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Ain Shams University

Faculty of Arts

Department of English Language and Literature

A Comparative Study of Goethe's Faust and Tawfiq Al Hakim's the Martyr, and Two
Other Plays: A Reader Response Critique

An M A Thesis Proposal

Submitted to:

The Department of English Language and Literature

Faculty of Arts

Ain Shams University

IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMNTS FOR THE DEGREE OF

MASTER OF ATS

[ENGLISH LITERATURE]

By:

Islam Muhammad Hassan

Under the Supervision of:

Professor Iman El-Bakary

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Table of contents:

Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………………………3

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………….……3

About the Texts…………………………………………………………………………………….…..6

Aim……………………………………………………………………………………………………..….…8

Methodology……………………………………………………………………………………...…….9

Literature Review………………………………………………………………………………….…..9

Research Questions……………………………………………………………………………….…12

Tentative Chapterization………………………………………………………………………….13

Works Cited…………………………………………………………………………………………….15
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Abstract

This paper postulates a comparison between Goethe's Faust, Tawfiq Al Hakim's

Satan the Martyr, Christopher Marlowe's Dr.Faustus, and George Bernard Shaw's
Man and Super Man from a reader response approach. The research attends to
provide insight into the mentioned texts as examples of the concept of superman. It
seeks an answer to an essential question which is "how far do these texts celebrate or
'?condemn the cultures of their ages and societies

:Introduction

Tawfiq Al Hakim states that man sometimes feels nostalgic towards some other, more
superior being. He maintains that religion does not necessarily represent this idea and,
as a result, man awaits a miracle that may bring this idea to fruition but within a
scientific framework. According to Al Hakim the concern about spaceships, people's
hope that these spacecrafts deliver a message from a better world and more superior
beings is just an expression that calms the feelings that have become dry after the
drought of religious resources. This emphasizes the relation between Al Hakim's text
.and Nietzsche's concept of the superman

William M. Salter (American lecturer and author) asserts:" The superman is nothing
but the crystallization of the thought that man can develop beyond the present stage of
his existence". (Nietzsche's superman p.423)

He continues:

"There has never been yet a superman". He says that

Great men such as Ceaser, Da Vinci, Goethe, Napoleon, and Bismarck have some
qualities of the superman but they fail to achieve it somehow. (p.423)

He claims" they were men of power, took great and fearful responsibilities, but were
spoiled by some defects". (p. 423)

Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy is an account of the psychological motives behind

the creation of the Greek drama. It is an attempt to understand human creativity as a
whole.
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Al Hakim, on the other hand, confirms that man is a spiritually and materialistically
balanced creature. He asserts that it is important for humanity to return to the
condition of equilibrium between the intellect and emotion, between logic and belief,
and between man and his creator.

All these draw a relationship between Al Hakim and Nietzsche's philosophies, in the
sense that both are attempts to a deep understanding of the human psyche. All these
elements highlight a relationship between Al Hakim and Nietzsche's philosophies in
the sense that both are attempts at a deep understanding of the human psyche.

Moving to Goethe, it has been commonplace to discuss his contribution to a complete

version of the superman concept. Moreover, it is acknowledged that he has a great
influence on Nietzsche, who according to some critics portrays a distorted version of
the superman.

In his The Superman in Nietzsche's Philosophy and Goethe's Faust, Schuylus Dean
Hoslett, confirms that:

The idea of superman did not originate with Goethe nor did it reach completion in
the philosophy of Nietzsche. Certain interpretations appeared in Greek mythology,
in Marlowe's Tamburlaine, in Don Quixote, in Milton's Paradise Lost. Carlyle,
Ruskin, and Ibsen have been supporters of the superman, but more than any other
man of letters, Goethe approached the completely developed type. There is a
reason to believe that Nietzsche was a student of Goethe and that his conception of
Ubermensch was an outgrowth of Goethe's. The position of pupil to teacher is as
clear between Goethe and Nietzsche as it is between Luther and Goethe. In some
respects Nietzsche's was a distorted concept. (p.294)

In his Aesthetic Life and Tragic Insight in Nietzsche's Use of Goethe, Paul
Bishop says:

"Nietzsche develops a critical, but appreciative, set of responses to Goethe

particularly Faust" (p.57)

Thus, Tawfiq Al Hakim is influenced by Goethe's Faust as manifested in many of his

works such as The Devil's Pact and The Woman who Defeated the Devil. The study
will try to prove that both Goethe and Al Hakim discuss the binary opposition
between good and evil in their works. These draw a relationship between both works
included in the study.

