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Goethe's Faust, Part One (1808) Second Lecture Goethe’s Faust, Part One (1808) Second Lecture Please note: while you must focus on the highlighted material to prepare for your exam, you do not need to worry about the line numbers! I • Faust’s Depression & Potential Attempted Suicide ¶ Having experienced the Prelude on Stage (a conversation between a Director, Dramatist, and Comedian) and the Prologue in Heaven (initially a conversation between three archangels; then a conversation between Mephistopheles and God), the reader next encounters the philosophe Dr. Heinrich Faust himself, situated in his home-study, a venue replete with Enlightenment artifacts, from books to scientific equipment. ¶ This episode is called Scene 1; and Faust — who has soured on the academic life of teaching and researching — characterizes his study as a “hollow darkened hole of brick” (line 399). At a later point, he reflects that he has “expended” all his efforts “uselessly” (line 1809) by means of a lifelong focus on scholarly endeavor in his study. ¶ A key source for Goethe’s character Heinrich Faust, PhD, is a real-life individual: Johann Georg Faust (c. 1480-1540), who practiced the class of black magic known as necromancy (which requires communicating with the dead) and also attempted to perform alchemy (i.e. the conversion of base metals into gold). ¶ The stories attaching to that individual — not least a contention that he sold his soul to the devil — may be more fanciful than real, but they became the stuff of multiple literary texts, not least the German- language Faust Book (1587), penned by an anonymous author. It inspired the English-language play The Tragical History of … Doctor Faustus (pictured on the top-right corner of this page), written by Christopher Marlowe, one of Shakespeare’s contemporaries. For Faust, Part One, Goethe adapted significant details from these works. ¶ Scene 1 opens with Faust’s complaint that a human “can know — nothing” (line 364), despite years of dedication to scholarly inquiry. We learned, of course (in Prologue in Heaven), that humans possess much less reason than God, meaning that God’s creation, manifest as the universe, is ultimately beyond their comprehension. Indeed, it is also beyond the comprehension (much superior to humankind’s) of which archangels are capable. ¶ Bathed by moonlight (as opposed to sunlight, symbolically associated with the Enlightenment), Faust declares that, having become disillusioned with Enlightenment methods, he has now opted for “Magic art” (line 397), perhaps a refence to necromancy, an approach that enjoyed some currency in the Medieval Era but was rejected by Modern Era natural philosophers (i.e. scientists), such as Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton. ¶ In a last-ditch attempt to gain conclusive insights into the workings of the universe, Faust consults an image associated with pre-Enlightenment thought, namely, the Macrocosm. The image attempts to diagram the ordered, harmonious relationships between essential elements within the cosmos. It exists in a book that Faust attributes to Nostradamus (1503-1566), a French astrologer, mystic, and seer. ¶ Although initially excited by the Macrocosm, assuming that it will explain “the deepest works of Nature” (line 440), Faust concludes that it is “[m]erely a picture” (line 454); thus, he becomes indignant. However, he suddenly espies another image: that of the Geist der Erde or “Spirit of Earth” (line 461). 1 ¶ Finding himself deprived of moonlight and lamplight, Faust “summon[s]” (line 476) the Geist der Edre to appear. While this entity represents just the earth, as opposed to the entire universe (represented by the Macrocosm), it nonetheless proves an instance of the Sublime, overwhelming Faust and informing him that he lacks ability to comprehend its actions, which affect humans from “[b]irth” to “tomb” (line 504). The bottom line is that, operating alone, Faust cannot make progress towards his goal of greater comprehension. ¶ Disappointed by both the Macrocosm and the Geist der Erde, Faust next finds himself interrupted by a young man named Wagner, who serves as his famulus — that is, a student- attendant, resident in the professor’s home. Wagner believes that Faust has been “declaim[ing]” (line 522) or reciting aloud, with expression, lines from some or other Classical Greek tragic drama. (You will recall how the Enlightenment identified with the Classical civilizations that emerged in Greece and Rome.) ¶ Wagner worries aloud that being “penned in [one’s] study” (line 530) does not properly equip one to “lead men” (line 533), although he does acknowledge that book-learning is useful when composing effective speeches, a necessary tool for any leader. Faust’s disenchantment with academic study becomes clear in his responses. He asserts that an effective leader must “feel” in his “soul” (lines 534-535) that which he conveys to the public; absent such