From Wagner to Berlioz, from Thomas Mann to Oscar Wilde, many have been inspired by Faustian themes, thoughts of beauty, youth, the achievement of power and the importance of decisions. But, above all, they all asked themselves: does the end justify the means? How far are people willing to go to get what they want? Faust is the hero of the tragedy of the same name by Johann Wolfgang Goethe. He is driven by the desire for knowledge, love for humanity, and the desire to help people. Faust's path to truth was fraught with tragic mistakes and the renunciation of illusions. The hero found the truth in self-denial for the sake of others. Characterizing the image of Faust will help reveal the essence of this character and determine his character traits.
Biography
Goethe was born in 1749 into a wealthy patrician family. The basics of all sciences were taught to him at home. Later, the poet entered the University of Leipzig, but this was not enough for him. He also graduated from the University of Strasbourg. After the treatise “The Sorrows of Young Werther” was published, he gained worldwide fame.
Goethe held an administrative position under the Duke of Saxe-Weimar for a long time. There he tried to realize himself, convey the advanced ideas of that century to everyone else and serve for the benefit of society. Having become prime minister of Weimar, he became disillusioned with politics. His active position did not allow him to engage in creativity.
Goethe and Schiller
One of the turning points in the life and work of Johann Wolfgang was his acquaintance with Schiller. Two first-class authors not only begin to develop together the Weimar classicism founded by Goethe, but also constantly push each other to create new masterpieces. Under the influence of Schiller, Goethe wrote several novels and continued work on Faust, which Friedrich so wanted to see. Nevertheless, Faust was published only in 1806, when Schiller was no longer alive. The first part was created under the tireless supervision of Eckermann, Goethe's personal secretary, who insisted that the tragedy be published. The second part, at the behest of the author himself, was released posthumously.
History of creation
“Faust” not only gives the reader a fascinating plot, mysticism, and mystery, but also raises the most important philosophical questions. Goethe wrote this work over sixty years of his life, and the play was published after the writer’s death. The history of the creation of the work is interesting not only because of the long period of its writing. The name of the tragedy itself opaquely hints at the physician Johann Faust, who lived in the 16th century, who, due to his merits, acquired envious people. The doctor was credited with supernatural abilities, supposedly he could even resurrect people from the dead. The author changes the plot, supplements the play with characters and events and, as if on a red carpet, solemnly enters the history of world art.
Doctor Faustus
The poet did not invent the main plot line; he took it from folk tales. Later, thanks to the thinker himself, the story of Faust will be retold by many writers, weaving this plot into the basis of their books. And Goethe learned about this legend when he was only five years old. As a boy he saw a puppet theater. It told a terrible tale.
The legend is partly based on real events. Once upon a time there lived Johann Georg Faust, a doctor by profession. He traveled from city to city and offered his services. If traditional medicine did not help, he took up magic, astrology and even alchemy. Doctors who were more successful and well-known in their community said that Faust was a simple charlatan who could deceive any naive person. The healer's students at the university, where he briefly taught, spoke of the doctor with great warmth, considering him a seeker of truth. Lutherans called him a servant of the devil. The image of Faust seemed to them in all the dark corners.
The real Faust died under very mysterious circumstances, quite suddenly, in 1540. Then legends and speculation began to be made about him.
The image of Faust in Goethe's tragedy
The work about Faust is a long life journey of a person who is endowed with a special view of the world, the ability to feel, experience, be disappointed and hope. The main character makes a deal with the devil only because he wants to understand all the secrets of the world. He wants to find the elusive truth of existence, to find the truth, and constantly desperately seeks out more and more new knowledge. He soon realizes that he himself will not be able to find answers to the questions, will not be able to reveal all the secrets.
For the sake of knowledge, the hero is ready to pay any price. After all, everything that is in Faust’s life, everything that moves him, is a quest. Goethe endows the hero with the full range of all existing emotions. In the work, he is either in ecstasy from having discovered a grain of new information, or on the verge of suicide.
The main task of the hero is not just to understand the world, but to understand himself. The image of Faust in the tragedy "Faust" is somewhat reminiscent of a perpetual motion machine. His life does not revolve in a circle, does not return to its origins. He constantly moves forward, making new discoveries, exploring the unknown. He pays for gaining knowledge with his soul. Faust is well aware of what he wants, and for this he is ready to summon the devil.
The main positive traits that the image of Faust absorbed in the tragedy “Faust” are persistence, curiosity, and goodwill. The main character not only strives to acquire new knowledge, he wants to help others with it.
