English104

sample essay:

Compare/contrast

Faust and Dorian

Gray I) Similarities between​ Faust​ and ​The Picture of Dorian Gray

II) Both Dorian and Faust possess power, which leads other characters to admire them

– Dorian is extremely handsome, and Basil values the young man's beauty, youthfulness, and charm: “As long as I live, the personality of Dorian Gray will dominate me” (p.9). He describes Dorian as “the one person who gives to my art whatever charm it possesses: my life depends on him” (p10). In his great admiration for Dorian, Basil paints a portrait that reflects the body and innocent soul of his then naïve subject: “He is absolutely necessary to me . . . He is all my art to me now . . . I sometimes think, Harry, that there are only two eras of any importance in the world's history. The first is the appearance of a new medium for art, and the second is the appearance of a new personality for art also. What the invention of oil painting was to the Venetians, the face of Antinous was to late Greek sculpture, and the face of Dorian Gray will be to me someday” (p.7).

→ The sensitive artist describes Dorian in terms that one might reserve for a deity, and this praise and adorations feeds into Dorian's view of himself and makes him feel superior to others

– Dorian's influence over his artist friend is undeniable: “Dorian, from the moment I met you, your personality had the most extraordinary influence over me. I was dominated, soul, brain, and power by you. You became to me the visible incarnation of that unseen ideal whose memory haunts us artists like an exquisite dream. I worshipped you.” (p.83)

→ Faust considers himself to be the image of God, an exceptional being whose powers exceed those of angels: he repeatedly wishes to transcend human limits and ordinary human life, and to substitute spiritual experience for a physical life.

→ Consulting the magical book of Nostradamus, he conjures the sign of the macrocosm, which seems to him to be of divine origin and arouses in him a feeling of his own divinity: “Through every nerve, my veins are glowing,/ Was it a god that made these symbols be/ That soothe my feverish unrest,/ Filling with joy my anxious breast,/ And with mysterious potency/ Make nature's hidden powers around me, manifest?/ Am I a god?” (Night 1 80-86)

→ Faust imagines that in summoning up spirits, he is thus attaining a higher existence and thereby becoming godlike. However, he momentarily realizes that the God within him has no power in the outside world: “I, image of the godhead, that began/ To dream eternal truth was within reach,/ Exulting on the heavens' brilliant beach/ As if I had stripped off the mortal man” (Night 1 262 – 265). The one instant of self-transcendence was a blessed moment for him, though short-lived before he was rejected by the Earth Spirit

– Faust is portrayed as foolishly brave when he exclaims that he's “not afraid of the Devil or Hell” (Night 16). In fact, after the aid of Mephistopheles, “the companion” for which he's grateful, Faust thanks the earth spirit who has given him all that he's asked for: “With this happiness/ Which brings me close and closer to the gods,/ You gave me the companion whom I can/ Forego no more” (Wood and Cave 25-28).

– During his Easter walk, he longs to soar up and fly, godlike, over the world, wishing to be like God. Faust is praised by the peasants for his ability as a youth to help heal the plague-stricken countryside inhabitants, and Wagner recognizes that the crowd reveres Faust “like a mighty lord” (Before the City Gate 205).

– after Faust rails against the pleasures of drink, love, and all human limitations – just before his pact with the devil – an invisible choir of kindly spirits urge the nihilistic intellectual to begin a new life. They sing that Faust is a “demigod”, and thereby capable of establishing a new existence and reconstructing the world within himself (Study 83)

==> Both Basil Hallward and Wagner worship Dorian and Faust, and they both become concerned when the protagonists undergo a transformation; Basil realizes that Lord Henry “has a very bad influence over all his friends” (p.12), while an alarmed Wagner cautions Faust about invoking evil spirits: “Do not invoke the well-known throng that flow/ Through mists above and spread out in the haze,/ Concocting danger in a thousand ways/ For man wherever he may go./ From the far north the spirits' deadly fangs/ Bear down on you with arrow-pointed tongues;/ And from the east they come with withering pangs/ And nourish themselves from your lungs” (Before the City Gate 319-326).

