mephistopheles

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Looks at the concept of the devil from the Reformation to the present, discusses the witch craze, and considers the representation of the devil in literature, art, and music

Reproduction of the original: Miss Mephistopheles by Fergus Hume

DescriptionThis is a play about the entry into Hell, about the agony that has no relief, about the distress that cannot be soothed, about the pain that will never be cured... It is set in the aloofness of a Cambridge college, during the turbulence of the 1960's... A new undergraduate, Ayub Peters, finds that he is going all too rapidly mad in the environment of cold Cambridge snobbery. Demons are everywhere, damnation emerges in each encounter, and his strange and shadowy college tutor, Mister Mephistopheles, orchestrates the student's descent into psychosis and suicide... But perhaps Cambridge actually is a nest of devils, and, through his so- called 'schizophrenia', Ayub Peters is discovering the real cruel dark core of this seemingly glittering university... Let us participate in insanity, and seem to find there...truth... About the AuthorZekria Ibrahimi (born in 1959) is defined by his schizophrenia. It first hit him long ago, in his late teens. He is fifty years old now, grey and frail, almost a pensioner, with all the aches and injuries of age, and he does not always want to remember how, as an adolescent in the late 1970's, he suddenly became afraid of everything surrounding him, and, worst of all, of himself. He would run around the countryside and knock at the doors of strangers because he feared the apocalypse was pursuing him ... He would pick up rubbish outside in alleys and streets and hoard it in his not very palatial lodgings ... He was always wandering away from home, searching for ... what would never be found again ... the straight route, the level way ... He was a tramp, freezing during the nights in public toilets where he had various unsavoury insects as company on the cold concrete ... There were years of pain when his schizophrenia became almost his only companion- albeit a sadistic one, punishing him even as he hugged it. Perhaps, to echo both R. D. Laing and Emily Dickinson, it is the entire globe, it is general society, that is truly insane. Schizophrenics simply burrow all too deeply under the surface. They reach the very core of the savage reality in us all. Most varnish over the anarchic truth within through the superficial sham paraded as 'civilization'. Schizophrenics prefer to be uncomfortably honest barbarians. For the accident- prone Zekria, the System is all callousness, and no cure. Eventually, after much psychotic shouting on Hammersmith Broadway, the hapless Zekria was confined at the Charing Cross unit in the West London Mental Health Trust. Following the unsafe unstable freedom of his schizophrenia, came the restrictions of Section 3. He would not have survived without the multi- racial compassion of the individual doctors and nurses in Charing Cross. Yet the overall SYSTEM remains an ogre of rules and restraints, and the INSTITUTION of psychiatry can be as cold and vicious as in the days of lobotomy and insulin shock. Now he is elderly, but still he muses about being locked up, drugged up, about how, with schizophrenia, the treatment can be worse than the disease...

“A Modern Mephistopheles” was one of the best novels in that remarkable collection of American fiction known as the 'No Name' series. Miss Alcott's name has long been associated with it, because she never made any special effort to conceal the authorship. It is in many respects her most noteworthy effort, and by it her qualities as a writer may safely be judged. The novel is distinctly poetical in motive and the imaginative power displayed in the working out of the plot is to be classed with that of the creative artists of literature. Three souls—nay, four—are here unveiled to us, and while all are brought into bold relief, the true strength of the book undoubtedly lies in the portrayal of Gladys, who is a genuine woman of a fresh and original type. Helwyze is, of course, frankly impossible, and Canaris is only probable, while Olivia is a picturesque foil; but in Gladys there is no incredible or superfluous trait: she is thoroughly and deliciously feminine. The moral lesson is not to be ignored. Like the evil genius of Faust, Helwyze sought to work evil, but the forces that made for righteousness were against him and he was defeated in the very hour of his triumph. It is the recognition of the higher law controlling human deeds that gives “A Modern Mephistopheles” its hold upon popular esteem.

This chilling tale of lust, deception and greed, first published anonymously in 1877, allowed Alcott the chance to exercise "the lurid style" she believed was her "natural ambition". A novel of psychological complexity that touches on the controversial subjects of sexuality and drug use, A Modern Mephistopheles is a penetrating and powerful study of human evil and its appalling consequences.

Let’s say you’re the devil, and you want to corrupt the American republic. How would you go about it? According to David Hyman, you might create something like Medicare, the federal health care program for the elderly. Hyman submits that Medicare may be the greatest trick the devil ever played. Medicare feeds on the avarice of doctors and other providers, turns seniors into health care gluttons, and makes regions of the United States green with envy over the dollars showered on other regions. The program exploits the sloth of government officials to increase the tax burden on workers and drag down the quality of care for seniors. Medicare makes Democrats lust for socialized medicine, while its imperviousness to reform makes Republicans angrier and angrier. Most of all, Medicare allows its ideological supporters to bleat and preen their way to the heights of moral vanity. In the style of C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters, Hyman writes that Medicare has “freed the self-interest of these mortals from its natural restraints. As a result, the seven deadly sins have blossomed.” With epic political battles over Medicare and the future of limited government looming just over the horizon, Hyman uses satire to cast a critical eye on this mediocre government program.

Marty liked Yvonne...at first. When he saved her from the boys taunting her and calling her a witch, he thought maybe they could be friends. Yvonne thought so too... until she saw him, later that night, kissing someone else. Then all hell, literally, broke loose. The Eye of Mephistopheles is an action-packed tale of witchcraft set in modern-day New York City. Author Dr. Tyrone L. Bennett has created believable characters who find themselves at the hands of the evil Yvonne. Based on a true story, this tale will have you turning pages in anticipation until the thrilling climax. A modern tale of terror, The Eye of Mephistopheles will mesmerize its readers.

An Opera Score composed by Arrigo Boito.

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