In Faust, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe builds a dramatic poem around the basis of human strengths and weaknesses, two traits exemplified by Goethe through his main character, Johann Faust. Throughout his life, Faust becomes knowledgeable in math, science, and the Holy Scripture, yet desires to find happiness as a result of his persistent struggle for power. Faust seeks not power through knowledge, but power resultant from knowledge achieved through transcendence. Infinitely, it is this desire that is the downfall of Faust; he sacrifices his beliefs and morals to his pursuit of ultimate knowledge, and, in doing so, he becomes detached from reality. Through his ignorance of the surrounding humanity, Faust becomes obliterated by emptiness. During the time period of the poem's setting, Christians and society considered this type of greedy pursuit to be immoral and unjust, and thus, many Christian elements play key roles in Goethe's interpretation of the legendary figure. Through allusions to religious archetypes, along with symbolic Christian principles, the "tragedy" of Faust shows the lifelong struggle of a man who longs for transcendence and the world, yet, remains imprisoned by his own mind.
             Throughout Faust, basic elements of the Christian faith are seen within its composition. In Christianity, the number three is considered to be a harmony with the Divine, and its use throughout the play helps to create the religious overtone. The most basic of Christian fundamentals, the Trinity, shows the existence of God embodied in three persons: God the father, God the son, and God the Holy Spirit. In the scene in the study, it is the Trinity that lets Mephistopheles into the study, but will not let him leave. The physical representation of God traps the Devil into the room, and as a result, forces him to trick Faust in order to leave. When Mephistopheles says that "Three in One, and One in Three" is &...