Dr Faustus reading journal. Act two

Scene one

• we begin to see at the begining of this scene the fickle nature of faustus' personality
• he is starting to have thoughts of God, and that he should possibly turn back away from black magic
• 'something soundeth in mine ears' - his concious comes in
• As Robin is a slave to Wagner, Wagner a slave to Faustus, M also a slave to Faustus, Faustus is a slave to his senses - 'The god thou servest is thine own appetute' and thus cannot be saved
• We can see now that whenever Faustus' thoughts are wavering, the Good and Evil angel enter, though performed as physical characters, we wonder whether they are within Faustus' subconcious? - gothic element
• The good angel again tells faustus it's not too late, he can repent, etc, and the evil angel just tempts him to think of 'honour and wealth' - to which Faustus finds comfort
• Thinking of things of human worth seem to give Faustus alot of comfort and forgot the negative outcomes of the deal he has made with the devil
• It seems at this point though, that Faustus could turn back as to what follows...
• Faustus assures M that he has promised his soul, to which M asks that he writes it in his own blood by stabbing his arm - formalities of the contract? Perhaps it's not certain until Fausus does this, otherwise why would they ask that of him? so F could turn back? but he goes ahead, leaving the audience to believe his soul is truely damned
• Faustus' blood dries- 'What might the staying of my blood portend? Is it unwilling I should write this bill?'- it is as if his body is unwilling to the contract. Is his body warning him?
• but he is willing to make an end to the contract quickly - as not to change his mind
• on his arm is enscribed 'homo fuge!' - fly, o man! a warning to leave? but faustus says 'Yet shall not Faustus fly' - as if he is resisting and really wants to see this through
• M fetches some 'crowns and rich apparel' to F to make him feel better.
• The terms of the contract are now discussed (bit late) and talk about the nature of hell (bit late) and the deed is done.
• Now M asks Faustus what he wants and it is interesting to note that the first thing that F asks for is a wife, which on one hand makes me sympathise with Faustus as he is just a human being who needs love and perhaps is just lonely. However, when he asks for the 'fairest maid in Germany' I think that perhaps all he wants is a trophy wife, which makes more sense due to the shallow nature of his character. he also says 'i am wanton and lascivious' meaning sexually active and lustful
• m tells him to 'talk not of a wife', and when he seeminly gives in, he brings f 'a devil dressed as a woman' - we can see that m doesn't entirely serve f and is able to decide what he does and does not get, able to play tricks on f
• m explains to f that 'marriage is but a ceremonial toy', which makes sense as f need for a wife is mainly governed by the fact he is lustful and just wants sex, m tells him 'i'll cull thee out the fairest courtesans' meaning he'll select high class prostitutes for f - it's all he wants/deserves?
• m then offers f knowledge through books

scene 2

• another comical interlude with Robin, who has stolen one of faustus' books
• this scene has much sexual language or innuedo inserting through it
• 'will i make all the maidens in our parish dance at my pleasure stark naked'
• 'his things rubbed and made clean' 'chafing'
• 'nan spit, our kitchen maid, then turn her'
• reading this extract in these times is interesting as we have a sort of window looking into the past and how sexist those times were, turning a woman like an object, and having all the maidens dancing naked
• This use of a comical and sexual interlude could also provide relief for an audience to which sex was a sin outside of marriage - laughing about it to escape the repression and frustration felt by people sexually?

