The tragic play, Faust, and the epic poem, Inferno, are both stories that incorporate love, death, and sin, as well as a strikingly similar portrayal of women. Goethe’s Gretchen and Dante’s Francesca are both greatly affected by their love during their lives and suffer a similar fate for the sake of that love. Gretchen and Francesca, respectively, exemplify the larger themes of discontent and strife in Goethe’s Faust and of justice in Dante’s Inferno. However, while they reflect these complex themes of the literary works they appear in, their femininity is portrayed as pitiful and naïve.
In Goethe’s Faust, Gretchen is a young and innocent girl and the title character’s love interest. Even though she is not introduced until the middle point of the first part of the tragedy, Gretchen’s role has a great impact on the story and she becomes the reason for almost everything Faust does in the remainder of the play. After first meeting her on the street, Faust quickly falls for the girl and demands Mephistopheles to procure her for him. “Get me that girl, and don’t ask why” (Goethe 257). Faust’s selfish lust for Gretchen is fervent but he is often distracted from his feelings for her. Gretchen’s feelings, however, are permanent and unselfish. Faust often leaves Gretchen alone
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to deal with the aftermath of his unfortunate decisions. And even though she is not considered the main character in the play, Gretchen experiences more tragedy than Faust throughout the story. Faust is a German scholar who, despite being very accomplished, is dissatisfied with his life, as it has played out so far. He meets Mephistopheles, who draws him into a wager in order to win his soul. After meeting Gretchen, Mephistopheles is determined to also corrupt her innocent soul. While Faust is being led down a dark path to damnation, he unknowingly drags Gretchen along with him. His transgressions inadvertently cause Gretchen to make fatal decisions that tarnish her soul. Her mother is killed as an unintentional result of a sleeping potion given to her from Faust and he later kills her brother in a duel. Faust’s actions emotionally destroy Gretchen and his absences in her life lead her to a mental breakdown, As a result of this, she commits infanticide for which she is imprisoned and eventually executed. Despite being the lead in this tragic play, the only real tragedy that Faust experiences is self-dissatisfaction and having to deal with the atrocities he committed against the woman he loved. While Faust, being that he is the main character, portrays an obvious embodiment of the literary work’s larger themes of dissatisfaction and strife, Gretchen better personifies these unifying themes. Faust encounters conflict throughout the story, but his discontent and frustration eventually leads to personal fulfillment. Gretchen, however, struggles with conflict throughout the story and is met with a tragic death. The story of Francesca in Dante’s Inferno is almost backward when compared to Gretchen’s.
Francesca is already dead when she is first introduced and through her conversation with Dante, she relates her undoing and the reason for her death. Francesca, a resident of the second circle of hell, is eternally trapped with her lover, Paolo. When she was alive she was bound in marriage to an old and deformed man, and in time fell in love with another. The two carried out an affair behind her husband’s back and after catching them together, he murdered the young lovers. “Love gave us both one death” (Dante 41). Because of her forbidden love, she is trapped forever in the part of hell reserved for the
lustful. The overarching theme in Inferno is justice, more specifically God’s justice and his punishments for sin. “Such favor on him befits him” (Dante 11). The punishments in Inferno are meant to fit the crime of the sinner. To punish the lustful in the second circle of hell, they are eternally doomed to sway around in a storm of warring winds for letting their appetitive nature sway their reason. Francesca is damned here, without a chance for redemption, forever with her lover. Faust and Inferno tell very different tales, however, overall Gretchen and Francesca’s lives are very similar; they both had tragic love and died a tragic death. Many of the aspects of their lives differ but ultimately their stories follow the same path. Yet Gretchen’s life was primarily a tragedy and Francesca’s, while tragic, was written as part of a comedy. In death, Gretchen was saved, and thus earned an eternity in heaven. Francesca, though, must endure hell for eternity. The deaths of both Gretchen and Francesca are the direct result of men and their feelings for men. Faust, Gretchen’s leading man, kills her mother and brother and leaves her distraught. After murdering her own child in her mania, she is executed. Francesca’s love for her for another man and their affair is the reason for her murder at her husband’s hand. The women in these stories seem like they cannot really help what happened to them. Although the choices they make lead to their deaths, they are not given the responsibility for these decisions because they were not made with bad intentions. They are pitiful and helpless. Francesca is portrayed as an innocent girl whose one small transgression leads to eternal suffering and so many tragic events happen in Gretchen’s life that it is nearly impossible to not feel compassion for her. This is not only felt by the readers but by the both Dante and Faust. “My pity overwhelmed me and I felt myself go slack” (Dante 43). Dante faints after hearing Francesca’s story and when Gretchen is about to meet her death, Faust is filled with sympathy