Tag Archives: Helen

Faustus’s famous bargain with Lucifer was not “worth” it. Trading his soul for a little more than twenty years was not worth forfeiting his previous success and climb up the social ladder. The bargain is simplified for the audience in 1.4 when Wagner attempts to persuade Robin the clown for a similar deal. Robin frames the argument in terms of food. Clearly a nice roasted piece of season meat is better tasting than a bloody raw piece of meat. Why would an educated Faustus not see the flaw in the bargain like Robin simply points out? Well, Faustus believes he can have the best of both worlds.

Faustus asks Mephistopheles to bring him Helen of Troy. When he kisses her he says that her lips are his heaven. As his deal creeps toward its end Faustus believes he can have the best of both worlds. Helen is his heaven and his necromancy is his hell. Faustus cannot have both heaven and hell in his life. Both the good and bad angels have warned him that it is one way or the other. But Faustus, humanly, want everything. When it is time to pay his soul to Lucifer he will only have hell in his life. Hell is described as the absence of god. Faustus will lose the privilege to kiss Helen or even enjoy his power.

Faustus’s dilemma is not unheard of or unrealistic like Emdymion’s. Faustus’s flaw is very real and happens every day. It is the greatest flaw of man to want everything and anything. A modern day Faustus could be Bernie Madoff. He was a very successful hedge fund manager who was already living in extreme luxury and privilege. Madoff simply wanted more. Illegally he pulled a ponzi scheme which ultimately ended his life early. He’ll spend the rest of his days in jail. You can draw connections to Faustus. The ponzi scheme is similar to Faustus’s bargain with Lucifer. Madoff’s jail sentence is comparable to Faustus being dragged into hell to pay.