The Cartesian Difference

7/29/2019 The Cartesian Difference

1/5

Dolom, Ram Anthonie N.

Prof. C. McEachern/Elisa Harkness

ENGL 10A: English Literature to 1660

3June 2011

The Cartesian Difference: Thinking in Marlowe and Marvell

At the center ofDoctor Faustus and The Garden are characters preoccupied with the

endeavor of thoughtMarlowes eponymous hero is a famed Wittenberg scholar thirsty for even

greater heights of intellectual achievement, while Marvells speaker indulges in a poem-long

meditation on the deep peace one finds in contemplation. Already in the above descriptions one

can tease out points of divergence; there is a self-contained contentment in Marvells speaker

that is absent in the go-getting fervor of Faustus. Between the writing of these texts, Descartes

published hisMeditations, in which is written the immortal sentence Cogito ergo sum or I

think, therefore I am. This constituted a validation of thought, specifically personal thought.I

only exist in as far asIthinkand the core of this self, this I, is that thought process and

nothing else. Therefore Marvells speaker is an avatar of the post-Cogito world, where thought

has been understood as the root of being and the self, while Faustus is stuck in the more

traditional conception of thought as means to an end. This has several implicationsMarvells

speaker finds intrinsic value in thoughts where Faustus does not; the speaker is content with a

contemplative solipsism where Faustus understands thinking as part of a social reality; and the

speakers thoughts are self-sufficient, self-generating units of value where Faustuss thoughts

require external inputs.

Faustus always has to justify his thoughts with the feats they can achieve, where

Marvells speaker is content with aimless contemplation. In his opening soliloquy, which

functions as a manifesto, Faustus repeatedly speaks of ends. He level[s] at the end of every


2/5

Dolom 2

art, discusses logics chiefest end, then decides he hast attained that end, speculates about

the end of physic, and then decides he has not attained that end (i.4; i.8; i.10; i.17; i.18).

Thought, inDoctor Faustus, is emphatically not its own reward but a mere stepping stone to

other planes of achievement, to an external end. Marvells speaker meanwhile is happy in the

pointlessness of his thoughts, which never accomplish anything except for a sense of inner

equilibriumMeanwhile the mind, from pleasure less, / Withdraws into its happiness (41-2).

This inward turn is articulated in a complex reflexive. The mind is turning into itself, in the

process finding a happiness that, as far as the grammatical construction lets on, is the same as

finding itself. There is a process of self-discovery in The Garden that is simultaneously self-

actualizing and pleasing. Or perhaps it is pleasing because it is self-actualizing. Marvells

speaker is a Cartesian in the sense that, for him, mind existing (which is equated with mind

happy) is a byproduct of mind thinking. This complex structure of self-justifying thought is

entirely alien to Faustus, who depends on external structures of justification to validate a life of

thinking and mental exercise.

It follows that Faustuss concept of intellectual success involves dominion over external

reality, where Marvells speaker is quite happy to be ineffectual with or even dismissive of

everything external to the mind. Faustuss ambitions are very clear; he announces his modus

operandi: try thy brains to gain a deity (i.63). He abjures what he deems are the lesser

intellectual disciplines of philosophy, law, medicine and divinity settling instead for magic

because it lets him live in all voluptuousness (iii.92). Magic is therefore a medium by which

mental activity is indirectly translated into material success. Marvells speaker rejects such a

materialistic validation of thinking. In the lines Stumbling on melons, as I pass, / Ensnared with

flowers, I fall on grass (39-40), he shows a detached acceptance of material failure, a resigned

disregard of the corporeal and its limitations. It is after all during these mishaps


3/5

Dolom 3

(Meanwhile) that the mind does the inward turn quoted in the preceding paragraph. The

Cartesian model insists that the mind is the only sure reality; therefore anyone informed by this

logic could take a posture of indifference with the material. Marvells speaker even begins with

an excoriation of the materialist perspective: How vainly men themselves amaze, / To win the

palm, the oak, or bays (1-2). The various mentioned flora represent material success, the chase

after which he declares vain. This value judgment, juxtaposed with Marlowes tragedy, becomes

a direct rebuke of Faustuss desire for a world of profit and delight, / of power, of honor, of

omnipotence (i.53-4).

