Goethe’s Faust: Hero or Villain?
David Pan
Humanities Core Course
Winter 2013, Lecture 2
STRUCTURE OF FAUST
Faust II
Act 5: Mountain gorges
Act 5: Burial
Act 5: Baucis and Philemon Story
Act 4: Counter-Emperor Story
GRETCHEN
STORY
•Gloomy Day
– Field
•Night
– Open Field
•Dungeon
Act 3: Helen Story
Faust I
WALPURGIS
NIGHT
•Walpurgis Night
•WalpurgisNight’s Dream
Act 2: Classical Walpurgis Night
GRETCHEN STORY
•A Street
•Evening
•Promenade
•The Neighbor’s
House
•A Street
•Martha’s Garden
•A Summer Cabin
•Forest and Cavern
•Gretchen’s Room
•Martha’s Garden
•At the Well
•By the Ramparts
•Night
•Cathedral
Act 1: Emperor Story
DEDICATION PRELUDE PROLOGUE FAUST STORY
IN THE
IN HEAVEN •Night
THEATER
•Before the Gate
•Faust’s Study
•Auerbach’s
Cellar in Leipzig
•Witch’s Kitchen
RAPHAEL.
The sun intones his ancient song
in contest with fraternal spheres,
and with a roll of thunder
rounds out his predetermined journey.
His aspect strengthens angels,
but none can fathom him.
The inconceivable creations
are glorious as from the first.
(243-50, p. 21)
RAPHAEL.
The sun intones his ancient song
in contest with fraternal spheres,
and with a roll of thunder
rounds out his predetermined journey.
His aspect strengthens angels,
but none can fathom him.
The inconceivable creations
are glorious as from the first.
(243-50, p. 21)
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Forgive me, but I can’t indulge in lofty words,
Although this crowd will hold me in contempt;
My pathos certainly would make you laugh,
Had you not dispensed with laughter long ago.
I waste no words on suns and planets,
I only see how men torment themselves.
Earth’s little god remains the same
And is as quaint as from the first.
He would have an easier time of it
Had you not let him glimpse celestial light;
He calls it reason and he only uses it
To be more bestial than the beasts.
(275-86, p. 23)
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Forgive me, but I can’t indulge in lofty words,
Although this crowd will hold me in contempt;
My pathos certainly would make you laugh,
Had you not dispensed with laughter long ago.
I waste no words on suns and planets,
I only see how men torment themselves.
Earth’s little god remains the same
And is as quaint as from the first.
He would have an easier time of it
Had you not let him glimpse celestial light;
He calls it reason and he only uses it
To be more bestial than the beasts.
(275-86, p. 23)
GOD:
I am glad to let you have apparent freedom;
I hold no hatred for the like of you.
Of all the spirits that negate,
The rogue to me is the least burdensome.
Man’s diligence is easily exhausted,
He grows too fond of unremitting peace.
I’m therefore pleased to give him a companion
Who must goad and prod and be a devil.—
But you, my own true sons of Heaven,
Rejoice in Beauty’s vibrant wealth.
That which becomes will live and work forever;
Let it enfold you with propitious bonds of Love.
And what appears as flickering image now,
Fix it firmly with enduring thought. (336-49, p. 29)
GOD:
I am glad to let you have apparent freedom;
I hold no hatred for the like of you.
Of all the spirits that negate,
The rogue to me is the least burdensome.
Man’s diligence is easily exhausted,
He grows too fond of unremitting peace.
I’m therefore pleased to give him a companion
Who must goad and prod and be a devil.—
But you, my own true sons of Heaven,
Rejoice in Beauty’s vibrant wealth.
That which becomes will live and work forever;
Let it enfold you with propitious bonds of Love.
And what appears as flickering image now,
Fix it firmly with enduring thought. (336-49, p. 29)
Devil goads
Man becomes
Angels fix with thought
The primary source of human failure is stasis.
The devil is useful in promoting continual activity.
The goal is to turn this activity into something lasting.
The Devil is
A. real and evil.
B. a foolish idea with dangerous consequences
for society.
C. a representation of the destructive aspects of
our world.
Words of Mephistopheles in the Faustbuch (1587)
Therefore is Hell called the Everlasting Pain,
in which is never Hope for Mercy;
so it is called utter Darkness, in which we
see neither the Light, the Sun, Moon, nor
Stars; and were our Darkness like the
Darkness of Night, yet were there Hopes of
Mercy: But ours is perpetual Darkness, clean
exempt from the Face of God.
