Faust, Part One

“I see all our search for knowledge is vain,

And this burns my heart with bitter pain.

I’ve more sense, to be sure, than the learned fools,

The masters and pastors, the scribes for the schools;

No scruples to plague me, no irksome doubt,

No hell-fire or devil to worry about—

Yet I take no pleasure in anything now;

For now I know nothing, I wonder how

I can still keep up the pretence of teaching

Or bettering mankind with my empty preaching.

Can I even boast any worldly success?

What fame or riches do I possess?

No dog would put up with such an existence!

And so I am seeking magic’s assistance,

Calling on spirits and their might

To show me many a secret sight,

To relieve me of the wretched task

Of telling things I ought rather to ask,

To grant me a vision of Nature’s forces

That bind the world, all its seeds and sources

And innermost life—all this I shall see,

And stop peddling in words that mean nothing to me.”

Faust says this at the start of the play, as he sits in his study. It sets up his inner conflict that will define his actions throughout the play, as he feels unfulfilled by traditional scholarship and reading, and instead turns to the spiritual world in his quest for meaning and knowledge. It also sets up the recurring motif of words and their (lack of) value, as he speaks of “words that mean nothing to me.”

“I had the power

To summon you, but could not hold you there.

I felt in that ecstatic hour

So small, and yet so great: and then

You hurled me back so cruelly

Into the changeful common state of men.

What must I do now? Who shall counsel me?

What urge claims my obedience?

Alas, not only pain, even activity

Itself can stop our life’s advance. […]

But what is this? My eyes, magnetically drawn,

Are fixed on that one spot, where I can see

That little flask: why does sweet light break over me,

As when in a dark wood the gentle moonbeams dawn?

Unique alembic! Reverently I lift

You down and greet you. Now, most subtle gift

Compounded of the wit and art of man,

Distilment of all drowsy syrups, kind

Quintessence of all deadly and refined

Elixirs, come, and serve your master as you can! […]

A fiery chariot on light wings descends

And hovers by me! I will set forth here

On a new journey to the heaven’s ends,

To pure activity in a new sphere!

sublime life, o godlike joy! And how 

Do I, the erstwhile worm, deserve it now?

I will be resolute, and turn away

For ever from the earth’s sweet day.

Dread doors, though all men sneak and shuffle past

You, I’ll confront you, tear you open wide!

Here it is time for me to prove at last

That by his noble deeds a man is deified;

Time not to shrink from the dark cavern where

Our fancy damns itself to its own tortured fate;

Time to approach the narrow gate

Ringed by the eternal flames of hell’s despair;

Time to step gladly over this great brink,

And if it is the void, into the void to sink!”

Faust says this after he summons and gets rejected by the Earth Spirit. It shows his misery and desperation before Mephistopheles arrives, which drives him to consider suicide and makes him disillusioned with the world and his life. It also introduces the poison, which will reappear throughout the play, first in the discussion of Faust’s father, and then in the poisoning of Gretchen’s mother.

“Wagner: I too have known fanciful states of mind,

But to such moods as yours I never was inclined.

One soon grows tired of forests and fields;

I never envied any bird its wings.

But the pursuit of intellectual things

From book to book, from page to page—what joys that

yields! […]

Faust: Only one of our needs is known to you;

You must not learn the other, oh beware!

In me there are two souls, alas, and their

Division tears my life in two.

One loves the world, it clutches her, it binds

Itself to her, clinging with furious lust;

The other longs to soar beyond the dust

Into the realm of high ancestral minds.

Are there no spirits moving in the air,

Ruling the region between earth and sky?

Come down then to me from your golden mists on high,

And to new, many-coloured life, oh take me there!

Give me a magic cloak to carry me

Away to some far place, some land untold,

And I’d not part with it for silk and gold

Or a king’s crown, so precious it would be!”

Wagner and Faust have this exchange as they go on a walk on Easter morning. It shows the separation in thought between Faust and Wagner, who is more driven by traditional Enlightenment-era ideals of reason and intellectualism than Faust and his love of nature. It also introduces the internal division Faust feels between nature and the spiritual realm, and his call for spirits to help take him away foreshadows Mephistopheles’ arrival and Faust’s motivations for taking his deal.

“But what is this I see?

Can it be happening naturally?

Is it real? Is it a dream or not?

How long and broad my poodle has got!

He heaves himself upright:

This is no dog, if I trust my sight!

What hobgoblin have I brought home somehow?"

