Theme Of Artfulness In Frankenstein By Mary Shelly, Waiting For Godot By Samuel Beckett, And Dr Faustus By Christopher Marlow

By definition, Artfulness means slyly crafty or cunning. The texts Frankenstein, by Mary Shelly, Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett, and Dr Faustus, by Christopher Marlow, embody this and provide more than entertainment, but historical context and insight into a World of Upheaval. These texts sustain a sacred duty of unleashing creative life in times of upheaval. Frankenstein is written from a time of vast political and social unrest, in relation to the American and French revolutions, French wars, Slave Abolishment movements, and popular unrest such as the Luddites and Peterloo. Mary Shelly embodies these times in to the text through a monster. A monster as a critic of society, and a monster as a representation of the mob. Waiting for Godot is born out of political and social unrest through World War two, Modernism and Post Modernism, entering the realms of the Theatre of the Absurd. Samuel Beckett explores meaning and purpose of life, reflecting Becketts time in France, during times of great anxiety in the Cold War. Dr Faustus Originates from a time where at the time, England was split along theological lines in the wake of the continually surging Protestant reformation, and a clash between the medieval world and an emerging renaissance. Through this play, Christopher Marlow explores themes of Sin, redemption and damnation, as well as power as a corrupting influence. These three texts embody a world of upheaval, performing a sacred duty in their respective context. In each instance the world or composer is in turmoil. The composers are torchbearers, and their sacred duty is to spark ideas to ignite change.

Frankenstein was written in 1816 by a 19 yr old Mary Shelly. Also referred to as the Modern Prometheus, the text tells the story of a scientist by the name of Victor Frankenstein, who is able to reanimate a corpse compiled of parts of many bodies. However, he mistreats his creation, who turns on him and wreaks havoc on him and his family. This text was born into a world of upheaval, where American and French revolutions, French wars, Slave Abolishment movements, and popular unrest such as the Luddites and Peterloo were prominent issues at the time. The age of enlightenment was another contributing factor to this world of upheaval. Mary Shelly uses Frankensteins monster in the text as a critic of society. Over the years of her life, and through the influence of her parents, she developed an understanding of the brutality and oppression that she felt inherent of the human condition and the social/political establishment. Shelly expresses these ideas in the Monsters numerous condemning comments on human society and behaviour during conversations with Victor. The monster is seen as an outsider, one who is inferior and does not fit into human society, similar to a slaves prohibition of individuality at the time of writing. The Monster also symbolises ‘the mob’, or a dangerous force. At the time she was writing Frankenstein, she was highly anxious about the possibility of revolutionary mob violence. It was commonly perceived that once people began to act collectively this way, all moral values and individual differences were abandoned, giving way to violence accepted only by few within the group as individuals. This is echoed through the monster, representing a dangerous, uncontrollable and unappeasable force at loose in society. The Enlightenment emerged as a social, philosophical, political, and literary movement that espoused rational thought and methodical observation of the world…leaving behind the dark ignorance and blind belief that characterised the past, looking to evaluate and understand life by way of scientific observation and critical reasoning rather than through uncritically accepted religion, tradition, and social conventions. Mary Shelley’s tale of Frankenstein however, is one of warning directed towards those who are too quick to embrace the strictly logical and scientific aspects of this new movement, without remaining aware of the human component—present in all things that are ruled by the hands of mankind. Through Victor’s ambition to ‘play God’ and create life, this warning is conveyed, as this turns out to be Victor’s downfall. Throughout this unrest, Mary Shelly carried the torch of Frankenstein, completing the sacred duty of sparking ideas to ignite change.

