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Faust: Summary & Analysis (continued III)

Summary and analysis of Faust from Part 1: Prison to Part 2: Act 2: A High-Vaulted, Narrow Gothic Room (Faust’s Study 4)

PART 1: PRISON

Summary

Faust, lamp in hand, stands in the prison before a small iron door, having stolen a jailer’s keys. A long-forgotten sense of horror makes him tremble, for behind the iron door is Margarete. Inside she sings in the persona of her dead child, singing about the whorish mother who killed the infant and the father who ate it, and about having transformed into a bird.

Analysis

Faust intends to liberate Gretchen from her physical prison, but her actions suggest that her prison is not just a physical one, but mental as well. She sings a folk song and reads her own horrific tragedy into its lyrics.

Summary

Faust enters the cell and Margarete cowers, afraid that her execution is about to take place, even though it is scheduled for the following morning. She does not recognize Faust, even as he unshackles her. He throws himself down and identifies himself as one who loves her. Margarete throws herself down too, to pray to the saints.

Analysis

Faust is, in one sense, Gretchen’s executioner, for he is the one who introduced so much suffering into her life. She turns away from the thought of her imminent death and prays for divine love and forgiveness.

Summary

When Faust calls her name, Margarete recognizes his voice. She feels free and embraces the man she loves. Happy memories of their courtship overwhelm her, so much so that even as Faust urges her to escape with him she lingers and caresses him. His lips are cold, and Margarete asks if he really knows whom he’s freeing: a mother-killer and child-murderer. Let what is past be past, commands Faust, but Margarete says she only wants death and eternal rest, and will not leave with him.

Analysis

Being called by her name restores Margarete to temporary lucidity. Margarete knows, as the calloused Faust does not, that the past cannot stay in the past, but exists in the present, too, and in the whole of time that is eternity. She would escape from this prison only to be in the prison of the world again. Instead she desires rest and eternal salvation.

Summary

Margarete tells Faust to leave without her, to save his poor child, and she imagines her mother sitting on a rock shaking her head—the mother who died so that her daughter and her daughter’s lover could have their happiness together. Faust says that if Margarete won’t respond to reason, he’ll carry her away, but Margarete cries for him to take his wicked hands off of her. The sun is rising, and Margarete is committed to dying today.

Analysis

This scene of liberation becomes a dark retelling of Faust’s seduction of Margarete. Faust, gentle and loving at first, becomes brutal, just as he was brutal in acting on his lust. This time, however, Margarete pulls away from Faust and denounces him as wicked. She will not swoon and die from his kisses, but instead on the scaffold.

Summary

Mephistopheles enters and tells Faust and Margarete to come away, or else both of them will be lost. Margarete begs Faust to send Mephistopheles out, and the devil threatens to abandon both of them. Margarete calls on divine justice and the heavenly Father to save her and keep her safe. She is judged, cries Mephistopheles but then a voice from the heavens cries, “She is saved.” Mephistopheles tells Faust to flee, and the two disappear. Margarete’s voice is heard from within, calling Faust’s name: Heinrich! Heinrich! This is the end of Part I of Goethe’s Faust.

Analysis

Faust thinks the devil is a necessary evil, but Margarete recognizes that he isn’t needed so long as one is not concerned with earthly life, but rather with divine justice. The devil’s idea of judgment is coarsely human: Margarete has been sentenced by her society to die. But the voice from heaven reminds us that earthly justice is nothing compared to divine justice, and Margarete is granted her eternal salvation.

PART 2: ACT 1: A PLEASANT LANDSCAPE

Summary

Several years have passed since the action of Part I. Faust is couched on the grass, amidst nature, trying to sleep as twilight fades to night. Small graceful Spirits hover about, singing to calm him, to ease his intense guilt, and to purge him of his sense of horror. The Spirits sing about the sacred ranks of stars, the glorious moon which seals the bliss of sleep, the obliteration of pain and joy in sleep, and the hopefulness of the dawn that begins to break.

Analysis

Faust has been paralyzed with guilt ever since he failed to rescue Gretchen. He is stagnating, but with sorrow rather than joy. The Spirits of nature, like the wilderness and cave where Faust celebrates his love earlier, remind Faust of how nature nourishes man and in its cycles forgives what is past. This is how hope emerges.

