Fist. The third part of the tragedy

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Fist. The third part of the tragedy is a satirical play by Friedrich Theodor Vischer from 1862 . In it, the important theoretician of aesthetics summarizes his lifelong critical Goethe studies in the form of a comprehensive parody , which is also a criticism of Goethe philology and literary studies in general.

The subtitle of the work is: Treu im Geist of the second part of Göthesches Faust, composed by Deutobold Symbolizetti Allegoriowitsch Mystificinsky . Due to his many years of preoccupation with Johann Wolfgang Goethe's Faust poem, Vischer parodies Goethe - especially his Faust II - on a style-critical, figure- and motive-critical, time-critical and self-critical level. In 1886 a second, revised and enlarged edition appeared, in which Vischer - mainly through the extended epilogue - expanded the frame of reference in terms of literary satirical terms by caricaturing the interpretations and interpreters of Goethe's Faust poem at the time.

Programmatic of the title page

Apparently it is a continuation of Goethe's Faust II . This is not only expressed succinctly by the numbering, but above all by the addition of Treu im Geist in the second part of Goethe's Faust . Vischer adheres to this statement in a variety of ways. Up to this point the title page seems to be taken seriously; a poetic continuation of Goethean poetry could follow; the break through which this spirit is exposed as demon is only brought about by the announcement of a pseudonymous authorship: poemed by Deutobold Symbolizetti Allegoriowitsch Mystificinsky .

As far as the name is concerned, Deutobold is reminiscent of the allegorical rags of Mephistopheles Raufebold , who fought on the side of the emperor in the 4th act of Faust II during the battle between the emperor and the opposing emperor, alongside Habebald and holding festival. From a nomenclature perspective, the name ending -bold emerges from the old name element -with the meaning bold . In the German Universal Lexicon it is pointed out that -bold describes a person who "likes to do sth. Often and is less likely to do sth." Without the caricatured by Vischer here Sinnhuberei to want to fall, you could Deutobold most with bold Deut Ender translate - for characterization Vischer's quite usable. In addition to this playful use of name formation and the undertone aimed at the anger of the interpreters, Vischer's pseudonym is also characterized by the fact that it allows him to temporarily assume a certain role - as will be shown if the motto of the parody is included in this consideration.

The motto And allegorical, as the rags are, they only become all the more comfortable rounds off the program of the title page, in that on the one hand it contains a determination of affiliation, on the other hand it invites fun and irony . Originally there are verses of Mephistopheles with which he comments on the arrival of the three mighty ones. Analogously, as the motto of the parody, the verses can of course also be applied to the allegorical figures of the pseudonym, which makes it clear that they belong to the part of that force that always wants evil and always creates good . The role that Vischer assumes behind his "pseudonym quadriga" (Mahal 1981, p. 55), if it is linked to Vischer's reflections on the nature of evil, is here that of the journeyman who stimulates and works, and must create as devil (Faust I, v. 343). This is corroborated by a letter from Vischer to Julius Ernst von Günthert (from Zurich , undated), in which he states:

Göthes image is clouded for us by the decrepit, uncomfortable work of the second part of Faust. I wanted to kill this work with rough, aristophanically cynical, but also hanswurst - like good-natured satire, etching away from Göthes originally pure, real poet image (...) I wanted to free the Germans from the foulness with which this annoying product of senility lies on them, on which they themselves brooding (Julius Ernst von Günthert: Friedrich Theodor Vischer. A character picture. Dedicated to all friends , Stuttgart: Bonz 1889, p. 8).

In the manner of destruction mentioned here, the satirical intent of Vischer's parody to break the established “taste monopoly” (Böttger 1886) emerges undisguised, in order to finally be able to return to an honest aesthetic assessment of Goethe's Faust. In Faust III this is also addressed by Vischer in the role of the unknown. And here the arc to the title page closes: the stranger is only with the allegorical figures of the pseudonym “a person” (Vischer himself) - according to Vischer's interpretation: “The inner part of Faust is the ground on which the general powers fight each other, the real scene of tragic violence. Faust is a person with Mephistopheles and with the Lord also: man. "(F. Th. Vischer: Kritische Gänge, 2nd vol., P. 204)

Vischer, who often felt himself to be in the position of Faust, tries with his parody "to initiate a literary-critical communication process" (Wende 1995, p. 270) and includes himself in it - right up to the descent into hell of the unknown, pulled down through his own creatures, which he created with the help of his pseudonym or which - as Mephistopheles makes clear in the aftermath - prompted him for his bad drama purpose . Vischer's double, nested camouflage allows him on the one hand to work through the allegorical figures of his pseudonym in a Mephistophelian spirit, on the other hand to appear in the role of the unknown as an aspiring person.

