Faust (1808, 1832): a poetic drama in two parts by Goethe.

The theme at the heart of Goethe's dramatic poem Faust is an old one. Man's desire to transcend his physical limitations, his search for answers to the eternal questions of the meaning of life and the universe is not peculiar to the modern period or to the great German poet. However, the breadth of vision and the grandeur of poetic expression as Goethe concerns himself with this universal problem are peculiar to him and are, in the main, the measure of his greatness.
The modern Faust story has its origin in the legends and chapbooks of the 15th and 16th centuries which grew up around a real person, one Doctor Johann or Georg Faust who gained a reputation as a notorious magician and worker in black magic and was said to have sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for knowledge. It is this same legend that was the basis for Christopher Marlowe's The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (1588) in England.
Faust was in the making over a longer period than the dates of publication would indicate, for Goethe worked with the idea for the greater part of his life, from 1771, when he finished the manuscript of the Urfaust, until 1831, when he ceremoniously sealed the completed Faust II. The growth and development of Faust correspond to the intellectual growth of its creator, reflecting a mind as it grasps and develops ideas, matures in its poetic concepts, and expresses the profound wisdom and considered philosophy of a creative genius. Many critics have made studies of Goethe's own life and the progress of Faust to show how closely parallel they run, and to what extent Faust may be considered autobiographical.
The basic premise upon which Goethe bases his entire concept of Faust and the searching Faustian spirit is contained in the introductory Prologue in Heaven, in which we see God, the creative, divine force, and Mephistopheles, the nihilistic destructive force, debating over the soul of man. Goaded by Mephislopheles' taunts that man's misery has almost stopped Mephistopheles' desire to plague him and that it would be easy to lead him from his "confused service'' to God and train him in the way of the Devil, God assures him that man will err as long as he strives. As a divine creation, though limited and beguiled, he cannot be forever misled because he still has an "instint of the one true way." On this conccept of his creation of man, God rests his case with Mephistopheles and allows him to attempt to lead man in the way of the Devil. That Mephistopheles is a servant of God in the whole scheme of creation this "waggish knave" does not realize--it is beyond his comprehension. Goethe himself wrote, in 1815, "Nature is a grand organ on which our Lord God plays and the Devil blows the bellows." That Mephistopheles will never succeed in winning man's soul so long as man strives is further indicated in the condition of the pact between Faust and Mephistopheles. If Mephistopheles can satisfy Faust's desires and ambitions to the point that Faust can say to the moment of fulfillment, "Linger awhile--thou art so fair," then Mephistopheles will have won the wager both with Faust and with God and vill win Faust's soul. But the Prologue in Heaven and the striving nature of Faust both point to eventual salvation. Goethe's emphasis is on that aspect of man that makes him never content--it is man's nature never to be satisfied but to feel a compulsion to strive on and on. It is worth noting that the pact is really superfluous: any man is lost at the point when he becoma entirely satisfied. Furthermore, Faust makes it clear that he is not seeking mere pleasure or abstract knowledge, but the full range of possible human experience, of which these are only small parts. At the end of the poem, as the angels bear Faust's body off to Heaven, they sing of the noble soul redeemed from the Evil One: "Whoso with fervent will strives on the angels can deliver."
It is a long and tortuous way from the beginning, when God and Mephistopheles debale the nature ot man to the end, when Faust is redeemed through his own striving and accomplishment; and Faust is permitted to avoid no single step in the long climb. The turning point of his struggle is the Gretchen tragedy. Caught in a snare derised by Mephistopheles, Faust, by his love for Gretchen, satisfies the sensual in his nature. As the sensual desire is heightened by the orgy of the Walpurgis Night, it is, at the same time, abashed by the reminder of the sweet love and sacrificing nature of Gretchen. Faust has deserted her for the temptations offered by Mephistopheles, in whose scheme the redeeming love of Gretchen has no place. Faust's innate goodness and sense of guilt reguire him to go to Gretchen's aid--but too late. As Gretchen suffers the agony of her sin and punishment, Faust recognizes his role in her fate and the anguished "O had I never been born!" reveals his full realization of his guilt. From now on the relation between Faust and Mephistopheles assumes the nature of a struggle in which Mephistopheles, bound to execute the wishes of Faust, fights a losing battle. Mephitopheles finds it harder and harder to tempt Faust; Faust is impervious to Mephistopheles' taunts and scoffs. The sensual and material temptations, unsatisifying as they were, no longer hold any attraction for Faust.
In Part II, the demands and desires of Faust are heyond the comprehension of Mephistopheles, who, always earth-bound, a denier and a destroyer, cannot comprehend Faust's desire for the intellectuaf and the beautiful. As the Gretchen tragedy is the high point of Part I, so the Helena drama is the high point of Part II, though with a decidedly different emphasis. Helena is a symbol of classical, ideal beauty and her union with Faust, the representative of the romantic medieval spirit, produces Euphorion, the symbol of Modern Poetry, the offspring of the union of the classic and the romantic. (This episode was based on the life and character of Byron.) The Helena drama serves to acquaint Faust with the whole stream of man's history and culture from the Greeks to his present, but he still remain s unsatisfied. His dissatisfaction, however, is the source of his continued striving for a higher ideal. At the age of 100, though hindered by Worry and blinded by Care, he finally reaches a state in which he has power--controls lands and peoples--and has for the first time the opportunity to see himself as a man of action. Having made great progress on a vast land-reclamation project that will provide homes and sources of livelihood for millions, he looks forward to the point when he may be able to say "Linger awhile, thou art so fair" after this work has been completed. But he does not say it. He dies of natural causes, and Mephistopheles is disappointed. Faust's never-ceasing striving and endeavor have saved him. God's angels are sent to snatch his immortal soul from the legion of devils, and he is borne off to Heaven.
In this great poetic drama, with its large Iyrical element and its great variety and richness of verse forms, Goethe has allowed character rather than action to be the unifying force. simply as drama, large portions of Faust are unwieldy and unactable--but as a history of man's cultural, intellectual, and spiritual development as he strives to burst the bonds of physical limitations, Faust is without peer. Faust stands for every man who is inspired to action by dreams of power--both physical and intellectual--and who is prevented from becoming a victim of his desires by the very nature of his activity. He who strives is never lost--that is Goethe's central message in this monumental work which represents the best thought of sixty years of his life.