Darkness
without Hope
Source: The surprizing life and death of Doctor John Faustus. To which is now added, the Necromancer: or, Harlequin, Doctor Faustus. As Performed
at the Theater Royal in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields. Likewise, the whole life of Fryar Bacon, the Famous Magician of England: And the merry Waggeries of his
Man Miles. Truly translated from the original copies. London: printed and sold by Edw. Midwinter, at the Looking-Glass on London-Bridge, 1740?. 22.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online. Gale Cengage Learning, 1 June 2004. Web. 21 December 2010.
Final lines of The Necromancer, or Harlequin, Dr. Faustus (1740)
Doctor waves his Wand, and the Scene is converted to a
Wood; a monstrous Dragon appears, and from each Claw
drops a daemon, representing divers Grotesque Figures;
several Female Spirits rise in Character to each Figure,
and join in Antick Dance.
As they are performing, a Clock Strikes, the Doctor is
seized, hurried away by Spirits, and devour’d by the
Monster, which immediately takes Flight; and while it is
disappearing, Spirits vanish, and other Daemons rejoyce
in the following Words: Now triumph Hell, and Fiends be
gay, The Sorc’rer is become our Prey.
[At the End of the Chorus the Curtain falls. FINIS
Scene becomes farce
Demons have the
final word in the play
Source: The surprizing life and death of Doctor John Faustus. To which is now added, the Necromancer: or, Harlequin, Doctor Faustus. As Performed
at the Theater Royal in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields. Likewise, the whole life of Fryar Bacon, the Famous Magician of England: And the merry Waggeries of his
Man Miles. Truly translated from the original copies. London: printed and sold by Edw. Midwinter, at the Looking-Glass on London-Bridge, 1740?. 8788. Eighteenth Century Collections Online. Gale Cengage Learning, 1 June 2004. Web. 21 December 2010.
FAUST: All right, who are you then?
MEPHISTOPHELES: A portion of that power
which always works for Evil and effects the Good.
FAUST: What is the meaning of this riddle?
MEPHISTOPHELES: I am the spirit that denies forever!
And rightly so! What has arisen from the void
deserves to be annihilated.
It would be best if nothing ever would arise.
And thus what you call havoc,
deadly sin, or briefly stated: Evil,
that is my proper element.
FAUST: You call yourself a part and yet stand before me
whole?
MEPHISTOPHELES: I state the modest truth to you.
While every member of your race – that little world of fools –
Likes best of all to think himself complete –
I am a portion of that part which once was everything,
a part of darkness which gave birth to Light,
that haughty Light which now disputes the rank
and ancient sway of Mother Night,
and though it tries its best, it won’t succeed
because it cleaves and sticks to bodies.
The bodies mill about, Light beautifies the bodies,
yet bodies have forever blocked its way—
and so I hope it won’t be long
before all bodies are annihilated.
(1335-50, p. 103-105)
FAUST: All right, who are you then?
MEPHISTOPHELES: A portion of that power
which always works for Evil and effects the Good.
FAUST: What is the meaning of this riddle?
MEPHISTOPHELES: I am the spirit that denies forever!
And rightly so! What has arisen from the void
deserves to be annihilated.
It would be best if nothing ever would arise.
And thus what you call havoc,
deadly sin, or briefly stated: Evil,
that is my proper element.
FAUST: You call yourself a part and yet stand before me
whole?
MEPHISTOPHELES: I state the modest truth to you.
While every member of your race – that little world of fools –
Likes best of all to think himself complete –
I am a portion of that part which once was everything,
a part of darkness which gave birth to Light,
that haughty Light which now disputes the rank
and ancient sway of Mother Night,
and though it tries its best, it won’t succeed
because it cleaves and sticks to bodies.
The bodies mill about, Light beautifies the bodies,
yet bodies have forever blocked its way—
and so I hope it won’t be long
before all bodies are annihilated.
(1335-50, p. 103-105)
The devil is not just evil,
but also creates good.
The devil represents a
destructive force
But darkness and
destruction precede new
creation
Development of Faust legend
Numbers of witch trials and
executions in Saxony
•1480 Historical Faust born
Historical Faust lives in an era in
which witch trials first begin
•1540 Historical Faust dies
Establishment of Faust legend
coincides with height of witch-hunts
•1587 Historia von D. Johann Fausten
•1604 Christopher Marlowe, Dr. Faustus
Faust legend turns to farce as witchhunts decline (Knellwolf 166-81)
•1684-88 Dr. Faustus, Made into a Farce
Goethe writes at a time when witchhunts are at an end
•1723 Harlequin Dr. Faustus
•1749 Goethe born
•1772-75 Goethe writes Urfaust
Source: Knellwolf King, Christa. Faustus and the Promises of the New Science, c. 1580-1730: From the Chapbooks to Harlequin Faustus.