III) Both Faust and Dorian are striving for experience.

– Although Dorian and Faust differ in terms of innocence and life experience, they both desire to submit to evil influences in order to take on a life of indulgence and pleasure

– Lord Henry's Aunt Agatha describes Dorian as being “very earnest” and possessing “a beautiful nature” (p. 10). Dorian is polite and unaware of his vanity when he complains to Basil about not wanting a life-sized portrait of himself. Even Lord Henry is first aware of Dorian's goodness: “There was something in his face that made one trust him at once. All the candour of youth was there, as well as all youth's passionate purity. One felt that he had kept himself unspotted from the world” (p11-12).

– Basil remarks to Wotton that Dorian “is not like other men. He would never bring misery upon anyone. His nature is too fine for that” (p. 56).

– Lord Henry encourages Dorian to “live out his life fully and completely . . . to give form to every feeling, expression to every thought, reality to every dream” (p.13).

– "Yet there was to be, as Lord Henry had prophesied, a new Hedonism . . . Its aim, indeed, was to be experience itself . . . But it was to teach man to concentrate himself upon the moments of a life that is itself but a moment" (p.95). This echoes Faustian striving.

– On the other hand, despite his age and maturity, Faust is portrayed as naïve and ignorant of the happenings in the world. Because he has spent his entire life trapped in the realm of academia, the scholar craves the life experience that he cannot attain from books, deeming academic knowledge to be dull and uninspiring. He longs for wings to fly on in infinite pursuit of the setting sun, going around the world forever: “The sun moves on, the day has had its round;/ He hastens on, new life greets his salute./ Oh, that no wings lift me above the ground/ To strive and strive in his pursuit!” (Study, 265 - 268)

→ as a way of self-expansion, Faust wants to escape from his sterile academic life and to seek experience through his stride to the infinite, curious “What wonders could the world reveal” (Study 19).

→ value is attached only to “noble striving” of a human soul, infinite in its capacities and ambitions (Study 147)

=> Both protagonists have sold their souls to evil, and in their endless pursuit of experience and

pleasure, both protagonists bring pain and even destruction to the lives of others

IV) In both works, a book has a major impact on the protagonists.

→ the yellow book - a “poisonous book” that Lord Henry gives Dorian - details high debauchery and the pursuit of pleasure (p. 92). After Sibyl's death, Dorian falls heavily under the spell of the book: " It was the strangest book that he had ever read. It seemed to him that . . . the sins of the world were passing in dumb show before him. Things that he had dimly dreamed of were suddenly made real to him. Things of which he had never dreamed were gradually revealed " (p. 91).

→ Dorian is the “visible symbol” of Lord Henry's “new Hedonism”, and the yellow book is a tangible symbol of Wotton's hedonistic philosophy: “The hero, the wonderful young Parisian, in whom the romantic and scientific temperaments were so strange blended, became to him a kind of prefiguring type of himself . . . the whole book seemed to him to contain the story of his own life, written before he had lived it” (p. 93).

→ The yellow book teaches Dorian to seek beauty in evil (decadent) as he depends more and more on evil sensations in his pursuit of beauty: "Dorian Gray had been poisoned by a book. There were moments when he looked on evil simply as a mode through which he could realize his conception of the beautiful” (p. 107).

→ Eventually, Dorian will prioritize beauty and art over the lives of others, embracing hobbies that involve tapestries, artwork, jewels, opera, perfumes, and even ecclesiastical vestments

→ Ironically, after gifting Dorian the yellow book, which helped to facilitate the latter's downfall, Lord Henry later muses that there are no immoral books: “ As for being poisoned by a book, there is no such thing as that. Art has no influence upon action. It annihilates the desire to act. It is superbly sterile. The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame. That is all” (p. 161).

