Faust, Prologue-Study: Who's really enlightened?

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     Of Faust and Wagner, who is more enlightened? Faust has scoured the ends of the earth searching for truth and satisfaction. He is a doctor, alchemist, scholar, and teacher (his language even suggests the makings of a poet). Recently, he has taken up magic, so I suppose he is a wizard as well. We would call him well-rounded, yet unsatisfied with life. He cannot find what he is looking for in any book, not even the Bible. Boredom is slowly driving him insane, so much so that he almost kills himself. He has so much knowledge that he no longer sees the point of living in the physical world. On the other hand, Wagner is an eager student of Faust who always picks out the silver lining. He is well-read, but unlike Faust, he does not let his knowledge or arrogance get in the way of his optimism. As Faust says, Wagner is able to find hope amidst the sea of knowledge and human error. He is excited to read history and science. He cannot get enough of it.
     In the beginning of the the book, reason is described as a celestial light that men use to become more beastly. I would assume that it was supposed to have the opposite effect, and propose that those who do not use reason in a beastly fashion are enlightened. The question is, who has used reason to become more beastly? Faust, the despairing scholar aspiring to be a god, or Wagner, the enthusiastic schoolboy holding out possibly false and ignorant hope for humanity?

P.S. I commented on Will and Olivia's posts.

Comments

  1. Abigail BrockOctober 23, 2017 at 6:45 PM

    The question in itself is interesting if you think about it. "Who has used reason to become more beastly?" It's saying that reason, something that separates humans from other creatures, has become a tool that men use to become more beastly or less human. When we think of reason it's usually in a positive light; a filter for our gut reactions that keeps us from doing something really stupid that we will regret later. But in this passage its used negatively and one could make a guess that purpose of this is to say that reason is being misused. To repsond to your question, I would say Faust has become more beastly. He is arrogant and believes he's attained all knowledge possible and even compared himself to a god when the Bible tells us that we cannot comprehend all of God's creation nor ever will. Wagner's hope and enthusiasm to me seems rather innocent in comparison.

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