Summary

The sun rises, and the Spirits hide from the loud heralds who accompany it. Faust wakes up and feels freshly alive, joyous, and resolved. He looks at the mountains and feels blinded to his own sorrow. He compares this feeling to having your highest goal overwhelm you, so that you turn to the earth for concealment. Indeed, Faust turns to a nearby waterfall with a rainbow rising from it. This, he says, is a perfect symbol for human striving. What we call life is just a colorful reflection.

Analysis

This moment is a turning point for Faust. It is spring, the season of rebirth, and here Faust is indeed reborn. He lets go of his remorse and wakes up to life again. Nature restores to him his sense of hope and purpose, and he decides to pursue earthly goals, not seek transcendence. The waterfall represents the constant change of earthly life that also (in its rainbow) reflects the constancy of the divine—the sun.

PART 2: ACT 1: THE THRONE ROOM

Summary

In a palace throne room, the irresponsible, pleasure-loving Emperor meets with his state council, courtiers, and servants, along with Mephistopheles, who took the place of the Emperor’s fool after the fool mysteriously collapsed, dead or drunk. He stands to one side of the Emperor. On the other side stands the astrologer, who divines the future from the positions of the planets, a man of great importance if we are to judge by his high position in the court.

Analysis

To create a meaningful earthly life, Faust turns to politics, supposedly the highest sphere of human activity. The devil is in the Emperor’s court to prepare the Emperor to accept Faust’s council. The Emperor has a fool on one side, and a quack fortuneteller on the other, both counseling him. It’s no wonder his state is in disorder.

Summary

Though it is the season of the rowdy, joyful Lenten carnival (a festival which immediately precedes the solemn Christian observance of Lent in spring), the empire is in dire straits. The Chancellor announces that evils haunt the realm: fever, theft, injustice, civil turmoil, flattery, and corruption. A high-ranking military officer says that soldiers are murdering and being murdered, and ignoring all orders. Mercenaries are demanding payment, and imperial realms are falling into chaos. A treasurer informs the Emperor of paralyzing economic difficulties. Even the Emperor’s steward says that the palace is running low on food, wine, and money.

Analysis

All aspects of the empire are falling apart. The people live in crime and misery, the military is insubordinate and ineffective, and money is running short. This is the perfect place for Faust to work his magic and so acquire earthly power very quickly. The Emperor’s councilors are very good at listing problems, but are very ineffective at solving them. The conditions here mirror the complaints of political corruption we heard in Auerbach’s wine-cellar.

Summary

The Emperor asks his new fool Mephistopheles if he doesn’t know of some further cause of woe. The devil says he doesn’t. He flatters the Emperor’s power, and advises that to make up for an inevitable lack of resources he should simply dig for treasure and gold buried by desperate people in times past, like those fleeing Rome during its collapse. The Chancellor (also the Archbishop of Mainz, a city in the Holy Roman Empire) accuses Mephistopheles of not speaking like a Christian, and of overvaluing nature and human intellect. The devil replies that the chancellor is small-minded and blind to possibility. The Emperor tells Mephistopheles to go and get the gold, then, which all his councilors (except the Chancellor) come to agree is not necessarily a bad plan.

Analysis

The devil, whose qualifications to speak on the matter no one seems to have questioned, falsely assures the Emperor that all is in fact well, and he flatters him. He then makes the bad proposal that the Emperor solve his problems by digging up gold. This is a short-term solution to the empire’s problems, a mere distraction that will waste time and resources. The Chancellor opposes Mephistopheles not out of high Christian principles, but because Mephistopheles’ naturalistic perspective threatens to sever Church from State and thereby reduce the Chancellor’s political power.

Summary

Mephistopheles evades the Emperor’s request. Instead, to prove that he’s not deceiving anyone, he invites the Emperor to consult the astrologer, who assures the Emperor that gold is indeed obtainable. People in the Court doubt him, however, and buzz with a lack of confidence in the devil’s plan. The devil assures them that he speaks the truth, and to prove it he says that the treasure may be divined by a twitching of the limbs. All in the court begin to twitch and have uncanny feelings, and they begin to think the devil is right: there must be gold hidden nearby causing them to feel so strangely.

Analysis

Mephistopheles introduces the gold so that he can later produce Faust as just the man who can help to dig it up. He uses magic to persuade the court that the gold is near, which is all that is needed to fully awake the court members’ greed and covetousness. The devil is never more at home than among politicians, whom he can manipulate and tempt to sin with shocking ease.