Leary Dantol ( a researcher in Canisius college) in her George Bernard Shaw and the
Übermensch states that:

"Shaw believed that the Superman is being over clear and definite will."

She continues that

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Shaw shared with Nietzsche the belief that greatness had little or no moral sense. The
Superman might be more determined, more valiant but not necessarily more unselfish,
more compassionate than ordinary man. Moreover, the Superman because of his
superior qualities could demand to rule over all other men. (George Bernard…. P.5)

The writer affirms:

Don Joanne the philosophic man notes that because of a desire for romantic delights
those who cannot assume responsibilities well die because they seek not the service of
life but their own willful pleasure.(p.86)

In his Shaw's Superman a Re-examination Carl Henry Mills acknowledges that:

"Shaw had two long range of goals in mind. The development of superior human
intelligence and the eugenic breeding of a super race of Supermen". (p.48)

Furthermore, Mills confirms that: "Shaw expressed his admiration for Nietzsche.
Shaw defines himself as an English or an Irish Nietzsche".(p.49)

The writer elaborates that Shaw says

“You must be prepared to talk about Nietzsche or else retire from especially
aristocratically minded society.” (p.50)

Mills states:

So far Shaw is on a common ground with Nietzsche there are few similarities
between Nietzsche’s Superman and Shaw’s Superman. Nietzsche says that
man will be as an ape to Superman a laughing stock a thing of shame. Shaw so
often used a similar analogy to compare men to Superman.(p.50)

The writer continues

"Shaw heroes constantly attack hedonism and Epicureanism because he believed that
to secure the freedom to do the superman's work the pleasure instincts must be
subdued Nietzsche too attacked hedonism and Epicreonism"(p.50)

All of these features illustrate the link between Nietzsche, Goethe, Shaw, and Al-
Hakim. This makes it possible to study their works together.

Marlowe’s tragedies are one man tragedies. The heroes of his plays are towering
personalities who dwarf all other characters in the play.

A typical Marlovian hero is as ‘over-reacher’. He aims at the superhuman or the

impossible. In the process of achieving the Renaissance ideals “greater power,
prestige, wealth and knowledge” he ruins himself.

There are two ways of looking at Doctor Faustus. We can view it as a Christian play
in the Morality tradition or as a play glorifying the Renaissance concept of the
‘superman’.
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About the texts:

In her Why is the Collection of Short Stories Show me Allah important? Amira
Shehata writes in Alyoum Al Sabeaa newspaper:

This is how Tawfiq Al-Hakim opens his own gateway into more thorny areas.
This time he does not put the expected end to the story. This has led to a bitter
controversy. Satan the Martyr is regarded as an idea that does not usually
come to our minds. The story asks the question "what if Satan wanted truly to
repent one day". Here the author creates an encounter, in his own way,
between Satan and the leaders of the three divine religions, then a dialogue
between Satan and the arch angel Gabriel. This dialogue will attract the
reader's attention and he will re-read it several times. The reader will be
astonished and will have a lot of questions. Some readers will support the text
but other readers will object. This encounter will obsess the reader's thinking
regardless of his response. The story stimulates the reader's thought and
feelings. (Why….)

This study seeks to explain why the text has preoccupied the researcher's
thought. Furthermore, It attempts to analyze the reasons that impulse other
readers to oppose the story. This quotation highlights the relationship between
the text and reader-response theory.

Faud Abd Al Muttalib states “Marlowe’s Dr Faustus reveals the ambitious

spirit of man in a timeless setting” ( Faud Abd Muttalib, English Renaissance
Tragedy: Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy and Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus in
Perspective P14).

He confirms:

In Marlowe’s play, Faustus is portrayed as a typical Renaissance

figure. He is an explorer, adventurer, and superhuman aspiring for
secular extraordinary power, wealth, and eminence. (English
Renaissance…, p.16)

He emphasizes:

Dr Faustus has been well termed the spiritual autobiography of the age. The
play combines the features of a medieval morality play with the sense of spiritual
doubt which is regarded as the core idea of modernity. (English Renaissance…, p.16)
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In her Marlowe Presents the Greed of a Renaissance Man in Dr. Faustus Dr.
Muna Shrestha (Associate Professor, Tribhuvan University) asserts that:

Dr.Faustus is Marlowe's most performed and most critically discussed play.

