Sturm und Drang, word and image

An essay I submitted for World Literature through Film a few weeks ago:

Although written in the form of a play, Johann Wolfgang Goethe's Faust is enjoyable on the printed page because of its remarkable dialogue and poetry. In fact, readers may be better able to appreciate the richness of Goethe's text than an audience would be able at a performance. This verbal depth presents a challenge to artists who wish to adapt the text to the cinema; it must have presented an especially difficult challenge to the makers of a silent film version in 1926.

F. W. Murnau's motion picture takes some liberties with the plot of Goethe's version of the Faust legend. It remains, however, faithful to the theme of the story. The film uses different methods to present the same truths.

First, the difference in medium necessitates different methods of characterizing Dr. Faust. Goethe allows the character to define himself in interior monologue. This Faust expresses disillusionment and angst ("And I see all our search for knowledge is vain, and this burns my heart with bitter pain," 143) and eventually hints at the altruistic origins of his lonely struggle ("I sought to alter heaven's will . . . the pestilence continued still . . . we [the misguided doctors], worse than any plague, raged far and wide. I myself poisoned thousands . . . ." 154). A silent film would not be able to capture the complexities of Faust's contemplations. In his film, Murnau, instead of abbreviating Goethe's language, translates this distress by depicting Faust's fight against the Plague directly. Murnau shows the epidemic strike Faust’s village, shows Faust agonize over the plight of his people, and shows Faust descend into unholy rage when his ministrations kill his patients. This presentation destroys the nuances of Goethe's bitter philosophy, yet it has a power of its own and derives from the same source. Without the filter of language and propositions, though, Faust is left utterly exposed. He turns from ineffectual books, even holy texts, and resorts to the visible power of magic.

Goethe's text and Murnau's film also treat this supernatural power differently. The magic of Goethe is poetic and incantatory. Even when merely chemical, a charm must be attended by language in order to have the proper effect upon the recipient. "You must understand," Mephistopheles chides when Faust objects to a witch's meaningless mutterings over a potion, "as a doctor she's got to hoke and poke if her medicine's to take effect as planned" (179). At times magic is identified with persuasion, at other times with the frontiers of scientific knowledge. In Murnau's adaptation this propositional element is less common. As presented on the screen, magic is the power to accomplish strange things. Spectacle takes precedence. In one way this visual element reinforces the theme of Goethe's work; Mephistopheles has the ability to grant experience (represented by fantastic images) when words and ideas fail. In this sense the film accomplishes what the text does not. Goethe's Faust never escapes the world of the abstract and rational; he waxes eloquent about everything. Murnau's Faust can fall into the company of witches or into the arms of a lady without saying a word.

The portrayal of women, therefore, undergoes a change as well. Goethe holds womanhood in high esteem as an ideal, apparently inextricable from the ideal of love. His depiction of this essence hinges on the character of Gretchen, the innocent girl who begins the process of Faust's redemption. Goethe's text reveals Gretchen's personality with soliloquy and dialogue. Her words betray a childlike purity; even she is keenly conscious of her lack of experience. "What a silly baby I must be!" she exclaims to herself (182). She is self-effacing. She is shocked and thrilled to receive Faust’s attentions. Every mannerism, inhibition, and remark betrays her bashful propriety. Murnau translates this to the screen with a heroine who hardly seems to speak at all. Gretchen does not even need to protest her naïveté. Her averted eyes, awkward habits, and daydreaming let the audience know all it needs to know. Whereas Goethe overcomes the lady's shyness by putting her into a garden for a long conversation with Faust, Murnau represents this pursuit by letting Faust literally chase her around the garden.

The innocence of Gretchen is a key element in her beauty. Paradoxically, Faust in his lust for experience finds himself lusting for the image of inexperience. Gretchen has an unspoiled nature; this purity makes her precious to Faust. The film, relying on visual cues to suggest the girl's innocence, is at a disadvantage in this respect. Physical attractiveness alone is insufficient to explain the hold Gretchen has on the protagonist; it may be the least important factor. To show the depth of Gretchen's beauty, the film places her in settings that reveal her character. Murnau's Faust spies the girl in a church, a place where Mephistopheles and evil cannot enter. He tracks her to a simple house, where she lives with her saintly mother and devoted brother. He finds her again in a bucolic garden, surrounded by playful children. As a result, words are not necessary to reveal the tender soul behind Gretchen's pretty face. She surrounds herself with humble nobility. Even friend Martha's naughty nature is attenuated by her comic function; she provides a clownish contrast to Gretchen’s dignity.

Murnau's film is thus a remarkable accomplishment. It tells the story of Faust, which depends heavily upon propositional language and particularly upon dialogue among characters (and worldviews), through silent action and minimal text. The images it uses, startling and beautiful and harsh and tender, capture the romantic spirit of Goethe's story very well. This adaptation demonstrates the power of images and the ability of storytellers to use different methods to capture the hearts of the audience. It shows that a powerful narrative may transcend the limitations of medium.

Faust. Screenplay by Hans Kyser. Dir. F. W. Murnau. Universum Film A.G., 1926.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. Faust. Trans. David Luke. The Longman Anthology of World Literature. Gen. ed. David Damrosch. Vol. E. Eds. Marshall Brown and Bruce Robbins. New York: Pearson Longman, 2004. 135-250.