Summary

At last, tempted by Mephistopheles, the Emperor decides to begin looking for the hidden vaults where gold might be found. The astrologer counsels him to wait, however, until the season of the Lenten carnival passes. The Emperor agrees that it would be better to pass the time merrily and then to seek the gold with absolute focus.

Analysis

The Emperor is shameless about enjoying bodily pleasure, and he is easily distracted from his political duties by the idea of drinking and partying. He is also good at rationalizing his dissolute lifestyle as a way of ultimately focusing himself on leading responsibly.

Summary

Everyone exits except for Mephistopheles, who delights in the fact that idiotic mortals will never see that merit and good fortune are connected. The philosopher’s stone (a legendary substance which changes base metals to gold and is an elixir of life) could be in their possession, he says, but there would be no philosopher to use it.

Analysis

People on earth, as the devil observes, think that good fortune often comes about by luck, when in the divine scheme it only comes about when we deserve good fortune. This mistaken worldview results in human folly, which of course delights the devil.

PART 2: ACT 1: THE GREAT HALL

Summary

In a great hall, a Masquerade begins as part of the Lenten festival. A herald (royal messenger) says that, unlike traditional German festivals—which are full of morbidity, dancing fools, and demons—the Emperor’s will be a more cheerful entertainment, in the Italian fashion. He concludes that Mankind always has been and always will be the great embodiment of Folly.

Analysis

The Masquerade is a sensual celebration not unlike Walpurgis Night. It is also Mephistopheles’s opportunity to introduce Faust to the court. The herald, whose job it is to keep order, recognizes the party to be a foolish distraction keeping the Emperor from political duties.

Summary

Flower girls enter, singing, and present baskets full of fruits to the masqueraders. The olive branches, grains, flowers, and rosebuds in the baskets discuss their own virtues before the flower girls arrange them in the hall. A mother enters and advises her single daughter that fools are on the loose today and that, if she spreads her lap, surely she can catch one.

Analysis

The flower girls represent sensual womanhood, the springtime rebirth of humankind through sexual activity. They are one of the many archetypes on display during the Masquerade, which is something like a microcosm for human culture.

Summary

Fisherman, birdcatchers, and boorish woodcutters enter and mingle with the girls. Flatterers praise the powerful at the Masquerade, and a drunkard, insulted by the girls, drinks to produce his own high spirits. Indeed, everyone drinks and toasts. Poets enter, some of them satirizing the proceedings and others becoming involved in a poetic discussion with a Vampire, who is visibly fresh from his grave.

Analysis

The fisherman, birdcatchers, and woodcutters represent the ordinary men of the kingdom, laborers who are interested in sensual pleasure, especially sex. The drunk and the poets are those on the fringes of society, who live in illusion. The Vampire represents a kind of false rebirth, not from death to life but to a living death. This is the kind of rebirth Faust brings about in the kingdom with his paper money.

Summary

Characters from Greek mythology also enter, like the Graces (three beautiful sister goddesses, givers of beauty and charm) and the Fates (three goddesses who determine the course of human life), who sing amusingly, as do Fear, Hope, and Prudence. Mephistopheles enters disguised as a two-headed dwarf, but the herald strikes him with his staff. The devil turns into a horrible shapeless substance, which then transforms into an egg, from which hatch an adder and a bat. The adder and bat hurry into the night to reunite.

Analysis

The characters from Greek mythology are debased here. They are treated like mere amusements and stripped of their deeper cultural value that Goethe so admired. Mephistopheles enters to create confusion so that Faust can enter afterward without a problem. The herald tries to keep order by striking Mephistopheles, but the negative, conflict-creating devil succeeds in his purpose.

Summary

The herald sees in the sky a charioteer (here, the personification of Poetry) carried by winged horses, who lands in the great hall and introduces the splendid figure seated on his chariot’s throne. It is Plutus, the god of wealth, but actually it is Faust disguised as Plutus. He orders that a great chest of treasure be unloaded from the chariot, after which the charioteer flies away. With the herald’s staff, Plutus smites the lock from the chest to open it. Magically, gold and jewelry surge up from its mouth and overflow. The crowd goes wild, attempting to make off with as much treasure as possible. Again, however, Plutus takes the herald’s staff, sets it on fire, and he uses it both to drive back the crowd and also to draw an invisible magic circle.

