Faust: A Prison

Notes

Faust

While Faust has clearly recognizable human characteristics, he is larger than life. He embodies the best and the worst in man, and in many ways he is a symbol of all humanity. Faust is involved in most of the scenes, but he probably reveals himself most clearly through his monologues and through his conversations with Mephistopheles. The monologues show a man without satisfaction or inner peace, always striving. He is continually reaching for more knowledge, more power, more experience. He is also changeable, given to despair when he can't get what he wants. His striving leads inevitably to failure. But in these failures he represents humanity, for, as the Lord declares in the Prologue in Heaven, man must make mistakes while he strives.

Margarete

Margarete, or Gretchen (a favorite name in German folk tales), is a more lifelike character than Mephistopheles and Faust; she is a person you would recognize if you met her. She is a sweet, simple, modest girl, who lives at home and helps her mother. She knows right from wrong and has an innocent religious faith of the kind idealized by Romantic writers. Gretchen's story was based on a court case known to Goethe. He uses her story for social purposes, to make the point that she is a victim of an attractive man of a class higher than her own. Some girls might have been strong enough to resist the temptation or even to put up with the guilt, but they would not have been sufficient for Goethe the dramatist. He needed a fragile girl like Gretchen who trusted in a simple religious faith and her own feelings.

Mephistopheles

Mephistopheles, the Devil, is a cynic, and cuts things down to size with his quick wit. He calls the Lord an "old gent," satirizes the university faculty, teases the mythological creatures he meets, and ends scenes with comments that puncture inflated sentiments. In Faust, Mephistopheles is the spirit of negation, "the spirit that always denies." In that respect, he is the exact opposite of God, who is the spirit of creation. Mephistopheles is a servant, both of God and of Faust, and has the soul of a servant, of a person who must obey but resents it and takes every opportunity to assert what domination he can. He is a servant of God because he is a part of Creation; he has to exist in order for good to exist. He is a servant of Faust because God allows it. But he isn't always willing to do what his master wants, especially at critical moments. He messes up orders, often with disastrous effects and thinks he knows better than his master how to woo women and takes over the wooing of Margarete. At the same time, he exercises his own authority when he can.

Faust and Mephistopheles

In Faust's relations with Mephistopheles you see an arrogant, impatient man, who uses any means available to get what he wants. Faust is absolutely clear about his relationship to Mephistopheles- Mephistopheles is a servant. In his other relations, you see the brilliance of Faust, why he has the genius to represent humanity. He is capable of passionate romantic love, of courageous action, of large-scale organization. He will probably win your sympathy, even in his ill-fated affair with Gretchen. Try to imagine what it must be like to pick up the pieces of your life after you have caused the destruction of a beautiful young girl and three other innocent people (her mother, brother, and baby). Faust does it.

Faust and Margarete

Margarete is up against the Devil (Mephistopheles), who by definition has no morals and no mercy. He's been told to get her for Faust and he does. From the moment she gives in to Faust, she begins to lose herself. She seeks comfort in her simple religious faith but cannot withstand society's disapproval and her brother's curse. She becomes mad, kills her baby, and is condemned to die.

Study Questions

1. The character of Margarete was inspired in the first place by a real-life story Goethe had heard of a young woman who was seduced and abandoned, who killed her illegitimate child, was condemned to death, and whose repentant lover joined her in prison to share her fate. In what important way does this scene differ from the original incident?

2. Having been either directly or indirectly responsible for the death of her mother, brother, and baby, Margarete has gone insane with guilt. She madly performs this action in her prison cell, in this she blends the classical myth of Tereus and Procne (which involves cannibalism and rape) with a similar Germanic tale in which the victim is turned into a bird. What is Margarete doing and why?

3. Who does Margarete think is coming when she hears Faust and Mephistopheles enter the prison?

4. How does Margarete speak differently than she might have if her madness did not prevent her from recognizing Faust, and how does that create a powerful effect on him?

5. What has Margarete learned that she did not understand earlier that explains why Faust seduced her?

6. Margarete imagines that someone else has stolen and killed her baby, and complains of the sensational street ballads that are being composed about her crime. What evidence is there that Margarete, though mad, has recovered much of her sensitivity to evil?

7. In what way does line 4490 say more than Margarete intends?

8. At what point does Margarete seem to emerge from her madness into relative sanity?

9. As Margarete imagines her own execution, she is finally saved--why?

10. What is Margarete's final reaction toward Faust?