→ After Faust intentionally mistranslates the New Testament and rejects the traditional words by which moral and religious value is expressed, the disillusioned scholar turns to a book of black magic in an effort to conjure the devil. "The Key of Solomon" dealt with

the rules and means for controlling spirits from the 16th to 18 centuries, and if it was not for this magical book, Faust would never have conjured up and met the devil. (Study 81)

V) Both antagonists – witty and charismatic characters - are critical of humanity

→ Lord Henry is at times contemptuous of London society and seems to regard the rest of society as inferior to him in terms of intelligence and wit; he tires of their conversations, interests, and virtues. He claims that Dorian could never commit a murder, because “crime belongs exclusively to the lower orders. I don't blame them in the smallest degree. I should fancy that crime was to them what art is to us, simply a method of procuring extraordinary sensations.” (p. 157). When Dorian first reveals his affection for Sibyl to his dastardly mentor, Lord Henry's disdain for those less privileged is apparent yet again: “I should fancy that the real tragedy of the poor is that they can afford nothing but self-denial. Beautiful sins, like beautiful things, are the privilege of the rich” (p.57).

→ Although Henry is portrayed as a witty and eloquent individual, his disdain demonstrates the limitations of his understanding of humanity

→ Similarly, Faust's charismatic antagonist belittles mankind, comparing humanity to a long-legged grasshopper that forever leaps into the air, only to land back on the grass singing the same old song; to the devil, in the realm of human endeavor, man's endless effort only results in continual defeat (Night 1 45-49)

==> bored, both antagonists wish to sway another individual towards sin. Lord Henry and Mephistopheles are quite persuasive and convincing in their speech, and they serve as catalysts to the protagonists' desires and wishes

VI) Neither of the antagonists actually commit any wrongdoing, despite their sinister predilections

→ Lord Henry and Mephistopheles do not really commit evil acts; although Lord Henry has immoral views and preaches them to Dorian, he does not act upon the philosophy that he preaches

- Although Lord Henry is a hedonist who advocates the pursuit of immoral experience, he lives a rather staid life; he's a good husband and participates in polite London society, attending parties and the theater. In fact, Basil remarks to Lord Henry: ”You are an extraordinary fellow. You never say a moral thing, and you never do a wrong thing. Your cynicism is simply a pose” (p. 4). Later, when Lord Henry derides the institution of marriage to a lovestruck Dorian, Basil declares to Lord Henry: “You are much better than you pretend to be” (p.54).

→ Henry does espouse “wrong, fascinating, poisonous, delightful theories”; however, he is merely a spectator of the effects of his own philosophy, and Dorian his subject is like an interesting experiment (p. 56).

– Goethe's comically entertaining antagonist Mephistopheles does not seem to possess an evil nature; in fact, he appears as humorous, cynical, and witty, and self-deprecating

– When he first meets Faust, Mephistopheles describes himself as “Part of that force which would/ Do evil evermore, and yet creates the good” and “Part of the darkness which gave birth to light” (Study 158-173).

– Despite being the devil, Mephistopheles does not initiate any evil deeds and only does what Faust asks – or rather orders – him to do

→ Although Mephistopheles does at times act as Faust's conscience, such as the instance when Faust convinced him to produce jewels to seduce Margaret, the devilish mentor did ultimately try to dissuade Faust from saving her; however, despite his protests, in the end, he still accompanied Faust to the dungeon to save Margaret

→ This is different from Lord Henry, who convinced Dorian that grieving the death of Sibyl was pointless, as she was not, in his view, a genuine human being. He persuades Dorian to view her tragic death as an artistic representation of undying love rather than the dreadful reality of her suicide

VII) Lord Henry and Mephistopheles plant the seeds of evil in the minds of the protagonists

a) The nobleman Wotton is able to manipulate the impressionable Dorian, because he is young, while Mephistopheles is able to influence Faust, because he is in a time of despair; although the protagonists are from different age groups when they encounter evil, they still fall victim to their lower souls

→ Mephistopheles' actions are based on his bet with God, which would be to corrupt Faust, and Lord Henry's actions are based on his desire to merely conduct an experiment (p. 41-43)

– Lord Henry senses Dorian's secret, hidden desires; he realizes his influence on the innocent Dorian as he advocates the pursuit of pleasure and self-gratification: “Because to influence a person is to give him one's soul. He does not think his natural thoughts, or burn with his natural passions. His virtues are not real to him. His sins, if there are such things as sins, are borrowed. He becomes an echo of someone else's music, an actor of a part that has not been written for him” (p.13).