Faust says this as the black poodle begins to morph into Mephistopheles. It illustrates Mephistopheles’ arrival into Faust’s life and his magical abilities, marking a major plot point in the text.

“Mephistopheles: I am the spirit of perpetual negation;

And rightly so, for all things that exist

Deserve to perish, and would not be missed—

Much better it would be if nothing were

Brought into being. Thus, what you men call

Destruction, sin, evil in short, is all

My sphere, the element I most prefer. […]

The Something, this coarse world, this mess,

Stands in the way of Nothingness,

And despite all I’ve undertaken,

This solid lump cannot be shaken—

Storms, earthquakes, fire and flood assail the land

And sea, yet firmly as before they stand!

And as for that damned stuff, the brood of beasts and men,

That too is indestructible, I’ve found;

I’ve buried millions—they’re no sooner underground

Than new fresh blood will circulate again.

So it goes on; it drives me mad. […]

Faust: And so the ever-stirring, wholesome energy

Of life is your arch-enemy;

So in cold rage you raise in vain

Your clenched satanic fist. Why, you

Strange son of chaos! Think again,

And look for something else to do!”

Mephistopheles and Faust have this exchange when Mephistopheles first appears to Faust, before they make their bargain. It helps to explain Mephistopheles as a character and his motivations, laying bare his evilness and desire for destruction. His desire to destroy the earth and disdain for the natural world also helps to distinguish him from Faust, who is obsessed with nature.

“Mephistopheles: Stop playing with your misery,

That gnaws your vitals like some carrion-bird!

Even the worst human society

Where you feel human, is to be preferred!

I don’t of course propose that we  

Should merely mingle with the common herd;

I’m not exactly a grandee,

But if you’d fancy getting through

Your life in partnership with me,

I shall with pleasure, without more ado,

Wholly devote myself to you.

You shall have my company,

And if you are satisfied,

I shall be your servant, always at your side!

Faust: And what is your reward for this to be? […]

The Devil has his tit-for-tat;

He is an egoist, he’ll not work for free,

Merely to benefit humanity.

State your conditions, make them plain and clear!

Servants like you can cost one dear.

Mephistopheles: In this world I will bind myself to cater

For all your whims, to serve and wait on you;

When we meet in the next world, some time later,

Wages in the same kind will then fall due. […]

Faust: If I ever lie down in sloth and base inaction,

Then let that moment be my end!

If by your false cajolery

You lull me into self-sufficiency,

If any pleasure you can give

Deludes me, let me cease to live!

I offer you this wager!

Mephistopheles: Done!”

Mephistopheles and Faust have this exchange as they make their deal. It is a critical plot point, as it establishes their bargain: Mephistopheles will be Faust’s servant and help him get what he wants, but Mephistopheles will get Faust’s eternal soul if Faust ever spiritually stagnates and becomes slothful.

“Faust: But you need have no fear that I will break

This bond. To strive with all my energies—

Just that is what I undertake.

I have been too puffed up with pride:

I see now I belong beside

Merely the likes of you. With scorn

That mighty Spirit spurned me, Nature’s door

Is closed, the thread of thought is torn,

Books sicken me, I’ll learn no more.

Now let us slake hot passions in

The depths of sweet and sensual sin!

Make me your magics—I’ll not care to know

What lies behind their outward show.

Let us plunge into the rush of things,

Of time all its happenings!

And then let pleasure and distress,

Disappointment and success,

Succeed each other as they will;

Man cannot act if he is standing still. 

Mephistopheles: Nothing shall limit you; if you wish,

sir,

To sample every possible delight,

To snatch your pleasures in full flight,

Then let it be as you prefer.

Enjoy them boldly, grasp at what you want!

Faust: I tell you, the mere pleasure’s not the point!

To dizzying, painful joy I dedicate

Myself, to refreshing frustration, loving hate!

I’ve purged the lust for knowledge from my soul;

Now the full range of suffering it shall face,

And in my inner self I will embrace

The experience allotted to the whole

Race of mankind; my mind shall grasp the heights

And depths, my heart know all their sorrows and delights.

Thus I’ll expand myself, and their self I shall be,

And perish in the end, like all humanity.”

Mephistopheles and Faust have this exchange after they make their deal, and Mephistopheles asks Faust to sign his name to it in blood. It establishes what Faust wants from Mephistopheles and his desire for passion and feeling, both good and bad. Faust’s desire for “sweet and sensual sin” also helps to foreshadow and explain the motivation behind some of the sinful actions—like his union with Gretchen—that he later commits.

