Johnny Blaze, the new and improved Faust

While being introduced to Faust I kept asking myself “why does the plot sound so familiar or at least some of its events sounded somehow similar to something I‘ve watched a while ago?”. And then I realized that the plot reminded of the movie Ghost Rider starring Nickolas Cage. The story revolves around Johnny Blaze who, after realizing that his father has been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, makes a pact with the devil, who is also, interestingly enough, referred to in the movie as Mephistopheles. He agrees to sell his soul to the devil on the condition that in return the devil would cure his father. He did not realize however that by selling his soul, he will become the devil’s bounty hunter, gathering evil souls on Earth and bringing them to hell. As expected the devil deceives Johnny and his father ends up dying the second day. Johnny leaves his hometown and the girl, Roxanne, he always cared about behind and later becomes a daredevil stunt biker by day and the ghost rider by night.
In both the movie and the play the main characters confide in the devil to do something for them, thinking that they are going to lead a happier life once their wish comes true. However, they soon realize that by making a pact with the devil, their lives turn upside down, and what they thought was going to bring them happiness and ease, becomes their worst nightmare. Faust for instance wants knowledge and young age, but because of his greedy ambitions, he ends up deceiving the one person he truly loved, making her an adulterer and a murderer. During the heated discussion between Faust and the devil, Faust yells at Mephistopheles “ I am stricken to my life’s very marrow by the misery of this one girl and you calmly sneer at the fate of thousands” indicating that Faust is trying to blame Mephistopheles for destroying her, yet he can not deny that he is the one responsible for what became of her. Mephistopheles replies” Who was it that ruined her? I or You?“. At that moment, Faust glares at him speechlessly and demands to be taken to her to free her. He feels guilty not only because he comes to love her truly but also because he knows that before she meets him she was the most righteous and innocent person he has ever known. Johnny, on the other hand, becomes burdened with the curse of working for the devil himself. When he tries to get his life back by reasoning with Mephistopheles, the latter tells him that if he defeats his son Blackheart, who desires to replace his father and to create hell on Earth, he can be freed from the curse. However, Blackheart becomes aware of the deal between Johnny and Mephistopheles so he kills Johnny’s best friend and takes his ex girlfriend hostage. This shows that even though it has been years since Johnny has signed the contract, his actions still affect those close to his heart, putting them in grave danger. In the end, Johnny is able to save Roxanne and defeat Blackheart but refuses to give his powers back to Mephistopheles, instead Johnny tells him that he is going to keep his powers and eventually turns them against him, his reason being that he does not want the devil to trick somebody else into selling his/her soul. Later, he tells Roxanne that he can not be with her, that he needed to be constantly on the road, which shows that even though he paid his debt for what he did, he felt that he did not deserve to have a normal life. Similarly in the play, Faust does not get a happy ending, instead he leaves the prison once Gretchen is forgiven.
It is important to point out however that both characters are different in several ways, one way being that both signed the deal under completely different conditions. Faust signed on the condition that once the devil is able to give him complete satisfaction, Mephistopheles can then claim his soul. Faust continuously strikes the readers as someone greedy and self centered because all his actions throughout the play are based on him thinking about his pleasures. For instance, he does not care that Gretchen looses her innocence for the sake of him getting what he wants. Johnny on the other hand signed the contract only thinking about his father. He is a selfless character who thinks about those around him and takes the full blame for his actions. Even if some for those actions were taken in hopes of making those around him happier. He burdens himself with the devil’s curse to ensure that others do not fall into Mephistopheles trap and naively become enslaved to him.

Faust and Aladdin

That one saying…..

“Three wishes, to be exact. And ixnay on the wishing for more wishes. That’s all. Three. Uno, dos, tres. No substitutions, exchanges or refunds,” explained the genie to the street rat in the Disney film Aladdin. I’m sure we all wish we could get a hold of that lamp and have three wishes of our own. What would you wish for? A million dollars? A romantic date with your celebrity crush that is married and has who knows how many kids and would be above and beyond a miracle if it ever came true? World peace? Or maybe something simple like a pony ? Now, second guessing a wish is quite uncommon. When in the moment you truly don’t think twice about what you’re wishing for, I mean why bother when you can have a twenty bedroom house with: five pools, two basketball courts, three movie theaters, a bowling alley, seven personal chefs, two walk in closets for your shoes and three for your wardrobe, a diamond studded ceilings, gold toilets, a mirror that tells you how beautiful you are, four pink six door hummers to be exact lol, a private jet, yacht and an island named after you?? Little do we know what loop holes come with this wish. Actually little did Aladdin and Faust know what came with theirs.