→ Lord Henry wishes to mold Dorian into his own creation, a goal that he accomplishes when he succeeds in changing Dorian's perspective on life; Wotton says self-denial, not

self-gratification, produces guilt and remorse, and sin thereby becomes “a mode of purification”: “The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden itself.” (p.13). The aristocrat persuades Dorian to fill his youthful existence with “infinite passion, pleasures subtle and secret, wild joys and wilder sins” (p.76).

→ Eventually, Dorian's sins transition from minor indiscretions to murder

→ Lord Henry's influence is instantaneous as Basil notices an immediate change in Dorian's expression after the naïve young man has listened to Henry's sermon: “a look had come into the lad's face that he had never seen there before” (p.13).

→ Just after Dorian expresses regret about disclosing to Henry his courtship of Sibyl, he acknowledges: “I cannot help telling you things. You have a curious influence over me” (p.38).

→ The jaded aristocrat realizes his extraordinary influence over his impressionable subject: “With his subtle smile, Lord Henry watched him. He knew the precise psychological moment when to say nothing. He felt intensely interested. He was amazed at the sudden impression that his words had produced” (p. 14).

→ Just as Lord Henry is responsible for corrupting Dorian's soul, Mephistopheles continually tempts Faust, who exchanges his soul for worldly pleasures.

→ Mephistopheles, like Lord Henry, finds pleasure in observing his "experiment" and has the sinister habit of spying on others; the devil spies on Faust as he convinces Margaret to give her mother the sleeping potion: "I have my pleasure in it, too" (Martha's Garden, line 131).

→ A provider of instant gratification by magical means, Mephistopheles continually changes his role throughout Faust's journey, ranging from accomplice, mentor, to commentator

→ Dressed as a young nobleman, Mephistopheles offers to take Faust on a grand journey where the despairing scholar can learn “what life can be” (Study 14). The devil initially offers himself several times as Faust's servant, tempting him to commit to evil: “Commit yourself and you shall see/ My arts with joy. I'll give you more/ Than any man has seen before” (Study 143-145).

==> Just as Faust sold his soul to the devil to gain experience, Dorian makes a similar wish to be eternally young. Like Faust, he devoted himself to a selfish life of pleasure and passion

==> Lord Henry's influence parallels Mephistopheles' effect on Faust, as both Dorian and Faust are willing to renounce their integrity due to sinister influences

==> Although the diabolical mentors encouraged their subjects to follow their passions and contributed to the corruption of the protagonists, as the stories developed, the actions of Dorian and Faust were of their own accord; the moment Dorian asked to trade his body with the soul of the painting was his own initiative and desire. This is the same case for Faust as he makes a bet with the devil: “If ever I recline, calmed, on a bed of sloth,/ You may destroy me then and there./ If ever flattering you should wile me/ That in myself I find delight,/ If with enjoyment you beguile me,/ Then break on me, eternal night!/ This bet I offer” (Study 163-169). If Faust ever becomes self-satisfied, and is ever taken in by pleasures, Mephistopheles will procure that day to be his last

b) Both Mephistopheles and Lord Henry encourage the protagonists seek eternal youth

→ The “Witch's Kitchen” scene marks a turning point in the plot of Goethe's epic poem and introduces a new phase in the story whereby Faust will undergo a permanent rejuvenation when Mephistopheles reduces his age by 30 years. He will be magically rejuvenated and youthful, and his body will not be susceptible to the aging and dilapidation inseparable from any human experience; it is from this point on that the inexperienced scholar – now 30 years younger – will seduce then cruelly abandon the naïve Gretchen

