Faust, Part One

Scene 22 takes place outside Gretchen’s door, where her brother, the soldier Valentine, has arrived. Valentine laments the sin that Gretchen has committed, saying how he used to constantly brag about her as “the pride of her sex” (I.22.3636). Now, however, he despairs and other men sneer at him over what his sister has become, and he says he can’t blame them, because it’s true.

Valentine sees Mephistopheles and Faust sneaking to Gretchen’s door, and vows to “take him” if it’s the man who slept with Gretchen (I.22.3648). Mephistopheles and Faust talk about stealing more gifts for Gretchen, and Mephistopheles sings a song about how women should beware men who will steal their innocence and then leave them. Valentine interrupts them and challenges them to a fight. Mephistopheles casts a spell on Valentine so that he’s unable to fence, and Faust uses that opportunity to strike him. The men run away while Valentine lies wounded.

A crowd gathers and Gretchen comes out, discovering her brother on the verge of death. In his final speech, Valentine shames Gretchen to her face, calling her a disgraced “whore” and a “slut” and predicting that the whole town will soon turn against her, forcing her to live among the “beggars and cripples to hide and weep” (I.22.3761). He tells Gretchen, “Let God forgive you as he may—/ But on earth be cursed till your dying day!” (I.21.3762-63). Martha accuses Valentine of blasphemy and Valentine says he wishes he could strangle her, before turning back to Gretchen and saying that she “stabbed me in the heart” (I.22.3773), but that he will himself die “as the soldier I’m still proud to be” (3775).

Scene 23 is set at a cathedral during a mass for the dead, which Gretchen is attending. An evil spirit taunts Gretchen and asks what she’s thinking about, also revealing that Gretchen’s mother passed away from the poison Faust gave her. Gretchen is anguished and feels stifled, and as the church choir sings, the evil spirit continues to taunt her. Gretchen exclaims that she can’t breathe and asks a neighbor for smelling salts before fainting.

Scene 24 takes place at Walpurgis Night in the Harz Mountains. Faust and Mephistopheles climb through the mountains to reach the summit, and are eventually guided by a will-o’-the-wisp. When they find a suitable place to stop, a whole fleet of witches and warlocks begin to arrive, eventually all settling on the ground. Mephistopheles complains that it’s now too crowded and suggests they go off somewhere else to another social gathering. 

The two go up to a group sitting around a fire, where various people, like a General, Minister, and Author, are discussing how much better things used to be. Mephistopheles suddenly looks very old and says that the “world must be on its last legs” (I.24.4095). Mephistopheles then points out another woman to Faust, Lilith, who he says was “Adam’s first wife” and likes to trap young men (I.24.4119). The two join in with the revelry and start dancing, while another “skeleton,” dubbed Mr. Arsey-Phantarsey, complains about the goings-on.

Faust stops dancing and says that he sees Gretchen, though she looks like her “feet have been fastened somehow” (I.24.4185), and that it looks as though her neck has been slashed with a knife. Mephistopheles tells Faust that he’s a “gullible fool” and it’s just an illusion, as an enchantress “takes the shape of every man’s sweetheart” (I.24.4199-200). It gets announced that a show is about to start, which is presented during the next scene, Scene 25. A Walpurgis Night’s Dream or The Golden Wedding of Oberon and Titania is an intermezzo scene based loosely on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which depicts the wedding between Oberon and Titania. Much of the play consists of a large cast of characters commenting on the action in satirical epigraphs that don’t connect at all to the larger Faust story, including a Curious Traveller, a Weathervane, a Dancer, a Worldling, a Fiddler, an Idealist, a Realist, and more. The play ends as an orchestra plays, and says that everyone is fading away as daylight breaks.