Moreover, she claims that:

It is the first great tragedy written in the history of English literature.

In her Renaissance Desire and Disobedience, Alexandre Da Silva Maia (a

researcher at McGill university, Montreal) regards Dr. Faustus as an ambitious
overreacher who claims to exceed the human limitations. (Renaissance…P.5)

R. G.A. Lamb (a researcher in the university of Ottowa) in The Overreacher

in Jonson and Marlowe regards Dr. Faustus as " a Renaissance challenger of
mortal limitations who surrenders even his soul in the quest for knowledge.". (
The overreacher…P.164)

The concept of the Renaissance man emphasizes man's individuality and his
potentials. The concept is tightly related to the Elizabethan tragedies in general
and to Marlowe's Dr.Faustus in particular. The protagonist, Dr.Faustus, is
independent. He seeks ultimate power through knowledge. This reminds the
reader of Nietzsche's will to power. Dr. Faustus is regarded as an overreaching
protagonist with unlimited aspirations. The play portrays the capacities and
capabilities of a Renaissance individual to gain ultimate power. Dr. Faustus
and his pact with the devil bring into light the relationship between the play
and Nietzsche's claim that God is dead.

Ra'ad Kareem Abd Aun asserts that:

The Faust legend is a folk legend that inspired generations of writers in

Europe. Marlowe and Goethe are two of the most prominent writers
who employed it. (The Puritan Ethic in Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus and
Goethe’s Faust p.1)

He argues:

"Marlowe is inspired by an English prose translation of the German legend. Marlowe

is the first one to invent the Faust legend with tragic dignity." (p.2)

He continues:

Dr.Faustus is the tragedy of a typical Renaissance man. He is an explorer like

a superman craving for extraordinary power, wealth, enjoyment and worldly
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eminence. The play opens with Faustus who wishes to 'gain a diety". He states
half-truths as the basis of his situation. (p.3)

This relates the play to the Nietzschean concept of the superman. As

mentioned in this paper, There are many historical characters who are
regarded as approximations of the superman but with some defects. Dr.
Faustus is a superman because he gains ultimate power through magic but his
defect is that he does not admit the complete truth.

Mamun Illyas acknowledges that

Marlowe 's characters have an excessive desire for power, whether it is

knowledge as power in Dr.Faustus, world conquest in Tambrlaine, or
revenge and the acquisition of riches in The Jew of Malta.( DOCTOR
FAUSTUS AS A TRAGEDY OF AN OVERREACHER p.3)

He demonstrates:

The over reacher is a literary prototype that can be traced back to

mythology. It involves a man who wants to overcome the limits
imposed by God or nature on mankind. He is led by his over ambition
to challenge God and natural laws as a result he is punished with death.
Prometheus is argued to be the first over reacher. Dante's Ulysses and
Shakespeare's Macbeth are two famous examples of the over reacher.
In fact Marlowe's Dr. Faustus can be considered an over reacher.(p.4)

In her Faust in Context: A Comparative Examination of the Fates of Marlowe's and

Goethe's Faust Characters", Kristin Abel argues:

Goethe's motivations for writing Faust over a sixty-year span were complex
and grew even more complex as the decades progressed. The original
motivation to write a play about the Faust legend was likely nationalism. He
sought to remind the German people of the German myth. (Faust in context …
P.4)

She confirms:

There are significant similarities and differences between the two Faust plays.
The most striking similarity between them is that both of the protagonists are
possessed by curiosity, a burning desire to learn nature's secrets. Each
character is frustrated by the limited scope of knowledge available to him.
(p.25)

She states:

It is known that Goethe has been familiar with Marlowe's version of the play,
having commented on it in 1829, "how great! It is all well planned". But it is
not known at what point in time he has read it.(p.25)
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She emphasizes:

Goethe has tackled many of Marlowe's topics, but in much greater

detail and depth. Goethe has added elements that have been of
particular interest to him, such as the Gretchen storyline, in order to
embellish the text. Each one of the playwrights portrays the common
topics in a different way. This reflects the difference between both
authors as artists; furthermore, it shows the differences between the
ages and the circumstances under which each of them has lived. (p.27)

Gottfried F. Merkel illustrates:

There are two groups of critics who attempt to approach Faust.

