A Study On The Theme Of Walpurgis Night In Faust,the Magic Mountain And The Master And Margarita

Walpurgis Night originated from a German religious legend,describes the scene of witches and devils' night.It's the term generally applied to a great convention of witches and devils taking place in Blocksberg on the eve night of May 1st every year.In origin,it's related to the ancient custom,specifically,sacrifice rite at night of English aboriginal religion called Druidism.Walpurgis Night had been demonised by Christian world.As a product of pagan ritual,it has a prototype nature.It is the eternal wealth beyond time and space,constantly attracted writers in different dynasties to inherit and re-create,which made it grow up to be a literary theme.Walpurgis Night is full of magical color.It is a devil's carnival night in plot.Its spiritual essence is the release of instinctive desire,the original power from life or nature,and something that is bound or forbidden by rational order.Goethe's Faust,Thomas mann's The Magic Mountain,Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita,had adopted the theme.The three works not only injected vitality into Walpurgis Night,but also made it become the literary expression of thinking rationality and irrationality.Proceeding from the thematology of comparative literature,the thesis is based on the influence of Faust or Goethe on the creation of Thomas Mann and Bulgakov,as well as the dialogism among Faust,The Magic Mountain and The Master and Margarita.On the one hand,this thesis systematically combs the inheritance and transformation of Walpurgis Night in three works.On the other hand,it explores the profound thoughts about rationality and irrationality presented on this subject.The essay is composed of three parts.In the first part,I have inspected the theme of Walpurgis Night in Faust.By analyzing a sexual dream of Faust,ugliness of ancient Greek image,and pursuit for primitive vitality,the paper shows that Goethe had emphasized on the primitive part between human and nature based on the theme,that are humanity desire,natural primitive image and primitive power of life.With the identity on these irrational elements,Goethe depicted Faust as the being with sensibility and rationality by describing insatiable upward movement of him.In Goethe's opinion,Faust couldn't get rid of natural desire and also had the free willpower to experience.Such duality was the embodiment of Goethe's personality and also a kind of transcendent exploration after experiencing limitation of pure rationalism.As the pursuer for primitive vitality and rational spirit,Goethe kept a watchful eye on irrational power,such as desire,emotion,etc,and also looked forward to “rational kingdom”.In this way,he constructed the high-level rationality including irrationality and realized harmonious unification of irrationality under the rational constraint.In the second part,I focus on The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann and have found that “Walpurgis Night” for devils' night was expanded to the mortal world to construct an unconventional world of carnivalism.Facing to the decline of traditional rationalism from the end of 19 th century to the early 20 th century,Thomas Mann changed the protagonist into a mutineer,who not only said goodbye to the rational representative of enlightenment and praised the flesh,but also released desire for love and embraced the symbol of the east.By virtue of such a romantic mode with irrational elements,Thomas Mann fulfilled a reflection on enlightenment that measured everything by rational standards,and also expressed closeness of eastern irrational color in ideology,so as to echo sadness for “decline in the western” and irrationalism spreading to Europe.In the third part,I concentrate on The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov and discuss the insane fantasy presented in “Walpurgis Night”.Lived in Soviet Russia with reform times,Bulgakov was an isolated “wolf of literature”.Restrained by the realistic world,he had to turn to fantasy.He found a way out in the tradition represented by Gogol,compiled mysticism into realistic context.On the basis of continuing the traditional elements of “Walpurgis Night”,Bulgakov added Nemesis and Devil as the judge,and let the characters take revenge on the real world instead of him.He also dispelled the vulgar rationality of losing belief and pursuing material in real life with humor.At the same time,Bulgakov shaped an eternal woman with the halo of Goodness and endowed her with the rescue function.By doing this,Bulgakov wanted to express his good wish of “Mariolatry” and “saving the world,which conveyed irrational beliefs from the Eastern Orthodox tradition.On the theme of “Walpurgis Night”,Goethe,Thomas Mann and Bukgakov reflected on rational and irrational issues.They had seen the one dimensional thinking on the value norms of their times,and wanted to call out values that were ignored by the world.Such reflections were their common pursuit for immortal world in limited lives.This not only can reveal a kind of rational thinking and critical reflection,but also embody the desire to transcend finite life and their pursuit for the eternal mode of existence.