IV
AUTHOR: JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
DATE: 1808/1832
Faust, a tragic drama in two parts, is considered by many the greatest literary work in the German language. Written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe over a period of some sixty years, it examines what compromises the main protagonist is prepared to make in search of earthly satisfaction. As such, it has become something of a universal allegory; in essence, an exploration of the question proffered in the Gospel of Matthew (16:26): ‘What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?’
Part One of Faust begins with a wager between God and the demon Mephistopheles. The latter claims he can lead astray the virtuous Faust, a man intent on understanding all that there is to know. Faust is himself growing increasingly frustrated by what he considers his lack of success in his quest. In fact, he is considering suicide when the sound of church bells persuades him out of his plan. He takes a walk into town, where he encounters a poodle that follows him home, where its true identity is revealed as Mephistopheles. The pair then make their fateful pact. If Mephistopheles can meet Faust’s earthly desires so that he reaches a point where he wishes to remain in the moment and no longer feels compelled to strive further, then the demon can have his soul.
Among the favours Mephistopheles bestows, he helps Faust woo a neighbour to whom he is attracted, Gretchen (also known as Margaret), by bewitching her. But the relationship (if that is what it may be called) is ill-starred, resulting in the death of Gretchen’s mother, her brother and her illegitimate newborn child (whom she drowns, leading to her conviction for murder). Faust, with the demon’s help, attempts to free her from prison, but by now Gretchen can see him for what he truly is and refuses, offering herself up for the judgement of God instead.
Part Two is a rather different entity, in which Faust is whisked off to disparate settings across time in a series of more disjointed adventures. In search of the contentment he seeks, he variously takes in the court of the Holy Roman Emperor and visits Ancient Greece (where he woos Helen of Troy), before fighting in a war for the emperor and then building a commercial empire. When death arrives in old age, Faust remains disillusioned with the world but finds some form of heavenly salvation in respect of his unstinting striving after truth and knowledge and his unshakable belief that there exists something more elevated than himself.
The legend of Faust gained a cultural foothold in the sixteenth century – the story of a man who sells his soul to the devil in return for knowledge and pleasure during his life on earth. The true-life inspiration for the tale is often considered to be Johann Georg Faust, a German alchemist, astrologer and necromancer whose life spanned the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. He was reputed to have died around 1540 when an alchemical experiment caused an explosion that rendered his body terribly mutilated. The Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe gave the story wider currency with his version of the legend, The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus.
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One of the more curious Faustian legends attached itself to Robert Johnson, a great Blues musician who died in 1938 when just twenty-seven years old. The story goes that the young Robert, who lived on a Mississippi plantation, yearned to be a virtuoso guitarist. He received instructions to take his guitar to a local crossroads one night, where he was met by the devil in human form, who tuned his guitar before returning it to Robert. After this diabolical intervention, Robert was recognized as a master player until his death, of uncertain causes, a few years later. Old yarn as it might be, it is proof of our enduring fascination with the Faustian myth.
Goethe was labouring on an early form of the work (called Urfaust, the original manuscript now lost) as early as 1772 but ‘Part One’ in the version we know today would not see publication until 1808. ‘Part Two’ appeared only in 1832, a full year after its author’s death. Those timescales give some sense of the magnitude of the project. Its structural demands (much of the play is written in poetical forms) and the sheer range of its cultural, religious, historical and philosophical allusions ensured that it demanded all Goethe’s energies.
The durability of the legend (and especially Goethe’s version) is reflected in the vast number of cultural works it has inspired, from literary works and opera to ballet and the visual arts. The existential dilemma that Faust faces is timeless and universal, yet the play is sufficiently multifaceted that it takes on particular resonances under differing historical circumstances. It may be seen in the context of Goethe’s own time, when tensions abounded between the Christian Church in Europe and the Enlightenment philosophy. It is fair to say that there are echoes of Faust, with his belief in action and the ‘will to power’, in the works of Friedrich Nietzsche too. But by 1936, Klaus Mann had reworked the story in his novel, Mephisto, to fit a world moulded by the rise of fascism. Meanwhile, Stephen Vincent Benét adapted the tale for his The Devil and Daniel Webster (1936), written against the backdrop of the Great Depression. As the existentialist philosopher Søren Kierkegaard noted: ‘Every notable historical era will have its own Faust.’
The Faustian pact continues to resonate. If climate change is the single greatest challenge of our age, we might say there is something Faustian in the conflict between our yearning for the planet’s ongoing wellbeing and our drive to satisfy our desires through the very consumption that endangers the planet. What are we prepared to sacrifice in order to get what we think we want? By confronting such questions, we are forced to evaluate what really matters to us and, in the process, perhaps gain a more complete understanding of who we are and, indeed, why we are. Goethe’s Faust seems ultimately to tell us that our best hope is to always strive with purpose.