affectivity, all the book-learning in the world amounts to little more than a “heap of dying ash” (line 541). ¶ Having asserted that humanity’s intellectual endeavors across the centuries can been seen as “[a] pile of sweepings” or “a puppet show” (lines 582-583), Faust encourages Wagner to get some sleep, and the famulus departs, remarking that the next day is Easter Sunday. ¶ Alone again, Faust experiences a gamut of thoughts and feelings. At one juncture, he deems himself “more than Angel” (line 618); then, he admits to struggling in “Man’s uncertain state” (line 329) and being “no god” but a “worm that writhes in dust” (line 652-653). He recalls his late father, a physician and philosophe — “a gloomy, honorable man” (line 1033) — whose rational scientific experimentation in a “dark workshop” (line 1039) or laboratory he (Faust) has long tried to continue. However, he also muses, “What from your Father you’ve inherited, \ You must earn again” (lines 682-683) ¶ Becoming increasingly despairing, Faust notices one of his father’s medical supplies: a “phial of rare potion” (line 690) — that is, a flask containing a liquid poison, an “[e]xtract, with deadly power” (line 694). He decides to imbibe it and, so, “turn [his] back … \ On all [that] Earth’s lovely Sun might promise” (lines 708-709). Many scholars interpret this statement as a declaration of intent to commit suicide. ¶ Just as Faust’s raises the phial to his lips, a Choir of Angels declares the inception of Easter Sunday by singing, “Christ has arisen!” (line 738). As if struck by force, the phial falls from Faust’s hand. ¶ Although Faust acknowledges hearing the angelic “message,” he also admits, “faith fails me.” Yet he does recover the will to live: not because of the Christian salvation associated with Easter Sunday but, instead, because of an affective (i.e. emotional or sentimental) memory of “childish feelings” — specifically, the joy of being awoken (presumably by his mother), when a child, during the Easter school- break (“spring’s idle holiday” [line 780]), with the prospect of “wandering through woods and fields” (line 776). II • Faust Ventures Outdoors & Meets a Black Dog ¶ With Faust still living, saved from a suicide attempt (or, at least, a potential suicide attempt), Scene 2 begins. Faust will oblige Wagner to accompany him to a liminal (i.e. in-between) location, just outside the gates of the city in which they reside (perhaps based on Goethe’s birthplace, the German city of Frankfurt, then a “free imperial city”). 2 ¶ Before witnessing Faust and Wagner (professor and student, respectively) outdoors, the reader experiences some of the city’s laboring-class citizens, plus some visiting Volk from the surrounding countryside (the nearby “mountain height” [line 916]), enjoying Easter Sunday festivities. Notably, their focus is not Jesus or Christian devotion; by contrast, it is “[f]ierce tobacco” and “strong beer” (line 830), as well as casual sex. ¶ Some of the overheard conversation is highly suggestive; for example, one apprentice (i.e. trainee craftsman) opines that “[t]he [woman’s] hand that wields a broom on Saturday, \ Gives the best caress” (lines 844-845) on Sunday. ¶ Respecting folkways, one particularly notable aspect of the festivities is farm-workers “dancing madly” (line 953) “[u]nder the linden-tree” (line 952), also known as the lime tree (although a different species from the citrus lime tree). In Germany, a linden tree associated with dancing is known as a Tanzlinde. Across much of pre-Christian (i.e. pagan) Europe, the linden or lime tree was considered a phallic (i.e. penis-like) symbol of fertility. Often, maypoles were constructed from linen wood. ¶ Clearly, despite the Easter Sunday celebration being nominally about Christian salvation, the reality is that sexually charged pagan practices persist; indeed, the reader discovers that the dancing may result in “many a ... man \ Cheat[ing] his wife” by committing adultery. Of course, Jesus declares (in Matthew 5:27- 28), “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: \ But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” This linden-tree dance scene prefigures Faust’s later sexual exploitation of Margaret/Gretchen. ¶ Although Jesus preached turning the other cheek (Matthew 5:39) and loving one’s enemies (Matthew 5:44), another individual, a “citizen,” uses Easter Sunday to praise “war and war’s display” (line 861); while a young woman expresses sexual desire for a “soldier” (line 881) as an ideal male type. ¶ Conversing with Wager, Faust is cynical about organized Christianity — that is (in this case) the Roman Catholic Church. He contends that it fails to improve bad housing and bad work conditions. The Germany of Faust’s day is characterized by “low houses, dully made” and “work [employment regimes], where [ordinary people are] constricted” (lines 923-924). In other words, the Church chooses not to be an agent of the social gospel.
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