Style criticism

Youthful world poem vs. senile allegory chicory

In his book Goethe's Faust from 1875, Vischer examines in his first section The Long Delay and its Causes , which influences Goethe was subject to when composing his Faust drama, and why they caused a delay or delay. Here subsection takes the first cause: The change of style over 100 pages. Numerous passages in this book pay tribute to Goethe's Art Nouveau, for example Vischer writes:

Goethe's Art Nouveau and above all the free rhymes in his Faust, coarse, fresh from the liver, inimitably true to life and never meanly true, sparkling with spirit, carefree how sharp the contrasts of the uncanny, the horrible and the comic may clash (F. Th. Vischer : Goethe's Faust , p. 59).

Vischer, who is indisputably committed [...] to the idealistic understanding of art (Scholz 1993, p. 30) and whose aesthetics represent an attempt to encyclopedically summarize the outcome of the aesthetic and especially the poetological discussion of Goethe's time (Willems 1981, p. 28), writes as early as 1839:

In the first part of Faust we see the most difficult thing a poet can achieve, the transformation of the deepest and most universal ideas into poetic flesh and blood, solved by the mystery of the imagination (Vischer: Kritische Gänge , 2nd vol., P. 202).

Here the esteem based on aesthetic consideration gushes out of every syllable, the first part is for him a creation of absolute poetic values (Martini 1978, p. 79). But with restrictions, because there is a hair in the best . Vischer, for example, rebukes Goethe's arbitrariness with which he throws a number of xenias, mostly ephemeral satyrical content, into a serious, profound tragedy, and describes this interspersion of satirical hacking in genuine and real poetry as an alien corrosive element . As one of the reasons why Goethe commits this, in Vischer's view, reprehensible act, he names Goethe's contempt for the youthful style of Faust , which he derives from a letter from Goethe to Schubarth (1820):

of these errors - which are reserved for his hero in the second part - the letter then says that the poor person (Faust) might lose himself more nobly, more dignified, more deeply in them than happens in the first, mean part. Common: this cannot possibly refer only to the simplicity of the circumstances in his first course of life; Goethe cannot call Gretchen common, nor Valentin; it has to go to the treatment, Goethe calls his naturally raw Art Nouveau mean .

Goethe's old style, which Vischer understands as a product of the enhancement of the classic, typical concept of beauty to the aesthetic principle of sheer beauty of form, is more or less the opposite of this common, natural Art Nouveau . This age style is responsible for the fact that the higher stage is entered, but not as a stage of acting life, but only for the purpose of taking up the humanistic educational topic in the undramatic, poetically uncomfortable way of the classifying and allegorizing style. As a result, Vischer gives Faust II again and again attributes such as incoherent, inorganic, gloomy, ornate, sometimes involuntarily funny, childish, affected, mannered, etc., describes it as a strange language wig (...) in full curls , as a large, gruff wart , as bloodless, viable structure where so strong, so colorful and curious the schnitzel ruffles prevails . The stranger expresses this in a similar way: In the second part of your drama I find almost no sentence, almost no line that is not curious, not mannered, so that my head pounds, buzzes, buzzes, tickles, crawls, buzzes and purrs .

It should also be mentioned here that Vischer expresses his appreciation towards Faust II on at least two points: on the one hand, the most beautiful and deepest thing for him is the thought of letting his hero end as ruler of an actively struggling people, at the moment when he is in a future looks as it is with a free people at large reason (Vischer: Goethe's Faust , 51), on the other hand he sees behind the comic roles nor the Goethe's genius , though those execution by a trembling old hand betrayed. What is special about Vischer's criticism is that in order to justify it, the person of Goethe is functionalized in a fictional meeting with Vischer as the savior of the young or male from the old Goethe:

(...) enough, I wanted to be this savior, I wanted to save Goethe from Goethe and I believe that he will thank me in Elysium; for Goethe in the Elysium is the rejuvenated, the true Goethe, not the allegory idler and mystery man of 70-82 years. (Vischer: Pro Domo , in: Kritische Gänge, 2nd vol., P. 354f)

The question now arises as to how the reference to Faust III can be established here, since up to now only more general aspects have been considered. The latter quote is the main reason that prompted Vischer to write his parody. He, who is known as a representative of the science of the beautiful (Mahal 1981, p. 55) that changes Hegel's system more than it continues , suffers personally from the dialectical tension between Faust first and second part, which is caused by the aesthetic discrepancy or the break in style builds up. The endeavor to release this tension - in order to be able to live , he must use all his strength for spiritual synthesis (Schlawe 1953: p. 17) - is expressed precisely in his Faust III, which serves him as a therapeutic means, himself from Albanian to free, but also to honor the advantages of Faust I, for example by using the character Valentine within the parody, which will be discussed later.

