RAYMOND
J.
W I LSON
367
Consideration ofGoethe's
Faust
supplies a possible independent source,
but it forms a possibility we ultimately must reject. Even so, in comparing and
contrasting two sections of Goethe's play with the works of Schwartz and
Yeats, we clarify the relationship among all three. First, in Part II, Act II,
Goethe depicts the influence of Pompey's and Caesar's powerful personalities
which create "an after-v ision" on the anniversary of a battle's eve. "How
often it has repeated, how often wi ll it repeat, year after year after year, for
the rest of time," says Erichtho, Goethe's spokeswoman. The event, as in
Yeats, emerges from flawed character, for Goethe says, "Men who cannot
master their inner se lves are all too ready in their arrogance to dominate
their neighbours." The element of annual return also ties the
Faust
episode to
Purgat01J
because Yeats's concept in
A Vision
calls for, not annual reliving of
the experience, but perpetual reenactment, through all days of the year, or
even in a timeless realm - on Earth but beyond this earthly limitation.
Another relevant section suggests further possibilities; in Part II , Act I,
Faust makes a magic stage, causing tapestries to vanish, and puts on a spirit–
vision play, a silent pageant upon which the audience comments - a pattern
similar to that of
Pwgatory
and "Dreams." We could credit Schwartz with the
added ingenuity, if this were a source for "Dreams," of transforming the
scene to the modern magic stage, the cinema. In this scene, Paris tries to
abduct and rape Helen, who
represellLs
the ideal (eminine beauty to wh ich
Faust has impetuous ly sworn devotion "in affection, love, worship , yes in
madness. " Faust calls out to stop Paris: "Can't you hear ? Stop. This is too
much ," to which Mephistopheles asks, "Aren't you the man that's putting it
on, this crazy ghost-play?" Paris is not Faust's father and neither is Helen his
mother, but Faust has, at least, summoned Helen from ''The Mothers," who
are "goddesses throned in solitude, outside of place, outside of time," rulers of
a vast emptiness and solitude.
Even so, the idea of
Faust
as a common source fails to explain enough
to warrant acceptance. It provides no explanation for the close timing of the
two compositions by Yeats and Schwartz, nor for many details common to
the modern works. Both of these depict the moment leading
to
the son's
conception. They show the vi le self-hatred of the two sons, which is almost
the exact opposite of the personality of Goethe's Faust; the scandal in the
parents' life; the woman falling in love at first look, in contrast to Goethe's
Helen whom Paris assau lted; the Sophoclean echoes of Schwartz and the
Sophoclean tone wh ich critics like Richard Ellmann and Lionel Trilling have
noticed in
Pwgatory.
Finally, Goethe does not haunt Faust with horses,
intimating eternal repetition ; in fact, in line with the famous wager with
Mephistopheles, Faust escapes damnation because he never asks for a
moment's pause from new experiences. Therefore, accepting the common