Surrey, UK: Ashgate, 2008.
“Saxony.” Encyclopedia of Witchcraft: The Western Tradition. Ed. Richard Golden. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2006.
Faust:
Alas, I have studied philosophy,
The law as well as medicine,
And to my sorrow, theology;
Studied them well with ardent zeal,
Yet here I am, a wretched fool,
No wiser than I was before.
They call me Magister, even Doctor,
And for some ten years now
I’ve led my students by the nose,
Up and down, across, and in circles—
All I see is that we cannot know!
[…]
Therefore I have turned to magic,
So that by the spirit’s might and main
I might yet learn some secret lore;
That I need no longer sweat and toil
And dress my ignorance in empty words;
That I might behold the warp and the woof
Of the world’s inmost fabric,
Of its essential strength and fount
And no longer dig about in words.
(354-64, 377-85, pp. 31-33)
Faust:
Alas, I have studied philosophy,
The law as well as medicine,
And to my sorrow, theology;
Studied them well with ardent zeal,
Yet here I am, a wretched fool,
No wiser than I was before.
They call me Magister, even Doctor,
And for some ten years now
I’ve led my students by the nose,
Up and down, across, and in circles—
All I see is that we cannot know!
[…]
Therefore I have turned to magic,
So that by the spirit’s might and main
I might yet learn some secret lore;
That I need no longer sweat and toil
And dress my ignorance in empty words;
That I might behold the warp and the woof
Of the world’s inmost fabric,
Of its essential strength and fount
And no longer dig about in words.
(354-64, 377-85, pp. 31-33)
Faust begins by studying
books and words…
… but then he turns away from
books and toward direct
experience of the world.
Historical Faust
•
•
•
•
Johann (or Georg) Faust born in
Knittlingen, Wuerttemberg, around
1480 (Martin Luther born in 1483).
Begins at university, studying perhaps
at the Universities of Heidelberg or
Cracow and reportedly lecturing at the
University of Erfurt.
Later wanders and practices
astrology, alchemy, and medicine.
Reportedly dies in 1540 in Staufen,
Breisgau.
Faust begins by studying
books and words…
… but then he turns away from
books and toward direct
experience of the world.
Source: Palmer, Philip Mason and Robert Pattison More. The Sources of the Faust Tradition: From Simon Magus to Lessing. New York: Haskell, 1965. Print.
World
Word
Church reactions
Natural scientific discoveries
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
1492 Martin Behaim constructs a terrestrial
globe
1528 Paracelsus published his Kleine
Chirurgie, the first authoritative manual
dealing with surgery.
1543 Nicolaus Copernicus publishes De
Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium, which
explains heliocentrism.
1590 Zacharias Jansen builds the first
microscope.
1591 Giordano Bruno argues for infinity and
homogeneity of the universe in De immenso
et innumerabilis seu de universo et mundis.
1600 William Gilbert publishes De magnete,
explaining electricity and magnetism.
1632 Galileo Galilei defends heliocentrism in
his Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief
World Systems
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
1486 Heinrich Kramer publishes Malleus
Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches).
1515 The Lateran Council decrees in De
impressione librorum that no work may be
printed without permission from the
ecclesiastical authority.
1546 scholar and printer Etienne Dolet is
hanged and burned for publishing heretical
books.
1587 Historia von D. Johann Faustus
published as pro-Lutherian condemnation
of Faust’s pact with devil.
1600 Giordano Bruno burned at the stake
for heresy.
1616 Inquisition threatens Galileo Galilei
with punishment for teaching the
Copernican system.
1633 Church condemns Galileo and he
recants
Source: Classen, Albrecht. “New Knowledge, Disturbing and Attractive: The Faustbuch and the Wagnerbuch as Witnesses of the Early
Modern Paradigm Shift.” Daphnis 35.3-4 (2006): 515-535.
Williams, Neville. Chronology of the Expanding World, 1492-1762. New York: McKay, 1969.
Contemporary references to Faust
•
August 20, 1507, letter from Johannes Tritheim to Johannes Virdung: “Master George
Sabellicus, the younger Faust, the chief of necromancers, astrologer, the second magus,
palmist, diviner with earth and fire, second in the art of divination with water. […] he ought to
call himself a fool rather than a master.”
