in addition, how do you use Chopin anti-noise, try Shostakovich".

A friend left such a comment: "National construction, construction sites everywhere, sacrifice now, for a better future!"

This friend has always looked at things head-on, and I know he's not joking. After all, there is a ready-made standard answer: "These are all problems in development".

Three

Faust's story is rooted in European folklore, and the earliest edition was written in 1587 by the German Johann Spiess. Spiess is the publisher, summarizing Faust's various things, focusing on interpretation. The following year, in 1588, the English writer Christopher Marlowe also published a book. Both books are titled The Tragedy of Dr. Faust.

Faust's story has since been interpreted in lyric poetry, philosophical tragedies, operas, puppet shows, comics, and film adaptations, with a wide variety of genres, mostly similar to the plot written by Spiess: Faust betrayed his soul to the devil Mephistopheles for the pleasure of the world, and finally his soul was sent to hell.

According to this non-good-evil routine, Faust is a completely negative persona, knowledgeable, unscrupulous, cynical, and unscrupulous. Later, Faust became the "long-haired boy." In 1945, when the United States detonated its first atomic bomb in New Mexico, an officer exclaimed, "Oh God! ...... These long-haired shawl boys are out of control! With this exclamation, Faust mutated into a symbol of modern technological loss of control.

In 1979, a nuclear leak occurred on the Usable Island of Three Mile. An editorial in The New Yorker magazine said: "It is unacceptable that these [nuclear] experts are giving us Faustian advice to try to control eternity with the hand that humans can make mistakes." Once again, Faust acquires a new symbolic meaning: not only can technology get out of control, but human reason can go wrong.

Marx and Engels borrowed Faust's powerful impetus for the development of capitalism from the underworld. The Communist Manifesto says: "This modern bourgeois society, which once seemed to have created such a vast means of production and means of exchange by magic, can no longer dominate like a magician the devil he calls out with magic."

Of all the stories that restate Faust, Goethe's poem Faust is considered the most thoughtful. Goethe began writing in 1770, when he was 21 years old, and then intermittently until he completed it in 1831, when Goethe was 83 years old. The year after the book was published, Goethe died. Goethe wrote Faust from youth to old age, which lasted sixty years and exhausted his life's talent and energy. This period coincided with a period of great changes in world history before and after the French Revolution. In his later years, when he wrote Faust, modernization unfolded in all directions, and the satirical significance of Faust as the development of modernization gradually became clear.

Four

Goethe's Faust was not an evil man who sold his soul. He is not a "boy with long hair and shawls", but a well-educated man who is more than half a hundred years old. Doctor, jurist, theologian, philosopher, scientist, professor, all kinds of distinguished titles in one. In other versions, Faust summons the devil to cast magic only to satisfy earthly desires. Goethe's Faust, tired of the knowledge of academies and books, wants to use magic to peek into the runes of the universe and go deep into the secrets of all things. This Faust is the best of modern man and represents the strongest impulse of modern mankind: the development of modernization.

According to the logic of the grand narrative since the Enlightenment, Faust's desire for knowledge and development is all positive energy. So-called: Knowledge is power.

In Goethe's poetry, Mephistopheles tries to seduce Faust not so easily. The devil first transformed into a poodle and entered Faust's study, where he was crossed and photographed in his original form. Mephistopheles entered the study for the second time, and the condition was not that Faust be sold of his soul, but that he would be willing to be Faustus's slave in this life, in exchange for Faust's future life to serve him in the same way. This is Goethe's version of the Faust-Mephistopheles covenant, and the different meaning will gradually appear.

This Faust is the embodiment of modernity (i.e., modern values) and the desire to modernize; Mephistopheles is Faust's inner demon, the one that drives development in the modern human mind. In common with other versions, Faust still had to use Mephistopheles' magic to achieve his wish. Where does magic come from? Not paradise.

Marshall Berman wrote The Vanishing of All Solid things. Berman argues that the theme of Goethe's Faust is the desire to develop; it is a tragedy of development, and Faust is a tragic hero, not an evil clown.

Faust's inner strength is full, imaginative, and releases one dream after another, which is roughly divided into two segments: personal development; social development.

Faust and Greesin are tragedies that pursue human love but are unable to take care of the growth of others. Faust and Helen are the disillusionment of his dream of pursuing classical beauty. These are two dreams of personal development.

In the third dream, Faustus's desire to develop is combined with modern economic, political, and social forces. This dream of development appeared very late, until the three scenes in the fourth act and the six scenes in the fifth act in the lower part of Faust were the final chapters of faust poetry.