The First group, is represented by critics such as J. Volkeit, R.
Petsch and E. Kuhemann. They are German critics. They
always regard Faust as a superman, a Titan who always
acquires power. He is a man who disregards all human
limitations. He exceeds the limits of good and evil, still, he has
to reach a state of human perfection so that heaven can claim
him. (Goethe’s Faust Man or Superman p.11)

In contrast, the second group of critics includes critics from

outside Germany, such as W. Pfeiler and E. Barthel. They have
never regarded Faust as a superman, but rather as a man who
strives for human perfection. Yet they claim that
Mephistopheles is the real Superman. Goethe’s Faust: Man or
Superman (p. 11)

The author elaborates:

They claim that Faust represents the true not the ideal
humanity. They claim that Faust develops morally throughout
the play until he reaches the peak of humanity. (p.11)

This is applicable to Al-Hakim’s The Martyr in the sense that

there are many characters that can be regarded as supermen,
such as Satan, The Pope of Rome, and the Rabbi. Each one of
them can represent a different Superman. The author represents
different supermen of different thinkers and then contributes his
own perception of the concept.

Carl H. Mills demonstrates:

Shaw is influenced by the theory of evolution; in response, he has contributed

his theory of creative evolution, which seeks the development of humanity and
the eventual eugenic breeding of superman and the super race. Nonetheless,
Shaw has never given a clear description of his superhero. In Man and
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Superman, the Shavian superman is embodied in the character of Don Juan,

yet the Shavian perception of the superman is frequently misinterpreted. (The
Intellectual and Literal Background of George Bernard Shaw’s Man and
Superman, P.92)

The writer acknowledges:

Shaw has taken the legend of Don Juan in its Mozartian form and transformed it into a play
that tackles creative evolution. Shaw transforms the legendary Don Juan into a superhero.
He uses Moliere's satiric technique and Mozart’s operatic style to sing the philosophy of
Goethe and Shaw’s creative evolution. (p.134)

Ala Hussien Oda states:

Shaw employs the concept of “superman” in his play as the English equivalent
of the Nietzschean term “Ubermensch”, in order to show the similarity
between himself and Nietzsche. The play embodies the concept of
evolutionary development and uses the concept of “superman” in order to
create a super race. The play tackles the question of how this higher human
race can be eugenically created. The play can be regarded as a love comedy
between man, as a thinker, and woman, as a pursuer. Man should sacrifice his
individuality for the sake of the life force. ( Ala Hussien Oda, Characters
appraisement in George Bernard Shaw’s Man and Superman, p.57)

Furthermore, Oda reveals:

The play highlights the conflict between those who support the theory of
Creative Evolution by advocating the new, the different, the difficult, and the
unconventional on the one hand and those who oppose the Creative Evolution
by adopting the old, the easy, and the conventional on the other hand.
( Characters appraisement…,p.57)
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Aim:

A lot of readers, critics, and religious leaders condemn Hakim's Satan the Martyr,
which was published around 1936. They claim that it celebrates godless ideas. This
thesis postulates the idea and attempts to determine the aim beyond Al Hakim's work.
It invites people not to judge the author unless they have an account of his
philosophical and intellectual background.

Methodology:

Tawfiq Al Hakim has a wide range of reading. He is influenced by many Greek

philosophers. He shares his literary theory in his books Equilibrium and The Four
Dialogues. This study tries to explain The Martyr, in the light of both books in
addition to some articles about Al Hakim, Nietzsche and Goethe.

Britannica Encyclopedia defines the reader-response theory as:

A critical theory that is mainly associated with the critic Stanley Fish. It emphasizes
that the reader creates the meaning of a literary text rather than discovering it.

