From Faust to Beethoven: Bargaining with the Devil

by

Daniel Gafà

Sympathy for the Devil: The Representation of Satan in Western Literature and

Popular Culture

ATS5119

Master of Arts in Literary Tradition and Popular Culture

February 2014

Faculty of Arts

University of Malta
TABLE OF CONTENT

1. The Faustian Pact ……………………….……………………… 1

2. Thomas Mann’s Doctor Faustus ……….………….………....… 4

3. The Genius of Beethoven ….…………………………………... 7

4. Conclusion ……………………………………………………. 12
1 The Faustian Pact

The problem of evil is an ancient one and surely is a question of some great

depth. Many people have dedicated decades of their lives trying to give an

answer to this question but, being a problem that in an extant affects all

mankind, it is not that easy to give a direct and accurate answer. In fact, one

must first question: what is evil? Because evil is not a thing in itself but it is

a corruption of something good.

We shall assert that the struggle between good and evil is simply a struggle

about the role of man in the universe. Man has almost always been a

property to one degree or another that can be used by its owner, else a ‘free’

man would have been free to take his own life or to ingest what he wills and

live life as he wants. He can choose whether to help another person or not,

but if he chooses to live with others, he must obey to one rule: that of not

using violence to attain what he want. Thus, evil can be simply defined as

the initiation of violence in all its forms.

But the question that I will mainly focus on is about, what brings a man to

sign a pact with the Devil, that in the collective memory of our society

represents the incarnation of evil. Of course, the central figure of all tales of

pacts with demons is surely that of the German highly successful scholar of

Doctor Faustus. The legend of Faust is based on a historical figure of the

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late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, a close contemporary of Luther.

Being totally in opposition of the bling creed of the Middle Ages, his figure

can be described as the epitome of the Renaissance man; he’s an

aspirational brilliant scholar and a challenger of the Christian status quo. In

fact, his figure represents many contrasts that have remained very relevant

during the centuries until today: the everlasting conflict between religion

and science, between authority and reason, between faith and logic,

between the humble renunciation and the blatant desire for pleasure. That is

why the Italian writer Paolo Orvieto describes Faust as being a “tracotante

colpevole” [“arrogant offender”] and an “eroico ribelle” [“heroic rebel”] at

the same instance1.

Returning back to the argument about whether man is free or not, Orvieto

also argues that Faust, like Adam in the Genesis, wants to be completely

autonomous from God that he describes as the “padre-padrone” [“father-

god”] (Orvieto, 2006, p.20). The presence of God as the supreme father is

in fact what condemns the human being to remain the puer aeternus or in

other words the ‘eternal youth’. This is also a common conept in Jungian

psychology: according to C,G. Jung, the figure of the puer aeternus is an

archetype of the structural elements of the human psyche that is bi-polar.

Hence, it has a positive aspect where this child represents the potential for

growth, foreshadowing the hero he can become (such as the child-god

1
Orvieto, P. (2006), Il mito di Faust - L’Uomo, Dio, il Diavolo, (p.18) Salerno Editrice, Roma.
 3

Iacchus in Ovid’s Metamorphoses) and it also has a negative aspect; that of

a child-man who refuses to grow up.

All of this can be seen as a reason why a man, such as Faust, can come to a

point to sign a bond with Devil since in return of an immortal soul, the

Devil has many pleasures to offer: wealth, power over mankind, magical

arts, sexual pleasure and also the total individualization from the Creator, in

order to become what Orvieto calls the “Io-autonomo” [“Autonomous-me”]

(Orvieto, 2006, p.23).

In 1922, the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud wrote a paper entitled

“A Seventeeth-Century Demonological Neurosis” where he gave a detailed

analysis of a case of demoniacal possession involving the painter Cristoph

Haizmann. In this paper, Freud gives some theories of his own about what

brings man to reach a Faustian pact with the devil, obviously always from a

psychoanalytical perspective. So according to Doctor Freud, demons are

nothing but denied evil desires that come from feelings and drives that have

been rejected and repressed in the human unconscious. This means that in

such a situation, the devil can become an externalized personification of

what we want to be and what we want to have and that sometimes we feel

ashamed to admit that we actually desire them.