Analysis

Plutus, the god of wealth, is just who is needed to set things right in the bankrupt empire, so it’s no wonder Faust disguises himself as such. But Faust is not providing wealth to all and creating a Utopia— instead he is providing only the illusion of wealth, and this to the Emperor alone, so that Faust becomes indispensable to the operations of the imperial court. The charioteer who accompanies Faust foreshadows the appearance of Euphorion, who is Poetry incarnate, later in the play.

Summary

There suddenly arrives a herd of satyrs—part human, part animal woodland gods—and their leader Pan, a horned and goat-legged Greek god of flocks and herds—but this actually the Emperor in disguise as Pan. Dance-loving fauns and materialistic, earth-mining gnomes enter also, along with hearty giants and nymphs who worship Pan as representing the cosmic All.

Analysis

The satyrs and gnomes represent the Emperor’s court. The satyrs are drunken pleasure-lovers, while the gnomes are exploiters of the earth, greedy for gold, just as the court is full of people seeking pleasure and personal gain. Only narrow-minded humans could think the political court encompasses all the world.

Summary

Plutus’s magic circle opens, revealing a fountain of fire that surges up from an abyss. The gnomes conduct Pan toward it. He stands fearlessly before the fire and enjoys the spectacle—that is, until it burns his beard off and he himself catches fire. Joy turns to agony, and people panic. The herald sees that it is really the Emperor burning. We learn later that it is here that the Emperor signs the note of paper money that Faust gives to him, probably while he’s surrounded by fire, copies of which are later circulated throughout the empire, thereby eliminating, for now, the financial crisis.

Analysis

This scene represents the Emperor giving into the temptation of Faust’s easy gold. Here it leads him into the illusion of fire, but later it will bring about the very real fires of war and, presumably, damnation. Just as Faust seduced Gretchen by giving her gold, so too does he insinuate himself into the imperial court by printing the paper money which alleviates the financial crisis. The Emperor does not really burn here—it is only an illusion.

Summary

Plutus thinks that there has been sufficient panic. With the herald’s staff he summons fragrant coolness into the great hall, and water to put out the fires. When demonic forces threaten, he says, we must bring magic to our aid.

Analysis

As Plutus starts and then puts out his own fire, so Faust solves the problems he himself causes in the empire, like the rebellion later caused by the printing of the paper money.

PART 2: ACT 1: A GARDEN

Summary

It is the morning after the Masquerade. Soberly dressed and kneeling before the Emperor and his courtiers are Faust and Mephistopheles, the former begging forgiveness for disguising himself as Plutus and creating the fiery illusion of the night before. The Emperor says he was awed by it, and welcomes many more such entertainments. The devil tells the Emperor that he now has proof that fire is his servant, and he promises him mastery over the seas and air as well. The Emperor is grateful to have such entertainers at his command who can help him escape from this routine world.

Analysis

The Emperor is so eager for pleasure that he ignores the fact that Faust’s fiery spectacle threw his own subjects into panic. This anticipates the point at which the Emperor becomes so pleasure-seeking that he ignores his duties, which leads to bloody rebellion in his realm. The devil reinforces his and Faust’s control over the Emperor with flattery and the false promise of mastery. A good ruler, Goethe implies, needs to be content with the routine world.

Summary

The steward enters and tells the Emperor joyous news: all the empire’s debts are settled. The high-ranking military official follows and announces that the army is disciplined once more. The treasurer says that Faust and Mephistopheles are to thank for these happy turns of events.

Analysis

Faust has solved the empire’s problems by inventing and circulating paper money, the foundation of our own economy. But in the play this invention causes more problems than it solves.

Summary

The Chancellor explains: Faust and Mephistopheles came up with the idea of having paper money printed on notes. The Emperor fears fraud, and wonders who forged his signature on the original of these notes. The Chancellor explains that the Emperor signed it himself the night before, and that conjurors made copies of the notes in the thousands, to the unprecedented pleasure of the imperial subjects. The Emperor finds the idea of paper money strange, but accepts it.

Analysis

It is ironic that the Emperor does not even remember signing the original banknote. He makes crucial decisions for his realm while drunk, a clear sign of his inability to rule his people well. Characteristically, the Emperor accepts a short-term solution to a problem so long as it leads to pleasure now.