Because this is a myth, the time and space of the final chapter at first glance looks like pre-modern, but in fact it refers to modern times. Faust left ancient Greece and arrived at the top of the mountains in Germany by a cloud of good fortune, and Mephistopheles stepped on the Seven Mile Boots (a step of 7 miles, about 23 miles) and then arrived. Ending the long journey in history and mythology, the two return to zero. Mephistopheles was even more depressed than Faust, but he did not forget the duty of the devil, and continued to seduce, depicting Faust the prosperous urban life and the strength of the Louis dynasty in France. Faust was no longer interested in these and began to express his ambitions using modern ideas after the French Revolution.

Not long before, Faust and Mephistopheles were in the Roman Empire, and they helped the emperor solve the financial crisis by issuing paper money, which was already a modern financial means. The emperor was extravagant and lascivious, the country was once again in chaos, and a rebellious emperor appeared. After the war broke out, Faust, at the instigation of Mephistopheles, helped the corrupt emperor win. The emperor gave him a large tract of land along the coast. However, the fiefdom is not yet land and needs to be reclaimed.

When Faust and Gressing fell in love, he thought that "feelings mattered most"; when he fell in love with Helen, he thought that the ideal of beauty was the most important. Now, Faust believes: "On this earth / There is still room for great things ... / Career is the most important, reputation is empty words" (using Qian Chunqi's Chinese translation, slightly modified, the same below, p. 400). Mephistopheles advised Faust: "Leave him to war or peace." Smart people/try to get their own benefit from it. / Always be on the lookout for any favorable moments. / When the opportunity comes, Faust, don't miss it! ”（402）。

The words of this demon are in harmony with the present: whether he is a disaster or a disaster, he is sullen and rich, but the opportunity is fleeting. Nowadays, there are many Mei sect followers, indicating that Lao Mei has been to many places; he travels in seven-mile boots, and it is convenient to travel across borders.

Five

This is The Faust that Goethe shaped in his later years, the concentrated representative of all those who imagined and planned the development of modernization.

Fausts wanted to develop, and at first they thought that the object they faced was only nature. Nature is nothing, man will triumph over heaven. Faust's new venture was also simple: land reclamation. From the very beginning, he never thought about various problems related to "people", let alone that he would be extremely entangled in this.

The "people" Faust confronts are specifically an old couple: Pases and her husband, Baucis and Philemon. On the small hills by the sea, they have their own humble farmhouses, linden trees growing in the garden, and small churches next to them, with melodious bells. The place where I have lived for a lifetime, of course, is my own home. Boses and Philaemont were very kind, often rescuing sailors in shipwrecks and generously hosting passers-by.

In the Roman poet Ovid's Metamorphosis, Paës and Philimon are a poor and hospitable old couple. Jupiter and his son Mercury disguised as beggars were turned away by their neighbors, but were entertained by Pausius and Philimon. There was no rice in the house, and they went to catch the only goose, and Jupiter always let the goose escape first; Pausis poured wine for the guests, and the glass was always full. Good people have good rewards, and myths and stories go like this.

Goethe inherited the basic archetype of the character from Ovid, adding several details, such as the chimes of the chapel bells. The bell is the sound of the hearts of Pawses and Philaemon, their spiritual sustenance.

Faust was preoccupied with his development plan, and the long chiming of the bell upset him: "Damn the bell! Like a dark arrow that struck me hard" (430); "As soon as the bell rings, I will go mad" (440).

Unlike Ovid's story, Goethe's Caseys and Philimon are the first demolition households to appear in modern literature. In the modern literary tradition that followed, they were small, superfluous people; according to Berman, they were "those who stood in the way of history, the road of progress, the path of development; they were those who were considered obsolete and could be abandoned."

Faust presents himself as a development subject, taking for granted that he can control the fate of others, and is extremely indifferent to Pases and Philimon. Goethe's description allows us to look directly at Faust's soul and see the heart of this "subject".

This time, it was not Mephistopheles's intention to move between Pases and Philimon, but Faust's own decision.

Goethe did not know the word "nail household", but he elaborated on the meaning of "nail in the eye". Boses and Philimon were "thorns in the eye", not only because they hindered Faust's development plans, but also because they ruined his good mood: "The ancient bodhi tree, the brown slab house, / the old church do not belong to me." / I want to go over there and take a rest, / But the shadows of others annoy me, / Like the thorns of the heels, like the nails in the eyes" (436); "There are many thorns, thorns in my heart, / I really can't stand it!" / Speaking out, it makes me ashamed again. / The old man over there should move away, / I will live by the Bodhi tree, / Those trees are not owned by me, / Destroy my unity of the world. / I will stand tall among the branches over there , and look into the distance , / Let my gaze be unobstructed, / See all my achievements, / May I see at a glance / The great creation of the human spirit, / They exert their clever minds, / Give all nations a place to live" (439-440).

