Helen of Troy

Demoniality, bodily intercourse with spirits, is the ultimate sin.

Was THIS the FACE that LAUNCHED a THOUsand SHIPS, And BURNT the TOPless TOWers OF IliUM-Sweet HELen, MAKE me IMMortal WITH a KISS.- [Kisses her.] Her LIPS suck FORTH my SOUL: see, WHERE it FLIES!-Come, HELen, COME, give ME my SOUL again. Here WILL I DWELL, for HEAVEN is IN these LIPS, And ALL is DROSS that IS not HELenA. I WILL be PARis, AND for LOVE of THEE, InSTEAD of TROY, shall WITTenBERG be SACKED; And I will COMbat WITH weak MENeLAUS, And WEAR thy COLours ON my PLUmed CREST; Yea, I will WOUND AcHILLes IN the HEEL, And THEN reTURN to HELen FOR a KISS. O, THOU art FAIRer THAN the EVEning AIR Clad IN the BEAUty OF a THOUsand STARS; BrighTER art THOU than FLAming JUPiTER When HE apPEAred TO hapLESS semELE; More LOVEly THAN the MONarch OF the SKY In WANton AreTHUsas AZUred ARMS; And NONE but THOU shalt BE my PARaMOUR!

 On one level she is a distraction from thoughts of repentance Like Alexander, she is a spirit Faustus warned the scholars to Be silent then, for danger is in words (5.1.24), but he fails to follow his own advice, uttering the famous speech of admiration, kissing her and then leaving the stage with her.

 Representation of beauty Beauty carries destruction with it Whether voluntarily or not, she set in motion a horrific war that lasted for 10 years Faustus would have known that bodily intercourse with a spirit was an unpardonable offence; perhaps this is his motivation for asking for Helen as his paramour, to put himself out of reach of the temptation to repent

Destruction
All of the images in the speech are images of destruction Thousand ships-Greek warships, launched to defend Troy The topless towers of Ilium-burned Faustus speaks of sacking Wittenburg, as the Greeks sacked Troy He refers to Archilles being killed when wounded in his heel Semele was destroyed when she looked on Jupiter, his divine splendour was too much for her mortal eyes (another over-reacher or forward wit who insisted on looking on her divine lover) The nymph Arethusa- excited the river gods passion whilst bathing, she was dissolved into water to protect her from him

 Faustus does not just want a vision , he wants a woman to whom he can make love. She is still merely an illusion, prepared by the forces of Hell His longing is not ethereal but physical To possess her will glut the longings of his hearts desire, that her sweet embracings will extinguish the thoughts of repentance that keep haunting him. Stop the psychomachia and the torment of the battle between good and evil for his soul Suicide would have the same result-but this scene provides a haunting evocation of his damnation and her beauty His language reminds us of the his request for Lucifer to let him live in all voluptuousness, kiss briefly deludes him that he will have a future in which he will relive the past.

 Language is soaring, awe struck and lyrical His poignant ode to her beauty is far more memorable than the didactic and staid warnings of the chorus ( and anything else in the play) We are given no physical description of her beauty, rather we are provided with images of death and sacrifice made in the name of this beauty Faustus imagines himself as Paris, vainly battling for the woman he loves, reminding the audience that he is putting himself beyond salvation

 His use of words and imagery reveal that Faustus is dwelling on the certainty of his peril. The succubuss lips really do suck forth his soul, but he seems to delude himself that he can get it back Her lips are the only heaven he will know His imagery is a reminder of the destructive power of beauty

Manifestation of Demonic Powers

The pageant of the seven deadly sins Travels in the fiery chariot drawn by dragons Horns of the Knights head Alexander the Great and his paramour Helen of Troy We see numerous devils Watch the effects of demonic intervention when the Old Man is menaced (5.1.113-118) and Faustus is physically prevented from repenting ( 5.2.27-30; 5.2.69)

 She is part of the doubt-persuasion-resolvegains cycle of the text.

So whats Gothic?
Necromancy (Like Alexander the Great) Shape shifting Language Torment without end The villain hero Sex/beauty and destruction The pursuit of a paramour (virginal/pure) Succubus The supernatural Devilry Damnation

THE ROLE OF WOMEN WITHIN THE GOTHIC