The image of Faust in Goethe's tragedy also has negative qualities: the desire to gain knowledge immediately, vanity, doubt, carelessness.
The main character of this work teaches that you cannot look back and regret something, you need to live in the present, look for what makes a person happy. Despite the terrifying deal, Faust lived an absolutely happy life, never regretting it until the last moment.
Themes
The themes of the play “Faust” are very diverse, and if you are missing the topics described here, write in the comments so that the Many-Wise Litrekon will add them.
- Love
- using the example of Margarita, the writer demonstrates how uncontrolled passion can destroy even the best person. According to Goethe, love is an extremely dangerous feeling, which, when out of control, brings only suffering to a person. He, like a man of the Enlightenment, exalts reason at the expense of feeling and puts thought above emotion. In his opinion, love cannot be the meaning of life; a person must strive for a high destiny in order to reveal all the radiance of the “divine spark.” - Mysticism
- the main character of the work is surrounded by various mysterious, supernatural phenomena. However, Faust's interest is not directed towards the supernatural, but towards the real world, which he wants to improve with the help of new knowledge and power. However, he himself tries to summon spirits, because he is a warlock and an expert in occult sciences. It was secret knowledge that helped him learn the meaning of life and find himself, because without the magic of Mephistopheles he would not have been able to reach this truth. - The struggle between good and evil in man
- Faust and Margarita go through a difficult path, constantly tempted by the forces of darkness. However, in the end, good prevails. Margarita, having committed the fall, rejects the help of evil forces and chooses redemption through death, and Faust, although he has committed many monstrous acts, until the very end tries to use his wisdom for the sake of humanity, and not for himself. - Religion
- for Faust, true religiosity lies not in following dogmas, but in philanthropy and kindness, which Faust and Margarita demonstrated, for which their souls were saved. Goethe's God is not a harsh judge, but a higher power that gives people free will. - The purpose of man
- Goethe shows that every person should strive to help people and try to make the world a better place. Often, this path leads only to despair and death, but only by following it does a person become his true self and find his place in life. - Ideal and reality
- moving to Ancient Greece from Germany in modern times symbolizes a person’s desire to escape from unsightly reality into the world of dreams. However, in the end, Faust rejects Mephistopheles' obsession and decides to fight to make the real world a better place. Goethe encourages people not to run away from the disappointing reality of life, but to fight it.
Image of Margarita
Margarita, a modest girl, naive in many matters, became the main temptation for the already middle-aged hero. She turned the scientist’s whole world upside down and made him regret that he had no power over time. The poet himself was very fond of the image of Margarita in the tragedy “Faust”, probably identifying it with the biblical Eve, who served the forbidden fruit to Adam.
If all the years of his life Faust relied on his mind, then, having met this seemingly ordinary girl on the street, he begins to rely on his heart and feelings. After meeting Faust, Margarita begins to change. She puts her mother to sleep in order to get a date. The girl is not as carefree as her first description might seem. She is proof that appearances can be deceiving. Having met Mephistopheles, the girl subconsciously understands that it is better to avoid him.
Goethe took the image of Margarita from the streets of his time. The writer often saw sweet and kind girls whom fate threw into extremes. They cannot get out of their environment and are doomed to spend their lives the way the women of their family did. Striving for more, these girls fall further and further down.
Having found her happiness in Faust, Margarita believes in a better outcome. However, a series of tragic events prevents her from enjoying love. Faust himself kills her brother, unwillingly. He curses his sister before his death. The misfortunes do not end there, and, having suffered more than she should have, having gone crazy, Margarita ends up in prison. In a moment of complete despair, a higher power saves her.
