Faust: A Street (2)

Summary

When Faust becomes smitten with Margarete, he can think of nothing more than having her. Mephistopeles has a plan for Faust in gaining Margarete’s affection. In order to seduce her however, Faust must be untruthful with her. This has him torn between the acts of good and evil. Mephistopeles scorns Faust and tells him that if he really wants her than he must not be honest with her, and what difference does it make anyway. He does this in saying to Faust, “Man and the way his emotions and thoughts take place, Have you not given downright definitions Of these with an iron breast and a brazen face” (Macneice 93)?

Commentary

Thus, Faust takes another step on the road to Hell (Montgomery 45). Mephisto has convinced Faust to lie once again. Doing good means exerting oneself on its behalf, but evil is one of the driving forces behind the effort to attain good (Wolfman 184). This will only lead to more lies and evil acts later on in the play.

Questions

Why does Faust lie to Gretchen?

Why does Faust want to go to Padua?

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.

Montgomery, Paul. Goethe's Faust: Critiques of Literature. New York: Monarch Press, 1963.

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

Wolfman, Yoffa The Devil and the Good Lord. Satre Studies International:Vol 10 Issue 2 (2004):182-194.