During the superstitious Middle Ages, the story of the man who sold his soul to the devil to procure supernatural powers captured the popular imagination and spread rapidly. At some point the name of Faust was definitely attached to this figure. A cycle of legends, including some from ancient and medieval sources that were originally told about other magicians, began to collect around him.
One of the most widely-read magic texts of the period was attributed to Faust and many others referred to him as an authority.
A famous German sage and adventurer born in was thought by many of his contemporaries to be a magician and probably did practice some sort of black magic. After a sensational career, this Faust died during a mysterious demonstration of flying which he put on for a royal audience in It was generally believed that he had been carried away by the devil. A biography of Faust, the Historia von D. Johann Fausten, based upon the shadowy life of Faust the Younger, but including many of the fanciful legendary stories, was published in Frankfurt in That same year it was translated into English as The Historie of the damnable life and deserved death of Doctor John Faustus.
It was in this version that the legend took on a permanent form. When the Renaissance came to northern Europe, Faust was made into a symbol of free thought, anti-clericalism, and opposition to Church dogma.
The first important literary treatment of the legend was that of the English dramatist, Christopher Marlowe. It is still renowned for its exciting theatricality, its beautiful blank verse, and its moving portrayal of a human soul in despair because he cannot accept God and so is condemned to damnation. Marlowe used the English translation of the Faust-Book as his main source, but transformed the legendary magician into a figure of tragic stature and made his story a powerful expression of the main issues of Elizabethan thought.
Up to the moment of his death, however, this Faustus is free to resist his seduction by the forces of evil, despite having signed the pact. After a painful struggle with himself, Faustus is carried off by the devil at the end of the play. Both characters are torn by conflicts within their own souls, but Faustus is trying to believe in God, while Faust seeks a way to believe in himself.
In Faust Goethe tends to use orthodox religion only as a source of imagery. He tells his story in the context of an abstract pantheistic religious system and a fluid moral code that gives precedence to motives and circumstances rather than deeds as such. The legend was kept alive in the folk tradition of Germany, though, and was the subject of pantomimes and marionette shows for many years.
The close of the 18th century in Germany was a time very much like the Renaissance. The German dramatist Lessing wrote a play based on the legend, but the manuscript was lost many generations ago and its contents are hardly known.
Since his time it has stimulated many creative thinkers and has been the central theme of notable works in all fields of expression. In art, for instance, the Faust legend has provided fruitful subjects for such painters as Ferdinand Delacroix But most important, the legend has continued to be the subject of many poems, novels, and dramatic works.
Like all myths, the Faust story has much to teach the reader in all its forms, for the tale has retained its pertinence in the modern world. Students who are interested in a more detailed study of the Faust theme should begin by consulting E.
The whole poem is colored by this sense of dissatisfaction and frustrated striving although its character changes as the story progresses. At the beginning Faust is in a state of negative dissatisfaction, in which he contemplates suicide and willingly accepts the terms of a pact that would terminate his life at its highest point of achievement. The Lord acknowledges to Mephisto that it is natural for man to fall into error, but asserts that despite this he remains able to make moral distinctions.
Thus the issue at stake in the wager made by God and the devil is whether Faust, as a representative of all mankind, will continue to be able to perceive the difference between good and evil, regardless of temptation and personal sinfulness.
It is because Faust does retain his sense of right and wrong, and because his eyes are constantly focused on a vision of something higher than himself, which is ultimately the cause of his frustrated despair, that he is finally rewarded by entrance into Heaven. The moral doctrine that Goethe puts forward in Faust teaches that the essential feature of all existence and the law that governs the universe is one of untiring, purposeful, and positive effort, and that man can find his place in life only through striving to participate in this vast cosmic movement, although of necessity in terms appropriate to his human capabilities.
His experience reveals the pitfalls and false turns that are dangers along the road and is meant to encourage readers in finding their own way to harmony with the cosmic order. His tragic love affair with Gretchen ends in her death, but Faust is much chastened by this experience. In Part Two he tries to satisfy his craving through temporal accomplishments and exposure to all that the world can offer in terms of ideas and externalized gratifications.
He attains an important position at the Imperial Court, learns much from the figures of classical antiquity, woos Helen of Troy, wins great victories, and is renowned for his public works, but none of these things gives him lasting peace of mind. Faust dies bitter and disillusioned. Summary In this short poem preceding the main action of the tragedy, Goethe describes the thoughts that run through his mind as he sits in his study, preparing to work on the manuscript of Faust after a lapse of many years.