In addition, for Freud the devil also represents a figure that symbolizes the

release from guilt since frequently we blame the great tempter, Satan, to

arouse immoral desires which in fact, are all ours. This means that
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according to Freud, through a pact with the Devil, man tries to regain what

once was lost (what Orvieto calls “lo stato edenico” [“the Edenic state”]) 2

and tries to satisfy his repressed desires (usually of sexual transgression or

of supernatural powers) while at the same acquiring liberation of that guilt

feeling which he will impose on the figure of Satan. In the case of

Haizmann in fact, the painter confessed that nine years before his

demoniacal possession he made a pact, written in blood and ink, when he

was still poor and unsuccessful hence, when his desires where not satisfied.

Without going into the details of this case, Freud concluded that Haizmann

only wanted someone to replace the figure of the father that he had lost

previously and thus, by becoming the son of Satan and by antagonizing

God, he also became completely autonomous from his Creator.

Another theory that is suggested by Orvieto is that in the case of Haizmann,

and even in the story of Faust, the real problem that lead to extremeness is

in fact, themselves that were becoming melancholic, reaching therefore a

psycho-mental state between madness and genius that can force man to turn

to demoniacal forces.

2 Thomas Mann’s Doctor Faustus

There are many variation based on the legendary figure of Doctor Faust but

the one that I am mostly interested in is that of Thomas Mann which was

2
Orvieto, P. (2006), op. cit., p.2
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published in 1947. Unlike many other variations, such as those by

Christopher Marlowe and by Goethe, Mann’s version is not about a highly

intellectual scholar but it is about the life of the German composer Adrian

Leverkühn. The reason why I am much more interested in Mann is because

later in this assignment I will analyse a fictional Faustian rock opera by the

Trans-Siberian Orchestra that is about the final night of another great

composer: Ludwig van Beethoven.

Mann wrote this book during World War II while he was exiled in the

United States, and the biography of the Faustian protagonist, Adrian

Leverkühn is written by his childhood friend Serenus Zeitblom, a

schoolmaster. Basically, the whole novel is a reflection on the composer’s

life which has been set in the context of the disturbing military situation in

Germany at his time, or more precisely, at the time that Mann was writing.

Leverkühn abandoned his studies in theology since his main interest was

none but music. However, early in his career as a composer, his music was

lacking imagination and energy, eventually becoming unsuccessful.

As in the case of the painter Haizmann, which I have previously discussed,

this lack of creativity was the motive that pushed the composer to making a

pact with the Devil. This pact gave Leverkühn a brilliant 24-year career of

success thanks to which he had become the greatest German composer of

the time. However, as an adult this composer had a rather solitary and
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melancholic life which mainly consisted of many aborted relationships

(such as that with his 5-year-old nephew that came to live with him and that

suddenly died with meningitis). Although as a composer he dedicated his

life to music, he was deeply inside yearning for love and affection. Then,

when he was set to unveil one of his best ever compositions, he experiences

a stroke which leaves him in a profound coma, as a result of which he

passes the remaining decade of his existence, in a child-like state and forced

to be taken care of by his mother.

By the decadence of this composer, Mann managed to illustrate the decline

of German culture just before the Nazi era; the collapse of traditional

humanism and its replacement by some kind of a barbaric primitivism. As

Mann himself explains in “The Story of a Novel”, his “Dr. Faustus” was

about “the flight from the difficulties of a cultural crisis into the pact with

the devil; the craving of a proud mind, threatened by sterility, for an

unblocking of inhibitions at any cost; and the parallel between pernicious

euphoria ending in collapse with the nationalistic frenzy of Fascism." 3 In

other words, the whole novel is an allegory where the narrator, Zeitblom

represents the German humanism and culture, while the pact between

Leverkühn and the Devil represents the ending and the collapse of this

humanism in order to leave space for a new form of barbarism.

3
Mann, T. (1961), The Story of a Novel: The Genesis of Doctor Faustus, (p.30), Knopf, New
York.
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3 The Genius of Beethoven

Before starting to analyse this Faustian rock opera, I would like first to talk

about the great composer whose symphonies has practically changed the

entire world. As philosopher Slavoj Žižek points out in his movie Pervert’s

Guide to Ideology, his music, especially the world famous Ninth Symphony

was so inspirational and rhapsodic that he managed to create an ideology.

