In the image of the protagonist of the Faust tragedy, Goethe sees not only a reflection of himself, but also a man of his time, the period of the Enlightenment, the heyday of German culture and philosophy.
Goethe and the Enlightenment
Johann Wolfgang Goethe certainly combined all the signs of genius. He was a poet, prose writer, an outstanding thinker, an ardent supporter of romanticism. It is on it that one of the greatest eras in Germany ends - Enlightenment. A man of his country, Goethe was instantly accepted into the ranks of the most prominent German philosophers. His sharp style immediately began to be compared with Voltaire.
Biography
Goethe was born in 1749 in a wealthy patrician family. The basics of all sciences were taught to him at home. Later, the poet entered the University of Leipzig, but this was not enough for him. He also graduated from the University of Strasbourg. After the treatise “The Suffering of Young Werther” was published, world fame came to him.
Goethe held an administrative position at the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar for a long time. There he tried to fulfill his potential, convey the advanced ideas of that century to everyone else and serve the public good. As Prime Minister of Weimar, he became disillusioned with politics. His active position did not allow to engage in creativity.
Italian period
The writer fell into a depression and went to restore his strength in Italy, the country of the Renaissance, the masterpieces of da Vinci, Raphael, the philosophical search for truth. It was there that his writing style developed. He begins to write stories and philosophical narratives again. Upon his return, Goethe retained the position of Minister of Culture and the work of the head of the local theater. The duke does not have a soul in his friend - Schiller and often consults with him in important matters of the country's politics.
Goethe and Schiller
One of the turning points in the life and work of Johann Wolfgang was his acquaintance with Schiller. Two first-class authors not only together begin to develop Weimar classicism founded by Goethe, but also constantly push each other to new masterpieces. Under the influence of Schiller, Goethe writes several novels and continues to work on Faust, which Frederick so wanted to see. Nevertheless, “Faust” came out only in 1806, when Schiller was no longer alive. The first part was created under the relentless surveillance of Eckerman, Goethe's personal secretary, who insisted on the publication of the tragedy. The second part, at the behest of the author himself, was released posthumously.
The tragedy of Faust
Without exaggeration, we can say that “Faust” is the main work of the poet. Tragedy in two parts was written for sixty years. According to Faust, one can also judge how the evolution of the writer's work took place. Creating passages in certain periods of his life, Goethe concluded in this tragedy the whole meaning of life.
Dr. Faust
The poet did not come up with the main plot line, he took it from folk tales. Later, the story of Faust, thanks to the thinker himself, will be retold by many writers, weaving this plot into the basis of his books. And Goethe found out about this legend when he was only five years old. As a boy, he saw a puppet theater. It told a terrible tale.
The legend is partly based on real events. Johann-Georg Faust, a physician by profession, once lived. He was engaged in the fact that he traveled from city to city and offered his services. If traditional medicine did not help, he undertook magic, astrology, and even alchemy. Doctors more successful and famous in their midst said that Faust was a simple charlatan who could hold any naive person. The healer’s students at the university, where he taught for a short time, spoke with great warmth about the doctor, considering him a seeker of truth. Lutherans called him a servant of the devil. The image of Faust seemed to him in all the dark corners.
The real Faustus died under very mysterious circumstances, all of a sudden, in 1540. At the same time, legends began to compose about him and build speculation.
The image of Faust in the tragedy of Goethe
A work about Faust is a long life path of a person who is endowed with a special outlook on the world, the ability to feel, experience, become disillusioned and hope. The main character makes a deal with the devil only because he wants to comprehend all the secrets of the world. He wants to find the elusive truth of life, to find the truth, constantly with despair seeks more and more new knowledge. Soon he realizes that he himself will not be able to find answers to questions, he will not be able to reveal all the secrets.
For the sake of knowledge, the hero is ready to pay any price. After all, all that is in the life of Faust, all that drives him is a quest. Goethe gives the hero a full gamut of all existing emotions. In the work, he is ecstatic from the fact that he discovered a grain of new information, then on the verge of suicide.
The main task of the hero is not just to know the world, but to understand himself. The image of Faust in the tragedy “Faust” is somewhat reminiscent of a perpetual motion machine. His life does not revolve around, does not return to the roots. He constantly goes only forward, making new discoveries, exploring the unknown. He pays for his knowledge with his soul. Faust is well aware of what he wants, and for this he is ready to call the devil.
The main positive traits that Faust’s image incorporated in the Faust tragedy are perseverance, curiosity, and goodwill. The main character not only seeks to acquire new knowledge, he wants to help others with the help of them.
The image of Faust in Goethe's tragedy also has negative qualities: the desire to receive knowledge immediately, vanity, doubts, and carelessness.
