Faust, Mephistopheles, and Louisa May Alcott
A Long Fatal Love Chase Incorporates the Faustian Legend
May 20, 2009
Louisa May Alcott wrote A Long Fatal Love Chase in the short time frame of two months. The novel was intended for serial publication and required dramatic pacing with a cliffhanger at the end of every installment. Pressed for time and most likely space, Alcott relied on popular themes and references to the ubiquitous German legend of Faust as a short cut to create character, tone, and mood.
Summary of the Legend
Perhaps the most well-known story of Faust was told by Goethe. In Goethe’s story Faust (which means lucky) was baffled in his attempt to discover the true essence of life. However, the devil (Mephistopheles) is attracted to Faust because of his desires and efforts and makes a deal with Faust. He agrees to help Faust until he reaches the height of human happiness, at which time he has the option to steal Faust’s soul. By the end of Goethe’s story, Faust is redeemed and forgiven by the spirits of the earth and by God as well.
In the traditional legend Faust is damned without intervention by the devil. He is damned because he prefers human knowledge and experience to divine knowledge and experience.
Mephistopheles
In Rosamond’s grandfather’s house, there hangs a painting of Mephistopheles, which she immediately recognizes as bearing a physical resemblance to Philip Tempest. Little does she know that Tempest will soon be her personal devil.
At the beginning of the novel, Rosamond in a fit of frustration cries out “I often feel as if I’d gladly sell my soul to Satan for a year of freedom.” (1) Almost immediately after these words, Philip Tempest walks into her life. Towards the end of the first chapter, Tempest soliloquizes “My coming was a worse omen than either storm or thunderbolt, if the child did but know it.”
In short order, Tempest wins the heart of the free-spirited Rose. It doesn’t take him much longer to win her life while gambling with Rose’s grandfather. Within a month, Tempest carries Rose away. At the beginning of the fourth chapter, Rose exults that it has been a year since “you stole me like a pirate, Phillip.” (57) Within moments, Willoughby arrives and Rose’s year of happiness begins to draw to a close and her life begins to disintegrate.
Goethe’s Faust
Rosamond is a classic Goethian Faust. She feels that there is more to life than what she has experienced in her short and isolated life on an island with her grandfather, and so, she utters those fateful words with which she bargains away her freedom for the opportunity to experience the world. Tempest (aka Mephistopheles) gives her the one-year she asks for. When the year runs out, Rose begins to realize that her soul is at risk. She recognizes the evil and soulless nature of her husband and seeks to escape. In the end she escapes through death into Heaven. Like Goethe’s Faust, God rescues her.
A Traditional Faust
While Alcott paints (both literally and figuratively) Philip Tempest out to be the devil, there is something of the traditional Faust in him as well. Tempest is a very lucky man. An extraordinarily gifted gambler, he almost always gets what he wants. Like the legendary Faust he made no bargain with the devil, he simply indulged in all earthly pleasures (aka wisdom) rather than pursue heaven.
A Faustian Tragedy
Faust is a tragedy, regardless of whether it is told in the traditional format or if it is told in Goethe’s format. Alcott’s Faust is a double tragedy; both Rosamond and Tempest are Faustian characters. Tempest surrenders his soul to the devil so that he can live a life of hedonism and when he finds a woman he can love his soul is so corrupt his love becomes obsession and possession rather than true love; Rosamond’s innocence is stolen, true love eludes her, and her lover accidentally murders her,
Alcott, Louisa May. A Long Fatal Love Chase. Dell Publishing. 1995. ISBN 0-440-22301-6
Read more about Louisa May Alcott and her works at Suite101.
 |
