Faust ( ; ) is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust (). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a deal with the Devil at a crossroads, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. The Faust legend has been the basis for many literary, artistic, cinematic, and musical works that have reinterpreted it through the ages. "Faust" and the adjective "Faustian" imply sacrificing spiritual values for power, knowledge, or material gain.
The Faust of early books – as well as the ballads, dramas, movies, and puppet-plays which grew out of them – is irrevocably damned because he prefers human knowledge over divine knowledge: "He laid the Holy Scriptures behind the door and under the bench, refused to be called doctor of theology, but preferred to be styled doctor of medicine". Chapbooks containing variants of this legend were popular throughout Germany in the 16th century. The story was popularised in England by Christopher Marlowe, who gave it a classic treatment in his play The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (). In Goethe's reworking of the story over two hundred years later, Faust is shown to commit numerous sins and wicked acts, including the seduction of a pious girl who commits suicide, but he is ultimately saved from damnation by the virtue of pure-hearted women.
Summary of the story A brilliant scholar, Faust is embittered by the limits of science, theology, and the humanities, feeling that he has wasted his life. After a suicide attempt, he calls upon the Devil for magical powers with which to indulge all the knowledge and pleasures of the world. In response, the Devil's representative, Mephistopheles, appears. Faust trades his soul, knowingly condemning himself to Hell, for 24 years of the demon's unquestioned servitude.
During the term of the bargain, Faust makes use of Mephistopheles in various ways. In Goethe's drama, and many subsequent versions of the story, Mephistopheles helps Faust seduce a beautiful and innocent young woman, usually named Gretchen, whose life is ultimately destroyed when she gives birth to Faust's illegitimate son. Realizing this unholy act, she drowns the child and is sentenced to death for murder. However, Gretchen's innocence saves her in the end, and she enters Heaven. In Goethe's rendition, Faust is saved by God via his constant striving, in combination with Gretchen's pleadings with God in the form of the eternal feminine. However, in the early versions of the tale, Faust is irrevocably corrupted and believes his sins cannot be forgiven; when the term ends, the Devil carries him off to Hell.
Sources
The tale of Faust bears many similarities to the Theophilus legend first recorded in Greek by a "Eutychianus", allegedly an acquaintance of Theophilus. Here, a saintly figure makes a bargain with the keeper of the infernal world but is rescued from paying his debt to society through the mercy of the Blessed Virgin.An 1875 edition is at: A depiction of the scene in which he subordinates himself to the Devil appears on the north tympanum of the Cathedrale de Notre Dame de Paris.See, for example, this photo at:
The origin of Faust's name and persona remains unclear. In the Historia Brittonum, Faustus is the offspring of an incestuous marriage between king Vortigern and Vortigern's own daughter.See also Nennius — Historia Brittonum
The character is ostensibly based on Johann Georg Faust (), a magician and alchemist probably from Knittlingen, Württemberg, who obtained a degree in divinity from Heidelberg University in 1509, but the legendary Faust has also been connected with an earlier Johann Fust (), Johann Gutenberg's business partner, which suggests that Fust is one of the multiple origins to the Faust story. Scholars such as Frank Baron and Ruickbie contest many of these previous assumptions.
The character in Polish folklore named Pan Twardowski (Sir Twardowski in English) presents similarities with Faust. The Polish story seems to have originated at roughly the same time as its German counterpart, yet it is unclear whether the two tales have a common origin or influenced each other. The historical Johann Georg Faust had studied in Kraków for a time and may have served as the inspiration for the character in the Polish legend.
The first known printed source of the legend of Faust is a small chapbook bearing the title Historia von D. Johann Fausten, published in 1587. The book was re-edited and borrowed from throughout the 16th century. Other similar books of that period include: Das Wagnerbuch (1593) Das Widmann'sche Faustbuch (1599) Dr. Fausts großer und gewaltiger Höllenzwang (Frankfurt 1609) Dr. Johannes Faust, Magia naturalis et innaturalis (Passau 1612) Das Pfitzer'sche Faustbuch (1674) Dr. Fausts großer und gewaltiger Meergeist (Amsterdam 1692) Das Wagnerbuch (1714) Faustbuch des Christlich Meynenden (1725)
The 1725 Faust chapbook was widely circulated and also read by the young Goethe.
Related tales about a pact between man and the Devil include the plays Mariken van Nieumeghen (Dutch, early 16th century, author unknown), Cenodoxus (German, early 17th century, by Jacob Bidermann) and The Countess Cathleen (Irish legend of unknown origin believed by some to be taken from the French play Les marchands d'âmes).
Locations linked to the story Staufen, a town in the extreme southwest of Germany, claims to be where Faust died (); depictions appear on buildings, etc. The only historical source for this tradition is a passage in the Chronik der Grafen von Zimmern, which was written , 25 years after Faust's presumed death. These chronicles are generally considered reliable, and in the 16th century there were still family ties between the lords of Staufen and the counts of Zimmern in nearby Donaueschingen.
