The Erudition of Homais and Wagner - Continental European LiteratureII | ENGL 3260, Papers of English Language

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* Feb. 20, 2004 The Erudition of Homais and Wagner The pharmacist Homais in Flaubert’s Madame Bovary and the assistant Wagner in Goethe’s Faust are similar in many ways. Both have an infatuation with book- learning, progress, and rhetoric. They also have tendencies to be obsequious to those above them in the hierarchy of knowledge and scorn those who they deem to be below themselves. Knowledge for Wagner and Homais is first and foremost a status symbol. Their intellectual superiors, however, are disgusted by their shallow attitudes and behaviors. Homais loves to show off his store of knowledge by slipping a multitude of technical terms and latin phrases into his many long speeches. He is a person that needs an audience, and therefore is always at hand to helpfully give explainations and advice whenever a situation presents itself. Wagner also likes to think that he is a learned person, and he delights in nothing more than reading books. “Most zealously I’ve studied matters great and small; / Though I know much, I should like to know all” (449). Rhetoric is important to Wagner, who believes that “much depends on the delivery.” Faust replies, “If you have anything to say, / Why juggle words for a display?” (448). Rhetoric to Faust implies foolish dishonesty that is attractive but dangerous and unwholesome. Homais is also concerned with the delivery of his speeches, as is evident when he is commissioned to break the news to Emma of the death of her father-in-law,