•
October 3, 1513, letter from Conrad Mutianus Rufus to Heinrich Urbanus: “a mere braggart
and fool.”
•
May 10, 1532, entry in the records of the city council of Nuremberg: “Safe conduct to Doctor
Faust, the great sodomite and necromancer, at Fuerth refused.”
•
1537 (published 1566), Martin Luther, Tischreden: “Much was said about Faust, who called
the devil his brother-in-law”
•
January 16, 1540, letter from Philipp von Hutten to his brother Moritz von Hutten:”Therefore
I must confess that the philosopher Faust hit the nail on the head, for we struck a very bad
year.”
Source: Palmer, Philip Mason and Robert Pattison More. The Sources of the Faust Tradition: From Simon Magus to Lessing. New
York: Haskell, 1965.
Structure of the Faustbuch
Table of Contents
Chap. II. How Dr. Faustus began to practise his Devilish Art, and
how he conjured the Devil making him to appear, and meet him
on the Morrow morning at his own House. 5
Chap. III. The Conference of Dr. Faustus with this Spirit
Mephistophiles, the Morning following, at his own House. 8
Chap. XXVIII. How Dr. Faustus play'd a merry Jest with the Duke
of Anhalt, in his Court. 48
Chap. XXIX. How Dr. Faustus, with his Company, visited the
Bishop of Salisburg's Wine Cellar. 50
Chap. XXX. How Faustus feasted his Guests on Ash - Wednesday.
52
Chap. XXXI. How Dr. Faustus conjured the four Wheels from the
Countryman's Waggon. 54
Chap. XXXII. How four Jugglers cut one anothers Heads off, and
set them on again, and Faustus deceived them. 56
Chap. XXXIII. How Dr. Faustus wrote the second time with his
own Blood, and gave it to the Devil. 57
Source: The surprizing and damnable life, and deserv'd death of Doctor John Faustus. London: printed by L. Nisbet; and are to be
sold by the booksellers of London and Westminster, [1750?]. Eighteenth Century Collections Online. Gale Cengage Learning, 1 June
2004. Web. 21 December 2010.
Pact with
the Devil
Adventures
with magic
Faust’s actions in the Faustbuch
Quoth Mephistophiles, to this I answer thee,
Thou canst not marry; for Wedlock is a chief Institution ordained of God, and
that thou hast promised to defy, as we do all.
Dr. Faustus fell into despair with himself, fearing, if he should motion
Matrimony any more, then the Devil would tear him to pieces. (18)
When Dr. Faustus called to Mind that his Time from Day to Day drew nigh,
he began to live a Swinish and Epicurish Life: Wherefore he commanded his
Spirit Mephistophiles to bring him seven of the fairest Women that he had seen
in all the Times of his Travel; which being brought, first to one, then another,
he lay with them all, insomuch that he liked them so well, that he continued
with them all manner of Love, and made them to travel with him all his
Journies; these Women were two Netherland, one Hungarian, one Scottish,
two Walloon, and one Franklander.
And with these sweet Personages he continued long, yea, even to his last End.
(62-63)
Faustus is not allowed to marry
because marriage is “ordained of
God” and places sexuality under
the laws of the divine order.
Faustus is content
to live a “Swinish
and Epicurish Life”
with seven
different women.
His life of
sensual
pleasure is
framed in the
narration by
reminders of
his eventual
bad end.
Source: The surprizing life and death of Doctor John Faustus. To which is now added, the Necromancer: or, Harlequin, Doctor Faustus. As Performed at the Theater Royal in Lincoln's-InnFields. Likewise, the whole life of Fryar Bacon, the Famous Magician of England: And the merry Waggeries of his Man Miles. Truly translated from the original copies. London: printed and
sold by Edw. Midwinter, at the Looking-Glass on London-Bridge, 1740?. Eighteenth Century Collections Online. Gale Cengage Learning, 1 June 2004. Web. 21 December 2010.
Faustbuch narrator’s commentary on Faust’s actions
Whoever only has the temporal in light
And for the eternal has no sight
Surrenders to the devil day and night
Had better keep his soul in sight. (Historia 23)
And thus ended the whole History of Dr. Faustus’s
Conjuration, and other Acts that he did in his Life;
out of which Example every Christian may learn;
but chiefly the Stiff-necked, and High-minded, may
thereby learn to fear God, and to be careful of their
Vocation, and to be at Defiance with all devilish
Works, that God hath most precisely forbidden.
