Faust: Marthe's Garden

Summary

Faust returns to Margarete/Gretchen. Gretchen wants to know where Faust stands on his religious beliefs. Faust talks his way around the question, never giving her a straight answer. Gretchen gives into her belief that Faust is an intellectual. "I guess what you say is all right, The priest speaks so, or pretty near"(16.3278-3279). Gretchen tells Faust that she senses something wrong with his companion, Mephistopheles. "It's written on his face as plain as day. He loves no one, we're all his enemy"(16.3310-3311). Gretchen has the ability to sense the danger in Mephistopheles but not in Faust.

Works 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.