Doctor Faustus (Mann) Summary
Thomas Mann

Doctor Faustus Summary

In Doctor Faustus, a composer tries to overcome the merely imitative and parodistic quality of his creations by immersing himself in a primitive irrationalism out of which he hopes to shape works of demonic beauty. He finally achieves true creativity, but only in the expression of his own despair about the destruction which his creativity has brought upon himself and upon those around him.

This modern artist's satanic experiment with the dehumanization of art is closely tied to the culture of his country through a network of historical and symbolic connotations which lead most directly to the age of Faust and Luther.

In its conscious break with the forces of European humanism, Luther's Reformation represented for Mann Germany's first programmatic contribution to a tradition that continues to pride itself on its scorn for the civilizing agents in life and society.

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