(Surprizing, 1740?, 78-79)
Defends eternal against temporal
Last lines of story warn the “Stiffnecked and High-minded” against
“devilish Works.”
Source: Historia von D. Johann Fausten: Text des Druckes von 1587. Ed. Stephan Füssel and Hans Joachim Kreutzer. Stuttgart: Reclam, 1988. My translation.
The surprizing life and death of Doctor John Faustus. To which is now added, the Necromancer: or, Harlequin, Doctor Faustus. As Performed at the Theater Royal in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields. Likewise, the whole life
of Fryar Bacon, the Famous Magician of England: And the merry Waggeries of his Man Miles. Truly translated from the original copies. London: printed and sold by Edw. Midwinter, at the Looking-Glass on
London-Bridge, 1740?. Eighteenth Century Collections Online. Gale Cengage Learning, 1 June 2004. Web. 21 December 2010.
FAUST.
…one learns to prize the supernatural,
one yearns for highest Revelation,
which nowhere burns more nobly and more bright
than here in my New Testament.
I feel impelled to read this basic text
and to transpose the hallowed words,
with feeling and integrity,
into my own beloved German
(He opens a volume and begins.)
It is written: “In the beginning was the Word!”
Even now I balk. Can no one help?
I truly cannot rate the word so high.
I must translate it otherwise.
I believe the Spirit has inspired me
and I must write: “In the beginning there was Mind.”
Think thoroughly on this first line,
hold back your pen from undue haste!
Is it mind that stirs and makes all things?
The text should state: “In the beginning there was Power!”
Yet while I am about to write this down,
something warns me I will not adhere to this.
The Spirit’s on my side! The answer is at hand:
I write, assured, “In the beginning was the Deed.”
(1216-47, pp. 95-97)
Faust maintains a focus on
supernatural revelation.
Faust begins with a Christian
focus on the word,
Buts then wants to achieve
revelation through action
rather than words.
In the 1604 Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe,
Faust trades his soul for the devil’s service.
Dr. Faustus’s pact with the devil
FAUSTUS.
I, JOHN FAUSTUS, OF WERTENBERG, DOCTOR, BY THESE PRESENTS,
DO GIVE BOTH BODY AND SOUL TO LUCIFER PRINCE OF THE EAST, AND
HIS MINISTER MEPHISTOPHILIS; AND FURTHERMORE GRANT UNTO
THEM, THAT, TWENTY-FOUR YEARS BEING EXPIRED, THE ARTICLES
ABOVE-WRITTEN INVIOLATE, FULL POWER TO FETCH OR CARRY THE
SAID JOHN FAUSTUS, BODY AND SOUL, FLESH, BLOOD, OR GOODS, INTO
THEIR HABITATION WHERESOEVER. BY ME, JOHN FAUSTUS.
(Christopher Marlowe, Dr. Faustus, 88-89)
Soul
Devil’s Service
Christopher Marlowe, The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus: From the Quarto of 1604, ed. Rev. Alexander Dyce, Project Gutenberg, January
1997 (etext #779), Web, 20 December 2010. “Mephistopheles Offering His Help to Faust”. Photograph. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Web. 22 Dec. 2010.
FAUST.
What poor devil can you offer?
Was ever human spirit in its striving
comprehended by the likes of you?
Yet do you offer food which does not satisfy? Have
you red gold which moves unsteadily,
quicksilver-like between one’s fingers,
sports where no one gains the prize,
[…]
Show me the fruit that rots before it’s plucked
and trees that grow their greenery anew each day!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
A project of this nature does not trouble me.
I know I can provide such treasures.
But there will come a time, my friend,
when we shall want to feast at our leisure.
FAUST
If you should ever find me lolling on a bed of ease,
let me be done for on the spot!
If you ever lure me with your lying flatteries,
and I find satisfaction in myself,
if you bamboozle me with pleasure,
then let this be my final day!
This bet I offer you!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Agreed! (1672-97, p. 131)
FAUST.
What poor devil can you offer?
Was ever human spirit in its striving
comprehended by the likes of you?
Yet do you offer food which does not satisfy? Have
you red gold which moves unsteadily,
quicksilver-like between one’s fingers,
sports where no one gains the prize,
[…]
Show me the fruit that rots before it’s plucked
and trees that grow their greenery anew each day!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
A project of this nature does not trouble me.
I know I can provide such treasures.
But there will come a time, my friend,
when we shall want to feast at our leisure.
FAUST
If you should ever find me lolling on a bed of ease,
let me be done for on the spot!
