Faust

Johan Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust, having been written in the 19th century, was heavily influenced by the Romantic movement, as seen through three recurring romantic elements. The first of these three is the rejection of neoclassicism, and an emphasis of individual creativity and thought over logic and order. This element is best exemplified through Faust’s inability to ascertain the information he so seeks through logical methods, resulting in his attempts to use magic and subsequent blood-pact with Mephistopheles. He curses the “impossibility of knowledge,” further reiterating the idea that a neoclassical approach to information garners no success. Faust’s second predominant romantic element is that of a focus on the individual, namely the…

Since the very beginnings of the tale of Faust the story has been incredibly open to artistic interpretation. The story of Faust can be seen as far back as the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and from that point onward the story has taken on an innumerable amount of differing thoughts and interpretations. However, in observation of three separate paintings from three completely different time periods one can see how the three paintings share very similar aspects. These three paintings, all…

Characters in ancient tragedies had clear defined roles. There were heroes and villains, who did not stray from their archetype. These stories and perhaps all others are reflective of the level of complexity of the societies their authors lived in. For example, Goethe’s Faust, a “modern tragedy,” is reflective of a society during a paradigm shift: science is taking the place of religion in terms of providing guidance and people are left with more questions than answers about their place in the…

The Tragic Ending of Faust: An Interpretation of Faust II, Act V, Lines 11678-11829 In Part II, Act V, line 11678-11829 of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s tragic play Faust, Faust’s soul is rescued by angels. There have been many scholars that have interpreted this scene as representing the redemption of the protagonist after a life of evil and destruction (Van der Laan, 67). That view has now largely been rejected. An alternative reading of this scene would be to deny Faust any identity at all,…

his conscience and made a deal with the devil, both literally and figuratively. Despite his high aspirations, and initial reasons for signing away his soul, Faustus still has desires of a mortal man and asks for a wife from Mephostophelis, “…I am wanton and lascivious and cannot live without a wife” (Marlowe 769). It is in this passage that the reader can begin to realize the internal struggle of conflict between Faustus’s godly aspirations and his human limitations. This theme is frequently…

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 quote effectively creates a parallel for the two characters, because Faustus is asking a question to Mephastophilis which he cannot answer; the reason why Mephastophilis cannot answer the question is because Faustus does not know the answer. Moreover, Mephastophilis does not know the answer because Faustus does not have a connection with God -- whom could be used for the answer. That said, Faustus has created a caricature in the opposite form who he has full control over. The correlation…

In the Norton Anthology translation of Faust and in the Norton Critical Edition of Faust, the differences in translation and the impact it has on the reader’s interpretation is quite evident. Pointing our focus directly on the Dungeon scene of Faust, or the final scene of Part 1, the differences in translation can be seen through Gretchen and Faust and the discussions between them. In the Norton Critical Edition, the final scene of Part I’s translation seemed to be a lot more lyrical, less…

Christopher Marlowe was likely born February 1564 in Canterbury, England (Belanger) to artisan parents (de Lisle). Marlowe attended King 's School, Canterbury, as a Queen 's scholar (Belanger). It is quite possible that he wrote his first poems here at this school (Belanger). Marlowe would then move to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and create some of his earliest plays (Belanger). Even though he had written several plays, throughout his 29 years of life, Christopher was only able to publish…

a fascination for the instructions of his predecessor, but instead proceeds to create a bad reputation for the occult philosophers and his creeds as he proclaims to follow on their path: Will be as cunning as Agrippa was, whose shadows made all Europe honour him. (Doctor Faustus: Scene II Lines 15-16 P.852) At the same time, Faustus becomes infamous for his mockery of the church and beliefs in the divine. Not only does he turns himself from God, but is reluctant to regret his sins and ask for…