Superlativized language affectations

Vischer's criticism of language - a struggle in the name of the natural feeling of language against the muskrat and musk language that climbs into the bridal bed with cuffs and ice cream gloves - is closely linked to the stylistic criticism of verse forms and the use of operatic motifs. It also lives from the tension described above. Vischer cannot understand how one can admire the language in the first part and still enjoy the language in the second, nor digest it! can. He similarly rates the musical motifs, many of which in Faust I in the right place with the best effect! (so, for example. song of the archangels, song of the students in Auerbach's Cellar, Flohlied of Mephistopheles, Gretchen's songs The King of Thule and My peace is gone , after the popular song, which Gretchen in madness sings ) are placed, but others their poetic value by would almost lose a theatrical performance , such as the Easter song or the ghost song that swayed Faust into slumber .

Goethe's inclination, which lets so much power fizzle out in singspiele and such tinsel (...) , is presented in the second part in the first appearance through the healing elf singing, which at the beginning increases the excess of the operatic by a tiresome contribution . The song of the angels scattering roses (cf. Faust II , v. 11699-11709) or the chorus and echo at the beginning of the scene Bergschluchten, Wald, Fels (cf. Faust II , v. 11844-11853) displeased Vischer because of the incomprehensible [ n] appearance of becoming childish in part . Their verse style with its multiple gliding rhymes leads to stagnation, hardening, disturbing comforts, manners and these can not be separated from the strange nature of language as such .

Above all, Goethe's unusual use of the superlative (cf. Goethe's verses 5130, 5321, 6021, 6036, 6037, 6195, 6220, 6284, 6365, 10980, 11099, 11270, 11508 etc.), the Vischer in the imitation of Latin and Greek sees well-founded and creates forms such as the only or the last , which Goethe forms against logic in grammatical formation , meets Vischer with reluctance. Furthermore, there are new word formations like bushes in the verse, valleys green, hills swell, bushes to form shadow rest ( Faust II , v. 4654/4655) or echoen, youngest crowd, sea-like cheerful festival , in which Vischer sees a violation of the boundaries, set the language and taste .

Vischer lies in this language like in an anthill , it tickles that you don't know whether to laugh or sigh. According to Vischer, preoccupation with Faust II triggers an obsessive mechanism in the reader or interpreter to have to continue to parody in the same tone . Again, compare verses of the unknown: I can't help but, as often as I read it, than if a goblin was sitting on my neck, I have to keep ordering, rhyming, twisting, chopping, snipping, paddling, glueing in the tone.

This admission is clearly realized in Faust III. One can agree with Martini when he writes that hundreds of passages can be enumerated in which, in a funny antinomical turn of reference, image and sound, the Faust language is destroyed in itself with a lightning-fast punchline (Martini 1978, p. 104) . Vischer, who attests to the Mahal a stupendous mastery of all those verse and rhyme forms (Mahal 1981, p. 63), who, during his long-standing occupation with Goethe's Faust with virtuoso linguistic talent for imitation, settled into the changing linguistic levels, pitches and rhythms of Goethe's poetic diction ( Martini 1978, pp. 102-103), realized his programmatic subtitle Treu in the spirit of the second part of Goethe's Faust by isolating and grotesquely exaggerating the stylistic devices and language forms characteristic of Goethe's old style, whereby he moves as a parodist beyond the borders, which he as an aesthetician demanded from the poet Goethe. The change to pure folly (Frapan 1889, p. 59), the fantastic art of language à la Fischart or Rabelais , is fluid here.

The caricature of Goethe's age-old language first takes concrete form in the inexhaustible new word formations - in analogy to the formation buschen, Vischer uses verbalization in the verses of his Dr. Marianus: Everywhere unsnipfelt / (...), where the world tree tops, where the world sausage tops! As prime examples of noun formations the polymorphemischen composites can mothers apartment opening procedure and hell stove fire are called. The suffix -ei is also very often used to violate the aesthetic-musical law of rhyme (Martini 1978, p. 104); To put it bluntly, this is Euphorion's specialty: frenzy is followed by the rhymes Poetry, Seinerei, Fortanerei and Nirvanerei.

Furthermore, these new word formations often take place through access to dialectal language, foreign words and their corruptions, as well as word rarities (Martini 1978, p. 104). According to Verweyen / Witting, Vischer uses the trick of an empty word formation rule and they explain this using the religious or humanistic connotation -orium, which is used for a series of comical and largely unacceptable formations (Verweyen; Witting 1979, p. 173) becomes. In the 11th appearance of Act 3, during Faust's Ascension , Symbolum is followed by the rhymes Historium, Brimborium, Allegorium, Sensorium, Urpräzeptorium, (...), Cichorium, Inhalatorium .