In fact, Beethoven’s Ode to Joy is usually perceived as an ode to humanity

as such to the brotherhood and freedom of all people. If we look at the

history of this symphony alone, we immediately notice what Žižek calls,

“the universal adaptability”4 of this song, since as an open container, it is

open to all possible meaning. It was actually used by two political

movements which were totally opposed to each other: the Nazi’s in

Germany usually used it to celebrate great events while in the Soviet Union,

the Ode to Joy was even considered as some kind of communist song.

Furthermore in China, when almost all Western music was prohibited, the

Ode to Joy was one of the few exceptions. Today this symphony is also the

national anthem of the European Union.

The interesting aspect of the Ode to Joy is that only the first part is clearly

identified as an ideology while the remaining part of the symphony, which

is less known, actually disturbs the ideology. Thus, as Žižek explains:

4
Fiennes, S. (2012), Pervert’s Guide to Ideology (starring Slavoj Žižek), United Kingdom.
 8

“Beethoven was doing something which may appear difficult to do. He was

already in the purely musical work practising critique of ideology.” 5

All of this illustrates perfectly the genius of this composer and on a certain

degrees, it also raise some questions of what it seems to be a supernatural

gift: how does a severely deaf person can create such symphonies? This

question is a mystery of its own but a lot of conspiracy theories usually turn

around the question without obviously giving an answer. A lot of people

usually question that Beethoven’s marvellous ability was actually a

supernatural gift that might be of demoniacal nature. In fact, Psychologist

and writer Stephen A. Diamond writes about Beethoven:

“… we are left with no evidence that he was an unconscious genius in any

extraordinary degree. In other words, the incomparable German composer

was, for the most part, a eudaimonic genius” 6

In other words, Beethoven was a conscious and integrated self-possessed

genius. Although throughout his life he never was subject to demoniacal

possession, his inner grief (mainly consisting of frustration related his

deafness and illness, his families difficulties and his failure to find the love

of his life) was that spark to trigger the genius inside him. He was able to

5
Fiennes, S. (2012), op. cit.
6
Diamond, Stephen A. (1996), Anger, Madness and the Daimonic: The Psychological Genesis of
Violence, Evil and Creativity, (p.287), State University Press, New York.
 9

express, all his repressed anger, all his inner violence into masterpieces of

music.

This aspect of Beethoven was probably the main inspiration for the Trans-

Siberian Orchestra to create a fictional story around this figure. Personally,

I find it quite amazing how the faustian theme of the pact the the Devil

bonded perfectly with the character with the Devil. The line between reality

and fiction is very subtle since, even though the story itself is not true, it is

based on many episodes of the real life of Beethoven which surely affected

his music throughout his life.

The whole story happened during one night which was about to be the

composer’s last night of his life. As he finished writing his Tenth

Symphony7, a beautiful spirit, Fate, and her deformed son, Twist, appear to

inform Beethoven that he was about to leave that world. Later, at the stroke

of midnight, Mephistopheles appears to him and informs the composers that

he came to collect his soul. Then, the messenger of Satan, offers Beethoven

a deal: if he gives all his music, so that Mephistopheles can wipe it from the

memory of man, his soul will not be touched. Then the devil leaves the

room and gives an hour to the composer to decide his destiny.

7
Tenth Symphony: in truth, it is a hypothetical work since it does not exist as a whole, although
fragmentary sketches suggest that Beethoven was actually working on it before he died.
 10

Note that, contrary to the other variations of the Faustian pact, it is the devil

that offers the pact and not the ‘victim’ that requests it. At the end of the

story in fact, when Twist finds an error in the contract signed by the both

parties, Beethoven manages to save both his soul and his music, he actually

realise that he was fooled by Mephistopheles:

“Beethoven stood up in confusion over what it just occurred. He realised

that the girl8 and the symphony were safe from what he had overheard.
But he asked Fate why the Devil had not taken his soul to Hell.”
“He never had your soul”, Fate said, “It was never his to sell”
But the Devil said he owned it, for my sins that he did summarize.
“Well, the Devil may have said that”, Fate replied back, “But my dear, he is the
Devil, he lies!”
“But I was rude and cruel in my life”, Beethoven answered with regret.
“Yes”, Fate replied, “But the Devil left out that those actions were often caused
because you were deaf. And the pains that you caused in life, you worked twice as
hard to endure and those acts of kindness, even more than your music, that my
friend, is you.”9