“Scorn reason, despise learning, man’s supreme

Powers and faculties; let your vain dream

Of magic arts be fortified with sweet

Flatteries by the Spirit of Deceit,

And you’re mine, signature or none!—

Fate has endowed him with the blind

Impatience of an ever-striving mind;

In headlong haste it drives him on,

He skips the earth and leaves its joys behind.

I’ll drag him through life’s wastes, through every kind

Of meaningless banality;

He’ll struggle like a bird stuck fast, I’ll bind

Him hand and foot; in his voracity

He’ll cry in vain for food and drink, he’ll find

Them dangling out of reach—ah, yes!

Even without this devil’s bond that he has signed

He’s doomed to perish nonetheless!”

Mephistopheles delivers this speech to himself after Faust leaves to start packing for their travels. It shows Mephistopheles’ evil motivations and plans for “helping” Faust, and his intention to see his soul suffer no matter the outcome of their deal.

“Faust: Oh heavenly image! What is this I see

Appearing to me in this magic glass?

Love, carry me to where she dwells, alas,

Oh, lend the swiftest of your wings to me!

If I so much as move from this one spot,

If I dare to approach her, then she seems

To fade, I see her as in misty dreams!

The loveliest image of a woman! Is this not

Impossible, can woman be so fair?

I see in that sweet body lying there

The quintessence of paradise! How can one 

Believe such things exist beneath the sun?

Mephistopheles: Well, if a god has worked hard for

six days

And on the seventh gives himself high praise,

You’d think it would be reasonably well done!—

Look your fill at her now, I’ll find

A little darling for you of that kind;

Then you can try your luck. If you succeed

In winning her, you’ll be a happy man indeed!”

Faust and Mephistopheles have this exchange when Faust sees a woman in a mirror at the witch’s kitchen. Their discussion of the woman signals Faust’s lust and desire for romance and foreshadows Gretchen’s arrival.

“Faust: My sweet young lady, if I may

I will escort you on your way.

Gretchen: I’m not a lady and I’m not sweet,

I can get home on my own two feet.

[She frees herself and walks on]

Faust: By God, that’s a lovely girl! 

More lovely than I’ve ever met. 

So virtuous, so decent, yet

A touch of sauciness as well!

Her lips so red, her cheeks so bright—

All my life I’ll not forget that sight.

It stirred my very heart to see

Her eyes cast down so modestly,

And how she put me in my place,

With so much charm and so much grace!

[Enter Mephistopheles]

Look, you must get that girl for me! […]

Mephistopheles: Ah, yes!

She’s just been making her confession.

Her priest gave her full absolution:

I sneaked up and was listening.

She’s a poor innocent little thing,

With nothing whatever to confess.

I’ve no power over her, I fear.”

Faust, Gretchen, and Mephistopheles have this exchange on the street, when Faust and Gretchen meet for the first time. The couple’s meeting marks a major plot point, and Mephistopheles’ comments about Gretchen introduce both her essential innocence before Faust corrupts her, and how religious she is, which sets up the shame and guilt she faces after sinning. 

“Just think: those jewels for Gretchen

that I got,

A priest has been and swiped the lot!—

Her mother took one look, and hey!

She had the horrors straight away.

That woman’s got a good nose all right,

Snuffling her prayer-book day and night,

With any commodity she can tell

Profane from sacred from the smell;

And as for those jewels, she knew soon enough

There was something unholy about that stuff.

‘My child,’ she exclaimed, ‘ill-gotten wealth

Poisons one’s spiritual health.

To God’s blessed Mother it must be given,

And she will reward us with manna from heaven!’

How Meg’s face fell, poor little minx!

It’s a gift-horse after all, she thinks,

And whoever so kindly brought it—how can

There be anything godless about such a man?”

Mephistopheles says this to Faust after they go to Gretchen’s room and leave jewels for her. It suggests the religious world that Gretchen comes from, which affects how she falls from grace after sinning. Her sadness over losing the jewels, rather than wanting to give them to the church, also suggests how Gretchen is open to sinful or selfish actions that aren’t in line with Christian values, which foreshadows her eventual decision to sleep with Faust. 

“Oh goodness gracious, what a lot

Of clever thoughts in his head he’s got!

I’m so ashamed, I just agree

With all he says, poor silly me.

I’m just a child and don’t know a thing,

How can he find me so interesting?”

Gretchen says this to herself about Faust after they spend time together and declare their love for one another. It illustrates the dynamic between Gretchen and Faust, as Faust loves Gretchen, yet Gretchen feels inadequate and ashamed of her own naivety compared to him and remains confused by his affection for her.

