Faust: A Summerhouse

Summary

Faust and Margarete share a kiss and are rudely interrupted by Mephistopeles and Marthe. Margarete is scared because she doesn’t know what her mother will think of her. She states this by saying, “My mother would-Farewell” (Macneice 102)! She then runs away from Faust. Mephistopeles taunts Faust by throwing up in his face that he was proverbially, “caught in the act” with his new young love.

Commentary

Gretchen seems to have good morals and a strong christian belief. But despite her morals Dieckmann states, "In contrast to her sentimental lover, she is , in Schiller's sense, "naive" (Dieckmann 53). She is in a sense forced into Faust strange belief system. Her life has been circumscribed but 'natural'- at least if compared to Faust's (Smeed 63).

Questions

Why does Faust want to walk Gretchen home?

Why is Mephisto in such a hurry to leave?

Work Cited

Dieckmann, Liselotte. Goethe’s Faust: A Critical Reading. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1972.

Macneice, Louis. Goethe’s Faust. New York: Oxford UP, 1971.

Smeed, J.W. Faust in Literature. New York: Oxford UP, 1971.