A great commonality shared throughout world literature and time is that of the archetype. In literature, an archetype is usually a character, action or situation that seems to represent universal patterns of human nature. Various archetypes are found in similar roles or scenarios throughout the mythologies and folklore that span the continents. When examining Western literature, the archetype of the trickster plays a very important role in the inversion, or disruption of the status quo. The trickster is clasically a magician, able to break the rules of the gods or nature, and utilize creative illusions in his manipulation. One of the most iconic mythical tricksters is Loki, but the titan Prometheus of Greek mythology seems a more relevant example
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He establishes a false trust from Orgon, and an even more undeserved form of admiration from the patriarch. His false modesty is just one example of his hypocritical nature. Tartuffe creates the illusion of a pious but guilty man, claiming: “Yes, Brother, I’m a wicked man, I fear:/ A wretched sinner, all depraved and twisted,/ The greatest villain that has ever existed” (Molière, Act III Scene VI). Tartuffe relies heavily on the disguise of a humble and holy servant of God: “In God’s name, Brother, don’t be harsh with him./ I’d rather far be tortured at the stake/Than see him bear one scratch for my poor sake” (Molière, Act III Scene VI). It is in this guise that Tartuffe earns the trust from Orgon that he needs to get what he wants. Yet by the end of Tartuffe, Orgon (and subsequently the social order he in part represents) wins when he catches the hypocrite in his trickery by hiding under a table when Tartuffe is caught coming onto Orgon’s wife. In the context of the period in which Tartuffe was written, adherence to the social order reinforced how the order itself was a reflection of Reason and Natural Law. These were the doctrines through which God and His divinity were experienced and affirmed by Western European society. Yet overtime, the Enlightenment gave way to more Romantic notions of humanity’s complex relationship with the Divine, and the trickster ends …show more content…
This thirst breaches the limitations of order and academic experience, thrusting him into a search for the most attainable means of experience. Dabbling in the supernatural, a most obscure form of Nature, Faust is then introduced to the play’s (and one of literature’s most iconic tricksters) Devil, Mephistopheles. Trickery and deception are present from their initial encounter as Mephistopheles appears in the guise of a scholar in order to gain Faust’s trust and tempt him: “Then this was our poodle's core!/ Simply a traveling scholar? The casus makes me laugh” (Goethe, Scene III, lines 145-146). Faust is not entirely fooled, but he does find strange satisfaction knowing it was not merely a dog following him around. Though Tartuffe and Faust each exemplify the values of their separate literary movements and cultures, it is worth noting that both works entail the imminent failure of the antagonists. The trickery and deception of Mephistopheles and Tartuffe are triumphed by truth. Yet things cannot go back to their state at the beginning of the play because they cannot. The bet over Faust’s soul prevents the play from doing so, and it is here Romanticism flourishes by bypassing the obvious and conventional binary options for Faust’s soul, and create an alternative outside predictable norms: neither the Devil nor God win. Faust wins in his liberation of himself; in
He establishes a false trust from Orgon, and an even more undeserved form of admiration from the patriarch. His false modesty is just one example of his hypocritical nature. Tartuffe creates the illusion of a pious but guilty man, claiming: “Yes, Brother, I’m a wicked man, I fear:/ A wretched sinner, all depraved and twisted,/ The greatest villain that has ever existed” (Molière, Act III Scene VI). Tartuffe relies heavily on the disguise of a humble and holy servant of God: “In God’s name, Brother, don’t be harsh with him./ I’d rather far be tortured at the stake/Than see him bear one scratch for my poor sake” (Molière, Act III Scene VI). It is in this guise that Tartuffe earns the trust from Orgon that he needs to get what he wants. Yet by the end of Tartuffe, Orgon (and subsequently the social order he in part represents) wins when he catches the hypocrite in his trickery by hiding under a table when Tartuffe is caught coming onto Orgon’s wife. In the context of the period in which Tartuffe was written, adherence to the social order reinforced how the order itself was a reflection of Reason and Natural Law. These were the doctrines through which God and His divinity were experienced and affirmed by Western European society. Yet overtime, the Enlightenment gave way to more Romantic notions of humanity’s complex relationship with the Divine, and the trickster ends …show more content…
This thirst breaches the limitations of order and academic experience, thrusting him into a search for the most attainable means of experience. Dabbling in the supernatural, a most obscure form of Nature, Faust is then introduced to the play’s (and one of literature’s most iconic tricksters) Devil, Mephistopheles. Trickery and deception are present from their initial encounter as Mephistopheles appears in the guise of a scholar in order to gain Faust’s trust and tempt him: “Then this was our poodle's core!/ Simply a traveling scholar? The casus makes me laugh” (Goethe, Scene III, lines 145-146). Faust is not entirely fooled, but he does find strange satisfaction knowing it was not merely a dog following him around. Though Tartuffe and Faust each exemplify the values of their separate literary movements and cultures, it is worth noting that both works entail the imminent failure of the antagonists. The trickery and deception of Mephistopheles and Tartuffe are triumphed by truth. Yet things cannot go back to their state at the beginning of the play because they cannot. The bet over Faust’s soul prevents the play from doing so, and it is here Romanticism flourishes by bypassing the obvious and conventional binary options for Faust’s soul, and create an alternative outside predictable norms: neither the Devil nor God win. Faust wins in his liberation of himself; in