“Oh sublime Spirit! You have given me,

Given me all I asked for. From the fire

You turned your face to me, and not in vain.

You gave me Nature’s splendour for my kingdom,

And strength to grasp it with my heart. No mere

Cold curious inspection was the privilege 

You granted me, but to gaze deep, as into

The heart of a dear friend. […]

Then in this cavern’s refuge, where you lead me,

You show me to myself, and my own heart’s 

Profound mysterious wonders are disclosed.

And when the pure moon lifts its soothing light

As I look skywards, then from rocky cliffs 

And dewy thickets the ensilvered shapes

Of a lost world, hovering there before me,

Assuage the austere joy of my contemplation.

Oh now I feel this truth, that for mankind

No boon is perfect. To such happiness,

Which brings me ever nearer to the gods,

You added a companion, who already 

Is indispensable to me, although 

With one cold mocking breath he can degrade me

In my own eyes, and turn your gifts to nothing.

He stirs my heart into a burning fire

Of passion for that lovely woman’s image.

Thus from my lust I stumble to fulfillment,

And in fulfillment for more lust I languish.”

Faust delivers this speech to the Earth Spirit after he falls in love with Gretchen and before he and Gretchen have sex. It shows how he still believes the more benevolent Earth Spirit is guiding him, rather than the devilish Mephistopheles, and shows how his travels with Mephistopheles are aiding his quest for spiritual meaning and knowledge. It also illustrates his disdain and dislike for Mephistopheles despite the help he’s given to Faust.

“What sort of life would you have

had—just tell

Me that, poor earthling!—without my

Assistance? For some time I’ve cured

Your scribble-scrabbling fancies; why,

If I’d not been there, rest assured

You’d have already bid this world goodbye.

And now in clefts and caves you sit

Here like an ancient owl—what good is it?—

Sucking some toad-like sustenance, all on your own,

From this dank moss and dripping stone!

A charming way to pass the year!

You’re the learned doctor still, I fear.”

Mephistopheles says this to Faust after Faust tells Mephistopheles he wishes he would go away and leave him be. It shows what Mephistopheles has done for Faust, despite Faust thinking that it’s been the Earth Spirit’s doing, and shows the dynamic between Faust and Mephistopheles. Though Faust shows disdain for Mephistopheles and disapproves of some of his actions, Mephistopheles always insists that Faust only has himself to blame, and that Mephistopheles is in fact helping him as well. It also suggests how Faust has not yet been fully transformed or changed through his adventures with Mephistopheles, who suggests that Faust is still the “learned doctor” he was at the start of the play.

“What are the joys of heaven in her embrace?

So close to her, her dear love warming me,

Yet still I feel her misery!

Who am I? The unhoused, the fugitive,

The aimless, restless reprobate,

Plunging like some wild waterfall from cliff to cliff

Down to the abyss, in greedy furious spate!

And as I passed—she, childlike, innocent,

A hut, a meadow on the mountain-slope,

A home like that, such sweet content,

Her little world, her little scope!

And I, whom God had cursed,

Rocks could not satisfy

My rage to rive and burst

And wreck as I rushed by!

I had to ruin her, to undermine

Her peace; she was our victim, hell’s and mine!

Help me, you devil, to cut short this waiting,

This fear! Let it be soon, if it must be!

May her fate crush me, my own fate out-fating,

And I be doomed with her, and she with me!”

Faust says this to Mephistopheles about Gretchen after Mephistopheles suggests that she will face a doomed fate. It illustrates how Faust expresses remorse and guilt over his treatment of Gretchen—whose life he will destroy—yet still sleeps with her and spurs her downfall anyway, betraying Faust’s struggle between his internal goodness and his sinful desires.

“My sweet beloved child, don’t misconceive

My meaning! Who dare say God’s name?

Who dares to claim

That he believes in God?

And whose heart is so dead

That he has ever boldly said:

No, I do not believe?

Embracing all things,

Holding all things in being,

Does He not hold and keep

You, me, even Himself?

Is not the heavens’ great vault up there on high,

And here below, does not the earth stand fast?

Do everlasting stars, gleaming with love,

Not rise above us through the sky? 

Are we not here and gazing eye to eye?

Does all this not besiege

Your mind and heart,

And weave in unseen visibility

All round you its eternal mystery?

Oh, fill your heart right up with all of this,

And when you’re brimming over with the bliss 

Of such a feeling, call it what you like!

Call it joy, or your heart, or love, or God!