Goethe's description is ironic: in Faust's mind, lust and the common good have been conflated. It is obviously occupied by the magpie's nest dove, but it is decorated with the bold words of "the great creation of the human spirit" and "the people have obtained a place to live".

Don't forget the demon Mephistopheles. Faust was afraid of the church bells, and Mephistopheles immediately echoed: "This sound, / Noble ears do not like to hear." / This damn clanging, / Making the twilight sky misty, / Any great event always has it to participate, / From the baptism of birth to the funeral, / Man is in the midst of jingles all his life, / Like a fading spring dream". Mephistopheles curses the bell because he knows Faust can't stand the "nail household". So Faust said: "In the face of resistance and stubborn stubbornness, / Excellent success is also disturbed, / Because of deep, serious troubles, / Tired of doing justice." The so-called "tired of presiding over justice" means: whether he is fair or unfair, he should be rectified as much as he wants!

The Faustian demolition also had a "reasonable" process: he agreed to compensate Pausis and Philimon, and gave them a good place. Pases and Philaemont loved the family as they were, but they did not move. Faust was furious and ordered, "Then go and get them away!" Mephistopheles took command and comforted Faust: "Take them away and settle them down, / In a moment they will settle down; / Despite some compulsion, things will move, / A good place can also be settled" (440-441).

Mephistopheles took his team with him. (Today's demolitions have task forces.) Late at night, Mephistopheles returned: report to the master, and everything was done. Faust didn't feel right, and only after questioning did he know: Mephistopheles pushed and intimidated, Pausis and Philaemon were killed, the guests who stayed in their home were killed, and the house and church were buried in flames.

This Goethe is not to give a "good future" ending, that is, not to let unreasonable rationalization. Faust was supposed to rule over nothing more than an external wasteland, which now expanded in his heart. In Goethe's final chapter: Faust is entangled.

Next up is a Macbeth-esque scene. Four gray female figures, representing the four ghosts of want, sin, sorrow, and hardship, came to visit Faust in the middle of the night, but they were not allowed to enter. But sorrow, through the keyhole into the house, a breath of sorrow blew away, and Faust was immediately blind. Faust was blinded by sorrow.

The blind Faust thought he was still in charge of the cause, but in fact the whole project was firmly controlled by Mephistopheles. Mephistopheles secretly ordered the minions to dig a grave for Faust, but lied to him that the reclamation and expansion of the territory was proceeding smoothly. Hearing the shovels digging his grave, Faust mistakenly thought that the development plan was being implemented. (Late-night noise, exhortation to a "better future.") ）

Faust's beautiful vision was that in the future, this would be a paradise, where the inhabitants would have the right to freedom and survival, when the waves came, the people would share the difficulties, and "the young and the strong and the old / all spend their promising years in danger." / I would like to see such people, / To be neighbouring free people in a free land! / At that time, I will open my mouth to that moment: Stop, you are so beautiful! ”（452）。 Thinking of this, "with a high sense of happiness, / In the moment of enjoying this peak", Faust died!

Consider the moment Goethe gave Faust's choice for his death: Faust was blind, fooled by Mephistopheles, and died in a self-deceptive hallucination. Goethe simply did not let Faust live to see the "good future."

Six

There are many works that are counted as literature, but only great literature can represent the essence of literature. Goethe's Faust is a great literary work, representing literary speculation superior to Hegel's rational logic. The American literary critic Cleanth Brooks said that literature "contains logic, but it transcends logic." The usual logical reasoning is aimed at reaching a particular answer; in order to have a clear answer, logicians will exclude complex factors such as human desires and thus exclude the possibility of other answers. Socrates was such a logician, who deliberately separated desire from logic and established a tradition of "reason first, reason alone", leaving a foreshadowing for the hypocrisy of later salvationism. Literary or aesthetic thinking, close to the rhythm of life and the complexity of human nature, speculation is multi-line, including the known possibilities, but also including the exploration of the unknown. The power of literature lies not in the sound and color, in the tolerance of the known complex and the unknown, in the prophets proposed when the known and the unknown are presented.

Goethe left a blur and a void in the mystery of Faust. The following interpretations and inferences are not to prove that Faust's mystery has been solved, but to illustrate the multi-layered meaning and multiple contradictions of this mystery, because it is more powerful to stimulate our thinking than some clear reason. Try to interpret it, which is classified as nine questions:

1. Faust said his vision was a plan to "find a place for all people." However, the public interest and self-interest are mixed in this plan. This is one of the morals.

2. Faust regarded himself as the "subject" and as "objects" to Boses and Philimon. Since modernization is the dream of the "people", why are Pausis and Philimon not the "main body"? If they were, the development of modernization would not forget "people" for the sake of the "overall situation."