If you ever lure me with your lying flatteries,
and I find satisfaction in myself,
if you bamboozle me with pleasure,
then let this be my final day!
This bet I offer you!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Agreed! (1672-97, p. 131)
Faust wants an experience
of continual dissatisfaction.
Mephistopheles insists on
offering pleasure.
Rejecting leisure and
satisfaction, Faust wants to
continually strive.
The wager gives Faust the possibility of worldly immortality.
FAUST.
If you should ever find me lolling on a
bed of ease,
Let me be done for on the spot!
If you ever lure me with your lying
flatteries,
And I find satisfaction in myself,
If you bamboozle me with pleasure,
Then let this be my final day!
This bet I offer you!
MEPHISTOPHELES. Agreed!
(1692-98, p. 131)
Win
Continual
striving and
devil’s
service
Lose
Satisfaction
means loss
of soul
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Weigh it thoroughly, we shall not forget.
FAUST.
You have a perfect right to this;
this is no rash or headlong action.
Such as I am [Once come to rest], I am a slave –
of yours or whosesoever is of no concern.
[Wie ich beharre, bin ich Knecht,
Ob dein, was frag’ ich, oder wessen.]
(1710-11, p. 133)
In winning the bet, his
triumph over the devil
would not be a
submission to God,
but a confirmation of
his own individual
sovereignty.
FAUST.
Be not afraid that I might break this pact!
The sum and essence of my striving
is the very thing I promise you.
I had become too overblown,
while actually I only rank with you.
Ever since the mighty spirit turned from me,
Nature kept her doorway closed.
The threads of thought are torn to pieces,
and learning has become repugnant.
Let in the throes of raging senses
seething passions quench my thirst!
In never lifted magic veils
let every miracle take form!
Let me plunge into the rush of passing time,
into the rolling tide of circumstance!
Then let sorrow and delight,
frustration or success,
occur in turn as happenstance;
restless action is the state of man. (1741-1759, pp. 135-37)
FAUST.
Be not afraid that I might break this pact!
The sum and essence of my striving
is the very thing I promise you.
I had become too overblown,
while actually I only rank with you.
Ever since the mighty spirit turned from me,
Nature kept her doorway closed.
He accepts that he cannot
The threads of thought are torn to pieces,
rule over nature.
and learning has become repugnant.
Let in the throes of raging senses
He rejects thought and
seething passions quench my thirst!
learning.
In never lifted magic veils
let every miracle take form!
Let me plunge into the rush of passing time,
into the rolling tide of circumstance!
Then let sorrow and delight,
frustration or success,
occur in turn as happenstance;
restless action is the state of man. (1741-1759, pp. 135-37)
Faust’s promise to never be
satisfied is the “sum and
essence” of his striving as
an individual.
Faust imagines a
merging of
individual ideal
and worldly reality
through human
action in society.
He embraces action
and wants to immerse
himself in the passions
and circumstances of
the human world.
The Choirs of Angels and Disciples praise Christ.
CHOIR OF ANGELS.
Christ is arisen!
Blessed He who loves
and who emerges whole
from the grueling
grievous ordeal.
[beneficial
conditioning ordeal.]
(heilsam’ und uebende
Pruefung bestanden.)
(757-761, p. 61)
CHOIR OF THE DISCIPLES.
He who was buried,
the Lord of life,
has ascended in glory,
to Heaven on high,
in eager Becoming
near joyous creation.
(785-90, pp. 61-63)
The emphasis is on passing
through the edifying ordeal of
worldly experience.
Ascension to heaven is a movement
into a realm of Becoming.
CHOIR OF ANGELS.
Christ is arisen!
Blessed He who loves
and who emerges whole
from the grueling
grievous ordeal.
[beneficial
conditioning ordeal.]
(heilsam’ und uebende
Pruefung bestanden.)
(757-761, p. 61)
CHOIR OF THE DISCIPLES.
He who was buried,
the Lord of life,
has ascended in glory,
to Heaven on high,
in eager Becoming
near joyous creation.
(785-90, pp. 61-63)
Faust’s desire to go
into the world is similar
to the path of Christ
through the world.
FAUST.
I told you, I am not concerned with pleasure
I crave corrosive joy and dissipation,
enamored hate and quickening despair.
My breast no longer thirsts for knowledge
and will welcome grief and pain.
Whatever is the lot of humankind
I want to taste within my deepest self.
I want to seize the highest and the lowest,
to load its woe and bliss upon my breast,
and thus expand my single self titanically
and in the end, go down with all the rest [of
humankind].
(1765-1775, p. 137)