630
PARTISAN REVIEW
others understand him, although at least half of them do. Add to
this that in
Hamlet
we have a world with evil in it and with a nu–
minous dimension, while in
Tasso
we have a world without evil and
without any such dimension. In
Hamlet
we have a real society; in
Tasso,
a stylized projection of the poet's experience into an imaginary
Renaissance setting. Hamlet is not pitiful and pathetic: the ghost
speaks the truth and the evil situation in which he finds himself is
real-while Tasso's predicament is essentially subjective and he may
to that extent be considered sick or neurotic.
These differences may help us as we return to
Faust.
For Faust,
too, lacks Hamlet's stature. His practice of magic does not serve· to
elevate him to superhuman stature: the word
Uebermensch
(super–
man) is aotually used mockingly by the earth spirit whose sight
Faust cannot bear. He is as we are, merely human. ll1e spirit with
whom he
can
commune, Mephistopheles, is a devil stripped of all
numinous attributes. Far from inspiring awe, he ridicules such feel–
ings. And while he is surely one of the few truly great creations of
world literature, he is a projection of human qualities-call them in–
human if you will; it is still a peculiarly human inhumanity, one
that we encounter in ourselves and our fellow men. In the same vein,
Faust is a projection of the poet, the reader, the audience-essentially
as we are ourselves-while Hamlet is more as we think, or like to
think, we are; and therefore Hamlet is more like a figure in a dream
or myth.
Faust's inability to confront the earth spirit, his failure at the
point where Hamlet and Macbeth succeed, is crucial, suggesting how
much more modern and how much closer to us he is. There is an
implicit contrast here with more heroic times-an anticipation of
Joycean irony. And what is merely implicit in this abortive encounter
is spun out in detail through the appearance and speeches of Mephis–
topheles. For Mephistopheles is an essentially modern devil. And
where the nineteenth century put up with him for Faust's sake, we
are much more likely to put up with Faust for Mephistopheles' sake.
Faust is not the solitary hero that we find in Hamlet: while
Mephisto never quite understands him (and the Lord calls our at–
tention to this at the very beginning), Faust never does justice to
Mephisto either. In this respect one may think of Othello and Iago–
a parallel strengthened by the fact that Iago-Mephisto lead Othello-