Faust image
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The image of Faust in the works of I.V. Goethe and O.S. Pushkin The creative spirit of Faust rushes to us from the mysterious and bizarre centuries of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, when man became imbued with faith in his omnipotence, armed with the powers of the mysterious science of alchemy, looked for the philosopher's stone, with the help who was going to turn any metal into gold, was looking for the “elixir of life” to regain his youth. At this time, stories appeared about magicians and warlocks who sold their souls to the devil so that he could help them understand the secret of existence. One of the most popular legends of the Middle Ages is the legend of Doctor Faustus, which arose around a historical figure who captured the imagination of the people. Faust is a historical figure, as evidenced by numerous memoirs of his contemporaries. He lived at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, and Johann Georgy was hiding under the name Faust. Scientists have different explanations for the origin of his surname. Some claim that it comes from the German Faust, which means fist, others see it as a pseudonym derived from the Latin Faustus - happy. This pseudonym emphasized the successful nature of the activities of a scientist, magician, astrologer, and soothsayer. Faust himself called himself both a doctor and a palmist. So, from the point of view of the Lutheran church, he sought illicit knowledge, which means he deserved condemnation, he was a sinner, because from the point of view of a person of that time, this knowledge can only be obtained in alliance with the devil. Written sources also report that Faust was a professor, lectured at various universities, and had students - followers. Even during the life of the scientist, there were various stories about him about his actions, in which they saw something unusual and fantastic. Faust died as a result of an unexpected catastrophe that struck his contemporaries. It is believed that it was an explosion in the scientist's laboratory. The historical Faust died around 1540. This last event in the life of the scientist provided further impetus for the development of the legend. Faust becomes a popular favorite hero of folk legend. His image in the legend bears the imprint of time. He is a man who, for the sake of knowledge, is ready to deal with evil spirits, and so at the end of the legend, the devil takes Faust to hell. At the same time, he is a typical representative of the Renaissance, a brave and fearless seeker of secret knowledge and forbidden ways of obtaining this knowledge. As you know, the most vivid, deep, artistically perfect images were created by folklore, for example Hercules, Prometheus, Mikula Selyaninovich, Vasilisa the Beautiful, Petrushka, and these include Faust. All these heroes harmoniously combined reason and feelings. The main essence of the Faustian plot - the thirst for limitless knowledge, curiosity, freedom of spirit - attracted many writers of subsequent eras and determined the worldwide popularity of the image of Faust. Below in the work we will try to clarify the question of how the legend of Faust was transformed in the works of I.V. Goethe and A.S. Pushkin, an outstanding German educator and classic of Russian literature. It is known that the tragedy “Faust” made a great impression on O.S. Pushkin, and the poet in 1825 wrote the poem “Scene from Faust.” One Russian traveler introduced him to Goethe, and he sent A.S. to Pushkin. as a gift his pen, with which he wrote “Fausta”. Goethe, with his subtle perception of antiquity, felt the beauty and significance of this plot in his youth. The writer devoted 62 years of his life to the book. Undoubtedly, Goethe knew not only the legend of Faust, but also the legend of Simon the Magician. Goethe found a simple way to combine these two plots: Mephistopheles rejuvenates the scientist and turns him into a young man. Such a plan, according to the German writer Thomas Mann, could only be born “from the youthful rhythm of the blood” of the poet. Goethe's Faust bears little resemblance to his prototypes. He is endowed with the features of a man not of the Middle Ages, but of the Renaissance. The work consists of a Dedication, a Theatrical Introduction, a Prologue and two parts. The “Prologue in Heaven” shows the meeting of the Lord and his archangels with Mephistopheles, which acquires symbolic meaning.
The main subject of conversation is a person. Who is he? What is his place in the world? The Lord affirms the strength of the human personality, and the ability to develop, to search for the meaning of life, although he agrees that it is not perfect. This is exactly the kind of person God represents Faust. But the Lord also does not recognize Mephistopheles as the personification of evil, and this is confirmed by his words: To people like you, I will never be an enemy. Of the spirits of denial, you have been a burden to me, a rogue and a merry fellow. Out of laziness, a person falls into hibernation. Go, stir up his stagnation, Hover in front of him, volume and disturb And irritate him with your fever. With these words, the Lord gave Faust free rein to choose between him and the devil, knowing that a strong, thinking person always doubts, but she herself comes to the desired conclusions. Meeting Mephistopheles will only help you get out of your contradictions. Mephistopheles, on the contrary, speaks of the meagerness of man, which does not allow humanity to approach the heights of the spirit. What is a person on earth - a “divine creation” that strives for truth, or an “animal”? This is the main problem of the prologue, which determines the ideological content of the tragedy "Faust". Unlike tragedy, legend does not have such a prologue. The image of Faust in the poem personifies all of humanity, but despite this he is not an ideal person. Faust is not satisfied with knowledge. which he owns and strives for more. It is at such moments that he turns to the Bible and begins to translate, but does not agree with the very first