He seems to see vague forms and shadows floating in the air before his eyes, ghosts that have haunted him all his life, but now they press upon his consciousness with more intensity than ever before. As these forms become charged with greater emotional significance for him, the world of reality in which Goethe lives seems to fall back into distant recesses of his mind.
A mood of sad but firm resolution comes over him as he determines to give new life to these shadows — ideas he cannot escape, which have a sort of independent existence. Despite the melancholy tone of his words, Goethe communicates a feeling of firmness and strength that will be maintained throughout the poem. Summary A discussion takes place on the stage of a theatre between a director, a poet, and a clown.
They argue about what constitutes a good play. Three points of view are presented. The director is interested in those things which make the play a commercial success: action and novelty. The clown asserts that these views are not contradictory.
He points out that the needs of art and the needs of the moment can be reconciled, for that which attracts the general public need not be worthless.
The artist can maintain his integrity and still be successful if he stops feeling superior and develops a proper appreciation for the values of everyday life. Finally the director ends the discussion, reminding the others that there is still much work to be done if they are to put on any play at all. He describes the techniques of producing a play and promises the audience that the whole universe will be presented on his stage — beginning with Heaven and proceeding through the world to Hell.
Analysis At first glance this prelude seems only indirectly connected to the tragedy itself, but Goethe uses it to sketch in commonplace terms some of the essential themes that will be treated in Faust.
The poet represents the idealist who strives to comprehend eternal values, the clown is the realist who is concerned with the here and now, but both personify important principles of life. The director of the theatre is like the god of a universe, of the mind conscience of a single individual.
He must blend these disparate elements to create a harmonious world or well integrated personality. The problems he faces on his stage foreshadow those which Faust will struggle with. In making this analogy between the universe and the individual soul, Goethe draws upon the medieval philosophical conception of the microcosm and the macrocosm. This is also the relationship between the two parts of Faust.
Summary The Lord and all the hosts of heaven are assembled. The three archangels, Raphael, Gabriel, and Michael, individually step forward and recite eloquent praises of the beauty and perfection of the universe and the omnipotence of God. Then Mephistopheles also called Mephisto, the devil enters. He cannot imitate the songs of the others, he says, for he lacks their skill.
Furthermore, he has seen that the possession of reason and intelligence has made mankind unhappy, and this troubles him. The Lord counters this criticism of humanity by citing the example of Faust, a man who is not debased by reason and who will ultimately be guided by it to a knowledge of the truth.
The Lord and Mephisto make a wager to settle this dispute. Still knows the path that is true and fit. The heavens close, and the Lord and the archangels disappear. This doctrine will be illustrated in the story of Faust.
In this system the only absolute sin is nonaction; man, despite many errors of judgment or wrong turns can find the path of righteousness, but only if he continues striving. He eventually will succeed if he keeps up the struggle because striving is itself a moral act and his intuitive yearnings all point toward a good end.
Mephisto represents the spirit of negativistic cynicism, of endless denial. He can be a force for good or evil — inducing a man to surrender to his lowest instincts and give up the quest, or driving him by persistent prodding and frustration to find the fulfillment of his ideals, i. The Lord is the paragon of perfection toward which men strive. The conversation and bargain between God and Mephistopheles are reminiscent of a similar scene at the opening of the Book of Job.
The setting of the prologue to the poem in Heaven implies that the life and fate of Faust are matters of universal significance, which will clarify the relationship of God and man, good and evil, existence and nonexistence. In a narrow, vaulted Gothic chamber Dr. Heinrich Faust sits at his desk, surrounded by a clutter of books and scientific instruments. It is Easter Eve. Now fifty years old, Faust is depressed and frustrated. He has mastered all the important academic disciplines — Philosophy, Medicine, Law and Theology — has fearlessly inquired into everything that interested him, and is not afraid of the devil or Hell, but he is unsatisfied and believes himself trapped by the limitations of human understanding.
Moreover, he feels that his achievements have been of no use to mankind and have brought him no earthly rewards. Now he plans to turn to magic in the hope of at last attaining ultimate knowledge.
Faust studies the esoteric symbols in an old magic book and meditates on their meaning, then invokes the Earth-Spirit. Accompanied by various spiritual phenomena, the Spirit of Earthly Reality appears, but it rebukes Faust, denies their kinship, and vanishes again. Whatever his wishes, a human being cannot separate existence and consciousness. Faust begins to despair of ever satisfying his aspirations when Wagner, his famulus or assistant, enters the room and interrupts him.
