Recitation Assignment #1

Bearing in mind the contradictions and tensions of the period, try to figure out why it is that Faust refuses to accept the salvation that he understands is open to him, even at the last minute. Focus on the conversion attempts of the old man (chap. 32), the necessity of a second contract also signed in blood (chap. 33), and Faust's oration to his students (chap. 46). Remember that  the narrator of the Faustbook is a "hostile" witness and that to some extent you have to read against the grain.