Chris Baldick defines reader response as:

A general term for modern literary theories that focus on the responses of the
readers to literary works rather than the works themselves. It is not a single
agreed theory but rather, a shared concern with some problems associated with
the nature of the reader’s contribution to the meanings of literary works,
approached from various perspectives such as structuralism, psychoanalysis,
Phenomenology, and hermeneutics. ( Chris Baldick, Oxford Concise
Dictionary of Literary Terms, P.212)

He Continues:

All these approaches share a common element: the production of the meanings
within the reading process. (p.212)

In her Critical Theory Today, Louis Tyson defines reader-response theory as:
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A broad, exciting, evolving domain of literary studies that can help us learn
about our own reading processes and how they relate to, among other things,
specific elements in the texts we read, our life experiences, and the intellectual
community of which we are a member. (p.169)

She confirms that:

The reading process emerged during the 1930s as a reaction against the
growing tendency to reject the reader’s role in creating meaning, a
tendency that became a formal principle of the New Criticism that
dominated critical practice in the 1940s and 1950s. The New Critics
believed that the timeless meaning of the text—what the text is—is
contained in the text alone. Its meaning is not a product of the author’s
intention and does not change with the reader’s response. (p.170)
According to Tyson reader- response critics share two beliefs:
1) The role of the reader cannot be omitted from our understanding
of literature.
2) The readers do not passively consume the meaning presented to
them by an objective literary text; rather they actively make the
meaning they find in literature. (p170)
Tyson states that:

This second belief, that readers actively make meaning, suggests, of course,
that different readers may read the same text quite differently. In fact, reader-
response theorists believe that even the same reader reading the same text on
two different occasions will probably produce different meanings because so
many variables contribute to our experience of the text. Knowledge we’ve
acquired between our first and second reading of a text, personal experiences
that have occurred in the interim, a change in mood between our two
encounters with the text, or a change in the purpose for which we’re reading it
can all contribute to our production of different meanings for the same text.
(p.170)

Moreover, Tyson acknowledges:

A written text is not an object, despite its physical existence, but an event that
occurs within the reader, whose response is of primary importance in creating
the text. Theorists disagree, however, about how our responses are formed and
what role, if any, the text plays in creating them. Opinions range from the
belief that the literary text is as active as the reader in creating meaning to the
belief that the text doesn’t exist at all except as it is created by readers. (p.172)
There are five categories of reader-response theory, transactional reader-
response theory, affective stylistics, subjective reader-response theory,
psychological reader-response theory, and social reader-response theory.
In this thesis, the researcher is going to focus on the social, the subjective, and
the psychological categories.

Transactional reader response theory:

Tyson states that

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Transactional reader-response theory is often associated with the work

of Louise Rosenblatt, who formulated many of its premises;
transactional reader-response theory analyzes the transaction between
text and reader. Rosenblatt doesn’t reject the importance of the text in
favor of the reader; rather she claims that both are necessary in the
production of meaning. She differentiates among the terms text, which
refers to the printed words on the page; reader; and poem, which refers
to the literary work produced by the text and the reader together.
(p.173)
She indicates that:
As we read a text, it acts as a stimulus to which we respond in our own
personal way. Feelings, associations, and memories occur as we read, and
these responses influence the way in which we make sense of the text as we
move through it. Literature we’ve encountered prior to this reading, the sum
total of our accumulated knowledge, and even our current physical condition
and mood will influence us as well. At various points while we read, however,
the text acts as a blueprint that we can use to correct our interpretation when
we realize it has traveled too far afield of what is written on the page. This
process of correcting our interpretation as we move through the text usually
results in our going back to reread earlier sections in light of some new
development in the text. Thus, the text guides our self-corrective process as we
read and will continue to do so after the reading is finished if we go back and
reread portions, or the entire text, in order to develop or complete our
interpretation. Thus the creation of the poem, the literary work, is a product of
the transaction between text and reader, both of which are equally important to
the process.(p.173)

Subjective reader response theory:

Tyson defines subjective reader-response theory as:

In stark contrast to affective stylistics and to all forms of transactional reader-
response theory, subjective reader-response theory does not call for the analysis
of textual cues. For subjective reader-response critics, led by the work of David
Bleich, readers’ responses are the text, both in the sense that there is no literary
text beyond the meanings created by readers’ interpretations and in the sense
that the text the critic analyzes is not the literary work but the written responses
of readers. Let’s look at each of these two claims more closely. (p.178)
She continues:

