The importance that love plays in one’s life can never be underestimated, especially when it has a way of changing a person’s outlook on life. Author Martin Puchner, wrote “The Norton Anthology” published in 2014 in the W.W. Norton Anthology, where Wofgang Von Goethe’s masterpiece on Faust, a dramatic tragedy where the main character Faust experiences inner struggles which leads him to striking a deal with the devil. Wofgang Von Goethe begins early in the drama by painting the picture of Faust as a man who is a doctor, professor and scholar, yet really does not know who he is and what he really wants out of life. In the “Prologue in Heaven” we find God and the devil Mephistopheles making a wager on whether or not the devil can lead Faust
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Mephistopheles’ witty and ironic tone in addressing God is quite different from the sober debate in the book of Job (Brians). The story continues on with Mephisto, short for Mephistopheles, engaging in the deal with Faust, and the numerous attempts the devil makes in trying to capture Faust’s soul. Mephisto was sophisticated and refined and he appealed to Faust’s vanity. The vanity was not how the devil planned to secure his victim (Simone). The complexity of Faust’s complex personality is on display throughout the tragedy; however, it’s when he meets the love of his life Gretchen, we find his sense of worth transcends him from a nomad into a man with a spiritual purpose, thus proving that love has a way of “waking” a person up. The goal in this paper is to exam the main character Faust, and to provide a rhetorical analysis covering various topics as they relate to him, including: love, lust, doom, destruction, death and greed to name a …show more content…
The storyline is excellently developed and follows a path of destruction for Faust; however, in my opinion, the Devil was unable to extract his soul because of his true love for Gretchen throughout the story, which enabled Faust not to fall privy to Devil’s traps that he intentionally set for Faust to fall into and to partake in the devious activities. The above sentiments are mirrored in an article entitled, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust Summary & Analysis, where the discussion of how Faust saved himself is discussed (Johann). Faust’s show of remorseful emotions for his role that he played as a self-serving low-life eventually is what allowed him to be admitted into heaven. After admitting that he was truly sorry and wrong for all of his actions, it is God who allowed him to enter into heaven, which was the only hero action throughout the entire story on Faust’s part. The true fact of the story is that Faust was not a hero; however, it is God who saw favor and allowed him to enter. He may even be considered one of the greatest non-hero who was allowed passed into
Mephistopheles’ witty and ironic tone in addressing God is quite different from the sober debate in the book of Job (Brians). The story continues on with Mephisto, short for Mephistopheles, engaging in the deal with Faust, and the numerous attempts the devil makes in trying to capture Faust’s soul. Mephisto was sophisticated and refined and he appealed to Faust’s vanity. The vanity was not how the devil planned to secure his victim (Simone). The complexity of Faust’s complex personality is on display throughout the tragedy; however, it’s when he meets the love of his life Gretchen, we find his sense of worth transcends him from a nomad into a man with a spiritual purpose, thus proving that love has a way of “waking” a person up. The goal in this paper is to exam the main character Faust, and to provide a rhetorical analysis covering various topics as they relate to him, including: love, lust, doom, destruction, death and greed to name a …show more content…
The storyline is excellently developed and follows a path of destruction for Faust; however, in my opinion, the Devil was unable to extract his soul because of his true love for Gretchen throughout the story, which enabled Faust not to fall privy to Devil’s traps that he intentionally set for Faust to fall into and to partake in the devious activities. The above sentiments are mirrored in an article entitled, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust Summary & Analysis, where the discussion of how Faust saved himself is discussed (Johann). Faust’s show of remorseful emotions for his role that he played as a self-serving low-life eventually is what allowed him to be admitted into heaven. After admitting that he was truly sorry and wrong for all of his actions, it is God who allowed him to enter into heaven, which was the only hero action throughout the entire story on Faust’s part. The true fact of the story is that Faust was not a hero; however, it is God who saw favor and allowed him to enter. He may even be considered one of the greatest non-hero who was allowed passed into