A Study Guide for Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's "Faust"

By Gale and Cengage

A Study Guide for Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's "Faust", excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Drama for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Drama for Students for all of your research needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cengage Learning - Gale
• Release date: Apr 19, 2019
• ISBN: 9780028671154

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Faust

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

1808, 1832

Introduction

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust is regarded as the most epic and important dramatic work in German literature. The story of Doctor Faust is itself legendary, derived from a man who, having studied magic at the university level in the early sixteenth century, claimed to have gained the power to work miracles by literally selling his soul to the devil. The legend has been told innumerable times over the centuries since, including in a play by Christopher Marlowe and a novel by Thomas Mann, but Goethe's version is hailed as supreme.

Goethe himself is considered preeminent as an author and renaissance man and, moreover, in the words of philosopher, scholar, and translator Walter Kaufmann, is generally recognized as the greatest German of all time. Goethe's Faust presents the title character as an erudite, mystically inclined eternal striver, unable to remain satisfied with his life and accomplishments in the human realm in view of the possibility of spiritual, supernatural transcendence. His deal with the devil Mephistopheles indeed opens up possibilities, including that of intimacy with the young Margaret, but his conscience holds the outcome of the drama in suspense.

Faust was published in two parts—in 1808 and 1832, respectively—that markedly differ, as the first part largely tells Faust's story of magic and romance in a realistic world, while the second, more challenging part shifts almost entirely to a mythological realm. The original German-language Faust is written in verse with various meters and rhyme schemes, and the best of the dozens of English translations reproduce the form as closely as possible. This entry uses, and primarily focuses on, Kaufmann's translation of part 1, which provides the basis for the majority of thematic discussion; for part 2—of which act 5 is most relevant to the discussion here—Walter Arndt's translation in the extensively footnoted Norton Critical Edition is referred to.

Author Biography

Goethe was born on August 28, 1749, in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. His life as a youth was, in several respects, ideally suited to his intellectual and social development. His father was wealthy and held a law degree, his mother was caring and creative, and the family's large library allowed for Goethe's comprehensive tutelage at home. His sister was an appreciative audience for his earliest writing efforts, while the gift of a puppet theater from his grandparents—for whom he wrote his first known poem, a New Year's ode—inspired his dramatic impulse. However, Goethe also had to confront the idea of mortality early in life, with three younger siblings, aged between two and seven, dying in the course of his preadolescence. Meanwhile, as he developed, the ambitions and wishes of his aristocratic but never-employed father were transferred to and impressed upon him.

Goethe went to Leipzig University to study law at sixteen but was an uninspired student. In 1768, the first of several serious illnesses sent Goethe back home. It was at this time that he abandoned Christianity and undertook studies in alchemy, hermeticism (occult and magical studies) and heretic theology. He never earned his doctorate, because his dissertation was rejected, but settled for a licentiate (a lesser graduate degree) in law.

Although Goethe set up a