Goethe's Classical side gave him a love of order--social, political,
as well as personal--that prevented him from admiring the French
Revolution, which broke out in 1789, the year after he returned from
Italy. While Romantic writers were hailing the new spirit in France,
Goethe shuddered at its excesses. Safe and secure at Weimar, he
published the first portions of Faust, called Faust: Ein Fragment
("Faust: A Fragment"), in 1790. He continued to write plays and
novels, as well as some of the poetry that has earned him the title
of the greatest lyric poet in the German language.
In 1794, Goethe began a friendship, almost a collaboration, with the
poet and dramatist Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805). Goethe
invited Schiller to live at Weimar, where they worked together until
Schiller's death. Under Schiller's prodding, Goethe took up Faust
and by 1808 completed what we know as Part I. Goethe, however,
realized that what he had to say would require a second part, but he
didn't immediately begin Part II. Faust languished again, until 1825.
Pressure to return to it came this time from Johann Peter Eckermann
(1792-1854), who had become Goethe's literary secretary in 1823 and
immortalized himself by recording and publishing their talks
together on literary and other subjects (Conversations with
Eckermann, 1836-1848). Goethe wrote Part II of Faust between 1825
and 1831. He was then in his late seventies and early eighties.
It's not always easy to see Faust as a whole. Part I was the only
portion of the drama published in Goethe's lifetime, and it became
the basis for a popular opera by the nineteenth-century French
Romantic composer, Charles Gounod, so that the general public began
to feel that Faust consisted essentially of the Faust and Gretchen
story and the bet between Faust and the Devil. The complete Faust
was printed in 1832, as the first volume of Goethe's collected works
published after his death. It is recognized as his masterpiece.
You now have the opportunity to take the same journey that Goethe
took in composing Faust. Don't be afraid to make up your own mind
about Faust, even if your conclusions differ from what others have
thought. It is the mark of a masterpiece like Faust that it
continues to yield new and exciting meanings as each generation of
readers encounters it.
FAUST: PARTS I AND II: THE PLOT
The story of Faust begins in Heaven. Mephistopheles, the Devil, is
visiting the Lord, complaining, as usual, about the Lord's creation,
man. When the Lord asks him whether he knows Faust, Mephistopheles,
saying he does, seizes the opportunity to bet with the Lord that he
can lead Faust astray. The Lord is quite confident that Faust knows
the right way; he's also tolerant of Mephistopheles, whose role is