→ After his conversation with Lord Henry, who warns his subject about ephemeral beauty and fleeting youth, Dorian wishes to remain youthful forever, while his painting shows the ravages of age: “You have only a few years in which to live really, perfectly, and fully. When your youth goes, your beauty will go with it . . . There is such a little time that your youth will last – such a little time. . . we never get back our youth. The pulse of joy that beats in us at twenty, becomes sluggish. Our limbs fail, our senses rot. We degenerate into hideous puppets, haunted by the memory of the passions of which we were too much afraid, and the exquisite temptations that we had not the courage to yield to. Youth! Youth! There is absolutely nothing in the world but youth!” (p.16-17). Moments after Wotton's sermon, Dorian decides to give up his soul for eternal youth and exclaims: “Lord Henry Wotton is perfectly right. Youth is the only thing worth having. When I find that I am growing old, I shall kill myself” (p.18).

c) Both Faust and Dorian Gray fluctuate between their higher and lower souls

→ Like Dorian, Faust continually expresses his scruples and his higher nature but then proceeds to do what his lower nature demands; even Goethe's devil recognizes that an individual is subject to the alterations of his dual nature: “And you need night as well as day” (Study 255).

→ Throughout Goethe's epic poem, Faust soars high (note the constant flight motif) only to feel thwarted by his lower instincts, which he's not able to overcome. There's a

paradox in Faust's own nature: he suffers from the existence of “two souls”, a noble impulse that is in conflict with a baser drive (Before the City Gate 305-310).

→ Faust continually fluctuates between good and evil as well as the mind and body, and this conflict undermines his peace. For instance, Faust's first impulse is one of lust when he first spots the overtly virtuous Gretchen, but later – in a moment of repentance - when he sees her clean and orderly room, his higher soul begins to see her as a human being whom he respects and loves, and he admits that his physical desires have disappeared. Faust determines not to see her again as he feels that he cannot hurt her; in the Wood and Cave scene, he leaves the small city where Margaret lives and withdraws into nature, hoping to draw from nature the strength, calm, and emotional union with it to overcome his passion: “Let not the lust for her sweet limbs invade/ And ravish once again my frenzied sense!” (Wood and Cave 112-133).

→ Here, his higher aspirations supersede his base instincts, though he ultimately returns to her, seducing, then abandoning her. Before he proceeds with his seduction, Faust realizes the severity of the harm he will cause her and eloquently compares himself to a roaring waterfall (“cataract”) that will

tear everything in its violent course and thereby undermine her tranquil world: “As, like the cataract, from rock to rock I foam,/ Raging with passion, toward the abyss?/ And nearby, she – with childlike blunt desires/ Inside her cottage on the Alpine leas,/ And everything that she requires/ Was in her own small world at ease./ And I, whom the gods hate and mock,/ Was not satisfied / That I seized the rock/ And smashed the mountainside./ Her – her peace I had to undermine . . . What must be done, come let it be./ Let then her fate come shattering on my head,/ And let her perish now with me” (Wood and Cave 135-150).

→ here, Faust shows awareness of his power to destroy a young girl's existence

→ Dorian Gray also experiences a conflict between his higher and lower soul. After he breaks Sibyl's heart following her dreadful acting performance, Dorian feels remorse: “He would resist temptation. He would not see Lord Henry anymore – would not, at any rate, listen to those subtle, poisonous theories that in Basil Hallward's garden had first stirred within him the passion for impossible things. He would go back to Sibyl Vane, make her amends, marry her, try to love her again” (p.67). However, it is too late for him to make amends as the young actress ends her life

==> Both protagonists face an inner dual between their morality and shallow aspirations

==> Both protagonists absolve themselves from guilt and their wrongdoing, and they try to redeem themselves in the end; Dorian insists that he wants to be a good human being

→ Faust is morally awakened and feels remorse for his faults, seeking atonement: “Mankind's entire grief grips me” (Dungeon 2). There's sincerity in his remorse, and he makes an effort to “rescue” Margaret from prison and her impending execution, though it is too late

