A Faustian Projection for Future Audiences: Narration and Allusion in The Invention of Morel Anonymous College

Commonly referenced in Western Europe and around the world, the story of the Faustian bargain—in which a remarkable individual trades soul and salvation for vast power—has appeared throughout history in poems, plays, newspapers, and novels describing characters’ dilemmas. In The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares, the narrator falls in love with a machine-generated image of a woman named Faustine. He claims to be a criminal fugitive who escaped to live on an island, and he makes a bargain to sacrifice his soul to be with his love Faustine forever. Upon further examination of his journal, however, we see he is in fact a coward trying to redeem his previous life and create a new image rather than allegedly sacrificing himself nobly for love. Although he himself may be unaware, the narrator’s journal serves to mask his deeper immoral desire for immortality and power.

The first indications of the narrator’s self-seeking motives arise from his previous background. We learn from his journal that he arrived on the island as a means to escape his fugitive status, and perhaps start a new life. He explains, “I hope to write as a kind of justification for my shadowy life on this earth” (18). Thus, even before he has the opportunity...