Goethe’s Faust: Hero or Villain?

David Pan

Humanities Core Course

Winter 2012, Lecture 2

STRUCTURE OF FAUST

DEDICATION PRELUDE IN THE THEATER

PROLOGUE IN HEAVEN

FAUST STORY•Night•Before the Gate•Faust’s Study•Auerbach’s Cellar in Leipzig•Witch’s Kitchen

GRETCHEN STORY•A Street•Evening•Promenade•The Neighbor’s House•A Street•Martha’s Garden•A Summer Cabin•Forest and Cavern•Gretchen’s Room•Martha’s Garden•At the Well•By the Ramparts•Night•Cathedral

WALPURGIS NIGHT•Walpurgis Night•Walpurgis-Night’s Dream

GRETCHENSTORY•Gloomy Day – Field•Night – Open Field•Dungeon

Act 1: E

mperor S

tory

Act 2: C

lassical Walpurgis N

ight

Act 3: H

elen Story

Act 4: C

ounter-Em

peror Story

Act 5: B

aucis and Philem

on Story

Act 5: B

urial

Act 5: M

ountain gorges

Faust I Faust II

RAPHAEL.The sun intones his ancient songin contest with fraternal spheres,and with a roll of thunderrounds out his predetermined journey.His aspect strengthens angels,but none can fathom him.The inconceivable creationsare glorious as from the first.(243-50, p. 21)

MEPHISTOPHELES.Forgive me, but I can’t indulge in lofty words,Although this crowd will hold me in contempt;My pathos certainly would make you laugh,Had you not dispensed with laughter long ago.I waste no words on suns and planets,I only see how men torment themselves.Earth’s little god remains the sameAnd is as quaint as from the first.He would have an easier time of itHad you not let him glimpse celestial light;He calls it reason and he only uses itTo be more bestial than the beasts.(275-86, p. 23)

GOD:I am glad to let you have apparent freedom;I hold no hatred for the like of you.Of all the spirits that negate,The rogue to me is the least burdensome.Man’s diligence is easily exhausted,He grows too fond of unremitting peace.I’m therefore pleased to give him a companionWho must goad and prod and be a devil.—But you, my own true sons of Heaven,Rejoice in Beauty’s vibrant wealth.That which becomes will live and work forever;Let it enfold you with propitious bonds of Love.And what appears as flickering image now,Fix it firmly with enduring thought. (336-49, p. 29)

Angels fix with thought

Devil goads

Man becomes

The primary source of human failure is stasis.The devil is useful in promoting continual activity.The goal is to turn this activity into something lasting.

Therefore is Hell called the Everlasting Pain, in which is never Hope for Mercy; so it is called utter Darkness, in which we see neither the Light, the Sun, Moon, nor Stars; and were our Darkness like the Darkness of Night, yet were there Hopes of Mercy: But ours is perpetual Darkness, clean exempt from the Face of God.

Source: The surprizing life and death of Doctor John Faustus. To which is now added, the Necromancer: or, Harlequin, Doctor Faustus. As Performed at the Theater Royal in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields. Likewise, the whole life of Fryar Bacon, the Famous Magician of England: And the merry Waggeries of his Man Miles. Truly translated from the original copies. London: printed and sold by Edw. Midwinter, at the Looking-Glass on London-Bridge, 1740?. 22. Eighteenth Century Collections Online. Gale Cengage Learning, 1 June 2004. Web. 21 December 2010.

Words of Mephistopheles in the Faustbuch (1587)

Darkness without Hope

Doctor waves his Wand, and the Scene is converted to aWood; a monstrous Dragon appears, and from each Claw drops a daemon, representing divers Grotesque Figures; several Female Spirits rise in Character to each Figure, and join in Antick Dance.As they are performing, a Clock Strikes, the Doctor is seized, hurried away by Spirits, and devour’d by the Monster, which immediately takes Flight; and while it isdisappearing, Spirits vanish, and other Daemons rejoyce in the following Words: Now triumph Hell, and Fiends be gay, The Sorc’rer is become our Prey.[At the End of the Chorus the Curtain falls. FINIS

Demons have the final word in the play

Scene becomes farce

Source: The surprizing life and death of Doctor John Faustus. To which is now added, the Necromancer: or, Harlequin, Doctor Faustus. As Performed at the Theater Royal in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields. Likewise, the whole life of Fryar Bacon, the Famous Magician of England: And the merry Waggeries of his Man Miles. Truly translated from the original copies. London: printed and sold by Edw. Midwinter, at the Looking-Glass on London-Bridge, 1740?. 87-88. Eighteenth Century Collections Online. Gale Cengage Learning, 1 June 2004. Web. 21 December 2010.

