Faust, Part One

Faust is a German academic who starts the play deeply unhappy and discontent with his life of scholarship and intellectualism. He calls on spirits to help him search for meaning and passion, and he makes a deal with Mephistopheles to help him experience life and the range of human experience, agreeing that if he ever stagnates and “stand[s] still” (I.7.1710), he’ll let Mephistopheles take his soul to hell. The rest of the first part of Faust focuses on the start of Faust’s travels with Mephistopheles and quest for meaning, as he finds love with Gretchen and goes on adventures, including finding the men at the tavern in Auerbach and attending the Walpurgis Night festivities. He is still restless and unfulfilled, however, and abandons Gretchen in the end.

The Lord believes Faust to be a good man, and despite getting in with the devil, Faust displays a struggle between sin and morality throughout the play. Faust often sins during his travels with Mephistopheles: He persuades Gretchen to poison her mother so that they can sleep together; stabs Valentine; and abandons Gretchen (until he comes back to save her in the end, where he then abandons her again). Faust also sometimes shows his own goodness, from protesting Mephistopheles’ plan to bear false witness to Martha’s husband’s death, to the remorse he expresses over his treatment of Gretchen in Scene 26, when he learns of her imprisonment.