Scene three

• The final scene of the act begins with Faustus' wavering (somewhat fickle) thoughts of god, telling m that 'thou hast deprived me' of heaven, when really faustus has deprived himself - he is the one that made the deal, m even warned him of what he would be missing out on - f unable to take responsibility - immaturity?
• f says 'i will renounce this magic and repent' - thinking himself that it is not too late, and he could have heaven if he repented and gave up the magic (he never repents though)
• At this point of wavering thoughts, the angels, as always, appear.
• The good angel as usual tell him 'repent yet, God will pity thee' - F is still able to repent? how far will he push his luck with god? - keeps anxiety levels up in audience
• evil angel disagrees 'thou art a spirit. God cannot pity thee' - conflicting voices to Faustus
• F then assures himself 'Ay, God will pity me if I repent' to which the evil angel tells him 'but Faustus never shall repent' then we can see faustus swayed by the evil angel - 'I cannot repent' straight after, as if his thoughts are completely goverend by these angels, surely he can think for himself? of maybe these angels are a part of his concious thought? either way we can see Faustus' fickle mind at work, with his ever changing views
• F then considers killing himself, regretting 'had not sweet pleasure taken over deep despair' - his senses had taken over him, making him blind to the consequences. He stops his wondering mind by calling M 'let us dispute again and argue of divine astrology' as a sort of comfort to himself, looking at divine astrology, which is possibly beyond God and Lucifer
• M & F go on to talk about astrology, but M stops trhe conversation by telling F 'think thou on hell, Faustus, for thou art damned' - disrupting his mind again
• F tells himself to 'think, Faustus, upon God', and tells (who he previously called his sweet M) 'go, accursed spirit, to ugly hell!'- sudden changing of mind - 'tis thou hast damned distressed Faustus' soul' - unable to accept responsibility for what he's done, and starting to realise the seriousness of the consequences to come
• at this point of wavering thoughts, enter the good angel and bad angel, as usual, the good angel tells him 'never too late, if faustus can repent', the evil angel tells him 'if thou repent, devils shall tear thee in pieces' - adding a threat and extra anxiety
• f then calls out to christ - 'my saviour, seek to save distressed faustus' soul!' (still not tecnically repenting) at which point lucifer, beelzebub and mephistophiles enter (aware)
• Lucifer is the first to speak, and reminds f that he has the legal rights to his soul and christ is unable to save him. Is this true? If F repented could christ still save him?
• Lucifer then tells f that he is doing wrong by them to mention christ 'thou dost injure us' and tell him 'not think on God. Think of the devil' - perhaps lucifer knows that if F did repent christ could save him, but is appearing now to secure F's soul (which is surely not an own-able thing anyway) by threatening him.
• F says sorry and agrees to think onlyof the devil now, Lucifer then brings on the seven dealy sins as a sort of distraction, theatrical, entertainment for F.
• The seven dealy sins then enter, pride, covetousness (desiring other peoples possesions), wrath, Envy, Gluttony, Sloth, Lechery (sin of lust) and in each of these sins we can link back elements to F's personality
• Why does Lucifer bring on the seven deadly sins at this point in the play? Maybe Lucifer brings them on at this point to remind F that he is a bad person, and his soul is damned, securing it for his kingdom. Maybe this is a really pivotal point in the play, maybe F could have turned back at this point if Lucifer had not come in at the point straight after he asked christ to save his soul.  needed to distract him
• Before Lucifer leaves at the end of the scene Lucifer presents F a book which should give him the ability to 'turn thouself into what what shape thy wilt'
• The scene ends with F saying 'Farewell, great Lucifer. Come, Mephistopheles' which could show him being fickle 'great Lucifer' after he was pretty much ready to repent for his sins (F as being easily swayed). It could also be played in a way that he is increadibly scared of Lucifer, and needs to suck up to him. In this loss of power, he somewhat regains it by commanding M afterwards. (but his power will be fleeting at the end of the period, when his soul is given over to lucifer)