Final lines of The Necromancer, or Harlequin, Dr. Faustus (1740)

FAUST: All right, who are you then?MEPHISTOPHELES: A portion of that powerwhich always works for Evil and effects the Good.FAUST: What is the meaning of this riddle?MEPHISTOPHELES: I am the spirit that denies forever!And rightly so! What has arisen from the voiddeserves to be annihilated.It would be best if nothing ever would arise.And thus what you call havoc,deadly sin, or briefly stated: Evil,that is my proper element.FAUST: You call yourself a part and yet stand before me whole?MEPHISTOPHELES: I state the modest truth to you.While every member of your race – that little world of fools –Likes best of all to think himself complete – I am a portion of that part which once was everything,a part of darkness which gave birth to Light,that haughty Light which now disputes the rankand ancient sway of Mother Night,and though it tries its best, it won’t succeedbecause it cleaves and sticks to bodies.The bodies mill about, Light beautifies the bodies,yet bodies have forever blocked its way—and so I hope it won’t be longbefore all bodies are annihilated.(1335-50, p. 103-105)

The devil is not just evil, but also creates good.

The devil represents a destructive force

But darkness and destruction precede new

creation

•1480 Historical Faust born

•1540 Historical Faust dies

•1587 Historia von D. Johann Fausten•1604 Christopher Marlowe, Dr. Faustus

•1684-88 Dr. Faustus, Made into a Farce

•1723 Harlequin Dr. Faustus•1749 Goethe born

•1772-75 Goethe writes Urfaust

Numbers of witch trials and executions in Saxony

Source: Knellwolf King, Christa. Faustus and the Promises of the New Science, c. 1580-1730: From the Chapbooks to Harlequin Faustus. Surrey, UK: Ashgate, 2008. “Saxony.” Encyclopedia of Witchcraft: The Western Tradition. Ed. Richard Golden. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2006.

Historical Faust lives in an era in which witch trials first begin

Establishment of Faust legend coincides with height of witch-hunts

Faust legend turns to farce as witch-hunts decline (Knellwolf 166-81)

Goethe writes at a time when witch-hunts are at an end

Development of Faust legend

The Devil is

A. real and evil.B. a foolish idea with dangerous consequences

for society.C. a representation of the destructive aspects of

our world.D. none of the above (be prepared to explain

your alternative)

A: literature imitates society

B: society imitates literature

Goethe’s Faust is:

A. a hero.

B. a villain.

Faust:Alas, I have studied philosophy,The law as well as medicine,And to my sorrow, theology;Studied them well with ardent zeal,Yet here I am, a wretched fool,No wiser than I was before.They call me Magister, even Doctor,And for some ten years nowI’ve led my students by the nose,Up and down, across, and in circles—All I see is that we cannot know![…]Therefore I have turned to magic,So that by the spirit’s might and mainI might yet learn some secret lore;That I need no longer sweat and toilAnd dress my ignorance in empty words;That I might behold the warp and the woofOf the world’s inmost fabric,Of its essential strength and fountAnd no longer dig about in words.(354-64, 377-85, pp. 31-33)

Faust begins by studying books and words…

… but then he turns away from books and toward direct experience of the world.

Faust begins by studying books and words…

… but then he turns away from books and toward direct experience of the world.

Source: Palmer, Philip Mason and Robert Pattison More. The Sources of the Faust Tradition: From Simon Magus to Lessing. New York: Haskell, 1965. Print.

• Johann (or Georg) Faust born in Knittlingen, Wuerttemberg, around 1480 (Martin Luther born in 1483).

• Begins at university, studying perhaps at the Universities of Heidelberg or Cracow and reportedly lecturing at the University of Erfurt.

• Later wanders and practices astrology, alchemy, and medicine.

• Reportedly dies in 1540 in Staufen, Breisgau.

Historical Faust

• 1492 Martin Behaim constructs a terrestrial globe

• 1528 Paracelsus published his Kleine Chirurgie, the first authoritative manual dealing with surgery.

• 1543 Nicolaus Copernicus publishes De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium, which explains heliocentrism.

• 1590 Zacharias Jansen builds the first microscope.

• 1591 Giordano Bruno argues for infinity and homogeneity of the universe in De immenso et innumerabilis seu de universo et mundis.

• 1600 William Gilbert publishes De magnete, explaining electricity and magnetism.

• 1632 Galileo Galilei defends heliocentrism in his Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems

• 1486 Heinrich Kramer publishes Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches).