This piece of narration from the narrated version of the album that was

released in 2012, shows perfectly how clever the Devil can be and the end

of the story, again contrary to some other variations, leaves a sense of hope

8
Mephistopheles later made a second offer to Beethoven where instead of his music he would take
the soul of an innocent girl that was outside the window. Knowing that the soul of that innocent
child will be lost forever, he couldn’t resist any longer and decided to sign the pact.
9
Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Disc 2, Track no.12, A Final Dream Narration, from Beethoven’s Last
Night: The Complete Narrated Version, 2012.
 11

and joy since Beethoven, although he died that same night, managed to save

his soul and left a priceless inheritance of music to the world.

However, during that hour that Beethoven was given to take a decision, we

find a series of self-dialogues which gives us an idea of what was passing

through his mind during that miserable hour. Beethoven, in fact, reviews his

entire life in an attempt to find what he had done so wrong that he deserved

all that was happening to him. He immediately expresses his frustration

caused by his deafness and also his deep disappointment of when Therese

Malfatti refused his proposal to marry him (to which he later dedicated the

Für Elise). Seeing him in such a depressed state, Fate offers him the

possibility to change moments of his past, but he realise that such changes

will affect his music, he refuses her offer.

The love for his creations shows that Beethoven dedicated his life to his

music and when he was forced to sign the pact in order to save the soul of

that innocent girl, he felt so shattered that he actually collapsed on his piano

since he could not believe that he was going to lose all his creations in a

such a cruel way. For the composer, to give all his works to the Devil was

the same as giving his soul away since all the visions and dreams he had in

his life were only expressed in his music. Hence, the fact that nothing of

him will be remember, that not a single thought or a dreamed that might

survive in time, was bringing him to insanity:

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“And what good is a life

that leaves nothing behind.
Not a thought or a dream
that might echo in time.

The years and the hours,

the seconds and minutes
and everything that
my life has placed in it
Betrayed
Betrayed
Betrayed”10

“There has to be another way for me

A way that leads from this insanity
A way that leads from my destruction in this way”11

4 Conclusion

This unique project by the Tran-Siberian Orchestra in my opinion is a great

masterpiece of story-telling. The way that this fictional story is narrated in

rhymes thanks to the wonderful deep voice of narrator Bryan Hicks and

also that of the singer Rob Evan, makes you really feel those scary feelings

and sentiments that were passing through the mind of the protagonist.

Moreover, the heart pounding music and the thrilling light show that make

up the rock opera, give also that touch of juvenile feeling to a story based

on a character that lived about two hundred years ago and that has themes,

such as that of the Faustian pact, that date back till the early 16th century.

10
Trans-Siberian Orchestra, (2012), op. cit, Disc 1, Track no.10, What is Eternal.
11
Trans-Siberian Orchestra, (2012), op. cit, Disc 2, Track no.10, Who is this Child.
 13

The combination that makes up this rock opera between the tale of Faust

and a figure of a great genius of music creates a tale of pure classical music

together with the never-ending struggle between good and evil.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

 Orvieto, P. (2006), Il mito di Faust - L’Uomo, Dio, il Diavolo,

Salerno Editrice, Roma.

 Smeed, J.W. (1975), Faust in Literature, Oxford University Press,

London.

 Black, S.J. & Hyatt C.S., (1993), Pacts with the Devil, The Original
Falcon Press, Arizona.

 Mann, T. (1961), The Story of a Novel: The Genesis of Doctor

Faustus, Knopf, New York.

 Fiennes, S. (2012), Pervert’s Guide to Ideology (starring Slavoj

Žižek), United Kingdom. [Movie]

 Diamond, Stephen A. (1996), Anger, Madness and the Daimonic:

The Psychological Genesis of Violence, Evil and Creativity, State
University Press, New York.

 Trans-Siberian Orchestra, (2012), Beethoven’s Last Night: The

Complete Narrated Version. [CD ALBUM]