To understand how there is no literary text beyond the meanings created by

readers’ interpretations; we need to understand how Bleich defines the literary
text. Like many other reader-response critics, he differentiates between what
he calls real objects and symbolic objects. Real objects are physical objects,
such as tables, chairs, cars, books, and the like. The printed pages of a literary
text are real objects. However, the experience created when someone reads
those printed pages, like language itself, is a symbolic object because it occurs
not in the physical world but in the conceptual world, that is, in the mind of
the reader. This is why Bleich calls reading—the feelings, associations, and
memories that occur as we react subjectively to the printed words on the page
—symbolization: our perception and identification of our reading experience
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create a conceptual, or symbolic, world in our mind as we read. Therefore,

when we interpret the meaning of the text, we are actually interpreting the
meaning of our own symbolization: we are interpreting the meaning of the
conceptual experience we created in response to the text. He thus calls the act
of interpretation re-symbolization. Re-symbolization occurs when our
experience of the text produces in us a desire for explanation. Our evaluation
of the text’s quality is also an act of re-symbolization: we don’t like or dislike
a text; we like or dislike our symbolization of it. Thus, the text we talk about
isn’t really the text on the page: it’s the text in our mind. (p.178)
Psychological reader-response theory:

Tyson mentions psychoanalytic critic Norman Holland who believes that:

Readers’ motives strongly influence how they read. Despite his claim, at least in
his early work, that an objective text exists (indeed, he calls his method transactive
analysis because he believes that reading involves a transaction between the reader
and a real text), Holland focuses on what readers’ interpretations reveal about
themselves, not about the text. Given his analyses of the subjective experiences of
readers, he is sometimes referred to as a subjective reader-response critic.
However, because Holland employs psychoanalytic concepts and focuses on the
psychological responses of readers, many theorists think of him as a psychological
reader-response critic, which is probably the most useful way for us to think of
him, too. (p.182)
Moreover Tyson confirms that:
Holland believes that we react to literary texts with the same psychological
responses we bring to events in our daily lives. The situations that cause my
defenses to emerge in my interpersonal life will cause my defenses to emerge when
I read. To use a simple example, if I am quick to dislike new acquaintances who
remind me of my alcoholic father, then I probably will be quick to dislike any
fictional character who reminds me of him. Or if my overriding psychological trait
is my need to control my world, then I probably will be threatened by literary texts
that undermine my sense of control, for example, texts in which I can’t find a
powerful character with whom I can identify or in which I can’t find the kind of
orderly, logical world in which I feel comfortable. My defense in these situations
might be to dislike the text, misunderstand it, or stop reading it altogether. Given
that virtually all literary texts will in some way arouse my defenses by tapping
some unconscious fear or forbidden desire, I must have a way to cope with texts if
I am going to read them at all. According to Holland, that coping process is
interpretation. (p.182)

Tyson clarifies that:

Holland calls the pattern of our psychological conflicts and coping strategies
our identity theme. He believes that in our daily lives we project that identity
theme onto every situation we encounter and thus perceive the world through
the lens of our psychological experience. Analogously, when we read literature,
we project our identity theme, or variations of it, onto the text. That is, in
various ways we unconsciously recreate in the text the world that exists in our
own mind. Our interpretations, then, are products of the fears, defenses, needs,
and desires we project onto the text. Interpretation is thus primarily a
psychological process rather than an intellectual one. A literary interpretation
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may or may not reveal the meaning of the text, but to a discerning eye it always
reveals the psychology of the reader. (p.183)

Social reader- response theory:

Tyson states that:

While the individual reader’s subjective response to the literary text plays the
crucial role in subjective reader-response theory, for social reader-response
theory, usually associated with the later work of Stanley Fish, there is no purely
individual subjective response. According to Fish, what we take to be our
individual subjective responses to literature are really products of the
interpretive community to which we belong. By interpretive community, Fish
means those who share the interpretive strategies we bring to texts when we
read, whether or not we realize we’re using interpretive strategies and whether
or not we are aware that other people share them. These interpretive strategies
always result from various sorts of institutionalized assumptions (assumptions
established, for example, in high schools, churches, and colleges by prevailing
cultural attitudes and philosophies) about what makes a text a piece of literature
—instead of a letter or a legal document or a church sermon—and what
meanings we are supposed to find in it. (p.185)

Literature Review:

The reader response approach is based on the assumption that a literary work takes
place in a mutual relationship between the reader and the text when the reader
demystifies literature and links it to his/her individual experience. Emotional reactions
that grow out of this reciprocal bond can consolidate classroom instruction (Bleich,
1975). Rosenblatt’s (1978) transactional view affirms that readers are experience
builders and the text is an activating stimulus and serves as a guide, a regulator,
a blueprint, and an avenue for interpretation. Put another way, the text activates the
reader’s early experiences concerning his/her experiences with literature and with
his/her life; guides for the selection, rejection and order of what comes forth; and
regulates what should be brought to the reader’s attention.