In the conversation which follows both men speak at cross-purposes. The dull, unimaginative but honest Wagner is a parody of bourgeois pedantry. His characterization emphasizes the differences between the search after knowledge for its own sake or for worldly rewards and the search for true understanding. After Wagner departs, Faust returns to bitter thoughts about human impotence. The sight of a skull makes him think of suicide as the solution to his problems.
He is about to drink a glass of poison when the pealing of church bells and the melodious singing of a choir remind him of the Easter message of resurrection and eternal life. Faust does not literally believe in these concepts, but they bring back memories of his childhood religious faith and their symbolic meaning restores his self-confidence.
It predicts the course that Faust will follow — first sinking lower and lower into the depths of personal degradation, then rising to the highest level of human fulfillment and salvation. Summary It is Easter Sunday afternoon. The townspeople are all strolling into the countryside to welcome the advent of Spring.
Their mood is gay and youthful. They stand watching while a group of youngsters sing and dance. Faust says:. This reminds Faust of his own feelings of futility. He tells Wagner that he is torn between two currents in his soul; one is tied to the pleasures of the world, but the other reaches out to the stars. Faust says he would forego all earthly joys if he could satisfy his lofty, spiritual desires. The men return to town.
On the way they notice a mysterious black poodle following them. To Wagner it seems only a harmless little dog, but Faust senses something occult about it. Analysis The simple and joyous life of the common people depicted in this scene is the result of their humble, unthinking acceptance of the world.
Faust envies them, but is prevented from following their example by the highly developed spiritual side of his character. Summary Evening finds Faust in his study. The poodle is still with him. He says:. Ah, when in our narrow cell The lamp once more imparts good cheer, Then in our bosom — in the heart That knows itself — then things grow clear.
The poodle begins to growl and continues to do so as long as Faust goes on reading the Bible. Faust realizes that some mysterious spiritual presence has taken on the form of the dog.
He uses a magical incantation to force it to appear. In an instant Mephistopheles stands before him in the guise of a travelling scholar. This is a crucial moment. Mephisto has been in pursuit of his intended victim ever since making the wager with God, but it was up to Faust to take the first step in his own seduction by recognizing and invoking the devil. Instead he describes himself by explaining his function in the divine plan, saying he is A part of that Power Which always wills evil, always procures good.
After their talk Faust invites Mephistopheles to visit him again. The devil prepares to leave but cannot go because Faust has not released the spell that invoked him. Faust refuses to free Mephistopheles. The unexpected discovery that even the devil is subject to a form of law makes him wonder about the possibility of making a contract with him. He intends to force Mephistopheles to buy his freedom.
The devil is not as powerless as he has been pretending, however. He calls up a choir of spirits who lull Faust to sleep with an idyllic song about the sensual pleasures of pagan, southern lands.
Next Mephistopheles summons the aid of some mice and makes his escape. When Faust awakens the room is empty. He wonders whether he has been dreaming. Summary The next day Faust is alone in his study again. Mephistopheles enters, dressed as a nobleman. Mephistopheles taunts Faust for his failure to commit suicide on Easter Eve and drives him to voice a rejection of the value of life and the traditional Christian virtues.
The devil urges Faust to begin a new life with his assistance, and to exist no longer as an ordinary human being. If Faust agrees to become his servant after death i. Thou art so fair! The terms of the new pact mean that only when Faust is so satiated with pleasure that he chooses to be in a state of rest or nonaction will he be damned. In other words, the primal sin is to absolve oneself of the responsibility for motion and activity.
Since Faust does not believe in the traditional heaven and hell, he is really offering little in his own terms, and is betting his life rather than selling his soul. Faust is filled with eagerness to taste all those aspects of life that he has neglected until now.
He has found that reason and magic were unable to console him, but hopes to find understanding and knowledge through emotional and physical experience. Faust and Mephistopheles are interrupted when a student knocks at the door. Faust is in no mood to see him and asks Mephisto to take his place. The young freshman has just arrived in town and wants the advice of the great scholar Faust on his studies, but Mephisto confuses him by a bitter, satirical attack on pedantry and academic learning.
The devil as portrayed by Goethe performs a necessary function in the execution of the divine purpose. Despite his cynical belief in the futility of learning and the grossness of mankind, Mephisto often speaks the truth.
