Temptation

by Václav Havel

In his most challenging work to date, Czech playwright Vaclav Havel has given the Faust legend a provocative twist. His setting is “the Institute,” whose mission is to combat the “irrational tendencies” in society through its scientific work. Personal and professional relationships at this “lighthouse of truthful knowledge” are a tissue of lies and sycophancy in which all concerned willingly collude.

The only tempest in this teapot of careerism is Dr Foustka, who has lately been smitten by metaphysical doubt and is rumored to be dabbling in the black arts. His mentor, the unlikely Mephistopheles of the piece, is a dwarflike old man with smelly feet and a slippery logic that irresistibly appeals to Foustka’s intellectual hubris. With great wit and originality Havel follows the familiar outlines of the story to a unique conclusion at a “witches’ sabbath” garden party organized by the Institute’s crafty director in the spirit of “modern group-costume therapy.”

For Havel, the “rational” carried to surreal lengths of irrationality is not a theatrical technique but a fact of life in Czechoslovakia since the Soviet invasion of 1968. Yet in universalizing his tale through the Faust legend, he forcefully reminds us that under conditions of modern bureaucracy neither East nor West holds a monopoly on the sale of souls.

Genres: Plays, Drama, Theatre, Czech Literature, Fiction

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Václav Havel was a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia (1989–92) and the first President of the Czech Republic (1993–2003). He wrote over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally. He received the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Philadelphia Liberty Medal, the Order of Canada, the freedom medal of the Four Freedoms Award, and the Ambassador of Conscience Award. He was also voted 4th in Prospect Magazine's 2005 global poll of the world's top 100 intellectuals. He was a founding signatory of the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism.

Beginning in the 1960s, his work turned to focus on the politics of Czechoslovakia. After the Prague Spring, he became increasingly active. In 1977, his involvement with the human rights manifesto 'Charter 77' brought him international fame as the leader of the opposition in Czechoslovakia; it also led to his imprisonment. The 1989 "Velvet Revolution" launched Havel into the presidency. In this role he led Czechoslovakia and later the Czech Republic to multi-party democracy. His thirteen years in office saw radical change in his nation, including its split with Slovakia, which Havel opposed, its accession into NATO and start of the negotiations for membership in the European Union, which was attained in 2004.

Reviews

[Vishy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have wanted to read Václav Havel's play 'Temptation' for a long time. I finally got around to reading it.

The story told in 'Temptation' goes like this. In the office of a scientific institute, some scientists are lounging around. The Deputy Director and Director walk in. They all have a brief conversation. The Director tells everyone that some strange things are happening at the institute which needs to be investigated. It later turns out that he was implying that someone was dabbling in the occult. Later the scene shifts to one of the scientists, Foustka's house. And we discover that Foustka is the one dabbling in the occult. Then a mysterious stranger visits Foustka. Without saying anything directly, the stranger refers to the party in Foustka's institute later in the evening and tells him that he wants to help Foustka and make a deal with him. Interesting things happen at the party, not necessarily something exceptional, but things which look real but stretch the fabric of reality, things which are too good to be true.

Who is this stranger? What happens at the party? What happens to Foustka's dabbling with the occult? This is narrated in the rest of the play.

I found 'Temptation' interesting, but I didn't love it. Václav Havel takes the Faustian fable and sets it in '80s Czechoslovakia in the middle of an institute mired in bureaucracy and tries to explore what happens. The play has an absurdist quality as some of the scenes get repeated with some minor changes, and the dialogue in those scenes are vague without meaning anything, and nothing much happens in them. We feel like we're watching 'Waiting for Godot'. The ending was surprising and I didn't see that coming.

The mysterious stranger is an interesting character and he speaks some of my favourite lines. This one made me smile ☺️

"Your answer had eighty-six words. Considering its semantic value that isn't exactly a small number, and if I were you I wouldn't reproach anybody too severely for redundancy."

This one made me think.

"My dear Sir, the truth isn't merely what we believe, after all, but also why and to whom and under what circumstances we say it."

This one – a mafia don could have spoken this one 😁

"To deceive a liar is fine, to deceive a truth teller is still allowable, but to deceive the very instrument that gives us the strength to deceive and that allows us in advance to deceive with impunity – that, you truly cannot expect to get away with."

Have you read 'Temptation'? What do you think about it?