→ Similarly, at the end of Wilde's novel, Dorian is not proud of who he has become and wants to atone for his actions: “He knew that he had tarnished himself, filled his mind with corruption and given horror to his fancy; that he had been an evil influence to others, and had experienced a terrible joy in being so; and that of the lives that had crossed his own it had been the fairest and the most full of promise that he had brought to shame” (p.162). Dorian wants to redeem himself through good deeds by not seducing Hetty Merton, an innocent country girl

d​)​ Both Dorian and Faust are drawn to love and beauty, but their cynical mentors dissuade them from seeking their love interests

→ In the “Witch's Kitchen”, a now youthful Faust is attracted to an ideal vision of female beauty provided by the witch's magic mirror, and he wants to leave the witch's paraphernalia to pursue this ideal: “What blissful image is revealed/ To me behind this magic glass!/ Lend me your swift pinions, love, that I might pass/ From here to her transfigured field!/ When I don't stay right on this spot, but, pining,/ Dare to step forward and go near/ Mists cloud her shape and let it disappear./ The fairest image of a woman!/ Indeed, could woman be so fair?/ Or is this body which I see reclining/ Heaven's quintessence from another sphere?/ Is so much beauty found on earth?” (Witch's Kitchen 93-104 )

→ This is evidence of Faust's higher yearnings before Mephistopheles has awakened his lust, but this vision of the ideal transcends the devil's comprehension; the devil says that Faust will undergo a reawakening in his virility after he drink's the witch's potion, and tells him that all women will appear the same to him for the consummation of the desire now infused into his body

→ however, after the potion, Faust's reaction is romantic, and he still finds this ideal of female beauty more attractive than the devil's promises of physical and sensual pleasure: “One last look at the mirror where I stood!/ So beauteous was that woman's form!”, to which his cynical companion responds: “You'll soon find with this potion's aid,/ Helen of Troy in every maid” (Witch's Kitchen 263-268).

→ Later in the plot, Faust is transformed by his entry into Gretchen's room and repeatedly describes it in religious terms: “this shrine”, kingdom of heaven”, “angel”, “image of the gods” (Evening 11-39) ). Mephistopheles immediately scents danger in her innocent figure, one who hast strong religious convictions: “She saw her priest just now,/ And he pronounced her free of sin./ I stood right there and listened in./ She's so

completely blemishless/ That there was nothing to confess./ Over her I don't have any power.” (Evening 18-22). More than once, she will be compared to an angel of heaven, and even Mephistopheles senses her aura of piety, referring to her as a “good, innocent child” (The Neighbor's House 144). The devil knows that she threatens his own exclusive hold over Faust, and he immediately reacts to keep Faust away from her

→ Mephistopheles allows Faust to fall in love with Margaret, just as Lord Henry allows Dorian to fall in love with Sibyl. Representing the carnal side of man – and Faust's selfish needs - Mephistopheles encourages Faust to follow his lustful desires in the “Walpurgis Night” scene, while forgetting about Gretchen, who is suffering in prison; among Mephistopheles' motives is the desire to keep Faust from learning the full devastation of Gretchen's situation and abandoning her in her moment of need as Faust is immersed in this scene's eroticism and debauchery

→ Faust reaches his lowest moral point in “Walpurgis Night”, a festival for witches and spirits in the Harz Mountains of Germany. This scene is dominated by Mephistopheles, who wishes to satisfy Faust with a moment of loveless sensuality as the latter dances with an attractive young witch, and for most of the scene, Faust wholeheartedly engages in the festival's debauchery

→ however, Faust's conscience is suddenly roused and his compassion is evident as he unexpectedly thinks of Gretchen and her sufferings, and resolves to save her. Here, his higher soul is in command

–> Mephistopheles has no understanding of love, only sex, and the devil cannot understand Faust's love for Gretchen, as he only sees the physical aspect

→ Like Mephistopheles, Lord Henry wants Dorian to lead a sensuous life and tells Dorian that only after a few months of marriage to Sibyl, Dorian will suddenly become captivated with another woman: “I hope that Dorian Gray will make this girl his wife, passionately adore her for six months, and then suddenly become fascinated by someone else. He would be a wonderful study” (p. 54).