and sadness at the tragic events of her life. The portrayal of Gretchen and Francesca furthers the “naïve every girl” stereotype that is a common archetype in fictional works. Gretchen is written as simple girl with an idealistic innocence. She is taken advantage of by an older man who abandons her once he is done with her. At the end of her life she is full of sorrow and remorse for the life she lived, but still cries out her lover’s name, the one that caused all of her strife, as her soul enters Heaven. And even after death, she waits to meet Faust again and spend her afterlife with him. Francesca is shown to be regretful of her actions and undeserving of her punishment. It creates the idea that although she is a guilty sinner, her simplicity is the real cause of her wrongdoing her actions are a result of being swept in the moment and that had she had had the time to repent she would have done so. After death, she is doomed to eternity in hell with the man she sinned with. In both poems the women are treated unfairly and are written as though they had no real choice in their fates and that love was the guiding factor that lead to their deaths. The simplicity and naïveté of Gretchen and Francesca is a stark contrast to the complex themes in their respective stories, yet these two women perfectly exemplify these themes. Gretchen’s constant strife in Faust is a focal point in the later half of the first part of the tragic play. And the justice that is served to Francesca for her transgressions is the main focus in Canto V of Inferno and leaves such a deep impact on Dante that he faints from pity. Not only are these women painted as simplistic, but also their entire lives as written in their books are centered on men and love. As Goethe wrote, “feeling is all.” They felt too much, loved too much, and that lead to their regrettable downfalls and tragic deaths.
On the other hand, the Inferno centers on those who turned their back to their “creator” and “source of life” in the fulfilling of earthly desires, and are thus damned for eternity. In between these two extremes is Purgatorio, which deals with the knowledge and teaching of love, as Beatrice and others help outline love for Dante so he can make the climb to paradise and be worthy. For the reader to understand the idea of Dante’s love, one must understand the influence of Aristotle, Plato, and Dante’s “love at first sight” Beatrice in transforming his concept of will and of love in life. In his Divine Comedy, Dante gains salvation through the transformation of his will to love, and hopes that the reader will also take away the knowledge and concept of love he uses to revert to the right path of
...seful miscommunication between men and women. Lastly, when looking through the imagined perspective of the thoughtless male tricksters, the reader is shown the heartlessness of men. After this reader’s final consideration, the main theme in each of the presented poems is that both authors saw women as victims of a male dominated society.
Characters in literature who exhibit pride or live as a voice of reason, often share certain characteristics between each other. Prideful characters often allow their pride to influence their actions, while voices of reason advise the lead character, hoping that the lead character will listen to them. Dante’s Inferno and Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex share similarities through their lead characters, Dante (the pilgrim) from Dante’s Inferno and Oedipus from Oedipus Rex, as well as through their voices of reason, Virgil from Dante’s Inferno and Creon from Oedipus Rex
Eupriedes, Medea and Sappho’s writing focus on women to expose the relationships between a variety of themes and the general ideal that women are property. The main characters in both pieces of literature demonstrate similar situations where love and sex result in a serious troll. These themes affected their relationship with themselves and others, as well as, incapability to make decisions which even today in society still affects humans. Headstrong actions made on their conquest for everlasting love connects to sacrifices they made to achieve their goal which ultimately ended in pain. Love and sex interferes with development of human emotions and character throughout the course
Both Shakespeare’s King Lear and Dante’s Inferno explore the reasons for, and results of, human suffering. Each work postulates that human suffering comes as a result of choices that are made: A statement that is not only applicable to the characters in each of the works, but also to the readers. The Inferno and King Lear speak universal truths about the human condition: that suffering is inevitable and unavoidable. While both King Lear and the Inferno concentrate on admonitions and lamentations of human suffering, one of the key differences between the works is that Inferno conveys an aspect of hope that is not nearly as prevalent in King Lear.
In the play The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, a quintessential pair of teens fall in love, but their fate ends in misfortune. The pair falls in love in a time where women are seen as unimportant and insignificant. In spite of this, Romeo breaks the boundaries of male dominance and shows a more feminine side. Throughout the play, there is an interesting depiction of gender roles that is contrary to the society of the time period.
This essay explores the role of women in Homer's Odyssey, James Joyce's Ulysses (1922) and Derrick Walcott's Omeros (1990), epics written in very different historical periods. Common to all three epics are women as the transforming figure in a man's life, both in the capacity of a harlot and as wife.
