Faust Essay

LIT 2120 9/13/07 Essay #1: On Faust

Goethe’s God in the “Prologue in Heaven” clearly regards Faust as an essentially good man who “harried in his dark distraction/Can still perceive the ways of righteousness.” Indeed he grants his other servant Mephistopheles license to play cat-and-mouse with Faust for his soul, regarding such “goading” as the devil will administer as in some way good for the good Doctor. I think the central question of the play is as follows: how can we regard Faust as good, as indeed a representative good man, given his seemingly unholy attitudes and actions? How is Faust good in his desiring essence, in his partnership with Mephistopheles, in his “relationship” with Margaret/Gretchen? We could put these questions another way: How is Faust good before the advent of Mephistopheles? He’s a man of desperate longing and thirst for life, for life intensified, magnified, enchanted, made godlike— a man always disappointed. Where’s the goodness in this? How does Faust, as he does time and again, challenge and defeat Mephistopheles’ cynical pessimism? How is Faust vitally different from his alter ego? How does Faust show himself a fundamentally good man in his interactions with Margaret? There are of course many possible answers to these questions, and having answered them in your own way you may very well conclude that Faust is not a good man. In any event, you should strive (key word in Faust) for personal, independent-minded responses supported by textual evidence (including direct quotations). Due September 27 [email protected]