The protagonist of this work teaches that you cannot look back and regret something, you need to live in the present, look for what makes a person happy. Despite the terrifying deal, Faust lived a completely happy life, never once regretting it until the last moment.
The image of Margarita
Margarita - a modest girl, naive in many matters, became the main temptation for an already elderly hero. She turned the whole world of the scientist and made him regret that he had no power over time. The poet himself loved the image of Margarita in the tragedy “Faust,” probably identifying him with the biblical Eve, who gave the forbidden fruit to Adam.
If Faust relied on his mind all the years of his life, then, having met this usual at first glance girl on the street, he begins to rely on his heart and feelings. Margarita after meeting with Faust begins to change. She puts her mother to sleep on a date. The girl is not as careless as it might seem in her first description. She is direct evidence that appearances can be deceiving. Having met with Mephistopheles, the girl subconsciously understands that it is better to bypass him.
Goethe took the image of Margarita from the street of her time. The writer often saw sweet and kind girls whom fate throws to extremes. They cannot get out of their midst and are doomed to spend their lives as women of their family did. Striving for more, these girls are falling more and more.
Finding her happiness in Faust, Margarita believes in a better outcome. However, a series of tragic events does not allow her to enjoy love. Faust himself kills her brother, not wanting to. He curses his sister before death. The misfortunes do not end there, and, having suffered more than necessary, having lost her mind, Margarita goes to prison. In a moment of complete despair, higher powers save her.
The image of Mephistopheles in the tragedy "Faust"
Mephistopheles is a fallen angel who leads an eternal argument with God about good and evil. He believes that a person is so corrupted that, succumbing even to a small temptation, can easily give his soul to him. The angel is convinced that humanity is not worth saving. Faust, according to Mephistopheles, will always be on the side of evil.
In one line of the work, Mephistopheles is described as a devil who previously had sharp claws, horns and a tail. He does not like scholasticism, preferring to go away from boring sciences. Being evil, it helps, without knowing it, to find the truth to the hero. The image of Mephistopheles in Faust is composed of contradictions.
Often in conversations and disputes with Faust, Mephistopheles proves himself to be a true philosopher who observes with interest the actions of man, the progress. Nevertheless, when he communicates with other people or evil spirits, he picks up other images for himself. He does not lag behind the interlocutor and supports conversations on any topic. Mephistopheles himself several times says that he does not have absolute power. The main decision always depends on the person, and he can only take the wrong choice.
Many of Goethe’s thoughts were embedded in the image of Mephistopheles in the tragedy “Faust”. They expressed themselves in sharp criticism of feudalism. In this case, the devil profits from the naive realities of the capitalist foundation.
Despite the superficial similarity of the demon and the main character, the image of Mephistopheles in the tragedy “Faust” is absolutely opposite to him in the main. Faust seeks wisdom. Mephistopheles believes that no wisdom exists. He believes that the search for truth is an empty occupation, because it does not exist.
Researchers believe that the image of Mephistopheles in Faust is the subconscious of the doctor himself, his fears of the unknown. At the moment when good begins to fight evil, the demon is talking to the main character. At the end of the work Mephistopheles is left with nothing. Faust voluntarily admits that he has reached the ideal, he learned the truth. After that, his soul goes to the angels.
Hero of all time
The eternal image of Faust became the prototype for many heroes of new literature. Nevertheless, he seems to be completing a whole string of literary "loners", accustomed to fighting life problems on their own. Of course, the image of Faust has notes of the sad thinker Hamlet or the expressive defender of humanity, the desperate Don Quixote, and even Don Juan. Faustus resembles Lovelace most of all by his desire to come to the truth in the occult sciences, the secrets of the Universe. However, at a time when Faust knows no bounds in his search, Don Giovanni dwells on the needs of the flesh.
Each of these heroes has its own antipodes, which make their images more complete and partially reveal the inner monologue of each. Don Quixote has Sancho Panza, Don Juan has an assistant Sganarelle, and Faust fights with Mephistopheles in philosophical battles.
The effect of the work
After the tragedy of a desperate lover of knowledge was published, many philosophers, culturologists, and researchers found the image of Faust Goethe so fascinating that they even singled out a similar type of person, whom Spengler called “Faustian.” These are people who are aware of infinity and freedom and strive for it. Even at school, children are asked to write an essay in which the image of Faust should be fully disclosed.
This tragedy had a significant impact on literature. Inspired by the novel, poets and prose writers began to reveal the image of Faust in their creations. There are allusions to it in the works of Byron, Grabbe, Lenau, Pushkin, Heine, Mann, Turgenev, Dostoevsky and Bulgakov.