• 1515 The Lateran Council decrees in De impressione librorum that no work may be printed without permission from the ecclesiastical authority.

• 1546 scholar and printer Etienne Dolet is hanged and burned for publishing heretical books.

• 1587 Historia von D. Johann Faustus published as pro-Lutherian condemnation of Faust’s pact with devil.

• 1600 Giordano Bruno burned at the stake for heresy.• 1616 Inquisition threatens Galileo Galilei with

punishment for teaching the Copernican system.• 1633 Church condemns Galileo and he recants

Natural scientific discoveries Church reactions

Source: Classen, Albrecht. “New Knowledge, Disturbing and Attractive: The Faustbuch and the Wagnerbuch as Witnesses of the Early Modern Paradigm Shift.” Daphnis 35.3-4 (2006): 515-535.Williams, Neville. Chronology of the Expanding World, 1492-1762. New York: McKay, 1969.

WordWorld

Contemporary references to Faust

• August 20, 1507, letter from Johannes Tritheim to Johannes Virdung: “Master George Sabellicus, the younger Faust, the chief of necromancers, astrologer, the second magus, palmist, diviner with earth and fire, second in the art of divination with water. […] he ought to call himself a fool rather than a master.”

• October 3, 1513, letter from Conrad Mutianus Rufus to Heinrich Urbanus: “a mere braggart and fool.”

• May 10, 1532, entry in the records of the city council of Nuremberg: “Safe conduct to Doctor Faust, the great sodomite and necromancer, at Fuerth refused.”

• 1537 (published 1566), Martin Luther, Tischreden: “Much was said about Faust, who called the devil his brother-in-law”

• January 16, 1540, letter from Philipp von Hutten to his brother Moritz von Hutten:”Therefore I must confess that the philosopher Faust hit the nail on the head, for we struck a very bad year.”

Source: Palmer, Philip Mason and Robert Pattison More. The Sources of the Faust Tradition: From Simon Magus to Lessing. New York: Haskell, 1965.

Table of ContentsChap. II. How Dr. Faustus began to practise his Devilish Art, and how he conjured the Devil making him to appear, and meet him on the Morrow morning at his own House. 5Chap. III. The Conference of Dr. Faustus with this Spirit Mephistophiles, the Morning following, at his own House. 8Chap. XXVIII. How Dr. Faustus play'd a merry Jest with the Duke of Anhalt, in his Court. 48Chap. XXIX. How Dr. Faustus, with his Company, visited the Bishop of Salisburg's Wine Cellar. 50Chap. XXX. How Faustus feasted his Guests on Ash - Wednesday. 52Chap. XXXI. How Dr. Faustus conjured the four Wheels from the Countryman's Waggon. 54Chap. XXXII. How four Jugglers cut one anothers Heads off, and set them on again, and Faustus deceived them. 56Chap. XXXIII. How Dr. Faustus wrote the second time with his own Blood, and gave it to the Devil. 57Source: The surprizing and damnable life, and deserv'd death of Doctor John Faustus. London: printed by L. Nisbet;

and are to be sold by the booksellers of London and Westminster, [1750?]. Eighteenth Century Collections Online. Gale Cengage Learning, 1 June 2004. Web. 21 December 2010.

Structure of the Faustbuch

Pact with the Devil

Adventures with magic

Faust’s actions in the Faust’s actions in the FaustbuchFaustbuch

Quoth Mephistophiles, to this I answer thee,Thou canst not marry; for Wedlock is a chief Institution ordained of God, and that thou hast promised to defy, as we do all.Dr. Faustus fell into despair with himself, fearing, if he should motion Matrimony any more, then the Devil would tear him to pieces. (18)

When Dr. Faustus called to Mind that his Time from Day to Day drew nigh,he began to live a Swinish and Epicurish Life: Wherefore he commanded his Spirit Mephistophiles to bring him seven of the fairest Women that he had seen in all the Times of his Travel; which being brought, first to one, then another,he lay with them all, insomuch that he liked them so well, that he continued with them all manner of Love, and made them to travel with him all hisJournies; these Women were two Netherland, one Hungarian, one Scottish, two Walloon, and one Franklander.And with these sweet Personages he continued long, yea, even to his last End.(62-63)

Faustus is not allowed to marry because marriage is “ordained of God” and places sexuality under the laws of the divine order.

Faustus is content to live a “Swinish and Epicurish Life” with seven different women.

His life of sensual pleasure is framed in the narration by reminders of his eventual bad end.

