Goethe’s Faust II
In your text and handbook, you have covered part I
of Faust – this presentation is to let you know what
happens in Part II
Act 1
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Faust is revived from a long sleep, purged of feelings of
guilt, and given new hope by benevolent spirits.
He and Mephisto then go to the German emperor's court,
where they "solve" the emperor's fiscal problems by
introducing paper money and further mock the greed of
the courtiers in a great carnival celebration.
After descending to the realm of the Mothers, all-powerful
but unknown goddesses, Faust returns with the ability to
conjure Helen of Troy and Paris for the emperor.
Faust falls prey to his own desire for Helen, who vanishes
as Faust tries to grasp her, whereupon
he falls unconscious.
Act 2
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Mephisto brings the unconscious Faust to the old study.
He comes upon Wagner, now a famous professor
himself, who is creating life in the laboratory.
Homunculus, the small human figure resulting from this
experiment, takes Mephisto and the still unconscious
Faust with him to the Classical Walpurgisnight in Greece,
where gods, demigods, and other figures from ancient
mythology are gathered.
Here, Faust awakes and goes on a search for Helen,
which leads him to the underworld.
Mephisto wanders and resists seduction among the
mythic creatures and acquires a suitably ugly shape for
himself from the hideous Phorcyads.
Act 3
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Helen emerges from the underworld and returns to Sparta, only
to have to fear that her husband Menelaus intends to kill her.
Mephisto, in the frightening shape of Phorcyads, convinces her
to seek refuge in a medieval castle in the north, where Faust in
the role of a knight awaits her.
He courts and wins Helen, and they relocate to Arcadia and
have a son, Euphorion, the beautiful and graceful embodiment
of poetry.
But when Euphorion attempts to fly and fails [like Icarus], first
he and then Helen in her grief vanish from Faust's life.
Mephisto wants to take Faust again into journeys of pleasure,
but Faust has learned – he wants now to serve others and not
just himself
Act 4
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Faust turning his energies towards a plan to
reclaim land from the sea.
Mephisto convinces him to support the
emperor in a war against a rival, which is won
with the help of three figures at Mephisto's
service who represent primeval forces of
violence.
As a reward, the emperor grants
Faust coastal lands where he can
proceed with his reclamation plans.
Act 5
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All the land is his except for a tiny piece owned by an old couple who refuse to
sell. Mephistopheles engineers their dispossession, and they die of fright, a
guest is murdered, the place is burned--Faust is overcome with remorse.
Eventually these events lead him to repent & he extricates himself from
involvement with Mephistopheles.
Faust is visited by the allegorical figures of Want, Debt, Need, and Care, and
Care strikes him blind.
At end, Faust has a vision of ideal human society, balanced between
competition and cooperation. If this vision could be realized, he might say the
words of his wager. Faust dies.
Mephistopheles [thinking he has won] gathers a host of demons to grab his
soul as it leaves his body, but a host of angels drop roses on the demons.
Mephistopheles gets distracted, Faust's soul is carried away by angels.
Faust’s vision of happiness was not about his own happiness but the happiness
of others
Last scene: glimpses of purgatory, with various groups working patiently to
purify themselves. Gretchen's voice is heard among one group of penitents,
helping Faust move forward.