[Jonfaith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Imagine our Enlightenment project off the rails, it is easy if you try. Okay that's the wrong Lenin, but should we think of the intrepid bureaucrat Polonius who warned of turning words, even as the Devil scared Martin Luther and the Karamazovs lose at the Fast Money Round? This was Doktor Faustus at work in the People's Utopia: something borrowed, something blue. All hues are welcome Orbán.

I think Temptation would dovetail nicely with Stoppard's Rock 'N' Roll. Havel's dialogue doesn't measure with Stoppard's but that could be a query for the Department of State Translation, room 101.

[Shifty Reads]

1.5

[Illiterate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Havel pits Faust’s intellectual ambition vs bureaucracy/rationalism thus turning the tale into a study of dissent and self-interest under an ideological/scientific orthodoxy.

[Ondřej Puczok · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pokoušení je jedna z Havlových her, o kterých jsem dříve neslyšel a do čtení jsem se tedy vrhl bez předchozí znalosti. A po Žebrácké opeře a Ztížené možnosti soustředění jde o třetí příjemné překvapení přidané do seznamu her, které bych rád viděl v divadle.

Hra je to vtipná, ale zároveň drsná. Odkazy na faustovskou legendu doplňuje reálný socialismus (s už oblíbeným motivem výzkumného ústavu) a jeho pasti. Mystiku zase tuzemsky často používaný a Havlem zdůrazňovaný vztahový propletenec, zde však zapadající do děje i zvoleného tématu. Stručné, řízné a zároveň výživné. Rád se k Pokoušení ještě vrátím.

[Matthew Dalton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Baby's first Faustian work.

This was highly enjoyable and annoyingly inspirational. It made me look up community theater troupes that would maybe let me put this on. The philosophy of the sexy playwright who brokered the Velvet Divorce was rad. I was sharing some of the whacky, zany ideas of Foustka with my boss while I read it at work. And the homosexuality!! Yes gawd.

Ultimately, I also think science is the devil and we need to stop it.

[R.K. Cowles · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars

[Tamara · Rating 5 out of 5]

je me suis profondément ennuyée, j'ai abandonné sur les 50 dernières pages

[Patrick Hanlon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating play enhanced by Havel's specific stage direction. Some may find it takes a rather didactic turn upon its conclusion but an intriguing piece of drama.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Havel's "Temptation" is a modern look at Faust, where 'Doctor Faustka' is a scientist, and part of an institution that looks down on the occult and it's uses. Following the course of the original story, Faustka makes a deal with the devil to forward his love life and career, but in the end pays the ultimate price of his soul. Faustka is a nice modern version of Doctor Faust, and shows some real internal conflict as he struggles to reconcile his beliefs and his honor with his needs and desires.

[Tucker · Rating 4 out of 5]

A play about the dangers to academic liberty and honesty when a bureaucratic government controls "scientific inquiry". I am curious to further examine whether the demon, named Fistula, is indeed supernatural or is merely a human informer. It's left ambiguous. Written in 1985 by Vaclav Havel who was later elected president of Czechoslovakia and the subsequent Czech Republic (1989-2003). He died in 2011.

[S. Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting take on the original Faust, Havel uses the backdrop of a scientific institute's crusade against mysticism to speak out against totalitarian restrictions on intellectual and philosophical pursuits. Layers of deceit and duplicity - both internal and external - are framed within a repetitive landscape of scenes to underline their existence in the commonplace, and illustrate how logic and desire can be used to suppress logic and desire.

[Maddsurgeon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting take on the Faust story; Havel puts it in a modern context to explore the paradoxical nature of loyalty to totalitarian systems. The translation feels a little dry, but all in all a good concept, executed well.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beguiling. I read it out of respect for the artist and statesman and his truly admirable capacity to survive the fracas of politics with his dignity (and neck) intact. RIP.

[Shahrzad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great conversations, surprising turns

[meadow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining, funny, and with a good message even if it at times lacks subtlety.

[Liberius · Rating 5 out of 5]

Takový malý český Faust :).

[Jenn Cavanaugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to love it, but the translation is decidedly awkward.

[Mahshad · Rating 1 out of 5]

ترجمه هم خوب نبود

[Skylar Swalls · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read. Lots to consider.

[Amanda]

Dr. Henry Foustka
Fistula
Director
Vilma
Deputy Director
Marketa
Lorencova
Kotrly
Neuwirth
Houbova
Dancer
Petrushka
Lover
Lover