Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

First produced: 1829–1854; includes Faust: Eine Tragödie, 1829 (first published, 1808; The Tragedy of Faust, 1823); Faust: Eine Tragödie, zweiter Teil, 1854 (first published, 1833; The Tragedy of Faust, Part Two, 1838)

First published:Faust: Ein Fragment, 1790 (English translation, Faust: A Fragment, 1980)

Type of work: Drama

Type of plot: Philosophical

Time of plot: Indeterminate

Locale: The world

Principal Characters

• Faust, a student of all knowledge
• Gretchen, a young woman
• Mephistopheles, the devil
• Wagner, Faust’s servant
• Helen of Troy,
• Homunculus, a spirit

The Story

While three archangels sing in praise of God’s lofty works, the devil Mephistopheles appears and says that he thinks the conditions on earth are abysmal. God tacitly agrees that human beings have their weaknesses but points out that his servant Faust cannot be swayed from the path of righteousness. Mephistopheles makes a wager with God that Faust can be tempted from his faithful service. God is convinced that he can rely on the righteous integrity of Faust, but he knows that Mephistopheles can lead Faust downward if he is able to lay hold of Faust’s soul. Mephistopheles considers Faust a likely victim because Faust is trying to obtain the unobtainable, that is, infinite knowledge.

Faust is not satisfied with all the knowledge he has acquired. He realizes the limits of human knowledge and sees his own insignificance in the great macrocosm. In this mood, he goes for a walk with his servant, Wagner, among people who are not troubled by thoughts of a philosophical nature. Faust finds this atmosphere refreshing, and he is able to feel free and to think clearly. Faust tells Wagner of his two souls, one clinging to earthly things, the other striving toward suprasensual things that can never be attained as long as his soul resides in his body. Limited in his daily life and desiring to learn the meaning of existence, Faust is ready to accept anything that offers him a new kind of life.

Mephistopheles recognizes that Faust is vulnerable to attack. In the form of a dog, Mephistopheles follows Faust when the scholar returns home. After studying the Bible, Faust concludes that human ability should be used to produce something useful. Witnessing Faust struggle with his ideas, Mephistopheles steps forth in his true identity, but Faust remains unmoved by the arguments of his tempter.

The next time Mephistopheles comes, he finds Faust much more receptive. Faust decides that, although his struggles are divine, he produces nothing to show for them. Faust is interested in life on this earth. At Mephistopheles’s suggestion that he can enjoy a sensual existence, Faust declares that if ever he could steep himself in sloth and be at peace with himself, or if ever Mephistopheles could so rule him with flattery that he becomes self-satisfied, then that should be his end. Because Faust renounces all things that make life worthwhile to most people, he further contracts with Mephistopheles that if ever he finds an experience so profound that he wishes it would last forever, then he would die. This is to be a wager, not the selling of a soul.

Mephistopheles fails to tempt Faust in two trials of debauchery. The next offering he presents is love for a woman. He brings Faust to the Witch’s Kitchen, where his youth is restored. Then, a pure maiden, Gretchen, is presented to him, but when he sees her in her innocent home, he vows not to harm her. When, however, Mephistopheles woos the girl with caskets of jewels that she thinks come from Faust, Faust is tempted to return to Gretchen. She surrenders herself to him.

Gretchen’s brother convinces her that her behavior is shameful in the eyes of society. Troubled by her grief, Faust kills her brother, whereupon Gretchen at last feels the full burden of her sin. Mephistopheles shows Faust more scenes of debauchery, but Faust’s spirit is elevated by contact with Gretchen and he is able to overcome the devil’s evil influence. Mephistopheles hopes that Faust will want his love for Gretchen to endure, but Faust knows that enduring human love cannot satisfy his craving. He regrets Gretchen’s misery and returns to her, but she kills their illegitimate child and does not let Faust save her from the death to which she is condemned for the infant's murder.

Mephistopheles brings Faust to the emperor, who asks Faust to show him the most beautiful man and woman who ever existed—Paris and Helen of Troy. Faust produces the images of these mythological characters; at the sight of Helen, his desire to possess her is so strong that he faints and during his swoon Mephistopheles, unable to comprehend Faust’s desire for the ideal beauty that Helen represents, brings him back to his own laboratory.

With the help of Wagner, Mephistopheles creates a formless spirit of learning, Homunculus, who can see what is going on in Faust’s mind. Homunculus, Mephistopheles, and Faust go to Greece, where Mephistopheles borrows from the fantastic images of classical mythology one of their grotesque forms. With Mephistopheles’s intervention, a living Helen is brought to Faust. It seems to Mephistopheles that now, with the supreme joy of having attained Helen’s beauty, Faust will ask for the moment to endure forever. Faust realizes, however, that the enjoyment of transient beauty is no more satisfying than his other experiences were.

Faust returns to his native land with a new understanding of himself. Achievement now becomes his goal, as he reaffirms his earlier pledge that his power should be used to produce something useful. He acquires a large strip of swamp land and restores it to productivity.

Many years pass. Now old and blind, Faust realizes he created a vast territory of land occupied by people who will always be active in making something useful for themselves. Having participated in this achievement, Faust beholds himself standing among free and active people as one of them. At the moment he realizes what he created, he cries out, wishing that fair moment to remain. Faust realizes that life can be worth living, but in that moment of perception he loses his wager to Mephistopheles. The devil claims Faust’s soul, but in reality he, too, loses the wager. God is right. Although Faust makes mistakes in his life, he always remains aware of goodness and truth.

Seeing his own defeat, Mephistopheles attempts to prevent the ascension of Faust’s soul to God. Angels appear to help Faust, however, and he is carried to a place in heaven where all is active creation—exactly the kind of afterlife that Faust would have chosen.

Bibliography

Alt, Peter-Andre. "Mephisto's Principles: On the Construction of Evil in Goethe's Faust." Modern Language Review 106.1 (2011): 149–63. Print.

Armstrong, John. Love, Life, Goethe: Lessons of the Imagination from the Great German Poet. New York: Farrar, 2007. Print.

Atkins, Stuart. Goethe’s Faust: A Literary Analysis. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1958. Print.

Bishop, Paul, ed. A Companion to Goethe’s Faust: Parts I and II. Rochester: Camden House, 2001. Print.

Fairley, Barker. Goethe’s Faust: Six Essays. Oxford: Clarendon, 1953. Print.

Gerber-Munch, Irene. "Goethe's Faust and the Myth of Modern Man." Psychological Perspectives 52 (2009): 143–66. Print.

Gillies, Alexander. Goethe’s Faust: An Interpretation. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1957. Print.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. Faust: A Tragedy. Trans. Walter Arndt. Ed. Cyrus Hamlin. New York: W. W. Norton, 1976. Print.

Gray, Ronald. Goethe: A Critical Introduction. New York: Cambridge UP, 1967. Print.

Greenberg, Martin. "Goethe and Evil: Faust, Part One." Yale Review 100.3 (2012): 91–117. Print.

Sharpe, Lesley, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Goethe. New York: Cambridge UP, 2002. Print.

Swales, Martin, and Erika Swales. Reading Goethe: A Critical Introduction to the Literary Work. Rochester: Camden House, 2002. Print.

Van der Laan, J. M. Seeking Meaning in Goethe’s Faust. New York: Continuum, 2007. Print.