Thirdly, the caricature of style shows itself in the lavish use of chants with gliding rhymes that appear in abundance; an example here is a chant of invisible good spirits from Act 1, Appearance 7, for comparison alongside verses from Goethe's Easter song ( Faust I , v. 737 -741) stand:

Faust I: Christ is risen! Joy to the mortal whom the perishable, creeping, hereditary defects turned around.

Faust III: Happy! Blessed is the mortal who passed the herbaceous, almost perishable, salvation yet commercial, cracking, hereditary, (...) test.

In terms of content, the adaptation of the original follows the substitute rule of downgrading or understating Goethe's solemn pathos (Martini 1978, p. 103/104), with Goethe's verse style being retained and used in an exaggerated manner . This is shown similarly in the following verses of the chorus mysticus ( Faust_II , V. 12104-12111 and Faust III , p. 131/132), in which the metrical structure is also retained and, on the content level, abstracts with higher-quality connotations to those with inferior ideas (Verweyen; Witting 1979, p. 171) are reduced, the ephemeral becomes the absurd, etc .:

Faust II: Everything that is transient is only a simile; The inadequate Here it happens; The indescribable Here it is done; The eternal feminine draws us on high.

Faust III: The tastiest, here it was tasted, the most crazy, here it was intended; The unforgivable, here it be forgiven; The eternally boring draws us there!

Furthermore, Goethe's verses are precisely characterized by the fact that he dispenses with superlative formations , which Vischer, in contrast, resorts to twice. Note also the nuance that the lower case of 'eternal' diminishes its meaning and the emphasis shifts to the 'boring' - in contrast to Goethe's integrative hyphenation. In connection with the bootjack allegory and the Ascension of Faust, the chorus mysticus will again have to be dealt with. Finally, at this point, reference should be made to the dissertation by Fr. Th. Vischer and Goethe's Faust by J. Kopp , which - with a tendency towards fabric lifting - in the chapter The comedy of language and verse form (J. Kopp 1930, p. 233– 248) with 15 pages shows the parody of Goethe's age in 'the most detailed' way.

Vischer's Critique of Allegory

In his Aesthetics, § 444, Vischer describes allegory as a frosty combination of the elements of the beautiful . The original relationship between these elements, between idea and image, has been dissolved. While the symbol has an identity of idea and image, which are seen by the poet, what is characteristic of the allegory is that the idea (...) is there first and the image (...) is sought and subsequently brought about , thus the reflection much more Part of this product is imagination . The arbitrariness in this connection means that an interpretation must be given (Vischer, for example, grants the allegory a right to exist within a cycle of religious paintings , since the individual allegory is easily interpreted by the proximity of the other images ).

In poetry it should at least help the interpretation so that the reader does not have to torment himself , because without it the allegory according to Vischer always remains a riddle and you never know, if you think you have found an interpretation of it, (...) whether it is right be . Because of this fact and the fact that allegorizing is located in the non-poetic [n] sphere of the mind (cf. Sørensen 1979, p. 633 on allegory criticism in Goethe), Vischer denies such puzzles the character of art.

In Goethe's Faust II, however , Vischer often does not see this requirement of the accompanying interpretation fulfilled; for him it is an allegorical work . Vischer even admits that he never got behind the meaning of the homunculus (one has long been crucified to guess who the homunculus is. Who he is? The little man made mechanically without potency? That is the second part of Faust by Goethe .) came. Yes, he absolutely refuses to want to interpret these ideas in the flimsy skirt of allegory , these limb men or stillbirths , which he ascribes to Goethe's Egyptian train .

On the idea of making an allegory of the penetration of the classical and romantic in modern art from the connection between Faust and Helena - an unpleasant allegorical marriage, from which the rubber man Euphorion emerges with such touching acceleration - writes Vischer in his essay on the second part of Goethe's Faust stated that this idea had occurred to him long before the classical-romantic phantasmagoria Helena was published, but the poet had to resist this idea (let alone that - according to Vischer - a Goethe is needed to come up with such an idea ), precisely because it is too close and because the motif alone emptied both figures of every warm-blooded poetic life and gutted them into hollow cardboard dolls.

For him, a dead, mechanical object is more useful than a figure in the construction of an allegory , because it requires us (...) much more definitely than a living being to look for points of comparison and to search for the thought that is hidden behind it .

This ultimately leads to the elaboration of the bootjack allegory, the complete absurdity of which appears to him to be the correct consequence of the process of hatching symbols . Their dissolution is communicated in Pro domo : the boot jack symbolizes the intellectual development, provided that this consists in a release of inhibitions, a liberation from inner hindrances - in contrast to this, the two pressing boots represent the involvement in error , doubt , passion , which inhibits progress , the corns are the afflictions of the mind on such nodes .

