Goethe: Helena
Although we are concentrating on the Third Act, Faust's appreciation of legend's most beautiful woman begins much earlier, perhaps as early as the Hexenkueche scene where he is thoroughly enraptured by a woman's image in a magical mirror. It drives him crazy, he says (2456), particularly since he has to stay at a certain distance to keep it in proper focus (2434); can you see Mephisto's mischievous smile at this bit of enforced "disinterested contemplation"? Woman is God's final art work, the true Crown of Creation, we learn from Schiller's Princess Eboli; Mephisto seems to say as much, and Faust like most men needs no convincing. We can't be sure that this is indeed Helen, we (and Faust) have yet to meet her. She remains nameless but, by any name, would be as sweet.
| Author: | Herbert Deinert |
|---|---|
| URN: | urn:nbn:de:hebis:30-1147441 |
| URL: | http://courses.cit.cornell.edu/hd11/Helena.html |
| Document Type: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Date of Publication (online): | 08.02.2010 |
| Year of first Publication: | 2010 |
| Publishing Institution: | Univ.-Bibliothek Frankfurt am Main |
| SWD-Keyword: | Helena; Johann Wolfgang von Goethe |
| HeBIS PPN: | 223658693 |
| Dewey Decimal Classification: | 832 Deutsche Dramen |
| Sammlungen: | GiNDok |
| BDSL-Klassifikation: | BDSL-Klassifikation: 13.00.00 Goethezeit > 13.14.00 Zu einzelnen Autoren |
| Note: | Herbert Deinert (Professor of German Studies, Emeritus) Department of German Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca NY 14853. Zusätzliches Material findet sich unter: http://courses.cit.cornell.edu/hd11/ |
| Licence (German): |  Veröffentlichungsvertrag für Publikationen ohne Print on Demand |