I have no name for it. The feeling’s all there is:

The name’s mere noise and smoke—what does it do

But cloud the heavenly radiance?”

Faust says this to Gretchen when she interrogates him about his feelings on religion and whether he believes in God. It illustrates the recurring motif of religion in Faust Part I and highlights Faust’s obsession with nature, which recurs throughout the play. Faust’s unwillingness to name God’s power as “God” also shows Faust’s obsession with valuing feeling and passion over words.

“That man you have with you—

I hate him, upon my soul I do!

It pierces me to the heart like a knife.

I’ve seen nothing so dreadful in all my life

As that man’s face and its ugly sneer. […]

It upsets me so much, each time I see

Him coming, that I even doubt

If I still love you, when he’s about.

Besides, when he’s there, I never could pray.

And that’s what’s eating my heart away.

Dear Heinrich, tell me you feel the same way!”

Gretchen says this to Faust about Mephistopheles. It shows her hate for Mephistopheles, and her ability to recognize him as an evil presence—potentially even as the devil, Mephistopheles later suggests—suggests her essential goodness and innocence. While Gretchen is not lured by Mephistopheles, her statement that she can’t pray around him also could suggest how his presence corrupts her nonetheless, potentially leading her to commit the sin of sleeping with Faust.

“Faust: Oh, tell me whether

We can have some peaceful hour together,

Lie breast to breast and mingle soul with soul!

Gretchen: Oh, if only I slept alone it would be all right,

I’d leave you my door unbolted tonight.

But my mother sleeps lightly, and if she

Were to wake up and catch us, oh goodness me,

I’d drop down dead on the very spot!

Faust: My darling, there need be no such surprise.

Look, take this little flask I’ve got:

You must put just three drops in her drink

And into a sweet, sound sleep she’ll sink.

Gretchen: What would I not do for your sake!

But she’ll be all right again, she’ll wake?

Faust: Would I suggest it otherwise?

Gretchen: I look at you, dear Heinrich, and somehow

My will is yours, it’s not my own will now.

Already I’ve done so many things for you,

There’s—almost nothing left to do.”

Gretchen and Faust have this exchange before they sleep together. It is a pivotal plot point, as it spurs Gretchen’s downfall. The discussion of putting drops of the poison in her mother’s drink also shows how Faust is willing to commit sinful actions—as he knows what he’s giving Gretchen is poison—for his own selfish gains. Gretchen’s mother dies from the poison and Gretchen is punished for it, though this conversation shows that she did not believe she was doing anything wrong by putting the poison in her drink.

“Lieschen: Don’t tell me you’re sorry for her!

Why, all the rest of us, there we were,

Spinning, our mothers not letting us out

In the evenings, while she’s sitting about

In dark doorways with their fancy man,

Lingering in alleys as long as they can!

Well, now she’ll have her church penance to do,

And sit in her smock on the sinner’s pew! […]

Gretchen: What angry things I used

to say

When some poor girl had gone astray!

I used to rack my brains to find

Words to condemn sins of that kind;

Blacker than black they seemed to be,

And were still not black enough for me,

And I crossed myself and made such a to-do—

Now that sin of others is my sin too!

Oh God! But all that made me do it

Was good, such dear love drove me to it!”

This exchange comes as Gretchen and her friend Lieschen discuss their acquaintance Barbara, who has become pregnant out of wedlock; Gretchen’s line is delivered to herself after Lieschen leaves. The quote reveals that Gretchen did, in fact, sleep with Faust, though she believes herself to have done so out of love, rather than sin. Lieschen’s judgment of Barbara, however, shows the cultural attitudes in Gretchen’s town toward premarital sex and how harshly it’s judged, foreshadowing and setting up the shame and downfall Gretchen will soon face.

“Since you’re a whore now, have some sense

And do it properly! […]

What’s done is done, I’m sorry to say,

And things must go in their usual way.

You started in secret with one man;

Soon others will come where he began,

And when a dozen have joined the queue

The whole town will be having you!

Let me tell you about disgrace:

It enters the world as a secret shame,

Born in the dark without a name,

With the hood of night about its face.

It’s something that you’ll long to kill.

But as it grows, it makes its way

Even into the light of day;

It’s bigger, but it’s ugly still!

The filthier its face has grown,

The more it must be seen and shown.

There’ll come a time, and this I know,

All decent folk will abhor you so,

You slut! That like a plague-infected

Corpse you’ll be shunned, you’ll be rejected,

They’ll look at you and your heart will quail,

Their eyes will all tell the same tale!