Vischer himself often suffered from corns because he wore tight shoes out of vanity. Also diving corns always poetic in Vischer's work on, for example in also the one : In A. E [inhart] s system for the image of the harmonious universe is presented in point II actions A. The inner devil inter alia. Corns sting . In Faust III, the corns introduce themselves using the permutation of various synonyms (cf. W. Pschyrembel: Clinical Dictionary , keyword Clavus ). Here these are broken down into their constituent parts in order to force a rhyme: for example, corpse thorn becomes corpse thorns , corns become chicken eyes .

In Faust III, the meaning of the bootjack is symbolized by a sound poem sung by him in the deepest bass , in which the bootjack develops the en-tw-ick-l-ung : from the syllable he builds up the word and breaks it down again the result is that the boots are thrown away, the corns are mixed up. Furthermore, for Vischer the idea of ​​development is the guiding principle in the tragedy Faust ; Already in the prologue in heaven it is stated that evil must serve as a lever and it is announced that all clouding of the spirit in the life of the hero is to be grasped from this standpoint .

The bootjack allegory, part of the final ascension of Faust, becomes the highest world symbol , invoked with a real Goethe verse :

Faust II: Eternal bliss, glowing love ribbon, boiling pain in the chest, foaming God's pleasure. Arrows penetrate me, lances conquer me, clubs smash me, lightning strikes me; That the void everything evaporates, the shine of the permanent star of eternal love core.

Faust III: Eternal blissful fire, burning love ribbon, boots at the edge of the cloud, press me, force me, lacing me, pinching press me, corpse thorn pierce me, leather, the efficient, press the nothing, that it evaporates! (...) Lifting the skin pressure, wonderfully carpenter stucco!

It can also be stated that the Ascension in Faust III has further structures analogous to Goethe's conception of the Ascension: Goethe connects that Neoplatonic philosophy with Christian mythology , the scene is dominated by an entelechic dynamic of growth , even the figure constellations are filled with this upward movement (Schmidt 1992, p. 387), for example the three Fathers and Dr. Marianus in her hierarchical, upwardly purer cells. Vischer is violent about this and clearly expresses this displeasure in his book Goethe's Faust: And immediately afterwards Doctor Marianus appears in the highest, cleanest cell, about which I have already (...) said that this is necessary, the lower cells are gradually dirtier to think. How unsavory!

In addition to the characters, who are mostly recruited from Goethe's drama (Vischer uses the three Fathers, Dr. Marianus, the blessed boys - which Pater Seraphicus does not take in himself this time, but puts them in his hood - Faust, of course, etc.), this dynamic of growth is also evident (For example, through the use of the suffix -orium explained above and through an increase in the age of the spirit choirs: spirits of youth, more perfect female spirits and old spirits), the operatic character and the idea of ​​the redemption of Faust are taken over by Vischer.

It should be emphasized that the ideas of development, the increase to the highest and the ultimate redemption in Goethe's drama and Vischer's parody remain the same, but Vischer shifts them into an absurdly exaggerated world of images, in which, for example, the colossal bootjack becomes the savior . This attack against the legendary, highly Catholic treatment of the ending culminates in the appearance of the zero, singing in the deepest bass, which describes itself as the absolute and devours Stiefelknecht and his entourage.

Within the frame of reference of the parody to the original, it can be stated that Goethe's idea of ​​salvation is being reduced to absurdity; Vischer's metaphor of intensification is again 'increased' to the point of a grotesque escalation . In this context, the consideration of the chorus mysticus should be resumed by making a comparison on the level of functionality: Goethe's final chorus, which is conceived as a meta-commentary on Faust's Ascension, expresses in each of four double verses a relationship between the temporal and the eternal , from the real human sphere to the ideal world of God, in the eternal feminine there is a final idea which understands the love that comes towards the striving as a feminine principle.

Vischer adopts this concept on the formal level. He forms pairs of opposites commenting on the Ascension of Faust III, in which proportions are expressed, albeit between inferior abstracts and their realization in the previous piece. The contrafified treatment of the chorus mysticus, which in the parody shows itself as a consequence of the grotesque imagery of the final scene of the Ascension, a comic version of Goethe's final chorus is achieved, since its sublime tenor, which elevates even the inadequate to an event, into the absurd fantasy of one unabashed fool's heaven transposed and this step is also emphasized as intended .

Furthermore, Vischer is quite inclined to the comic allegory, since it becomes poetic again, in that precisely because of the contradiction of the insight that the picture is only a sign of a concept, with the compulsion to regard this picture as something real and living, the most cheerful humorous Effect is achieved . This is also expressed in the double verse The Unforgivable, Here it may be forgiven : The use of allegory is unforgivable in genuine poetry, but as a comic it becomes forgivable, since it is poetic as such. In the eternal Boring (s) finally Vischer idea hidden that heaven must be boring as it could there be no pursuit.