In his Satan, Abbas Al Akkad refers to both texts; he says that Satan is presented as a
symbol of revolution in many European works of arts but not in many Arabic works.
He states:

Satan the martyr, by our talented colleague Tawfiq Al Hakim, was published in 1953.
Although it is short it is regarded as one of the best texts written for this purposes in
all languages.(p.145)

In his The Treatment of Greek Drama by Tawfiq Al Hakim, Mahmoud Al Shatawi

emphasizes:
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"Al Hakim must have in mind the influence of Nietzsche and other nineteenth century
philosophers such as Kierkegaard have exerted on modern Western literature" .(The
Treatment…p.12)

This research attempts to find out how far Al Hakim is influenced by these Western
philosophers and how he attempts to modify their thoughts in order to suit the Islamic
culture.

In his The Impact of European Drama on Two Arab Playwrights: Tawfiq Al Hakim
and Kateb Yacin, Ahmed Zayed Barazanji confirms that:

Although the first group of plays was not adopted from European
literature, its influence is evedient in their style, characterization, and
dramatic structure. They are basically influenced by European
playwrights as Ibsen, Shaw, and Pirandello as Al Hakim himself admits.
(The Impact… p.27)

This means that Al Hakim has had the concept of the superman in mind
as Ibsen and Shaw are two important playwrights who introduced the
concept in their works. This research aims to find out the elements of the
concept presented in each of the texts and how each author adapts it.

AMISHA KUMARI in her AN APPRAISAL OF MALE-FEMALE CHAUVINISM

IN ‘MAN AND SUPERMAN states that:

Eric Bentley, a British-born American theatre critic & playwright called Man
and Superman as “The supreme triumph of Shaw’s dramaturgical dialects”.
Arthur Bingham Walkey praised Shaw as ‘a man who can give us a refined
intellectual pleasure’. Critics also find the Don Juan reference in the play very
interesting. Sally Peter Vogt proposes: Thematically, the fluid Don Juan myth
becomes a favorable milieu for Creative Evolution, and that ‘the legend…
becomes in Man and Superman the vehicle through which Shaw
communicates his cosmic philosophy. Essayist and critic G.K. Chesterton, as
quoted in George Bernard Shaw:

The Critical Heritage considered the book ‘fascinating and delightful’ and
called his friend Shaw to task for showing little faith in humanity. Max
Beerbohm wrote in the Saturday Review that Shaw’s characters are too flat &
priggish and that, the life-force could find no use for them.

In Faust in Context: A Comparative Examination of the Fates of Marlowe's and

Goethe's Faust Characters Kristin E. Abel states that

The outcome for Goethe's Faust is much different than that of Marlowe's Doctor
Faustus. Not only does Faust attain salvation, he is celebrated as a hero in heaven.
(p.2)
 17

Research Questions:

1. How are the texts related to Nietzsche's philosophy?

2. How far do the texts condemn or celebrate the cultures of their societies?
3. Why does Evil exist in this world?
4. Why does each Faust play end differently?
5. How Nietzsche's, Goethe's, and Shaw's supermen are related to Satan the
Martyr?
6. Does the idea of Superman have its roots back to Renaissance humanism?
7. Why does Al Hakim's text end in that way?

Tentative Chapterization:
Chapter one: In this chapter the researcher is going to give a detailed
definition of the reader-response theory in general and a focused definition of
the social and psychological schools.
Chapter two:
This chapter gives a clear explanation and illustration of the notion of the
superman for each of the mentioned authors. It sheds the light on the
similarities and differences between the views of the authors of the notion.
Moreover, it illuminates the influence of Bernard Shaw on Tawfiq al Hakim.
Chapter three:
This chapter postulates the elements of the different notions of the superman
on Al Hakim's Work. It gives an account of the researcher response and
commentary of the story.

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