You’ll have no gold chains or jewelry then,

Never stand in church by the altar again,

Never have any pretty lace to wear

At the dance, for you’ll not be dancing there!

Into some dark corner may you creep

Among beggars and cripples to hide and weep;

And let God forgive you as he may—

But on earth be cursed till your dying day! […]

I tell you, tears won’t mend things now,

When you and your honor came to part,

That’s when you stabbed me in the heart.

I’ll meet my Maker presently—

As the soldier I’m still proud to be.”

Gretchen’s brother Valentine says this to her after Faust stabs him, before he dies. It shows the harsh judgment and scorn that Gretchen faces for sleeping with Faust, even from her own brother, and suggests the consequences she’ll face for doing so.

“How different things were for you,

Gretchen,

When you were still all innocence,

Approaching that altar,

Lisping prayers from your little

Worn prayer-book;

Your heart had nothing in it

But God and child’s play!

Gretchen!

What are you thinking?

What misdeed burdens

Your heart now? Are you praying

For your mother’s soul, who by your doing

Overslept into long, long purgatorial pains?

Whose blood stains your doorstep?

—And under your heart is there not

Something stirring, welling up already,

A foreboding presence,

Feared by you and itself?”

The Evil Spirit says this to Gretchen as she attends a mass for the dead, before she ends up fainting in the church. It shows the guilt and shame that Gretchen faces for her sins and how sin has corrupted her. It also reveals that her mother has died from the poison that Gretchen unknowingly gave her.

"Faust: In misery, in despair! Pitiably wandering about

the country for so long, and now a prisoner! Locked up

in prison as a criminal and suffering such torment, the 

sweet hapless creature! So this is what it has come to!

This!—Vile treacherous demon, and you told me noth-

ing!—Yes, stand there, stand there and roll your devilish

presence! A prisoner! In utter ruin, delivered over to evil

spirits and the judgement of cold heartless mankind! And

meanwhile you lull me with vulgar diversions, hide her

growing plight from me and leave her helpless to her

fate!

Mephistopheles: She is not the first.

Faust: You dog! You repulsive monster! Oh infinite 

Spirit, change him back, change this reptile back into 

the form of a dog. […] Not the first!—Oh grief, grief that no human soul can grasp, to think that more than one creature has sunk to such depths of wretchedness, that the sins of all the

others were not expiated even by the first, as it writhed

in its death-agony before the eyes of the eternally merci-

ful God! I am stricken to my life’s very marrow by the 

misery of this one girl—and you calmly sneer at the fate

of thousands!

Mephistopheles: Well, here we are again at the end

of our wit’s tether, the point where your poor human

brains always snap! Why do you make such common cause

with us, if you can’t stand the pace? Why try to fly if 

you’ve no head for heights? Did we force ourselves on you, or you on us?”

Faust and Mephistopheles have this exchange after Faust learns that Gretchen is in prison and due to be executed. It illustrates Gretchen’s downfall, as well as Faust’s continuing love for her. Faust’s outrage over Gretchen’s fate—and other women like her—as compared with Mephistopheles’ nonchalance about it also shows the difference between the two, as Faust still retains empathy and compassion for others and has not yet fully succumbed to Mephistopheles’ ways.  

“Gretchen: You undid my chains, they fell apart,

And you will take me back to your heart.

How is it you don’t find me a vile thing?

Do you really know, my dear, who you are rescuing? […]

My mother’s dead; I poisoned her, you see.

I drowned my child when it was born.

Hadn’t it been God’s gift to you and me?

To you as well—It is you! Can I trust

This not to be a dream? […]

If my grave’s out there,

If death is waiting, come with me! No,

From here to my everlasting tomb

And not one step further I’ll go!—

You’re leaving? Oh Heinrich, if only I could come.

Faust: You can! Just want to! I’ve opened the door!

Gretchen: I can’t leave; for me there’s no hope any more.

What’s the use of escaping? They’ll be watching for me.

It’s so wretched to have to beg one’s way

Through life, and with a bad conscience too,

And to wander abroad; and if I do,

In the end they’ll catch me anyway!”

Gretchen and Faust have this exchange as he goes to her prison cell to try and rescue her. It shows the guilt and grief that Gretchen feels—and clearly illustrates that both her mother and infant son are dead—and her unwillingness to go with Faust, which affects where he stands at the end of the play and as Part II begins. Her enduring guilt over her sins and desire to face her punishment, rather than escape with Faust and live a life wracked with guilt, also suggests why the Lord may have decided to redeem Gretchen and send her to heaven.