Moreover, true knowledge is gotten only from experience. After the student goes, Faust re-enters the room. Mephistopheles cheerfully congratulates him on his new life and they set out on their adventures. Mephistopheles has offered to show Faust the pleasures that can be gotten from convivial company and good cheer. They enter and join the others. After observing their coarseness and watching Mephistopheles befuddle them with magic tricks, Faust realizes that this is not the answer to his longing.
He voices his disgust and urges that they go. Before they leave, Mephisto works another spell, to demonstrate to Faust the inherent bestiality of human beings. The mood of this scene is comic, but there is an undertone of seriousness, for in their drunken revelry the four men are desperately seeking an escape from frustration and boredom.
Summary Now Mephistopheles brings Faust to the mysterious lair of a witch. A brewing cauldron tended by a weird family of monkeys occupies the center of the room, and the place is filled with the occult symbols and paraphernalia of black magic and sorcery.
A strange vapor permeates the air. The mood of the place is grotesque and ugly. At first Faust is repelled by what he observes around him, but then, in a mirror on the wall, he sees the image of a beautiful young woman and all his ardor is aroused. The restoration of his youth now becomes such an exciting prospect that he soon overcomes his distaste for his surroundings. After a while the witch returns to her den. Following some repartee with Mephistopheles, she prepares the potion and Faust drinks it.
The brew is immediately effective. Faust eagerly looks into the mirror again to recapture his vision. Mephisto repeats his promise to introduce Faust to many new delights and predicts that he will soon meet his vision in the flesh. Throughout this scene there are symbolic allusions to an evolutionary theory of human development.
It is implied that in regaining his youth, Faust is moving backward toward the primeval world from which human reason and civilized institutions once developed. He is abandoning the highest human attainments to find fulfillment in his baser animal instincts. Summary Later, on the street of a typical German town, Faust sees Margareta usually called Gretchen, her nickname in German , recognizes the maiden of his vision, and develops a great passion for her.
He tries to strike up a conversation, but Gretchen refuses to respond to his advances and walks away. Mephisto replies that he has no power over Gretchen because of her innocence and piety. Undaunted, Faust boasts that he will seduce her without help and asks Mephistopheles to cooperate by getting him jewelry and other expensive gifts for the girl. As their romance progresses in the remaining episodes of Part One, Gretchen will develop into a character of genuine tragic stature.
Then she goes out to visit a neighbor. Faust and Mephistopheles enter the room, for Faust has expressed the wish to see where Gretchen lives and sleeps. He is moved by the simple furnishings and asks Mephisto to leave. For a moment the wholesome purity of his surroundings causes Faust to waver in his plan to seduce the maiden. They leave the jewels and go out. Gretchen comes in again. After commenting to herself about the oppressive atmosphere of the tiny room and the odd tension she feels, the maiden prepares for bed.
Was faithful to the grave. She is so delighted by their beauty that she barely wonders about the significance of their unexplained presence in her room. Its innocence foreshadows the deep impression which Faust, in the guise of a handsome and generous young nobleman, will make on her, and her complete devotion to him once he has won her love. Summary Faust is pacing back and forth, deep in thought, when Mephistopheles enters. He comments that The Church has an excellent appetite.
She has swallowed whole countries and the question Has never risen of indigestion. Only the Church. Therefore, Goethe felt, there was no need for a church to act as an intermediary for man. In addition, he despised the Church because of its corruption, materialism, and worldliness.
He felt it maintained a religious facade but was irreligious and rotten at its core. At the opening of the scene she is alone, thinking about the long absence of her husband. Gretchen runs in and tells Martha that she has found another casket of jewels, but this time has not told her mother.
Martha advises that she continue to keep it a secret, otherwise these will be taken from her also. Mephistopheles enters the house and attempts to win the friendship of the women by flattery.
Martha is not upset by the news, particularly since her husband left no estate, but wants definite proof so she can be free to remarry. Mephistopheles flirts with Martha and says he will return with a young companion Faust who will attest to the death. He asks that Gretchen be present also, saying that his friend has an eye for attractive girls. She will be victimized by her lack of experience and her faith in human nature. The two couples stroll back and forth, on and off stage, so that only parts of each conversation are overheard.
Faust tries to hurry Gretchen out of the cell before morning light, but she rejects his offer of escape. She knows she cannot evade punishment for her crimes and foresees no peace except that of the grave. Faust unsuccessfully tries to change her mind. As dawn breaks Mephistopheles enters the cell and warns Faust to come along. Gretchen recognizes the devil and fears he has come for her.
