Abstract:
This dissertation aims to show how an author like Howard Philips Lovecraft, who can certainly be defined as belonging to the trend of gothic and weird tales, inserts the Faustian figure in his works.
First, this work will analyze when and how gothic literature was born in Europe and how the Faustian figure came to life; tracing the origin of the Faustian myth and seeing its development over the years, culminating in Goethe’s masterpiece. Secondly, the dissertation will follow how this figure developed in America through the works of some authors (with a particular focus on Nathaniel Hawthorne and William Faulkner). Later, it will discuss this character in four stories by H. P. Lovecraft that were selected for my dissertation: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, The Call of Cthulhu, Pickman’s Mode, and From Beyond. Lovecraft creates a new Faust, a figure that is a savior but is condemned to live in a hell on earth, pursued by his sin. In my dissertation I will answer these questions: how can he escape the powerful force of knowledge of the “unknown”? What is the powerful force that saves one of the Faust figures in the four stories? The man is always saved by his fear and, at the same time, condemned by it.