Waiting for Godot was written in 1949 by Samuel Beckett. It relays the story of two men named Vladimir and Estragon who are waiting by a tree for a man named Godot. The pair converse over various topics continuously, contemplate suicide, self doubt and meet strange people, all whilst waiting for a man that never arrives. This text was brought to life through a world of upheaval, in which World War 2 was fresh in Becketts memory. Samuel lived in Nazi occupied Paris, working with the French resistance, and finally fleeing to avoid being arrested by the Germans. After spending the rest of the war in a non-occupied are of France, Beckett volunteered for the Red Cross, witnessing firsthand the consequences of war and the result of Nazi brutality. Waiting for Godot was created in the early Cold War period, a time of great change and full of anxiety about the future. Many believe the text to be based upon this, a representation of a time of great unrest. Waiting for Godot shows characteristics of post modernism and modernism. Modernism aimed to create a new experience, merging psychological theory with the creation of many new forms and styles. This reflects upon the text, as both the text and Modernism address topics such as a focus on the inner self or consciousness, concern with the decline of civilisation and the effects of capitalism, characterisation of technology as cold and unfeeling, and alienation and loneliness of the individual. Post modernism however arose after WW2, reflecting traditional styles such as parody, paradox, or pastiche, fragmentation, and a focus on an anonymous or collective experience, which is reflected heavily within the text Waiting for Godot. Both modernist and post modernist works reject traditional values and widely accepted meanings for texts. The theatre of the Absurd is another prominent factor in the text. The text became a defining work within the Theatre of the Absurd, in which it embodies a lack of purpose and logic, creating humour, ridiculousness, hopelessness and uncertainty. It poses the idea of the absurd nature of humanity, and embellishes a pessimistic view of essentially a purposeless human existence. Within the text, the human condition is purveyed as absurd and lacking meaning. Some critics believe it relates to the never-ending wait for the second coming, however Beckett warned against making religious or philosophical deductions. Throughout this unrest, Samuel Beckett carried the torch of Waiting for Godot, completing the sacred duty of sparking ideas to ignite change.

Dr Faustus was written in 1592 by Christopher Marlow. The text tells the story of a Doctor Faustus, a respected German scholar, who is bored with the traditional types of knowledge available to him. He wants more than logic, medicine, law, and religion. He wants magic. His friends, Valdes and Cornelius, begin to teach him magic, which he uses to summon a devil named Mephistophilis. He begins to use his power, but for a price. The text was created during a time where the world was undergoing revolutionary change from a medieval world into the world of the emerging Renaissance. Scholar R.M. Dawkins famously stated that Doctor Faustus “tells the story of a Renaissance man who had to pay the medieval price for being one.” This quote summarises the play’s central themes: the clash between the medieval world and the world of the emerging Renaissance. The medieval world placed God at the centre of existence and disregarded man and the natural world. The Renaissance was a movement that began in Italy in the fifteenth century and soon spread throughout the entirety of Europe, carrying with it a new focus on the individual, classical learning, and scientific inquiry into the nature of the world. In the medieval academy, theology was the main form of science. In the Renaissance, though, secular matters became more important. Faustus, despite being a magician rather than a scientist, explicitly rejects the medieval model. In his opening speech in scene 1, he goes through every field of scholarship, beginning with logic and proceeding through medicine, law, and theology, quoting an ancient authority for each: Aristotle on logic, Galen on medicine, the Byzantine emperor Justinian on law, and the Bible on religion. In the medieval model, tradition and authority, not individual inquiry, were key. But in this soliloquy, Faustus considers and rejects this medieval way of thinking. He resolves to accept no limits, traditions, or authorities in his quest for knowledge, wealth, and power which embodies ideals of renaissance times. The play’s attitude toward the clash between medieval and Renaissance values is arguable. Marlowe seems hostile toward the ambitions of Faustus, and, as Dawkins notes, he keeps his tragic hero squarely in the medieval world, where eternal damnation is the price of human pride. Yet Marlowe himself was no devout traditionalist, and it is tempting to see in Faustus a hero of the new modern world, a world free of God, religion, and the limits that these imposed on humanity. Faustus may pay a medieval price, but his successors will go further than he and suffer less, as we have in modern times. On the other hand, the disappointment and commonplaceness that follow Faustus’s pact with the devil, as he descends from grand ambitions to petty conjuring tricks, might suggest a clashing interpretation. Marlowe may have suggested that the new, modern spirit, though ambitious and glittering, will lead only to a ‘Faustian’ dead end. Throughout this unrest, Christopher Marlow carried the torch of Dr Faustus, completing the sacred duty of sparking ideas to ignite change.