Mephistopheles Doesn't Have Time For Your BS

Mephistopheles is at the water cooler with other demons, on break in Hell Inc.

M: Then I said, "Send him to the pit!"

M and other demons laugh.

Demon 1: Hey Meph, are you going to Beelzebub's bachelor party? I heard it's gonna be lit!

M (Drinking lava out of a paper cup): Maybe...my soul quota is just about filled. I just need one more soul and then I get one extra vacation day!

M and Demons all cheer, a lesser demon/imp flies in with a clip board up to M: Mephistopheles! Big Boss needs you in his office right away! It's about your quota!

M and imp/demon are in Lucifer's office. Lucifer is smoking a thick cigar and blows rings that look like tortured faces. Outside his window there are volcanoes and a lava river, now and then you would be able to hear a tortured scream. 

Lucifer (smiling): Glad you could make it Meph! Congratulations on almost meeting your quota!

M: No problem boss, what do you need?

Lucifer sifts through a pile of papers on his desk and holds up one manila folder: This is [REDACTED] Faustus, or just Dr. Faustus! He's a doctor studying theology and thinks he's smarter than a pack of smarties! He wants to dabble in the dark arts and learn all the worlds knowledge and maybe help people but, we all know that's not true (chuckles).

M (Chuckling): Good one sir! 

Imp/demon (chuckles)

Lucifer: Anyway, this is your final soul! He's a tough cookie so you have access to the Seven Deadly Sins to get him interested. He has the attention span of a squirrel so it won't matter. And remember, you get an extra vacation day if you get him to sign the contract!

M: You can count on me sir!

Lucifer: Oh, and one more thing, God will be trying to stop you, so make sure you do everything you can! He's Catholic! 

M nods and poofs out of the office. Lucifer sighs and looks out his window and speaks to himself as he reads through Faustus's record.

Lucifer: Poor Meph...this human is the absolutely worse. Not even the demon unions can help...

Doctor Faustus: The Kronk of the Elizabethan Era

What not to say to a demon

Faustus summons demon

Mephostophilis appears

 Faustus- Now Demon you must wait on me hand and foot! You must wait for my commands!

Mephostophilis- Yeah… funny thing, can’t do that, I answer to Lucifer.

Mephostophilis Internally- Oh my Satan! This guy! He summons me here like some low level demon and expects me to just, what?… sit around? And wait on him?! Demons have standards too! Damn huma-

Faustus- But I summoned you, Demon?!

Mephostophilis- I do have free will…

 Mephostophilis Internally- Is this guy for real? Does he think humans are the only ones with free will? Excuse me we have a Demons Union, we meet on sundays. Just got a pay raise, up to to three souls now!

Faustus- Then why are you here?

Mephostophilis- I wanted your soul…, oh and all you had to do was pray to my boss…

Mephostophilis Internally- Why do all these humans have to go around saying you have to do all this freaky shit to summon us?!?! Frankly it's getting weird… Drinking pee, riding flying goats, being a weak woman? Where the Hells Bells did they get this stuff?! I mean really, who even comes up with it? Now that whole ‘member stealing incident,’ now that was us! Us demons had needed some good old fashioned bonding time. It was good for team morale. Oh right THIS guy… what was he saying? Probably something stupid I bet…

Faustus- So tell me, how’d your boss become Satan?

Mephostophilis Internally screaming- SATAN HELP ME!

Fickle Convictions

The introduction prefaces Dr. Faustus as a symbol for the idea that "The tragedy is that in losing God the Renaissance was losing man himself" (Barnet, xviii). That, essentially, Faustus represents a man who is both a fool and a tragic figure.

My questions stem from this and Faustus's attitude within the play: (1) How does the concept of selling one's soul to the devil to obtain power over 'natural' phenomena mirror and echo our reading in the Kors/Peters texts? (2) Why is it that religion has steadily become the source of all power in our magic-centric texts (that miracles, foresight, transformation, etc can only be gained from worship to a higher power, whether that be God or Lucifer)? (3) Is Dr. Faustus's fickleness on whether he should or should not shun God in order to obtain immortal power representative of the rhetoric within our previous readings - that the weak are prey to the Devil and must repent? This seems possible considering the Good and Bad Angel characters.

Evaluation

   It was that time of year again. A reminder was thrown in Mephostophilis' face everywhere he turned. "Be sure to evaluate your master!" all the emails read. Lucifer even bothered to create poster-illusions with big font that said, "YOUR FEEDBACK IS IMPORTANT." Mephostophilis groaned and finally began filling out the annual Devil's Master Evaluation.  

     1: My master is worthy of his position.  

     "Way to start out with a loaded question," Mephostophilis muttered. His first instinct was to slam on the “Strongly disagree” button and move on, but he thought that might not be fair. True, Doctor Faustus is completely clueless in how everything’s supposed to work. Like, he just assumed that by Mephostophilis appearing, he could just demand him to do whatever he wanted without even making a contract with great Lucifer first (1.3.35-43). Idiot. There are rules here, buddy-boo! And it’s not that Faustus is even doing this for the right reasons. He wanted riches! To be loved and admired! His motivations have nothing to do with devils! (1.1.75-94) Certainly, this makes him decidedly NOT worthy. But it felt mean to select “Strongly disagree,” so Mephostophilis settled for “Disagree.” 

     2: My master is devoted to Lucifer. 

    On this question, Mephostophilis did not hesitate to hit “strongly disagree” and move on immediately. That bloody human signed a contract, a LEGAL DOCUMENT, binding his soul to Lucifer. And he...he had the AUDACITY TO REPENT! (2.2.89-90) NOT. OKAY. Of course, later he changed his mind and was all, “Oh, Lucifer is great” (2.2.188). But that doesn’t change anything. The weakness was noted.  

     3: My master respects me. 

     Mephostophilis just laughed. Faustus doesn’t respect his boundaries when there’s things Mephostophilis doesn’t want to talk about (2.2.74-6) and Faustus refuses to let Mephostophilis inhabit his natural form! He called him ugly (1.3.25-6). “Disagree.”  

7 Deadly Sin Clarification

 Just in case you needed to put a face to the names :)