Also, Faustuss thoughts are entirely social, while there is an ascetic solitude to the

speaker of The Garden. Faustus often allows other characters a say in his thoughts; the two

angels and Mephistopheles accompany most of his deliberations. Of Cornelius and Valdes, he

requests: make me blest with your sage conference (i.99). At every turn, he accommodates

others into his thought processes. Also, his fantasies are social: his first wish of Mephistopheles

is a wife, the fairest maid in Germany (v.139); and of the five conditions he demands in

exchange for his soul (v.96-110), four yoke Mephistopheles to his whims. These display a desire

for companions, his wishes functioning like insurances against solitude. Meanwhile, Marvells

speaker fully embraces the singular of that Cartesian I think, which insists on that I as the

only certain reality. The entire third stanza is an admonition of Fond lovers, cruel as their flame

(19). The speaker attacks the validity of human relationships by criticizing Love, one of the most

celebrated (especially in poetry) ties that bind people to one another. Society is all but rude, / To

this delicious solitude (15-16). He takes this sentiment to its logical conclusion by

romanticizing the happy garden-state, / While man there walked without a mate (57-58). That

Eden before Eve, a setup of literal solitude, is where a man was free to pursue unhindered

contemplation of the pure and sweet (59). In Descartes, minds are alone because minds can


4/5

Dolom 4

only think alone, the certainty of being therefore always in the singular; in Marvell, the causality

goes both ways, solitude is a byproduct of thought and thought is a byproduct of solitude.

Furthermore, Faustus is dependent on outside sources for intellectual grist. Apart from

the characters that abet Faustuss thinking, there are also a host of texts. Faustus declares:

necromantic books are heavenly (i.50). On his first appearance, the Good Angel implores: O

Faustus, lay that damned book aside (i.70). Valdes supplies him with: Bacons and Abanus

works, / The Hebrew Psalter, and New Testament (i.154-5). Mephistopheles, immediately after

giving Faustus a wife, grants him four books (v.156-74). There is a textuality in Faustus that

strongly suggests his thoughts cannot generate themselves. They need external catalysts. The

recipe for success, according to Valdes, is as follows: these books, thy wit, and our experience

(i.119). Faustuss wit, his intellect, is only useful so far as the other two accompanies it. Lucifer

later grants him a last grimoire: take this book; peruse it thoroughly, and thou shalt (v.335).

The offer is articulated in a series of imperatives that should obviously appeal to Faustus. Books

not only help him generate his thoughts, they also help generate the effects he desires.

Marvells speaker is, however, entirely self-sufficient, championing the minds

independent primacy and power:

The mind, that ocean where each kind

Does straight its own resemblance find,

Yet it creates, transcending these,

Far other worlds, and other seas,

Annihilating all thats made. (43-47)

These lines come after that inward withdrawal previously discussed, making clear the minds

solipsistic creativity and indeed destructiveness. By asserting the minds ability to contain each

kind (each likeness on the earth) and create far other worlds, and other seas, the speaker is


5/5

Dolom 5

making a case for mind as God. The mind, in Marvell, is a wellspring of unbridled creative

power that can transcend the limits of material reality. And that turn from creation to destruction

(Annihilating all thats made) reflects a capacity for apocalypse that could also be construed as

divine. Descartes, by asserting that the mind contains every thought, every single sense

perception, belief, imaginative conceit, etc., subsumes the material into that internal process of

Cogito, of I think. Marvells speaker therefore is distended into divine proportions, his mind

a self-sufficient creative (and destructive) force that rivals God, where Faustus is left poring over

books, hoping they would impart some vim and vigor to his pre-Cartesian mind.

Whatever the avenues of influence from Descartes to Marvell (and it may well simply be

convergent ideation), it stands that certain strands of thought in the poets work strongly echo the

ideas of the philosopher. Of course, Marvell is not a full Cartesian (for example, the reality of the

garden is never questioned, where Cartesian dualism would have), but his speaker is empowered

and justified by a conception of thinking as the font of certainty and identity. This allows him a

more tranquil enjoyment of contemplation; Marvells speaker is essentially a creature of repose

(8), and Fair Quiet (9), where Faustus literally spends himself chasing after external rationales

for the life of his mind. The conception of the two characters are separated by about half a

century, which saw the development of a set of ideas that allowed for the thinking life, formerly

one that tended toward tragedy, to be one of meaning and happiness.

Documents

The Cartesian Difference