Hi! I wanted to share this very nerdy literary podcast I collaborated on with my classmate Magda for our final project in our Victorian literature class.

In a less MLA-formatted summary: men in the nineteenth century were on a power trip (what’s changed), women suffered under male fantasy (what’s changed), and Tom Hansen from 500 Days of Summer was the villain and if you disagree, we cannot date.

Below is the more professional synopsis we submitted to our professor:

Join us (Magdalene Criswell and Gressa Cedergren) as we explore the terrain of late eighteenth-century misogyny through the lens of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust, Part I. This episode considers the work as both a bridge between Enlightenment thought and emerging Romantic ideals, as well as a reflection of shifting gender politics and cultural attitudes toward women.

Our discussion centers on Gretchen, the character in Faust who arguably endures the most suffering and gains the least. Through close reading and textual analysis, we examine the contradictions of her storyline and what it reveals about Goethe and the treatment of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century women. We consider Gretchen as a potential Job-like figure, whose moral trials form the emotional core of the play. We also explore questions of authorial intent, drawing on Goethe’s documented engagement with real infanticide trials and how these experiences complicate his portrayal of Gretchen.