3, Boses and Philaemont are unfamiliar foreign names, in fact, who they are, we should not be strangers. In the film and television program, revolutionaries jump off cliffs or throw themselves into rivers to escape the pursuit of the enemy, and are rescued and carefully cared for by mountain people or fishermen, and those good ordinary people are our Boses and Philaemont.

4. Faust hated Pausius and Philimon, seeing them as a thorn in their eye and a thorn in their flesh, and did not see their goodness, but said that they were heinous. This is Goethe's literary annotation to the "Nail Household" two hundred years ago.

5. The future that Faust envisioned was a kind of beauty of the world: in the future, this is a paradise, the inhabitants have the right to freedom and survival, the waves are coming, the people are in trouble, "the young and the strong / both spend promising years in danger." / I would like to see such people, / To be neighbouring free people in a free land! / At that time, I will open my mouth to that moment: Stop, you are so beautiful! O Faust! Your order just killed The Paws and Philimon. You yearn for the distance and poetry, but you are blind and die at the peak of fantasy. This distant place and poetry are only delirium at the time of death.

6. In the future paradise that Faust envisioned, residents will enjoy the right to freedom and survival. If today's residents do not have the rights, how can they be in the future? The rights of Pausis and Philimon, why should Faust's power be conferred? Since Faust's "subject" is still the subject of theocracy and imperial power, let alone the development of modernization.

7. Faust's thought was subject to Mephistopheles. After going blind, the "good future" is under the actual control of the devil. Mephistopheles digs a grave for Faust, but he is excited.

8. The greatness of Goethe lies in the fact that he does not write Faust as an evil man, but makes him entangled and blinded by entanglement. For this reason alone, Faust is a tragic figure comparable to King Edipus. Who will have Faust's entanglement in pulling out the "nails" today? The one who is at ease must not be Faust, but may belong to Mephistopheles' task force.

9. In the last scene of Faust, Goethe sent angels to take away Faust's soul. Do not let Faust's soul belong to Mephistopheles. If Faust's soul can be redeemed, we still have hope, let Mephistopheles succeed, what hope is there? Even atheists should believe that good is heaven and evil is hell.

7.

To whom is Faust's tragedy written? It is not uncommon to say that if there is a problem with modernization, it is a problem of capitalism and has nothing to do with socialism. This view is represented by the Hungarian Marxist theorist George Lukacs, who says that goethe's Faust ends with the tragedy of the "capitalist development" of the early stage of industrial development. Marshall Berman, an American leftist writer, counters that Lukács's argument is debatable: Mephistopheles can be said to be capitalist thinking, as he constantly exhorts Faust to incorporate money and profit into the plan, but Goethe's Faust's motives and aims are clearly not capitalistic. Faust's long-term goal of public welfare represents a certain socialist tendency. Berman points out that Goethe wrote Faust in the late period and came into contact with utopian socialism. In the late 1820s, Goethe often read Saint-Simonist readings, especially le Globe in Paris.

Berman's interpretation is consistent with the historical fact that socialism has been entangled with capitalism from the nineteenth century to the present. Faust has a dual personality: one Faust is entangled with the Pausis, and another Faust is at the mercy of Mephistopheles.

Goethe's Faustian tragedy is written to Fausts with subjective self-confidence, but also to abandoned little people, to Daan and Fangfang, and also to you and me. This tragedy is a metaphor for modern humanity. Goethe's concern is not only the forced demolition, but also what problems will occur in the development of modernization if the best people like Faust are confused and blind. Often, these problems are downplayed and described as developing side effects. However, these "side effects" are becoming more and more serious, undermining people's basic rights and endangering people's lives and survival.

Goethe's Faust story can be reduced to an image: the bell; a question: what kind of bell do you hear?

Bells have never been a musical category. The bells of the West come from the church, and the bells of the East come from the temples. It is inappropriate to translate it as "death knell" at will.

In Goethe's Faust, bells have different meanings. If the bell rings "like a dark arrow that hits [you]", it is "you" who wants to get rid of Pasius and Philimon and then fast. If the bell is peaceful and melodious, it is "you" who hears the voice of Pausis and Philimon and remembers the basic goodness of man.

The English poet John Donne wrote a poem. Poetry: "No one is completely an island", just as the island and the continent are one, and everyone and others and all mankind are one. Thus, send not to know/For whom the bell tolls, /It tolls for thee." The last English word ,"thee" is an old-fashioned elegant title, equivalent to".

Don't ask/For whom the bell rings, / The bell rings for you.

The "High-end Forum on Aesthetics of Literature and Art" of the School of Humanities of Shanghai Normal University invited Professor Tong Ming to explain "Faust's Entanglement", which was compiled and revised by the author according to the lecture draft.

Editor-in-Charge: Huang Xiaofeng

Proofreader: Yan Zhang