Valentin therefore asks the boot servant, the highest world symbol, for permission to return with Bärbelchen to his tavern in the atrium . However, he fears that he is not allowed to say the word boring (...) and therefore expresses himself in a much more witty way: And while it looks too little hoped, too little malted, so to speak, (...) this is my most humble request to the point that your Highness will dismiss me with grace . So much for Faust's final ascension.

The allegory criticism can also be found in other parts of the parody: several allegorical figures from Faust II are adopted, e.g. B. Helena, Euphorion, The Mothers and the Homunculus and are deconstructed in the course of their appearance. But more on this in the following chapter on figure and motif criticism. In addition to the bootjack allegory, Vischer also forms other allegorical figures that are independent of Goethe's Faust, who appear during Faust's renewed excursion into the realm of the mother, and which bear traits of historical figures, which is why we refer to the chapter on Zeitkritik.

The rabbit foot Faust

The core thesis of Vischer's criticism of Goethe's Faust figure arises from the relationship between the character laid out in Faust I and its continuation in Faust II: the passionate portrayal of Faust in the first part, whose subjectivity in the (...) main parts is much more objective (... ) is the objective fist of the second part , whose urge for life and knowledge is the central driving force for his action and whose soul life, which is to be depicted, is also depicted , is not continued in the second part, according to Vischer.

Rather, the depiction of the processes and crises inside Faust is left out - in the first act there is no fruitful repentance of Faust about the guilt committed to Gretchen . Faust also did too little in the second part, remaining in passivity: for example, Mephistopheles made the paper money; in the third, purely humanitarian act, Vischer Faust saw only a term, an allegory for the romantic principle; Even during the battle in the fourth act, Faust does not really act - the battle in the fourth [is] good for nothing than to motivate the imperial donation of land . In the fifth act, Faust again blames himself for the murder of Philemon and Baucis, again shows no remorse and Faust's death finally seems comical , since Faust suddenly falls over abstractly in Goethe and is dead . Faust's journey into the great world is, as it were, only hinted at, but not carried out.

Vischer sums up: no character is continued alive because no one actually acts . In his essay on the second part of Goethe's Faust , this criticism of the figure of Goethe 's Faust can be found as a positive expression. On the basis of the character executed in Faust I, Vischer sketches another 'Faust' of the second part, which is supposed to meet Vischer's demands on the dramatic event: right at the beginning, Faust comes from Gretchen's grave in a monologue, in which he as in wild feverish dream Gretchen's execution paints , Faust is filled with painful remorse and the recovery from this misery could not be motivated more expediently than by the entrance of Mephistopheles . The tragedy almost demands that Mephistopheles be heard once (..) as the preacher of repentance ! However, awaken the consciousness in Faust that he (...) has to live in order to atone for his deep guilt through deeds .

Involve Vischer's suspicions about Goethe's failure to the historical context of the historical person of thumb, expressed in its redesign by this very contemporary historical contextualization of Faust brash in writings of the Reformation and the humanist, his research going in a will about, to act on the world . First he finds himself at a German court , where he is persuaded by Mephistopheles, disguised as a courtier, to work directly at the papal court in Rome . When he arrived in Rome, he fell for the female devil Helena and was driven to murder out of jealousy . His failure to work for his people at the papal court leads to Faust becoming a farmer ; he wants to do without, suffer, work with the people . During the peasant revolts against serfdom is Faust finally the leader of a farmer's flock, among which the mystical socialist delusion preaching, for singeing and murders mixed anstachelnde Mephistopheles with the result that in Faust's absence the peasants executed nobles. The returning Faust realizes that his pure will (...) is stained with blood , resigns his leadership, becomes the leader of another peasant crowd , a small, disciplined troop who are determined to resist the last desperate resistance and can only choose between surrender and death And choose to die.

Dying in the struggle for freedom, Faust atone for his guilt, stabbed by Mephistopheles, who represented the nobles. The latter believes himself to be the winner, but: Whoever is happy to die can least of all be lost . Finally, Vischer solves the question of Faust's redeemability by stating that his death is the most beautiful moment in the struggle for his freedom and future generations , which means that he cannot be the slave and prey of the demon of finitude .

Vischer's conception also ends with Faust's ascension: Mephistopheles claims his rights over Faust's soul before a plenum of ideal figures . For example, Vischer cites the prodigal son as the ideal figure, but Christ ends this hellish plea and shooes away the enemy of humanity , awakening Faust and he now hears the message of infinite love from the mouth of Christ . Vischer emphasizes the rational style of his sketch of the end and contrasts it with Goethe's final scene, which for him is an exploitation of the lumber room of the legend , a gold ground teeming with saints, church fathers and angels . Vischer's draft, which is partly pathetic, is characterized overall by the clarity of an active, creative character Faust - here too as a contrast to the inactivity of the Faust figure in Goethe's second part.