Dr. Faustus reading journal Act one

Act one
scene one

• the scene begins with Faustus pondering over what he should persue in his studies
• He uses a process of elimination to decide which subject would be the best, by putting others down, 'a greater subject fitteth faustus' wit' (already we begin to see his arrogance) 'the end of physic isour body's health' (we can see how faustus is looking for something more important or higher than the body - i.e. the spirit)
• he comes to the conclusion that he will study magic
• 'necromantic books are heavenly' - 'necromantic' meaning black magic and 'heavenly' being an irony
• he commands on his servant (Wagner) to bring to him his friends Valdes and Cornelius, who can teach him about black magic
• at this point, before Valdes and Cornelius enter we see the first appearance of the good angel and the evil angel.
• The good angel tell Faustus to not be tempted by the black magic 'gaze not on it' 'read the scriptures' as a warning - giving the audience a sign that Faustus can turn back now unharmed, but he will not
• The evil angel persuades him to carry on his path, working on his arrogance 'lord and comander of these elements' - if the evil angel was not present perhaps Faustus would have turned back now? Is the evil angel the main reason for his downfall?
• After hearing the angels, faustus is full of greed and desire, due to what the evil angel says and stays on his path. 'How I am glutted with conceit of this!' - (gluttony-one of the 7 deadly sins)
• When Valdes and Cornelius enter, faustus explains how he has been caught up with black magic and wishes to persue it further, Valdes says 'Faustus, these books, thy wit, and our experience shall make all nations to canonise us', meaning that they will become saints or treated like celebrities

scene two

• Scene consists of Wagner teasing two scholars who are wondering were Faustus is
• We can see the first signs of Wagner as a bully here
• Wagner explains how Faustus has a 'corpus naturale' - a body capable of movement and could be anywhere, taking the scholars question too literally
• the first scholar then says to the other 'I fear he has fallen into that damned art' - talking about the black magic
• the second scholar says that even if he didn't know faustus he would 'grieve him' and explains how they should try and get him back
• the other says 'I fear me nothing can reclaim him' - the reader questions whether Faustus is damned or if there is a chance he could turn back. Tension

Scene three

• Faustus enters, holding a black magic book, and spends the beginning of the scene conjuring a spirit (Mephestophiles)
• As soon as Mephastophiles appears, Faustus orders him to change his shape, as 'thou art too ugly to attend on me' - he is unsuited to hell? arroagant? spoilt?
• Faustus then tells himself he's the best spirit conjurer (arrogant)
• Mephistopheles explains to Faustus 'I came now hither of my own accord' and how he came to be in hell
• here we can see Faustus' ideas are being challenged, Faustus doesn't understand how M can be both on earth and in hell at the same time, but M explains how it is more of a hell of the mind, and warns Faustus 'leave these frivolous demands'- so he has been warned, Faustus' many warnings give the audience little sympathy for him
• Faustus is a man who is unable to see anyone elses feelings but his own, which is why he is so determined to live out his own wants, not regarding the consequences.
• He is occupied which 'voluptuousness' - satisfying the senses, and things of human worth, gold, celebrity status etc. but underestimates the nature of hell and eternity-not as clever as he thinks.
• Faustus ignores M warnings and tells him to propose the giving of his soul to lucifer, to which M replies 'I will, Faustus'-not trying to stop him any further
• Once M exits Faustus says 'Had I as many souls as there be stars, I'd give them all for Mephistopheles'- showing little concern for the offer he has just sent, he's very certain of his actions-self assured person

Scene four

• Wagner and Robin the clown enter as a comical interlude which mirrors the more serious plot
• Gothic feature- a break in the anxiety, allows for the anxiety to rise again
• Wagner bullies Robin for being poor, 'how poverty jesteth in his nakedness!'- classic bully, Wagner is poor, surely, as he works for someone else, and possibly wants to cover his insecurities by bullying someone poorer than him. 
• In the scene Wagner aims to get Robin to serve him
• There is a back and forth comedy in the structure when Wagner hand over the guilders
• Wagner further bullies Robin by conjuring two spirit which he says will 'fetch thee away', Robin is in disbelief, but 'runs up and down crying' when they appear- vunerable, easy target for W
• Wagner succeeds in making Robin serve him, and the scene (and act) ends with robin saying 'I serve him, that's flat' which could be interprated in different ways, 'serve him' means to be his servant, but also could mean to give him what's coming to him, both in this scene and the wider context of the plot meaning he'll get the consequences, as will Faustus.