Geothe's Faust: The Tragedy of Development

Goethe’s Faust: The Tragedy of Development

Marshall Berman: All that is Solid Melts into Air

First told as Johann Spiess’s “Faustbuch” of 1587, and again the following year in Christoper Marlowe’s “Tragical History of Doctor Faustus”, there has been many adaptions of this iconic story, however the adaption that this text will be following will be the one written as a play by Johann Wolfgang von Geothe, commonly known as “Geothe’s Faust”, first published in 1808. It is often referred to as Faust Part 1 and Faust Part 2.

In the commentary provided in Marshall Berman’s “All that is Solid Melts into Air” the story of Faust can be traced through three metamorphoses:

·        The Dreamer

·        The Lover

·        The Developer

The Dreamer

The story starts with the Dreamer, Faust is a middle-aged man with no partner nor children, he finds himself detached from the world. As a doctor, Faust becomes depressed as he starts to doubt himself, his purpose, and his work. Feeling as though he has killed more people than he has saved, Faust conjures up some spirits through the use of magic.

Faust conjures a spirit named Mephistopheles who is commonly understood to be the devil.  

The Lover

In the second metamorphoses "The Lover", Faust meets Gretchen whom he develops a bond with. Gretchen can be seen as a representation of everything Faust has left behind.

Gretchens's brother Valentin (a soldier who is described as mean and vain) becomes jealous of Gretchen. However Faust's and Gretchen's love does not last.

The Developer

After the ending of his love with Gretchen, Faust becomes depressed and feels isolated again, not knowing what he will do next.

Faust starts developing an area of land but finds resistance in an elderly couple who decline his offers of compensation if they were to move. Faust is unable to fully achieve his new creation. However Faust in his fury tells Mephistopheles to get rid of the couple by any means, but does not want to know the details of how this is accomplished. When Mephistopheles returns and tells Faust that he killed the couple Faust is angry and feels upset with what has happened and banishes Mephistopheles.

After all this has come to pass Faust is visited by three spectres: Need, Want, Guilt and Care. Faust succeeds in driving the first three spectres away but cannot escape the fourth of these ghosts, being Care. After all he has accomplished Faust cannot bear to confront anything that might cast shadow upon his work.