For Vischer, Faust's actions in Goethe's drama have no relation to his merit of salvation: the condition who always strives to strive ( Faust II , v. 11936) is not fulfilled. In Faust III, Vischer uses this lack of action to motivate Faust to take new tests. Lieschen's verses, which have the function of an exposition of the parody, explain that the critics, Voran the Spirit, who always denied, replied that it [the noble member, Faust] did not strive so hard , which is why Faust Have to practice for a while .

In addition, this subsequent degradation of Faust, which can be understood as a regression of his striving for a lower level of enjoyment during the first examination in Faust III , anticipates the dismantling of the Faust II conclusion as described above. Faust, who returns hungrily to his companion Lieschen, his perfectionist , from his strenuous work as a Preceptor of the Blessed Boys - although in this function he has the difficult task of explaining Goethe's Faust II - has to experience firsthand despite his stay in the Vorhimmel that his appetite for hearty delicacies, such as Bavarian dumplings or Swabian sparrows, is not satisfied due to a heavenly diet (Faust's nutritional plan is made up of wild honey , grasshoppers and bland vegetable food) in order to purposefully increase the mental clarification .

His excitement about it is great: Why this life like John the Baptist? I wasn't an eater and a drunkard after all! . This accusatory statement of Faust stems from a view of Vischer that is critical of reception, with which he turns against Christian theologizing interpreters who, from the beginning of the tragedy , see in Faust's thirst for knowledge a sensual striving for enjoyment and tie his salvation to the fact that Faust returns to the beautiful belief in children . This misinterpretation acts as a basis for the structure of the first test: Vischer takes it up and exposes it by first downgrading the idea of ​​the thirst for knowledge, which is the basis of Goethe's Faust, to a rudimentary human thirst for a drop of noble, firnes wet from the cellar from the lager . Through a song of infernal spirits , Faust's sensual needs collapse in an adoration of the pub that is the consequence of his journey to hell , in a hedonistic rebellion by Faust accompanied by heavenly resignation , in a liberation against the narrow kitchen world of his companion Lieschen.

It should be emphasized that Vischer's Faust III is closely interlinked with Goethe's original text and Vischer uses the means of assembling quotations (cf. Martini 1979, pp. 104-105): to depict Faust's striving for pleasure, verses 1092-1099 from Faust I - die Follow Faust's desire to fly and in which he sees his eagle and crane in flight as an innate feeling given by nature (Scholz: 1982, p. 17) - adapted, for example the staggering (e) song of the lark is replaced by a hold-steaming Sauerkräutchen , the Adler by the brave bowl steaming sausage pair (see Bergmann o J. [1932], p. 176:. , Goethe powerful sounds from the Easter singing the blue room and the lark are covered by the lustful smacking of Vischer. )

Furthermore, changes in the direction of this parody Vischer indigenous aspirations, from up will ascend ; this reduction to the instinct to preserve life, which basically only serves to reproduce one's own physicality, also creates a paradoxical situation between the pre-heaven and its extremely earthly form. The unwillingness of Faust's diet is the reason for his culinary weakness of will. Mephistopheles uses this chance by trying to catch Faust's soul with the help of a hellish gourmet song. This song is formed in analogy to Goethe's Schlummergesang ( Faust I , V. 1447ff), which puts Faust to sleep so that Mephistopheles can escape from Faust's room.

In Faust III, too, it leads to a hypnagogic state, finally to Faust's sleep - an infernal narrowing of consciousness which, as indicated above, culminates in an adoration of the pub after his awakening. Lieschen's admonition Drive him out [Meph.] With prayer, otherwise it will be too late! is not fruitful: Oh, let me go, you just pray and stay! I break up and rush into the bar!

In the following, Vischer again draws on verses of Goethe (Wald und Höhle, v. 3345-3365), which he interprets in his book Goethe's Faust as the defeat of Faust, which is triggered by Mephistopheles mocking his high contemplations and the mysticism therein as a metastasis of the sexual drive in that he is able to increase Faust's sensuality to the highest level through cruelly mocking descriptions of Gretchen's lovesickness (Friedrich; Scheithauer: 1973, p. 36). Faust becomes aware of the reciprocal entanglement of his fate with Gretchen: May her fate collapse on me and she perish with me. ( Faust I , V. 3364/3365). His conscience tells him that the beginning of the destruction of Gretchen's identity is already in the past: You, her peace, I had to undermine! / You, hell, had to have this sacrifice! ( FaustI , V. 3360/3361).

Instead of the interweaving of the verses with Gretchen, in Vischer's parody, Faust's defeat is attributed to the discrepancy between the tempting palate of the master chef Mephistopheles and Lieschen's pious way of life. In contrast to Goethe's conception of the entanglement of his skill with Gretchen, Faust is looking for an imminent separation from Lieschen. He brings this concern up as a kind of Faustian duty: I have to undermine your peace, / You, pub, want and should have this sacrifice .

