Faust’s character is based on the historical figure of Johann Georg Faust. The legend of his contract with the devil had soon begun to spread in different stories. The first literary treatment of the character is The Folk Book, and soon after, the story was incorporated into the theatre with Marlowe’s tragedy Doctor Faustus. The character is later on revived by the German Enlightenment (Lessing) and the Sturm und Drang movement. For the former, the character express the positive will to knowledge, and for the latter, Faustus is an expression of the fight against authority. The central subject of these works is the question of attaining knowledge. However, the authors’ perspectives on this subject depends on the historical spirit of a period. The will to knowledge is the central subject of Goethe’s Faust as well, which is indicated in the “Prologue in Heaven”, where God and Mefisto make a bet, and later on in Faust’s contract. Goethe hence legitimizes curiosity. In part one of Faust, love towards Gretchen and magic in relation to Mefisto are also important themes. In part two of Faust, the subjects of economics, science and technology are put into focus, as well as society and utopia. Using those subjects, the author expressed his attitude to the Industrial Revolution and progress. The differences between Faust and Abandon are shown already in the basic Faustian motif, that is, in the contract with the devil. Samorad makes the contract in order to win a girl, and not to obtain all knowledge. This is expressed in the sense of enticement to pessimism. The novel deals less with the subject of love, too, since it mainly serves the motivation of the story in a similar manner as the magical motifs do. The novel’s perception of progress is interesting, since, as opposed to Goethe who was still hopeful about the future, Mencinger already shows scepticism about the justification for progress. The negative sides of progress are portrayed in their extremes in Mencinger’s dystopian treatment of society. Even though there are similar subjects recurring both in Abadon and Faust, they are more so a coincidence rather than proof of looking up to, or at least polemicising with the Faustian theme.
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