Goethes FaustThe ethotic imagined projected life of the protagonist after his fall from grace
Unlike the epic journey of the poet Dante, who progressed from the"Inferno" to the "Purgatorio" to the heights of the "Paradiso" beforereturning to the surface of the earth, according to the poet Goethe's textof "Faust," the protagonist makes no such a return, ethically, morally, orphysically. "Faust" is thus not an epic play of decent and return. Inother words, Goethe's Faust does not return to the earth with a moreprofound understanding of humanity's moral and ethical struggles, filledwith a determination to live a more ethically coherent life, as does the Dante's poetic trilogy functions as a kind of poetic spiritualautobiography. But had Goethe's creation of Faust been allowed to returnto the earth, the purpose and intent of the plot of poet's Goethe's workwould have been thwarted. Faust is not merely a stand-in for the author.Rather, Goethe hoped to show, in the poem's refashioning from Marlowe'soriginal "Dr. Faustus," a scholarly man whom attempted to press the limitsof human ethical discourse and interaction, rather than a man who strove togrow subservient to the will of God, or even a man who strove for greaterphilosophical knowledge of humanity's
The terms of Faust's pact with the devil Mephistopheles were such thathe was allowed to live as long as Mephistopheles fails to satisfy Faust'sstriving for transcendent knowledge. Thus he showsa fundamental misunderstanding of humanity's ultimate truth andrelationship with God, that it must be a unified quest. Originally, the scholar sought to make a pact withthe devil Mephistopheles to achieve access to the kind of knowledge he hadalways sought as a scholar, but felt he was ultimately denied to theconceptual makeup of the human mind. UnlikeDante's final coming to joy and understanding of God through Beatrice,Goethe's understanding is not willing and open, and thus extracts amaterial price from the protagonist. He wouldhave to understand his true reasons for being attracted to the woman beyondthe sensual. He would have to live a life of the body, and understand thetranscendent presence of God's goodness, in even the rudest aspects ofhuman creation. Faustbelieved his capacity for striving for such knowledge was infinite, but hewas wrong. Yet she has, despite her youth, attained a kind ofunderstanding of God Faust can only, ultimately dream of because he lacksher innate goodness. Faust chooses a mindful life onearth over a later heavenly reward in body, soul, and mind. No real harmony between the two is possible, when one's understandingis limited as is Faust's. As he refused to obey God's law ofthe human limits of knowledge, Faust must die. Ironically, Margareteachieves an understanding of God's higher power and existence in greaterfullness than Faust, by accepting her death and her punishment, the resultof her ignorance. Again, through seeking God through the mereimage of a woman, Faust shows his confusion between what is moreimportant-the sensuous life of the moment and the higher ideals of God. For Faust in Goethe's interpretation, a transcendent philosophicalunderstanding of human existence is impossible to realize perfectly in whatis ultimately an immanent world and physical world.
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Acceptance Essays