By sacrificing the connection to Lieschen, Faust himself becomes a victim, whereby Faust's conscience turns into a lack of conscience towards himself: I still want to enjoy the spice of life and therefore perish . The rescue of Faust from this precarious situation - Mephistopheles is already attacking Faust, who is writhing in culinary convulsions - takes place through the care of Lieschen and Valentin's ability to beat Mephistopheles to flight with a malt shovel, his fists and a shaking jerk, whereby Lieschen and Valentin act as agents of a deus-ex-machina.

The inactivity of Faust in the second part and the resulting passivity in his salvation, which is ultimately carried out with the help of angels and heavenly hosts, are perpetuated during Faust's new trials, in that Vischer's figure of Faust never once under his own power without the help of other figures Exam passes; Faithful in the spirit of the second part of Göthesches Faust , his Faust is inactive, a rabbit foot , who nonetheless draws closer to his final acceptance into heaven without any personal contribution (Mahal 1981, p. 64), which is undoubtedly under a preventive guarantee from the Lord (Mahal 1972, P. 436).

Performances

  • 1965 Gate Tower Theater Sommerhausen - abbreviated as a stage farce
  • 1984 Pflegehof Tübingen - Open Air
  • 1989 Ludwigsburg - listed in the arrangement after Jutta Pilz-Gruenhoff
  • 1992 Landestheater Tübingen - as an opera for actors by Susanne Hinkelbein
  • 1998 Potsdam - performance in combination with Goethe's Faust I and II
  • 2012 Schauspielhaus Zürich - performance with Faust I, II and Elfriede Jelinek's secondary drama FaustIn and Out

expenditure

  • Fist. The third part of tragedy. Faithfully composed in the spirit of the second part of Goethe's Faust . First edition. Verlag der Laupp'schen Buchhandlung, Tübingen 1862. Reprint: Laugwitz, Buchholz in der Nordheide 2002
  • Fist. The third part of tragedy . 2nd revised and enlarged edition. Verlag der Laupp'schen Buchhandlung, Tübingen 1886, 1886 3 , 1889 4 , 1901 5 , 1907 6 . Reprint: Olms, Hildesheim 1963
  • Fist. The third part of tragedy . Edited with an afterword by Ernst Bergmann . Reclam, Leipzig undated [1932] (Reclam's Universal Bibl. 6208/6209).
  • New edition, Meersburg 1936 (= Neudr. Berlin 1969).
  • Die Bank der Mockers, Berlin 1949. With a foreword by Werner Finck .
  • Fist. The third part of tragedy . 2nd, revised and enlarged edition. Edited by Fritz Martini . Reclam, Stuttgart 1978, ISBN 3-15-006208-X

literature

  • Frapan, Ilse: Vischer memories. Utterances and words. A contribution to the biography of Fr. Th. Vischer , Stuttgart: Göschen 1889, pp. 53–91.
  • Klaiber, Theodor: Friedrich Theodor Vischer. A representation of his personality and a selection from his works . Stuttgart: Strecker & Schröder 1920, pp. 90-96.
  • Postma, Heiko : Good night, Goethe! Friedrich Theodor Vischer and his »Faust III« . Hanover: jmb, 2001, ISBN 978-3-940970-34-3
  • Reck, Alexander: Friedrich Theodor Vischer - parodies of Goethe's "Faust". Universitätsverlag Winter, Heidelberg 2007, ISBN 3-8253-5236-6
  • Verweyen, Theodor; Witting, Gunther: The parody in modern German literature. A systematic introduction , Wissenschaftl. Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, 1979, ISBN 3-534-07075-5
  • Vischer, Friedrich Theodor: Critical remarks on the first part of Göthe's "Faust" . Darmstadt: Scientific. Buchges. 1974, pp. 192-214.
  • Vischer, Friedrich Theodor: Critical courses . 1. u. 2nd vol. Ed. By Robert Vischer , 2nd, presumably edition Leipzig: Vlg. D. White Books 1914.
  • Vischer, Friedrich Theodor: Goethe's Faust . 3rd edition with an appendix by Hugo Falkenheim, Stuttgart a. a .: Cotta 1921.
  • Volkelt, Johannes: Vischer's Faust , in: Supplement to the general. Zeitung, No. 142, pp. 2089-2090 and No. 146, pp. 2145-2146, Munich: Cotta, 23. u. May 27, 1886.
  • Wende, Waltraud: Goethe parodies. On the history of the impact of a classic , Stuttgart: M&P Verlag für Wissenschaft und Forschung 1995, ISBN 3-476-45138-0

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