→ Dismissive of Dorian's feelings for Sibyl, Lord Henry never understands Dorian's love for her, he only sees it as a fleeting infatuation. Interestingly, he is correct, as Dorian moves on rather swiftly and easily after Sibyl's death, attending the opera the day after she ends her life

→ However, the impressionable Dorian is smitten with the ebullient actress the moment he first sees her: “She was the loveliest thing I had ever seen in my life. You said to me once that pathos left you unmoved, but that beauty, mere beauty, could fill your eyes with tears. I tell you, Harry, I could hardly see this girl for the mist of tears that came across me “ (p. 37).

→ In fact, Dorian upbraids Lord Henry for his cynicism in reference to women:” 'I know what pleasure is,' cried Dorian Gray. 'It is to adore someone.' 'That is certainly better than being adored,' he (Lord Henry) answered, toying with some fruits. ' Being adored is a nuisance. Women treat us just as Humanity treats its gods. They worship us, and are always bothering us to do something for them.' 'I should have said that whatever they ask for they had first given to us,' murmured the lad, gravely. 'They create Love in our natures. They have a right to demand it back'” (p. 56).

→ Dorian, newly emerged from a state of innocence, seeks pure sensations, which is reflected in his adoration of Sibyl: “I love her, and I must make her love me. You, who know all the secrets of life, tell me how to charm Sibyl Vane to love me . . . My God, Harry, how I worship her!” (p. 40). Dorian raves about Sibyl's purity and and divinity, and he spiritualizes his attachment to her: “When Sibyl comes on the stage you will have a new ideal of life. She will represent something to you that you have never known” (p. 58).

VIII) Both Margaret and Sibyl - symbols of purity and innocence - are enticed by the protagonists to fall in love with them. Both women are overwhelmed by love for the protagonists and thereby marked for impending doom as they're willing to give up their lives for these men.

– Goethe's Gretchen is a symbol of innocence, and her pristine bedroom reflects her unsullied character. She refers to herself as “a poor, dumb child and cannot see/ What such a man could find in me” (A Garden's Bower 12-13). The Gretchen story is one of the first German tragedies of the lower classes, as she is not among the higher class of society, similar to Sibyl Vane, who says of Dorian: “ I know why I love him. I love him because he is like what Love himself should be. But what does he see in me? I am not worthy of him . . . I feel so much beneath him, [yet] I don't feel humble.” (p. 45)

→ A religious girl, Gretchen is the ideal of goodness and naivete, in contrast to the debauched Faust. She turns aside Mephistopheles' suggestion that she should take a lover: “That is not the custom around here” (The Neighbor's House 85). Gretchen's religious sense is evident as she prays for the dead (Martha's deceased husband), and she tries without success to win Faust over to her religion, even though he could not translate the Gospels of St. John

→ Her intense love for Faust is evident when she compares his absence in her life to death: ”Where him I not have/ There is my grave” (Gretchen's Room 5-6).

→ She deviates from her devoted religious life after Faust impregnates her. A character with genuine religious sentiments, Gretchen – in a final prayer – beseeches the Virgin Mary to save her from “shame and death” after her mother has died and Faust has

deserted her; like the Mater Dolorosa, she too feels a “sword” in her “heart” (City Wall 6,30).

→ In the “Cathedral” scene, Gretchen's suffering reaches a new intensity with the somber atmosphere of the church where the haunting sound of the organ and the choir's song of the terrifying hymn “The Day of Wrath” (The Last Judgment, when the divine judge shall discern and punish any hidden sins) place her in a religious context; presumably, she is at her mother's funeral, and the requiem mass is indicative of Gretchen's guilty conscience

→ for Gretchen, the ultimate sorrow would be to know herself rejected by the religious tradition for which she's lived; her personal tragedy is a direct consequence of Faust's actions

→ ultimately, Gretchen will follow her pious nature and fine moral sensibility by turning away from Faust (and the evil personified by his companion Mephistopheles) and turning to the divine mercy of God and the guardian angels in hopes of obtaining salvation

– likewise, Sybil Vane is a young, beautiful actress who also lives a sheltered life with her mother. She's described as childlike and untainted: “She knows nothing of life” (p. 39).