Source: The surprizing life and death of Doctor John Faustus. To which is now added, the Necromancer: or, Harlequin, Doctor Faustus. As Performed at the Theater Royal in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields. Likewise, the whole life of Fryar Bacon, the Famous Magician of England: And the merry Waggeries of his Man Miles. Truly translated from the original copies . London: printed and sold by Edw. Midwinter, at the Looking-Glass on London-Bridge, 1740?. Eighteenth Century Collections Online. Gale Cengage Learning, 1 June 2004. Web. 21 December 2010.

Whoever only has the Whoever only has the temporaltemporal in light in lightAnd for the And for the eternaleternal has no sight has no sightSurrenders to the devil day and nightSurrenders to the devil day and nightHad better keep his soul in sight. (Had better keep his soul in sight. (HistoriaHistoria 23) 23)

And thus ended the whole History of Dr. Faustus’s And thus ended the whole History of Dr. Faustus’s Conjuration, and other Acts that he did in his Life; Conjuration, and other Acts that he did in his Life; out of which Example every Christian may learn;out of which Example every Christian may learn;but chiefly the Stiff-necked, and High-minded, may but chiefly the Stiff-necked, and High-minded, may thereby learn to fear God, and to be careful of their thereby learn to fear God, and to be careful of their Vocation, and to be at Defiance with all devilish Vocation, and to be at Defiance with all devilish Works, that God hath most precisely forbidden.Works, that God hath most precisely forbidden.((SurprizingSurprizing, 1740?, 78-79), 1740?, 78-79)

Source: Historia von D. Johann Fausten: Text des Druckes von 1587. Ed. Stephan Füssel and Hans Joachim Kreutzer. Stuttgart: Reclam, 1988. My translation.The surprizing life and death of Doctor John Faustus. To which is now added, the Necromancer: or, Harlequin, Doctor Faustus. As Performed at the Theater Royal in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields. Likewise, the whole life of Fryar Bacon, the Famous Magician of England: And the merry Waggeries of his Man Miles. Truly translated from the original copies . London: printed and sold by Edw. Midwinter, at the Looking-Glass on London-Bridge, 1740?. Eighteenth Century Collections Online. Gale Cengage Learning, 1 June 2004. Web. 21 December 2010.

Last lines of story warn the “Stiff-Last lines of story warn the “Stiff-necked and High-minded” against necked and High-minded” against “devilish Works.”“devilish Works.”

Defends eternal against temporal

Faustbuch narrator’s commentary on Faust’s actions

FAUST.…one learns to prize the supernatural,one yearns for highest Revelation,which nowhere burns more nobly and more brightthan here in my New Testament.I feel impelled to read this basic textand to transpose the hallowed words,with feeling and integrity,into my own beloved German(He opens a volume and begins.)It is written: “In the beginning was the Word!”Even now I balk. Can no one help?I truly cannot rate the word so high.I must translate it otherwise.I believe the Spirit has inspired meand I must write: “In the beginning there was Mind.”Think thoroughly on this first line,hold back your pen from undue haste!Is it mind that stirs and makes all things?The text should state: “In the beginning there was Power!”Yet while I am about to write this down,something warns me I will not adhere to this.The Spirit’s on my side! The answer is at hand:I write, assured, “In the beginning was the Deed.” (1216-47, pp. 95-97)

Faust maintains a focus on supernatural revelation.

Buts then wants to achieve revelation through action rather than words.

Faust begins with a Christian focus on the word,

In the 1604 Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe, Faust trades his soul for the devil’s service.

FAUSTUS. I, JOHN FAUSTUS, OF WERTENBERG, DOCTOR, BY THESE PRESENTS, DO GIVE BOTH BODY AND SOUL TO LUCIFER PRINCE OF THE EAST, AND HIS MINISTER MEPHISTOPHILIS; AND FURTHERMORE GRANT UNTO THEM, THAT, TWENTY-FOUR YEARS BEING EXPIRED, THE ARTICLES ABOVE-WRITTEN INVIOLATE, FULL POWER TO FETCH OR CARRY THE SAID JOHN FAUSTUS, BODY AND SOUL, FLESH, BLOOD, OR GOODS, INTO THEIR HABITATION WHERESOEVER. BY ME, JOHN FAUSTUS.(Christopher Marlowe, Dr. Faustus, 88-89)

Dr. Faustus’s pact with the devil

Soul Devil’s Service

Christopher Marlowe, The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus: From the Quarto of 1604, ed. Rev. Alexander Dyce, Project Gutenberg, January 1997 (etext #779), Web, 20 December 2010. “Mephistopheles Offering His Help to Faust”. Photograph. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Web. 22 Dec. 2010.

