Faust: Part One

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Faust Part One
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
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• a German writer- generally acknowledged as the
  most important
• George Eliot called him "Germany's greatest man
  of letters... and the last true polymath (a
  person of great learning in several fields of
  study) to walk the earth.
• Goethe's works span the fields of poetry, drama,
  literature, theology, philosophy, and science.
• Goethe's Faust, a two-part dramatic poem, is
  lauded as one of the peaks of world literature

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Goethe
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Faust
The story of a man whose intellectual cravings
led him to sell his soul to the devil. Goethe
worked for most of his life (off and on for 60
yrs!) on this masterwork.
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• Faust is an alchemical drama from beginning to
  end.
• Faust or Faustus is Latin for auspicious or
  lucky. Today the name is often used to refer to
  describe a man whose overwhelming desire for
  self-fulfillment and knowledge lead to pain and
  destruction.
• Protagonist of classic German folk tale of a man
  who seeks forbidden knowledgean astrologer,
  expert in magic, and an alchemist.

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• Goethe's story created a new persona for the
  Devil - Mephistopheles was a gentleman, who had
  adopted the manners of a courtier.
• Faust's lust for knowledge is limitless but he is
  frustrated by his limits as a human- he makes a
  contract with Mephistopheles he will die and
  Meph. may take Fausts soul at the moment Faust
  declares himself truly happy (Faust thinks its a
  bet he cant lose.)

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• Fausts yearning for experience and knowledge
  created the character type known as the Faustian
  hero, though Faust can often seem more of a
  villain than a hero and the supposed
  villain--Mephistopheles--is one of the most
  likable characters in the play
• The book was designed to be read rather than
  performed
• It is difficult, if not useless, to try to figure
  out what the "real" point of Faust is, or which
  of the many views of life it presents is the
  correct one. Its Romantic precisely because it
  explores a wide variety of polar opposites
  without fully resolving them.
• One the most important tensions in the play is
  between scholarly learning and experience. Faust
  himself rejects scholarship for life experiences,
  but Goethe does not completely endorse this view.
  Mephistopheles, who is usually both truthful and
  wise, warns him against this enthusiasm for raw
  experience.

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Satan?
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