→ Dorian is clearly her first love interest: “Before I knew you, acting was the one reality of my life. It was only in the theatre that I lived. . . . The painted scenes were my world. I knew nothing but shadows, and I thought them real” (p.63). Dorian leaves quite an impression on her as she exclaims: “To be in love is to surpass one's self” (p.49)

→ Sibyl was a skilled performer until she met Dorian, but Dorian's “love” for Sibyl was like a poison that killed her art

– Just as Gretchen's deep love for Faust lured her away from the teachings of the church and resulted in the deaths of her mother and brother, Sibyl's passion for acting transitioned into apathy, resulting in a dull portrayal of Juliet, which angered and humiliated Dorian; Margaret's downfall occurred after being sentenced to death for her infant's death, while Sibyl killed herself after Dorian broke off their engagement

==> both Sibyl and Margaret represent the remaining innocence of both Dorian and Faust

==> both heroines love the protagonists deeply and wholeheartedly, but love has corrupted the women in both literary works. Faust abandons Gretchen when she's pregnant and alone, ultimately marked for execution in a prison, while Dorian cruelly abandons Sybil, leaving her in emotional turmoil that leads to her tragic suicide

==> Both protagonists repeatedly destroyed the lives of others in their haste to realize their ideals

IX) Dorian and Faust's respective love interests share similarities with one another, except for their relationships with their brothers.

– Margaret's mother is distant and absent from her daughter's life, and Sybil's mother clearly fails to protect her daughter as her brother Jim fears when he first learns about Dorian: Mother is no help to you. She doesn't understand how to look after you. I wish now that I was not going to Australia at all” (p.51). Early on, her brother has “ a strong sense of danger of Sibyl's position” (p. 48). Suspicious of Sibyl's aristocratic lover, Jim warns his sister that Dorian wants to “enslave” her and for her to “beware of him”, immediately making wild threats against Dorian (p. 49 -50).

→ without any protection from their mothers, their brothers heroically try to save their sisters from corruption – and risk their lives for them - but utterly and ultimately fail to help these women in the long run

→ When Margaret was the most virtuous girl in town, her brother Valentine loved her and bragged about her purity, but he later adds to her demise by publicly denouncing her

→ Margaret's relationship with her brother was clearly not one of love and respect as Valentine disowned her when he discovered that she had lost her virginity before marriage, going as far as calling her a whore and cursing her before his death: “And even if God should at last forgive,/ Be cursed as long as you may live!” (Night 2 144-145)

→ He contrasts his former pride in his sister with his shame at her present situation. The rumors of her love affair injure his own reputation, and he angrily resolves to seek revenge against Faust: “If it is he, I'll spare him not,/ He shall not living leave this spot” (Night 2 28-29).

→ In the “Night” scene, Mephistopheles first paralyzes Valentin's arm, then Faust pierces the helpless soldier with his sword and runs away, leaving Margaret's brother mortally wounded

→ James Vane – who is only motivated by love, jealousy, and revenge - is served the same fate as Valentine. The destinies of both brothers differ by the manner of their deaths, though they were both seeking retribution for their siblings

→ Jim Vane, however, adores his sister Sibyl and is fiercely protective of her, reluctant to leave her in the care of their mother; despite having reservations about sister's

engagement to Dorian, Jim gives his blessing, indicating that his sister's happiness is important to him

→ After discovering that Sibyl killed herself over Dorian, James tries to avenge her death, but he is accidentally shot to death at a hunting party.

==> In both literary works, the brothers of the protagonists' lovers seek vengeance, and both protagonists are portrayed as invincible