The Little Tiny Girl

With blondes it is his custom to praise their gentleness, with brunettes their constancy, with white-haired ones their sweetness.  In winter he wants plumpness, in summer he wants leanness.  The tall woman is stately, the tall woman is stately; the little tiny girl, the little tiny girl, the little tiny girl, the little tiny girl, the little tiny girl, the little tiny girl, the little tiny girl, the little tiny girl, the little tiny girl is always charming, is always charming, is always charming; he makes conquests among old women for the pleasure of adding them to the list.

First, apologies that this is a bit late. Due to our conversation last class about Faust's lust for Margaret/Gretchen, the innocent, "little tiny girl," I was struck by this passage.  Leporello categorizes the women with whom his master has relations but stresses "the little tiny girl."  I would like to explore the reason why powerful men desire naive, young girls.  Are they attracted by the qualities that the girls possess because they can never regain them?  How is the "little tiny girl" a conquest when she can physically be won rather effortlessly?

Leporello

Don Giovanni: Oh, come now, clown, oh, come now, clown, don't bother me.

Leporello: No, no, master, no, no, master! I don't want to stay!

D.G.: Listen to me, friend--

Lep.: I want to go, I tell you!

D.G.: What have I done to you, that you want to leave me?

Lep.: Oh nothing at all, you almost murdered me.

D.G.: Don't be crazy, don't be crazy, crazy, crazy, it was in fun.

Lep.: And I'm not joking, and I'm not joking, joking, joking, but I want to go!

I think that Leporello is a very interesting character. He is there throughout the opera with Don Giovanni as he commits all of his evil acts, and aides him along the way. What blame does he face, and what blame should he face? Does the fact that he no longer wants to help Don Giovanni anymore save him at all?

Elvira

Don Giovanni: Hush, hush, for a crowd is gathering around us. Be a little more prudent, you'll make yourself ridiculous.

Donna Elvira: Don't hope it, o villain, I have lost my prudence, I want to show everyone your guilt and my condition, I want to show everyone!

- Act One, Scene 3 (page 34)

These lines emphasize Elvira's desperation. She will do whatever it takes to expose Don Giovanni, even if it means exposing herself. She is willing to break out of her prescribed social role - she has "lost her prudence" and will make herself "ridiculous." Isn't this a striking attitude in Seminar IV? Most of our readings have been about conforming to society. Remember Hobbes's unbreakable contract or Pride and Prejudice's rigid rules of conduct. Elvira is a rude awakening. There are still wild cards in human nature; Medea is still among us...

Long Live Freedom!

Don Giovanni: Everyone is free to come in, long live freedom. (I.5.54)

What, exactly, is Don Giovanni's problem? I was repeatedly surprised by the degree to which I'd underestimated him. This "bundle of deceit" is not a very endearing character. Here's a collection of some of his most revealing passages.

(All by Don Giovanni, except for the last two. Act.Scene.Page)

He asked for it, it's his fault. (I.1.8)

The poor unhappy thing is in love with me, and out of pity I must pretend to love her; it's my undoing that I'm a kind-hearted man. (I..29)

I no longer know what to do with myself, and a horrible storm is threatening me, oh God! (I..61)

It's all love; whoever is faithful only to one is cruel to the others; I, who feel such ample sentiment in myself, love all of them; and since women don't comprehend these things, they call my natural goodness deceit. (II..67)

I hope she will break down soon! what a pretty little trick is this? there is no talent more versatile than mine... (II..70)

They leave-- Don Giovanni swaggering, and Leporello cowering. (II..103)

Statue: Repent, change your life, it is your last moment!
Don Giovanni tries to withdraw his hand.
Don Giovanni: No, no, I do not repent, get you far away from me!(II..114)

He can neither be remorseful nor penitent. He is perpetually unsatiable, forever proud, and yet quick to disguise and deceive. He is willfully unable to fear. In what way do these things compose his role as a "libertine?" He is probably one of the most "free" characters we, or at least I, have encountered. Don Giovanni can do anything he wishes. He is not movable by pity or any social more. Not even a living statue of the man he murdered, riding through his dining room door booming the word "REPENT," can budge his resolve. What is the role of freedom here? of restraint?

P.S. "The death of wicked men is always just like their life." Don Giovanni died in hellfire, sure, but his "What terror!" is the only indication that he is feeling anything but physical pain. And besides, Don Giovanni's life was pretty plush. Is it just me, or was the ending just a little unsatisfying?

Diversion

All right , you need no sorcery
And no physician and no dough.
Just go into the fields and see
What fun it is to dig and hoe;
Live simply and keep all your thoughts
On a few simple objects glued;
Restrict yourself and eat the plainest food;
Live with eh beasts, a beast: it is no thievery
To dress the fields you work, with your own dung.
That is the surest remedy:
At eighty, you would still be young. (p 236-237, lines 2352-2359)

My post cites an earlier part of the assignment. I want to again discuss the idea of activity as a means to human happiness, or as a means to reinvigorate "youth" and a zeal for life. The above quote seems to resonate the earlier statements Mephisto makes: "You're in the end--just what you are!" and "Let your reflections rest / And plunge into the world with zest!" The activity Mephisto advocates (as "the surest remedy") is simple; to work hard, to eat plain, and to live "with the beasts." Is this genuine advice, proposing to Faust that he enjoy his human life by always keeping busy? Or is keeping busy a method to distract one's self from such metaphysical drama as that which plagues Faust. In this light, activity would be a means of deterring human tragedy rather than promoting human happiness.

"IS SAVED" - god

I'm rehashing this quote because I think it might be one of the most important ones in the text. In response to several of the previous posts, I think this quote reflects a discontinuous and sudden intervention into the darkness of human passion by divine salvation.

It also reflects, like the quote about striving and salvation, God's pity for human passions. And in the end, even Mephistopheles laments the impotence of evil these days. The passions, for the sake of the play, are exciting in their darkness, but ultimately, all it takes is a few words from heaven (or some rose petals) and salvation triumphs.

Does this mean it's easy to get to heaven for Goethe? Or, that the difficulty lies in striving and thereby wearing out the passions?

Also, did anyone else have a really hard time figuring out that Margaret and Gretchen are the same person?

Trinity

"You'll hear much more before we leave her. I know, it sounds like that for many pages. I lost much time on this accursed affliction, Because a perfect contradiction intrigues not only fools but also sages. This art is old and new, forsooth: It was the custom in all ages to spread illusion and not truth with Three in One and One in three they teach it twittering like birds; with fools there is no intervening. Men usually believe, if only they hear words that there must also be some sort of meaning." (p, 253). 

The idea of spreading "illusion" and "not truth" is something that most at Goethe's time would not attribute to the Church. It is obvious that there is some sort of animosity toward not only the Church, but the idea of the trinity. Where father, son, and holy spirit are one, Mephistopheles disagrees. Are the words spoken through Mephistopheles  the actual thoughts of Goethe's? Where does this disagreement come from and what other signs do we see towards this type of thinking?