Trappings of Madness: The Image and Structure of Visionary Madness in Goethe's Faust

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2014-01-15
Authors
Fujimoto, Naomi
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English
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University of Hawaii at Manoa
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In the Book of Job1, Job bewails his birth as he expresses the frustration experienced by humans since the fall out of Eden. He struggles with the paradox of man being gifted with emotion, free will, and intelligence, only to find that none of these attributes allow man any substantial control over his own fate or over the environment around him. Job is tested to the limits of his faith in God and of his sanity as he is stricken with trials while other men prosper; he tries to understand his plight and the inequity of mortal existence without yielding to the devil's blandishments. Job's response from God is, essentially, that the answers he craves cannot be grasped by man because man does not understand the price attached to this type of enlightenment. God implies that only another deity could deal with the discovery and comprehension of absolute knowledge; a mortal's mind would be overwhelmed in the attempt to confront, define, and express whatever is perceived. The result of extending beyond man's capacities would inevitably lead to anomie and, eventually, madness.
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40 pages
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