She prays for divine mercy:. Judgment of God! I have given myself to Thee! O Father, save me! I am thine! Mephistopheles tells Faust to come at once or share Gretchen's doom, for, he says, "she is condemned!
The scene closes with Gretchen's voice faintly calling after her loved one. The scene is particularly praised by critics for its poignant portrayal of Gretchen's madness. Gretchen's restoration to sanity when she sees Faust illustrates the regenerative power of love. Her refusal to escape is based on her acknowledgment of responsibility for her acts and her acceptance of God's law. She has a simple and clear-cut conception of right and wrong which is incomprehensible to the still inwardly doubting Faust.
Gretchen is granted salvation by God's grace the voice from Heaven because her crimes were the result of inexperience and her motives were never sinful or impure. If before he had sought absolute knowledge first through the conventional means of academic study, and then, when this tack failed him, through magic, the chastened Faust now turns to revelation.
It is just after the biblical translation scene that Mephistopheles appears. Goethe has keenly transformed the traditional pact with the devil of the Faustus legend into a more dynamic, less cut-and-dried wager.
Thou art so fair! His new life with Mephisto can now begin! The temptations the devil offers Faust are three: gluttony, lust, and power. Here too there are three facets. Faust is tempted first with Gretchen, who represents the epitome of pure, innocent German maidenhood, then with raw lust at its most orgiastic in the Walpurgisnacht scene, when the devil holds his annual conclave with all his witches-a motif Goethe borrows from German folklore-and lastly with Helen of Troy, the epitome of classical beauty, whose shade Faust conjures up from Hades.
Faust rejects the debauch with the witches; he is not so crude as to be gotten at by such means. But with Gretchen and Helen it is a different story, and Mephisto almost succeeds.
Towards Gretchen he feels real love, albeit not so strongly as to prevent him from abandoning her when she becomes pregnant with his child. And Faust sees in Helen not just an object of his carnal desire, but also an ideal, the quintessence and incarnation of the beautiful. But in the last analysis neither feminine purity nor womanly beauty can be the source of ultimate satisfaction for Faust.
To settle down with Gretchen as a family man and burgher within the narrow confines of German town life would be too constraining. And as for Helen, it is significant that she is but a shade or ghost.
She is too ethereal, she lacks concreteness and reality. As the ideal of beauty she is, as it were, too much form and too little content. The beautiful, that is to say, must be the purveyor of the true and the good. This Helen lacks and so she cannot fulfill Faust. This he cannot accept. He must be a sovereign in his own right, so Faust is given a feif. Nominally, of course, he is still subject to the emperor, but on his territory Faust is absolute lord.
We will see in a moment how this situation does ultimately satisfy Faust, but in such a way that he does not lose the wager with Mephistopheles. Again there are three aspects to be considered, three ways in which Faust attempts to appropriate the absolute.
Let us examine each of these approaches in turn. A, and a Ph. His greatest feat in this regard is his conjuring up of the Spirit of Nature, the Erdgeist himself. But far from revealing his secrets to Faust, the Erdgeist contemptuously rejects the would-be adept as too puny. Faust can have no power over such a great spirit. The apparition vanishes. Faust has failed. If his intellect cannot comprehend the Erdgeist, the Spirit of Nature, perhaps Faust can reach his goal from the opposite side, through feeling, emotion.
In an expansive and mystical mood his soul reaches out to nature and he feels at one with it; hen kai pan, all is one, as the philosophers say. Perhaps Faust can possess the natural through the love of the unspoiled innocence of a pure, virginal maiden. But instead of returning her pure love, Faust the despoiler seduces the young woman as we have said.
The experience of beauty via the liaison with Helen of Troy also fails because in the aesthetic realm, feeling alone is, as we have seen, insufficient. Not even their son Euphorion has enough substantiality to remain long on earth. Helen returns to Hades to be with him. As for poor Gretchen, her fate is tragic.
In the ensuing duel Faust fatally runs him through. Now Gretchen feels that not only has she killed her mother, but that her brother was killed because of her as well. With this burden of guilt, and Faust having fled, she faces the birth of her illegitimate child utterly alone.
Alone, that is, on the earthly plane. Gretchen does turn to the Blessed Mother for help in a poignant scene at a small Marian shrine, and we learn at the end of the play, when we meet her in heaven, that her prayer has been answered. Nevertheless, Gretchen cracks under the strain, and in an attempt to hide her shame she drowns her newborn.
Of course in her small community the infanticide cannot be kept a secret for long. Gretchen is arrested, tried, and sentenced to death.
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