words. The hero's despair is so great that he decides to commit suicide. Mephistopheles finds Faust in his office, where he has been struggling many times to uncover the secrets of the world, and enters into an agreement with him. He will satisfy any desires and whims of the scientist and will not interfere with anything. But at the moment when Faust feels completely satisfied with life and happy, he must die, and his soul will belong to Mephistopheles. And this will be the payment for earthly bliss. This episode of the poem also has discrepancies with the legend, since in the legend Mephistopheles and Faust enter into an agreement only for 24 years (according to them, Mephistopheles, remaining invisible, must appear to Faust at his request and carry out all his orders, while Faust renounces God and gives up his soul Satan). Subsequently, Mephistopheles returns youth to our hero and as a result he falls in love with a young beautiful girl Gretchen (this storyline - the love of Faust and Margarita is an innovation by J.V. Goethe). Mephistopheles believes that it is in this that Faust will find that beautiful moment, but he is mistaken. First, by the will of Mephistopheles, mother Gretchen dies, and then brother Valentin. The young girl punishes herself for these deaths and ends up in a prison. Despite all Faust’s pleas to run away with him, Margarita does not agree, because she considers herself guilty and dies. But even after all the sins, Margarita’s soul goes to heaven. Faust took Gretchen's death hard, but did not stop searching for the truth. So in the first part of his work, Goethe basically led his hero through those trials that are known from legend. In the second part of the work, Faust serves at the court of the emperor and provides him with various services with the help of the omnipotent Mephistopheles. After marriage with the ancient Greek beauty Helen the Beautiful, his son Euphorion is born, who later becomes a gyne. Faust tries to raise a man in colbia - Homunculus, but he also dies. Faust's life is coming to an end; he is 100 years old. He dreams of light and happy cities, which, according to his desire, should appear for people. He wants to fulfill his dream on the island that was given to him by the emperor, and which was almost unsuitable for life. Faust hurries with the robots. Finally, the hero feels the moment of life's highest pleasure: This is the thought to which I am completely devoted, The result of everything that the mind has accumulated. Only those who have experienced the battle for life deserve Life and freedom. So, every day, every year, Boras, laboring, joking with danger, Let the husband, the old man and the child live. A free people in a free land. I would like to see such days. Then I could exclaim: “A moment! Oh, how wonderful you are, wait! The traces of my Borens are embodied, And they will never be erased." And, anticipating this triumph,
I am experiencing the highest moment right now.
Faust has nothing more to desire. He dies, but his soul goes to heaven and meets the soul of Margarita. She has already forgiven and loves him as before. Faust suffered a lot, constantly doubted and searched, found and lost, and often felt discontent. Only among nature, feeling it as part of himself, does he perceive the world as harmony. Life brought him short moments of happiness and long years of suffering and despair, but it was not all in vain. Already at the end of his life, Faust realized this. So, in the second part, Goethe moved away from the legend, logically developing the character of a man who saw his calling in the active search for truth and the meaning of existence. The main motive in Pushkin's poems is boredom and despair. Faust finds no place for himself, because all his desires have long since come true. He wants nothing more; Faust does not know a desire, the fulfillment of which could capture him and make him forget the boredom of life. He is bored because he is always in the grip of thoughts. Pushkin's Faust suffers from the disease of "world sorrow". The author does not find sympathy for his hero; rather, he condemns him and mocks him a little. This can be seen in the last remarks of Faust and Mephistopheles: Faust What is turning white there? Speak. Mephistopheles A three-masted Spanish ship, ready to land in Holland: There are three hundred scoundrels on it, Two monkeys, barrels of gold, Yes, a cargo of rich chocolate, Yes, a fashionable disease: it was recently presented to you. Faust Drown everything. Mephistopheles Now. Pushkin does not oppose Goethe's interpretation of Faust with his own interpretation. He complements Goethe and describes another tragic stage on the path of Faust. Hence the title of the poem: “Scene from Faust.” Pushkin's Faust is a man who has known all the pangs of disappointment and all the horror of loneliness. For Goethe and Pushkin, Faust was their contemporary. The torments of the hero for Goethe and Pushkin were the problems of their time. But if the main thing for Goethe’s entire era was the desire to renew the world, then the main thing for Pushkin was despair and disappointment. The optimistic end of the tragedy "Faust" is due to the enlightenment belief in the mind and moral qualities of man, an individual who consciously abandoned traditions and is constantly looking for something new, striving for perfection. Pushkin's Faust is the son and victim of his time, when man began to doubt the possibility of transforming the world on a reasonable basis, and disappointment and dissatisfaction with oneself gave rise to world melancholy and sadness. Faust is an eternal image, and it is no coincidence that he became the property of world culture.
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The image of Mephistopheles in the tragedy "Faust"
Mephistopheles is a fallen angel who has an eternal debate with God about good and evil. He believes that a person is so corrupt that, succumbing to even a slight temptation, he can easily give his soul to him. The angel is sure that humanity is not worth saving. Faust, according to Mephistopheles, will always be on the side of evil.
