Man's development forseen in Goethe's Faust

He hears the church bells ringing on Easter morning. Feelings rise in his heart, left over from his childhood, from the bright hope with which he had begun his life. Something right outside the intellect, that he can experience but not believe in, makes him throw away the cup of poison. He feels the stirrings of hope but returns to his first loneliness. He has nothing to go forward with, even though he seeks the company of his fellowmen on his Easter walk. He has to return disappointed to his gloomy study, where only the talk of his servant, Wagner, awaits him, Faust is weary of his own intellectual powers, but Wagner is full of respect and enthusiasm for them. He lives entirely for the intellectual achievements that Faust is prepared to throw away. Faust, left alone, turns to the Gospel of St. John, but before he can begin to find its wisdom, he is not left alone any more. A companion announces himself, the devil Mephistopheles. Since he cannot see another way out of his dilemma, Faust is persuaded to sign with the devil a pact which has to be written in his own blood. Mephistopheles agrees to put all his occult powers at the service of Faust to provide for him experiences in this world which will make him feel that life is worth living. In return for this, Faust agrees that he will offer his human powers to the service of Mephistopheles in the Life after death. The pact is in fact an arrangement for a mutual exchange of services.

Once the pact is signed, Faust and Mephistopheles become constant companions. Through the many scenes that follow, their relationship to each other changes. It is not only the character of Faust that is affected by having the devil always at hand, but the devil also acquires a new outlook. His rather primitive notions of pleasure have to undergo refinement. Having, for instance, taken Faust to a low-down pub as a first effort to entertain him, he has to go through the shock of seeing Faust march out in disgust, before he himself was weary of the jollification. Mephistopheles is obliged to develop other interests and becomes steadily more cultured as the play proceeds. Had he in fact ever been given the opportunity to say what he thought of his own experience of becoming the tempter of Faust, he might well have used the well-known expression borrowed from someone else and said ‘To know him was a liberal education.’ On the other hand, Faust,

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