Seducing Helena: The Court Fantasy of Faust II, Act III

CHARlES A. GRAIR Seducing Helena: The Court Fantasy of Faust II, Act III ■γγΤΗΥ DOES FAUST'S COURTSHIP OF HELENA dominate the secW ond part of the drama? In the Spies chapbook, Faust demands that Mephistopheles conjure up the Greek beauty for his sexual gratification . In this version, Helena is no more than a sexual plaything for a man Uving "ein säuisch und epicurisch Leben."1 Subsequent versions of Faust, such as Marlowe's drama and the German Puppenspiel, contain sünüar episodes. According to Goethe's announcement for the "klassisch -romantisch-phantasmagorisches Zwischenspiel" (1826), he simply foUowed tradition: "Eni solches bedeutendes Motiv in unserer Ausführung nicht zu versäumen, war uns Pflicht. . . ."2 Despite his characteristic understatement, Goethe's Helena is much more than the sex object of earUer versions, and his Faust more ambitious: Goethe's hero desües not only Helena's body, but a grand affaü commensurate with his elevated status m the "große Welt" of Part II. He desües Helena the woman, Helena the ideal of HeUenic culture, and Helena the symbol and the legacy of classical art and beauty—but he wants her on his own terms. Simply put, he wants the experience of Uving as a king with Helena as his queen. The "phantasmagoria" of Act III depicts Faust's attempts to recreate a more profound version of the Emperor's court on a much more magnificent scale. His court fantasy, however, has as much to do with power as it does with erotic, poetic, or aesthetic concerns. Faust's obsession with estabUshing his own authority is an aspect of Act III that has rarely been discussed by Goethe scholars . In the foUowing paper I wUl argue that the elaborate abduction and seduction of Helena represents a conflation of sexual and poUtical authority, and that the strategies for achieving and maintaining such authority center on the issues of assimUation and control. I. Helena "Faust's relationship to the feminine," Frank Borchardt writes, "is consistently that of pursuer to pursued. ... In one sense or another [he] storms them aU." Borchardt's figurative language can be taken UteraUy; interaction between the sexes in Faust consistently foUows the pattern of masculine aggression and feminine passivity. Faust's long journey to 100 Charles A. Grair Helena begins in the Hexenküche, where he beholds "das schönste BUd von einem Weibe" (2436) and is seized by almost uncontroUable passions: "Weh mir! ich werde schier verrückt" (2456).4 One may understand Mephistopheles's later remarks (2601-4) as an indication that the fleeting image is that of Helena; more significant is his sly comment that Faust wUl soon see "Helenen Ui jedem Weibe" and be consumed by erotic desüe. In each subsequent encounter with the feminine, his initial Uistinct is to take possession aggressively, violently tf necessary.5 Immediately foUowing the scene Ui the Hexenküche, he accosts Gretchen on the open street. During his descent to the Müttern, he forcibly uses a phaUic key to abduct the tripod and Helena's image (6259-6306). In the Rittersaal, he again brandishes the key—the emblem of his passion and his desüe to possess—as a weapon to ward off Paris (6549-63). Images of rape continue Ui the Laboratorium (690320 ) and the klassische Walpurgisnacht (7271-7312), where the story of Leda and the swan is recounted as a prelude to Faust's meeting with Helena. The ensuing exchange with Chüon reveals Faust's possessive attitude toward women and highUghts his belief Ui masculine aggression . He declares that he, Uke Achules, wül gain the love of Helena "gegen das Geschick": "Und soUt' ich nicht, sehnsüchtigster Gewalt, / Ins Leben ziehn die einzigste Gestalt?" (7438f.).s The emphasis here ües on the word Gewalt—Faust bases his right to possess Helena on the power or the force of his desüe. When Chüon suggests curing his apparent love-sickness, Faust rejects the offer with a statement of powerful superiority: "mein Sinn ist mächtig; / Da war' ich ja wie andre niederträchtig" (7459f). His erotic quest for Helena barely masks bis aggressive wUl to power; for Faust, Ui fact...