Faust, Part One

Mephistopheles is the Devil himself, who makes a bet with the Lord that he can win over Faust and get his soul in hell. He is obsessed with destruction and evil (he tells Faust it’s the “element he most prefers”) (I.6.1344), but laments that despite his best efforts, the earth “cannot be shaken” (1366). Mephistopheles appears to Faust and offers to help him get what he wants, in exchange for his soul if he ever “lie[s] down in sloth and base inaction” (I.7.1692). The demon then sets off with Faust, leading him on his travels. 

Given that he’s the Devil, Mephistopheles is straightforwardly evil and guided by trickery and deceit. He often uses magic to trick and enable the harm of others, as when he tricks the men in the tavern and when he makes Valentine unable to fight so that Faust can stab him. Mephistopheles expresses no remorse for his trickery or deceit, and when Faust gets mad at Mephistopheles for his misdeeds, as when he didn’t tell him about Gretchen’s fate and expresses no remorse for it, instead saying Faust has no one to blame but himself for associating with the Devil. Like Faust, Mephistopheles does not believe in scholarship and intellectualism, and refers to the Age of Enlightenment and its emphasis on Reason as increasing mankind’s “power to be beastlier than a beast” (I.3.286). 

Gretchen (also referred to in the text by her full name, Margareta) is a young German girl whom Faust quickly falls in love with. She is poor and innocent at the beginning of the play; Mephistopheles tells Faust that she’s a “poor innocent little thing” with no sins to confess of (I.10.2624). Gretchen is very religious but also seems open to pleasures that go against religion, wanting to keep the jewels she receives from Faust even when she does not know their origins. She frequently feels ashamed of her youth and lack of knowledge as compared to Faust, and she openly wonders what it is that he sees in her.

Eventually, this openness to sin results in Gretchen having sex with Faust and becoming pregnant, which earns her shame and scorn from those around her (particularly her brother), and causes her to go mad with guilt and shame. She also commits several other sins, accidentally poisoning her mother to keep her from intruding on her and Faust and then drowning her infant son. Gretchen is eventually locked up in prison and sentenced to death, and she refuses to leave with Faust, resigning herself to her fate. As she prays to God to save her in the final moments of the play, a voice from above announces that she is “redeemed” (I.28.4612), suggesting that Gretchen will go to heaven despite her sins.

Martha is Gretchen’s friend and next-door neighbor. She was married, but her husband left her, and takes Mephistopheles’ word that her husband is dead. Martha is shown to be less puritanical than many of the other characters around Gretchen; she befriends Mephistopheles (and seems to hint at wanting romance with him), who refers to her as a “proper witch” (I.14.3029). Unlike Gretchen’s mother, Martha does not object to Gretchen keeping the jewels that Faust gives her, instead suggesting she hide them at her house. When Valentine arrives and curses Gretchen, calling her a whore and shaming her for her sins, Martha does not go along with him or seem to agree with him, instead chiding him and saying he’s committing blasphemy through his remarks (I.22.3765).

Wagner is Faust’s academic servant. Goethe uses him to represent thoughts commonly held during the 18th-century Age of Enlightenment, which he argues about with Faust. Unlike Faust, Wagner is obsessed with knowledge and scholarly pursuit, and he is excited about “seek[ing] what enlightenment we can” (I.4.587). When Faust praises nature, Wagner disagrees, saying that he “grows tired” of natural beauty and instead prefers the joy he gets from “the pursuit of intellectual things” (I.5.1102-05).