In Christopher Marlowe's original telling of the tale, Wittenburg—where Faust studied—was also written as Wertenberge. This has led to a measure of speculation as to precisely where his story is set. Some scholars suggest the Duchy of Württemberg; others suggest an allusion to Marlowe's own Cambridge (Gill, 2008, p. 5)
Literary adaptations
Marlowe's Doctor Faustus The early Faust chapbook, while in circulation in northern Germany, found its way to England, where in 1592 an English translation was published, The Historie of the Damnable Life, and Deserved Death of Doctor Iohn Faustus credited to a certain "P. F., Gent[leman]". Christopher Marlowe used this work as the basis for his more ambitious play, The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (published ). Marlowe also borrowed from John Foxe's Book of Martyrs, on the exchanges between Pope Adrian VI and a rival pope.
Goethe's Faust
Another important version of the legend is the play Faust, written by the German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The First Part, which is the one more closely connected to the earlier legend, was published in 1808, the Second appeared posthumously in 1832.
Goethe's Faust complicates the simple Christian moral of the original legend. A hybrid between a play and an extended poem, Goethe's two-part "closet drama" is epic in scope. It gathers together references from Christian, medieval, Roman, eastern, and Hellenic poetry, philosophy, and literature.
The composition and refinement of Goethe's own version of the legend occupied him, off and on, for over sixty years. The final version, published after his death, is recognized as a great work of German literature.
The story concerns the fate of Faust in his quest for the binding force of nature (""). Frustrated with learning and the limits to his knowledge, power, and enjoyment of life, he attracts the attention of the Devil (represented by Mephistopheles), who makes a bet with Faust that he will be able to satisfy him. Faust is reluctant, believing this will never happen. This is a significant difference between Goethe's "Faust" and Marlowe's; Faust is not the one who suggests the wager.
In the first part, Mephistopheles leads Faust through experiences that culminate in a lustful relationship with Gretchen, an innocent young woman. Gretchen and her family are destroyed by Mephistopheles' deceptions and Faust's desires. Part one of the story ends in tragedy for Faust, as Gretchen is saved but Faust is left to grieve in shame.
The second part begins with the spirits of the earth forgiving Faust (and the rest of mankind) and progresses into allegorical poetry. Faust and his Devil pass through and manipulate the world of politics and the world of the classical gods, and meet with Helen of Troy (the personification of beauty). Finally, in anticipation of having tamed the forces of war and nature and created a place for a free people to live, Faust is happy and dies.
Mephistopheles tries to seize Faust's soul when he dies after this moment of happiness, but is frustrated and enraged when angels intervene due to God's grace. Though this grace is 'gratuitous' and does not condone Faust's frequent errors with Mephistopheles, the angels state that this grace can only occur because of Faust's unending striving and due to the intercession of the forgiving Gretchen. The final scene has Faust's soul carried to Heaven in the presence of God by the intercession of the "Virgin, Mother, Queen, ... Goddess kind forever ... Eternal Womanhood".Goethe, Faust, Part Two, lines 12101–12110, translation: David Luke, Oxford World Classics, . The woman is thus victorious over Mephistopheles, who had insisted at Faust's death that he would be consigned to "The Eternal Empty".
Mann's Doctor Faustus Thomas Mann's 1947 adapts the Faust legend to a 20th century context, documenting the life of fictional composer Adrian Leverkühn, as analog and embodiment of the early 20th century history of Germany and of Europe. The talented Leverkühn, after contracting venereal disease from a brothel visit, forms a pact with a Mephistophelean character to grant him 24 years of brilliance and success as a composer. He produces works of increasing beauty to universal acclaim, even while physical illness begins to corrupt his body. In 1930, when presenting his final masterwork (The Lamentation of Dr. Faust), he confesses the pact he had made: Madness and syphilis now overcome him, and he suffers a slow and total collapse until his death in 1940. Leverkühn's spiritual, mental, and physical collapse and degradation are mapped on to the period in which Nazism rose in Germany, and Leverkühn's fate is shown as that of the soul of Germany.
Benét's The Devil and Daniel Webster
Stephen Vincent Benét's short story "The Devil and Daniel Webster" published in 1937 is a retelling of the tale of Faust based on the short story "The Devil and Tom Walker", written by Washington Irving. Benet's version of the story centers on a New Hampshire farmer by the name of Jabez Stone who, plagued with unending bad luck, is approached by the devil under the name of Mr. Scratch who offers him seven years of prosperity in exchange for his soul. Jabez Stone is eventually defended by Daniel Webster, a fictional version of the famous lawyer and orator, in front of a judge and jury of the damned, and his case is won. It was adapted in 1941 as a movie, The Devil and Daniel Webster, with Walter Huston as the devil, James Craig as Jabez and Edward Arnold as Webster. It was remade in 2007 as Shortcut to Happiness with Alec Baldwin as Jabez, Anthony Hopkins as Webster and Jennifer Love Hewitt as the Devil.
Selected additional dramatic works Faust (1836) by Nikolaus Lenau Faust (1839) by Doctor Faust: Dance poem (1851) by Heinrich Heine Faust: The third part of the tragedy (1862) by Friedrich Theodor Vischer The Death of Doctor Faustus (1925) by Michel de Ghelderode Faust, a Subjective Tragedy (1934) by Fernando Pessoa Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights (1938) by Gertrude Stein My Faust (1940) by Paul Valéry