Do you have any books on your shelves that have been there for some time? Maybe you don’t even remember why you first bought them. They sit there, and one day you decide, “Now is the time to read this.” That was me with Goethe’s Faust. With most books, I remember why I got them, or who suggested the book to me. But not with this one. All I can remember is seeing a quote from Goethe in a historical fiction book from several years ago. Thus, I decided now was the time to read Faust.

I knew very little about this book before I stepped into it. I’d heard of a Faustian bargain and that was about it. I did not know that Faust was a real person, a contemporary of Luther. Faust was, from the few real accounts we have of him, even more depraved than the plays and lore about him suggest. He was a magician and an astrologist, among other things, and many legends about him became popular not long after his death. As for the author, I had also been under the assumption that Goethe was a Christian, as his family was Lutheran, but he was actually a syncretist pagan. As Nietzsche said of Goethe, he believed in a “Faith that only in the totality of everything redeems itself and appears good and justified.” And here is a good place to jump into the play. There may be some minor spoilers, but without reading the full play, you will miss the deeper meaning. This is a fascinating work of fiction, even if the underlying philosophy is flawed. This book is not about the story for its own sake but a way to let fictional characters play out different philosophies.

In short, Faust is about the Faustian bargain and a separate philosophical experiment. For the first, the main gist of the story is that Faust is a man discontent with life who ends up making a deal with Mephistopheles, the devil. The devil must serve Faust and make him perfectly happy, and in the end, Faust will return to hell with Mephistopheles (which Faust believes does not exist). Mephisto agrees to serve him, for he has already made a deal with God: He will tempt Faust to despair, even as he claims to serve Faust, while God claims he cannot lead Faust astray. Thus, Faust receives unlimited power at the cost of his soul. Yet Faust is the man of Ecclesiastes, one who is constantly striving after the wind. He doesn’t just want to be good or righteous; he doesn’t just want to be respected as a doctor of medicine. He wants to know everything, to experience everything. He is proud, considering himself to know all that can be known about philosophy, science, and especially religion, which he has come to detest. Even in turning to magic, he does not find his contentment. Thus, even before he meets Mephisto, he considers suicide, to transport himself to nothingness, but stops himself. It is the Easter vigil, and he hears the nearby church bells. And this is where we are introduced to Mephistopheles. He was actually in the opening of the play in a bizarre scene pulled from Job. But it is here, where Faust is at his most desperate, that Mephisto sinks his claws into him. He will serve Faust on the surface but will destroy him and those around him along the way.

It would be good to point out Mephistopheles name. From the Greek, it appears to mean something like “unloving.” Mephisto makes many convincing ploys that he desires to give Faust what he wants, and he does, but none of these things make Faust content. He does not love Faust but seeks only to drag him to hell. And Faust knows this. But his lust for knowledge and meaning is that great. It is fascinating to watch each sin that Faust falls into: Pride, vanity, lust, greed, and even wrath. And at the heart of it all, he rejects God and His promises. He is the man of Ecclesiastes, chasing after the wind. Yet he never turns back to God and even brings others down with him, including those whom he claims to love. In many ways, it is clear why this is called a tragedy, even the best of Goethe, whom some have called the Shakespeare of Germany. He was truly a Renaissance man. And yet, the play falls short.

The play is split into two parts and divided into numerous scenes. And if the play had ended at part one, I could even call it a true tragedy, on the shelf with some of the best from Shakespeare. I could even call it Faust’s tragedy. But the problem lies here: Goethe saw himself in both Faust and Mephistopheles. Mephisto is the true believer in humanism; but Faust is Goethe, who wants to have it both ways. He wants to have the world and his soul too. Where Faust is meant to be an intellectual experiment with philosophy, Gothe does not allow himself to be intellectually honest. He is, at heart, a syncretist. He is Mephisto who knows the end of all this striving is vanity and hell and goes for it anyway, and he is Faust who can strive for anything but God and achieve his own salvation. As it says at the end of part two, “Who ever strives with all his power,/We are allowed to save.” This isn’t Christianity, and it is false. Demonic, one might say. It will lead one to despair and drag others down too. But, Goethe cannot allow Faust to be the tragic hero. Instead, it is Mephistopheles who spends so much striving to damn Faust and lose.

I could almost like Faust if it ended with part one. Here, Faust goes to save his beloved, he wishes he had never been born to see her suffer so, suffering he caused. But where he is dragged away by the devil, she repents and is saved. This could have been the true ending. We could have seen the parallel with the opening scene, we could have seen that the devil never would fulfill his promises to give Faust all he wanted in exchange for his soul. We could have seen someone repent and be forgiven instead of remaining in unrepentance. But Goethe, who held to a post-enlightenment syncretist philosophy, could not allow that. He had to have a Deus ex machina, or perhaps rather a Maria ex machina, at the end for himself. And perhaps that is why, though I can enjoy this work, I cannot like it as I want both the character of Faust and Geothe to have realized the truth.

This is a great work of fiction. I can see why it has at various times become popular. Like the best of fiction, especially philosophical works, Goethe explores what he has been taught and what he desires to be true. Through Faust, he rejects Truth and lives out what he desires to be true through his characters. And he doesn’t fully reject consequences. He shows the discontent of Faust who in all his striving does not receive the bliss of heaven on earth. He shows how others pay the price of his choice to engage the devil. Yet unlike works such as Till We Have Faces, his main character never humbles himself. He is a humanist in the end and sees striving for human wisdom as good enough. Yet even in this bizarre story where Faust and Goethe try to justify themselves, you get the briefest glimpse of this truth: that there is no profit to a man who gains the whole world yet forfeits his soul. And while I love the writing — and if you enjoy plays, you will enjoy this too — you are likely to leave this play dissatisfied with the ending of the second. Because you cannot justify yourself; salvation rests in God alone. Even so, it is a fascinating piece of writing, almost like historical fiction, looking into the philosophy of both the 16th and 18th centuries. So if you are looking for a unique, philosophical yet engaging read, this is the play for you.

Blessings to you and yours,

~Madelyn Rose Craig