Goethe

’s Faust Essay, Research Paper

Goethe뭩 Faust is rarely performed in the English theatre. The work is too arcane and often disturbs and confuses its audiences, also the stage effects, particularly the transformation scenes in Part II, are so difficult to stage convincingly, that it is no surprise that directors and theatrical managers steer clear of this classic work. However, the recent production of the two parts of Goethe뭩 Faust at the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith tackled the work energetically and did not shy away from stressing its alchemical facets.The alchemy in Goethe뭩 Faust is central to its dramatic conception, and is not merely added for effect. For Goethe뭩 working of the Faust story differs from other dramas based on the archetypal legend of a conjuror who sells his soul to the devil, sealing his pact with a drop of blood, ultimately to suffer the fires of Hell, in that Goethe reveals through his drama various transformational processes working in the human soul, personified in Faust. Goethe struggles to weave the personal inner journey of Faust towards some enlightenment, together with the collective social forces that are undergoing transformation through the historical process, so here Faust is also a representative of Northern European humanity striving for evolution from the limitations and strictures of the 16th century Reformation to the new aspirations of humanity that Goethe saw developing during the 18th century Enlightenment era.The work is too complex and multi-faceted for me to do more here than point to some alchemical themes in the play. In my Commentary to Goethe뭩 Fairy Tale , I showed something of how Goethe, who had early in his life extensively studied alchemical literature, was able to fashion an elaborate alchemical allegory. The Fairy Tale (Marchen ) is an allegory of inner transmutation of the soul, in which various polarities emerge and are brought together again. In the Fairy Tale the two lands separated by a river are brought together through the alchemical transmutation taking place in an underground temple. In his Faust Goethe again presents the separation of polarities that are brought together in a new transformation. Part One of Faust follows the structure of the Faust myth quite closely, though in the details of the action Goethe introduces broader themes that are developed further in the second part of the play.Part One opens with Mephistopheles entering into a bargain with God for the soul of Faust. Faust has struggled long for enlightenment, has studied deep, and thirsts after knowledge and understanding. God indicates that Faust serves His plan uncomprehendingly and that he will eventually be led towards the light, but He grants Mephistopheles the freedom to lead Faust astray. Thus Goethe subtly alters the Faust story at its outset by paralleling it with the testing of Job.In the first part of the play, Faust is tricked into the pact with Mephisto and casting off his scholars gown leaves his study and his mean scholar뭩 cell behind, to immerse himself in the action of life. His lofty pursuit of knowledge and study of Philosophy, Law, Medicine, Theology and the Sciences had repressed his experience of human feelings, and when Mephistopheles allows free rein to his emotions then it is not altogether surprising that these emerge in an adolescent and unintegrated form. With Mephisto뭩 guile and cunning, Faust pursues the young virgin Gretchen and ultimately corrupts her and destroys her life. As is presented in his Fairy Tale , for Goethe the initial problem of humanity lay in its inability to relate to the feminine component of its nature. For Goethe, the proper development of the human soul lay in its forming a proper relationship between its feminine and masculine facets. Thus Part One of Faust sets before us the central problem of Faust뭩 soul, his difficulties in relating to the feminine side of his being.Part Two of the work is a truly alchemical drama whose five acts weave together a complex net of themes. Goethe wrote Faust over a period of nearly sixty years, and the struggle he had with this material shows in the seeming incoherence of the second part of the drama. If one reads the play as an hermetic allegory, the inconsistencies of the drama dissolve away as one senses the structure that underpins the various disparate scenes.Part Two begins with Faust recovering through the power of Nature from the emotional buffeting he has undergone in the disastrous episode with Gretchen. With his constant companion Mephistopheles, Faust attends the Emperor뭩 court. The empire is in financial ruin through the extravagance of the court, but Mephisto and Faust offer a solution to these problems. Till now the currency of the empire has been Gold, but there is not enough to support the extravagant spending. Mephisto suggests an easy answer – since there is undoubtedly much gold as yet undiscovered beneath the land, which belongs to the Emperor, then surely a promissory note can be made for the value of such gold. He showers the Court with the new paper money. The foundation of the empire has been moved through Mephisto뭩 cunning from the solidity of metallic gold to insubstantial promises on paper. Faust acting the role of magus is asked by the Emperor to conjure up the spirit of Helen of Troy. Goethe is here drawing upon the story about Johannes Trithemius conjuring spirits before E