In one of the lines of the work, Mephistopheles is described as a devil who previously had sharp claws, horns and a tail. He does not like scholasticism, preferring to move away from boring sciences. Being evil helps the hero, without knowing it, to find the truth. The image of Mephistopheles in Faust is complex of contradictions.
Often in conversations and disputes with Faust, Mephistopheles reveals himself to be a genuine philosopher who observes with interest the actions of man and progress. However, when he communicates with other people or evil spirits, he chooses other images for himself. He keeps up with his interlocutor and supports conversations on any topic. Mephistopheles himself says several times that he does not have absolute power. The main decision always depends on the person, and he can only take advantage of the wrong choice.
Many of Goethe’s own thoughts were invested in the image of Mephistopheles in the tragedy “Faust”. They expressed themselves in sharp criticism of feudalism. At the same time, the devil profits from the naive realities of the capitalist system.
Despite the superficial similarity between the demon and the main character, the image of Mephistopheles in the tragedy “Faust” is absolutely opposite to him in the main thing. Faust strives for wisdom. And Mephistopheles believes that there is no wisdom. He believes that the search for truth is an empty exercise, because it does not exist.
Researchers believe that the image of Mephistopheles in Faust is the subconscious of the doctor himself, his fears of the unknown. At the moment when good begins to fight evil, the demon talks to the main character. At the end of the work, Mephistopheles is left with nothing. Faust voluntarily admits that he has achieved the ideal and learned the truth. After this, his soul goes to the angels.
Genre and direction
The genre of Goethe's Faust can be defined as a philosophical drama. Before us appears a hero who is trying to fight his fate, but in the end he turns out to be just a toy in the hands of fate. The theme of fate, the inevitability of what must happen, occupies an important place in the work. Although Faust was saved in the finale, the ending still seems rather sad, because the demon managed to cause enormous harm: he ruined Margarita’s life, killed two old men who were preventing Faust from improving his possessions, interfered in the history of the entire state, and contributed to the death of Valentin and Margarita’s mother. In addition, the play touches on very important topics and problems that are not typical of the light comedy genre.
At the same time, the work is not without comic features: Mephistopheles often jokes, his speech contains plays on words, puns and paradoxes. In scenes of festivities, the author deliberately omits the vocabulary of the works and even introduces erotic metaphors and subtexts.
Since the play is written in verse, it is often called an epic poem, endowed with an ornate plot. Thus, the genre uniqueness of “Faust” still fascinates scientists to this day.
As has already been said by the Many-Wise Litrecon, “Faust” absorbed the trends of several literary movements. Thus, the main character partly has romantic traits: he is lonely, but proud of his loneliness, shuns the crowd, is disappointed in life and believes in mysticism. He is close to nature, far from civilization and rebels against his human limitations. From realism, it can be noted that the vocabulary of Mephistopheles and ordinary people is close to real colloquial speech, and the description of the life and customs of people is taken from reality, it is not embellished at all. Unlike the classicists, Goethe observed ordinary townspeople, the poor and drunkards, and not just nobles and kings. But from classicism the writer borrowed his admiration for antiquity, detailed descriptions of ancient Greek legends, and historical themes. The moral of Faust is taken from the Enlightenment: the hero finds the meaning of life in serving society and country.
Hero of all times
The eternal image of Faust became the prototype for many heroes of new literature. Nevertheless, he seems to complete a whole string of literary “loners” who are accustomed to struggling with life’s problems on their own. Of course, the image of Faust has notes of the sad thinker Hamlet or the expressive defender of humanity, the desperate Don Quixote, and even Don Juan. Faust is most like a womanizer in his desire to come to the truth in the occult sciences, the secrets of the Universe. However, while Faust knows no bounds in his quest, Don Juan dwells on the needs of the flesh.
Each of the listed heroes has their own antipodes, which make their images more complete and partially reveal the internal monologue of each. Don Quixote has Sancho Panza, Don Juan has an assistant Sganarelle, and Faust fights philosophical battles with Mephistopheles.
Influence of the work
After the publication of the tragedy about the desperate lover of knowledge, many philosophers, cultural scientists, and researchers found the image of Goethe’s Faust so fascinating that they even identified a similar type of person, which Spengler called “Faustian.” These are people who are aware of infinity and freedom and strive for it. Even at school, children are asked to write an essay in which the image of Faust must be fully revealed.
This tragedy had a significant impact on literature. Inspired by the novel, poets and prose writers began to reveal the image of Faust in their creations. There are hints of it in the works of Byron, Grabbe, Lenau, Pushkin, Heine, Mann, Turgenev, Dostoevsky and Bulgakov.
