Faust, Part One

Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1829

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Scenes 1-7

Scenes 8-14

Scenes 15-21

Scenes 22-28

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Themes

Passion and Feeling Versus Reason and Intellectualism

The first part of Faust and its premise is largely defined by Faust’s struggle between reason and the intellectual background he comes from, and passion and feeling. At the start of the play, Faust is restless and discontented with his scholarly pursuits, and he strikes his deal with Mephistopheles in hopes of getting a life driven by passion and feeling instead of words and teaching: “Books sicken me, I’ll learn no more./ Now let us slake hot passions in,” Faust tells Mephistopheles (I.7.1749-50), adding that he wants to feel the full range of human emotion. Through the rest of the play, Faust is largely driven by passion and feeling, rather than reason and logic—most notably through his lustful pursuit of Gretchen, even though it brings about her downfall and results in the deaths of her mother and brother.

On the other side of the feeling versus reason debate is Wagner, who represents the reason-centric ideals espoused during the Age of Enlightenment that took place when Goethe started writing Faust. Unlike Faust, Wagner gets fulfillment through words and intellectualism, telling Faust that while he gets tired of nature, “the pursuit of intellectual things/ From book to book, from page to page—what joys that yields!” (I.5.1104-05). Wagner acknowledges that life is too short to learn everything from books that he can, but his goal is to “seek what enlightenment we can” (I.4.587).

Transcendence and the Search for Meaning and Knowledge

Part of the reason that Faust feels so unfulfilled by scholarship and intellectualism is because of his quest for meaning and knowledge about the world and its forces, which he has realized by the start of the play cannot be achieved through books and Reason alone. Faust says that “hard studies […] have cost me dear” (I.4.357), and that despite all his studying, he “see[s] all our search for knowledge is vain” and “know[s] I know nothing” (364-71). Because of this, Faust turns to the spirit world for guidance with his quest for knowledge, as he realizes that he must transcend the scholarly and human realm to get the answers he seeks. Faust seeks “magic’s assistance” to “show me many a secret sight” and “grant me a vision of Nature’s forces/ That bind the world,” which he cannot discover through “words that mean nothing to me” (I.4.377-85).

Much of Faust’s journey in Faust, then, consists of his pursuit of transcendence and meaning that goes beyond what he can learn in books, first through the Earth Spirit and seeking other spiritual help, and then through Mephistopheles and the adventures he gives him. In the forest cavern, Faust thanks the Earth Spirit for helping him start to find the sense of understanding he’s been seeking through his time with Mephistopheles and Gretchen, saying that the spirit has granted him “no mere/ cold curious inspection/ […] but to gaze deep, as into/ The heart of a dear friend” (I.17.3221-24). He says his discoveries have “assuage[d] the austere joy of my contemplation” and tells the Earth Spirit that he has already learned something, as he now “feel[s] this truth, that for mankind/ No boon is perfect” (I.17.3239-41).

Sin and Pleasure as a Source of Suffering

Faust is a morality play at its core, with a struggle between good and evil as God and Mephistopheles wager who will get Faust’s eternal soul. Yet with Faust’s salvation coming only in Part II, the first part of Faust is largely defined by sin, as Faust gets lured by the devil and gives in to pleasure and temptation. This is largely defined by his pursuit of Gretchen, whom he ruins with his lust, and the sins he commits as a result by killing Valentine and pressuring Gretchen to poison (and kill) her mother. Though Faust at first expresses objections to doing anything wrong, telling Mephistopheles he doesn’t want to bear false witness and tell a judge that Martha’s husband is dead, he soon relents to Mephistopheles’ ways and becomes increasingly more sinful.

Goethe also shows the downfalls of pleasure on a smaller scale in the scene at the tavern at Auerbach, as the men’s gluttonous desire for revelry and drinking enables Mephistopheles to punish and trick them (and set one man on fire). The primary way that Goethe illustrates sin and its consequences is through the character of Gretchen, whose decision to go to bed with Faust leads to shame, disgrace, the death of multiple family members, and her imprisonment and execution. However, Gretchen is deeply regretful for the sins that she commits, and at the end of the play, a voice from above (presumably the Lord) announces that Gretchen is “redeemed” (I.28.4612), suggesting that her soul will be saved. In this way, while Goethe shows the consequences of sin and the downfall of pleasure, he also highlights the possibility of redemption and atoning for one’s sins.