“I shall with pleasure, without more ado,/Wholly devote myself to you./You shall have my company,/And if you are satisfied,/I shall be your servant, always at your side,”(Faust lines 1644-1648). Basically Mephistopheles is Faust’s genie (evil voice: Muahahahaha). Faust desired to be with a young and innocent girl named Gretchen. Aladdin wished to be a prince so he can marry the Arabian Princess also known as Jasmine. To their benefit well at least at the time their wishes came true when Faust was made younger and thus appealing and had an intimate night with Gretchen and also when Aladdin turned into a prince. Of course this would have never happened without the help of their genies. Come on guys your pretty lame to need some ones help to woo a girl, simply as our generation would say, “they got no game.” ;)

Now Aladdin, you fool didn’t you know that scumbag Jafar would expose you’re not a prince, kidnap Jasmine and become a prince himself? Or Faust, didn’t you know that your one night of intimacy might get Gretchen pregnant, have her put in prison and get her mom and brother killed? I mean come on guys this was all pretty obvious, what were you thinking?! Not only did what they wish for have the girl’s locked up behind bars or in a life size hour glass, but it also had them run to their rescue. Now don’t you wish you didn’t wish for what you wished for? Hehe

Simply, we all wish. Wishing is an enchanting and it stirs our imaginations and ambitions. We either wish for the achievable things in life or just the complete impossible ones. However, what we wish for may not always be as we think an advantage to us. Our yearnings may entail consequences that we never saw coming. Therefore, as I watched Aladdin and read Faust, I wished I could be there and tell them that one saying, “be careful what you wish for.”

Faust and The Scarlet Letter

A novel that has a connection with Goethe’s Faust is Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter.  In The Scarlet Letter, a young puritan minister in Boston had an affair with Hester Prynne, who immigrated to Boston before her husband, Roger Chillingworth.  The affair resulted in Hester Prynne having an illegitimate child, Pearl.  Hester Prynne refused to admit who she had an affair with, choosing to suffer her punishment alone.  Arthur Dimmesdale suffered from a great deal of guilt that was slowly killing him for several years because he did not reveal his crime while Hester recovered from her shame.  While Hester suffered scorn from the townspeople of Boston, Arthur Dimmesdale enjoyed respect because of his position as a puritan minister.  Chillingworth arrived in Boston at this time and saw that his wife had had an illegitimate child and eventually found out it was with Dimmesdale.  He kept his identity a secret from the townspeople and devoted the rest of his life to trying to kill Dimmesdale by becoming Dimmsdale’s physician and confidant.  Dimmesdale eventually admitted his crime and died as a result, which led to the death of Chillingworth.  Chillingworth died because taking revenge upon Dimmesdale was the only thing that he had to live for. 

There is a connection between The Scarlet Letter and Faust because a similar irony exists between the two literary works. Faust, like Dimmesdale, committed adultery and refused to accept his punishment.  Both Gretchen and Hester accepted their punishments for their sins and were forgiven by God while Faust and Dimmesdale suffered more over a longer period of time for failing to take responsibility for their actions.  The irony between Faust and The Scarlet Letter includes the roles of Chillingworth and Mephistopheles impact upon the actions of Faust and Dimmesdale.  Both Chillingsworth and Mephistopheles are seen as the antagonist in both literary works.  Ironically, neither Chillingsworth nor Mephistopheles was directly responsible for Faust and Dimmesdales’ mistakes.  While it can be argued that Mephistopheles led Faust to seduce Gretchen, the seduction was a result of Faust making a deal with Mephistopheles through his own free will and allowing Mephistopheles to show him worldly pleasures.  Dimmesdale also committed adultery through his own free will.  Chillingworth and Mephistopheles are more responsible for the sins of Gretchen and Hester than for the sins of Dimmesdale and Chillingworth.  Mephistopheles exposed Faust to Gretchen, who was naïve and innocent, and Chillingworth admitted to being a poor husband to Hester. 

All of these similarities between the two literary works point out the irony that is shared by Faust and The Scarlet Letter.  The irony is that the characters that were the least to blame for their mistakes were the first to seek redemption.   Hester refused to take the opportunity to blame her sin upon both Dimmesdale and Chillingworth by refusing to admit who she had committed adultery with.  Similarly Gretchen did not blame Faust for the predicament that he placed her in.  Hester accepted the shame and the scorn from the puritan community of Boston and devoted her life to caring for her daughter.  Gretchen accepted the punishment of death over running away with Faust.  While both Faust and Dimmesdale initially believed that they were escaping their punishments by running away, both came to the realization of their mistakes when it was too late for redemption.  Dimmesdale confessed his sin and died as a result and Faust’s soul was momentarily lost to Mephistopheles.            

Of Other Deals with the Devil…

From Harold Ramis’ film Bedazzled (2000):

BedazzledClip

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This is the clip (at a slightly more extended length–including Elliot’s first wish) that we watched in class to compare with the deal that Faust makes with Mephistopheles, and how this contemporary version of the “deal with the devil” presents similarities to and differences from what we see in the play.  

One of the things that we discussed in class were the differences between the characterizations of Elliot Richards (Brendan Fraser) and Faust, with a lot of you pointing out that Faust is a much more self-confident figure in comparison with Elliot, who just wants to be loved.  Along those lines, it’s interesting that Faust’s desires represent something very individualistic–his desires are for his own fulfillment–while Elliot’s, though for his happiness, are much more about a sense of inclusiveness with the world around him.

So, definitely, since we discussed this very quickly in class, please feel free to add additional comments here with things that you may have thought of since class.

 

–Daphne