Many readers feel the tendency to compare Aphra Behn's Oroonoko to William Shakespeare's Othello. Indeed they have many features in common, such as wives executed by husbands, conflicts between white and black characters, deceived heroes, the absolute vulnerability of women, etc. Both works stage male characters at both ends of their conflicts. In Othello, the tragic hero is Othello, and the villain is Iago. In Oroonoko, the hero is Oroonoko, the vice of the first part is the old king, and the second part white men in the colony. In contrast to their husbands, both heroines—Desdemona and Imoinda—seem more like "function characters" who are merely trapped in their husband's fates, occasionally becoming some motivation of their husbands (like Desdemona is Othello's motivation to rage, Imoinda's pregnancy drives Oroonoko restless to escape). While Shakespeare and Behn put much effort in moulding them, to many readers they are merely "perfect wives". This paper aims to argue that, Desdemona and Imoinda's perfect wifehood may be the product of compliance to male-dominated societies, where women are
In Faust, Margaret was the most pious, virtuous woman in the beginning. She attended church devoutly, worked for the betterment and care of her family, and kept herself pure in public eyes. Margaret's brother took pride in his sister's resistance to her nature. His family was seen as good because of the female members, but as soon as a woman succumbs to her nature, her family is shamed. As the seduced inno...
By saying this, it is evident that Francesca openly accepts Dante’s pity, so much so that she believes Dante deserves peace for it, revealing that she feels as though she has done nothing wrong. She also refers to her journey from life to Hell as “grievous”, implying that her punishment is far too severe for her, once again emphasizing how she considers herself innocent. This suggests that maybe Francesca feels as though her actions are justified because she was motivated by love, but it is selfish to think that one’s own happiness is more important than others. Dante is aware that justice is the true creator of Hell, and still shows sorrow for her and her lover, also suggesting that he might, like Francesca, value love more than justice. Dante knows that everyone in Hell is a sinner, including the pair of lovers, but he stills cannot help but to show pity towards
Callaghan, Dympna. Woman and Gender in Renaissance Tragedy. Atlantic Highlands: Humanities Press International, Inc., 1989
Women were often subjects of intense focus in ancient literary works. In Sarah Pomeroy’s introduction of her text Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves, she writes, “Women pervade nearly every genre of classical literature, yet often the bias of the author distorts the information” (x). It is evident in literature that the social roles of women were more restricted than the roles of men. And since the majority of early literature was written by men, misogyny tends to taint much of it. The female characters are usually given negative traits of deception, temptation, selfishness, and seduction. Women were controlled, contained, and exploited. In early literature, women are seen as objects of possession, forces deadly to men, cunning, passive, shameful, and often less honorable than men. Literature reflects the societal beliefs and attitudes of an era and the consistency of these beliefs and attitudes toward women and the roles women play has endured through the centuries in literature. Women begin at a disadvantage according to these societal definitions. In a world run by competing men, women were viewed as property—prizes of contests, booty of battle and the more power men had over these possessions the more prestigious the man. When reading ancient literature one finds that women are often not only prizes, but they were responsible for luring or seducing men into damnation by using their feminine traits.
She then talks about great men such as Mussolini, Pope, Napoleon and Goethe and how they viewed women. After discovering their opinions, the narrator is bewildered at her findings. These men are praised for their philosophies and wisdom, yet they all view women as being inferior. The narrator is pointing towards the fact that these men in reality are quite ignorant. During th...
Based on the film, Mephisto, on the other hand, is the devil who wagered with God that Faust is indeed same as all mortal man’s soul, easy to be fooled and misled. To settle the ownership of the Earth, they bet on the soul of Faust. The story of Faust is comparable to the Bible story of Job. If the devil wins, the earth is his, even Faust’s soul, but after the last sand in the hourglass falls signaling the end of their contract, Faust’s soul will return to his body peacefully. Faust is considered a scholar and a doctor. Dr. Faust is recognized as a fine man and a prayerful alchemist. His main concern is to save men’s lives and prevent death during the age of plague. Due to disappointments of failing, his constant depression led him to become angry and embittered, ends up burning his books. One of the pages of the books were interpreted that Mephisto is trying to communicate with Faust. As the perfect timing to tempt a man into sinning, Mephisto enticed Faust by giving him an unbelievable restoring power to heal the people who sought his help from the plague. In exchange, his soul will be owned by the devil. And he revoked the name of the Lord in healing the people, instead the using the name of the devil. Such temptations start with vision into treating the plague, Faust was so taken to his priority that he was willing to give up his soul for the common good. It is seen that the morality of Faust is swayed; his aim to do good, despite knowing that in exchange for this is his soul. Regardless of this, Faust chose to agree to Mephisto’s offered contract.
The first part of Divine Comedy, the epic poem by Dante Alighieri, is named Inferno. In general, Inferno is the underworld Hell that is broken up into three major layers; Upper Hell, Lower Hell and the Center of Hell. In this portion of the poem, the author, Dante, recollects and narrates his own trip taken through Hell from beginning to end by means of visualization (Dante).