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Faust: Part One. by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832). 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.“
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Faust: Part One by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
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
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.
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 knowledge…an astrologer, expert in magic, and an alchemist.
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 Faust’s soul at the moment Faust declares himself truly happy (Faust thinks it’s a bet he can’t lose.)
Faust’s 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. It’s 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.