FAUST.What poor devil can you offer?Was ever human spirit in its strivingcomprehended by the likes of you?Yet do you offer food which does not satisfy? Haveyou red gold which moves unsteadily,quicksilver-like between one’s fingers,sports where no one gains the prize,[…]Show me the fruit that rots before it’s pluckedand trees that grow their greenery anew each day!

MEPHISTOPHELES.A project of this nature does not trouble me.I know I can provide such treasures.But there will come a time, my friend,when we shall want to feast at our leisure.

FAUSTIf you should ever find me lolling on a bed of ease,let me be done for on the spot!If you ever lure me with your lying flatteries,and I find satisfaction in myself,if you bamboozle me with pleasure,then let this be my final day!This bet I offer you!

MEPHISTOPHELESAgreed! (1672-97, p. 131)

Faust wants an experience of continual dissatisfaction.

Rejecting leisure and satisfaction, Faust wants to continually strive.

Mephistopheles insists on offering pleasure.

The wager gives Faust the possibility of worldly immortality.

FAUST.If you should ever find me lolling on a bed of ease,Let me be done for on the spot!If you ever lure me with your lying flatteries,And I find satisfaction in myself,If you bamboozle me with pleasure,Then let this be my final day!This bet I offer you!MEPHISTOPHELES. Agreed!(1692-98, p. 131)

WinContinual striving and devil’s service

LoseSatisfaction means loss of soul

MEPHISTOPHELES.Weigh it thoroughly, we shall not forget.

FAUST.You have a perfect right to this;this is no rash or headlong action.Such as I am [Once come to rest], I am a slave –of yours or whosesoever is of no concern.[Wie ich beharre, bin ich Knecht,Ob dein, was frag’ ich, oder wessen.](1710-11, p. 133)

In winning the bet, his triumph over the devil would not be a submission to God, but a confirmation of his own individual sovereignty.

FAUST.Be not afraid that I might break this pact!The sum and essence of my strivingis the very thing I promise you.I had become too overblown,while actually I only rank with you.Ever since the mighty spirit turned from me,Nature kept her doorway closed.The threads of thought are torn to pieces,and learning has become repugnant.Let in the throes of raging sensesseething passions quench my thirst!In never lifted magic veilslet every miracle take form!Let me plunge into the rush of passing time,into the rolling tide of circumstance!Then let sorrow and delight,frustration or success,occur in turn as happenstance;restless action is the state of man. (1741-1759, pp. 135-37)

He accepts that he cannot rule over nature.

He rejects thought and learning.

He embraces action and wants to immerse himself in the passions and circumstances of

the human world.

Faust’s promise to never be satisfied is the “sum and

essence” of his striving as an individual.

Faust imagines a merging of

individual ideal and worldly reality

through human action in society.

CHOIR OF THE DISCIPLES.He who was buried,the Lord of life,has ascended in glory,to Heaven on high,in eager Becomingnear joyous creation.(785-90, pp. 61-63)

CHOIR OF ANGELS.Christ is arisen!Blessed He who lovesand who emerges wholefrom the gruelinggrievous ordeal.[beneficial conditioning ordeal.](heilsam’ und uebendePruefung bestanden.) (757-761, p. 61)

The emphasis is on passing through the edifying ordeal of worldly experience.

Ascension to heaven is a movement into a realm of Becoming.

The Choirs of Angels and Disciples praise Christ.

CHOIR OF THE DISCIPLES.He who was buried,the Lord of life,has ascended in glory,to Heaven on high,in eager Becomingnear joyous creation.(785-90, pp. 61-63)

CHOIR OF ANGELS.Christ is arisen!Blessed He who lovesand who emerges wholefrom the gruelinggrievous ordeal.[beneficial conditioning ordeal.](heilsam’ und uebendePruefung bestanden.) (757-761, p. 61)

FAUST.I told you, I am not concerned with pleasureI crave corrosive joy and dissipation,enamored hate and quickening despair.My breast no longer thirsts for knowledgeand will welcome grief and pain.Whatever is the lot of humankindI want to taste within my deepest self.I want to seize the highest and the lowest,to load its woe and bliss upon my breast,and thus expand my single self titanicallyand in the end, go down with all the rest [of humankind].(1765-1775, p. 137)

Faust’s desire to go into the world is similar

to the path of Christ through the world.

Goethe’s Faust is:

A. a villain for the play and for us. (Faustbuch, Michael Jaeger)

B. a villain for the play and a hero for us. (18th century Faust as farce)

C. a hero for the play and for us. (Frederick Amrine, Astrida Tantillo)

D. a hero for the play and a villain for us. (Alberto Destro)

E. don’t understand the question.