Summary

Faust and Mephistopheles go on to explain that everyone accepts these new banknotes, and that they’re substantiated by the unimaginable wealth buried in the soils of the empire. The Emperor is persuaded. He thanks the magician and the devil for their service, and appoints them masters of the treasury. The Emperor then grants gifts to his officials and courtiers. His fool enters, apparently resurrected, and is at first distressed but soon charmed by the idea of paper money. He says he will dream of his estates that night. Everyone exits except the devil, who says that now none can doubt that the fool has wit.

Analysis

Mephistopheles needed to introduce the idea of hidden gold earlier so that he and Faust can pretend here that the paper money has real-world value (gold to back it up), which it doesn’t. Without even knowing whom Faust and the devil are, the Emperor gives them a high-ranking position in his court. This kind of impulsive, decision-making is typical of how the Emperor governs. Instead of being prudent with their newfound wealth, the Emperor and fool can’t spend it fast enough.

PART 2: ACT 1: A DARK GALLERY

Summary

Faust and Mephistopheles enter a dark gallery in the palace. The magician tells the devil that the Emperor is demanding that he summon Helen of Troy and Paris (Helen’s lover in Greek mythology) without delay. Get to work, Faust tells his servant. The devil says it will be costly, for pagans like Helen and Paris live in their own special hell where he doesn’t have power. He explains that Faust must enter the timeless, spaceless sphere of strange and majestic goddesses known as the Mothers by enduring dreary solitude. He says Faust must enter Nothingness, and Faust responds that it’s there he hopes to find his All.

Analysis

Impressed by Faust’s fiery spectacle during the Masquerade, the Emperor orders the magician to summon Helen, the ideal beauty of Classical Greece, and Paris, the Trojan man who kidnapped her from her Greek husband Menelaus’s palace. This started a war—just so that Paris could sexually enjoy Helen. These two figures thus represent perfect beauty and sensual enjoyment at the expense of political duty, respectively.

Summary

Mephistopheles gives Faust a tiny key that begins to grow in his hand. It has special properties, the devil says. Faust must follow its lead down to the Mothers; the word “Mothers” makes Faust shudder. Descend or ascend, the devil says—it makes no difference. Faust becomes enthusiastic, eager to get underway. Mephistopheles says that he will know he has reached the Mothers when he comes to a glowing tripod. In its light the Mothers will be sitting, standing, or walking. All is form in transformation, he says. Faust stamps his foot and sinks out of sight. Mephistopheles is curious to see if he’ll return.

Analysis

The devil has control over illusion but not over myth, which is the world of Helen and Paris. To access that world, Faust must go into eternal nothingness, where the immortal mythical images dwell guarded by the Mothers. The descent into the realm of the Mothers is portrayed like sexual penetration: Faust uses his phallic key to unlock new life from nothing’s womb. In Helen’s case, this new life is superior to the life that exists in Faust’s current society.

PART 2: ACT 1: BRIGHTLY LIT ROOMS

Summary

The Emperor is surrounded by princes and courtiers hustling and bustling through brightly lit rooms of the palace. An official tells Mephistopheles that the Court is impatient to see Helen and Paris act out a phantom scene together. The devil responds that Faust is hard at work making this happen.

Analysis

The Emperor’s court wants only pleasure, and they don’t have any sense of how much dangerous labor is required to produce real pleasure—like the dangerous quest Faust is now on.

Summary

Several women then approach Mephistopheles and ask for remedies to their problems: blemishes, swellings of the foot, and unrequited love. The devil recommends nasty, painful solutions: rub frogspawn and toad tongues on your skin; let me kick you; mark your lover with charcoal and swallow it. People begin to crowd about the devil asking for favors.

Analysis

People are so vain and so eager for quick solutions to their problems that they are willing to take devilishly bad advice without question, just as the Emperor did in solving the financial crisis. The devil’s proposed solutions are worse than the problems themselves.

Summary

To get rid of the crowd, Mephistopheles orders the Mothers to release Faust from their spell. Candles dim, and the Court starts to move and assemble in the old Knights’ Hall. This hall is richly hung with tapestries and filled with armor, and the devil thinks that in itself it will be enough of an invitation for the ghosts of Helen and Paris.

Analysis

The devil is quickly bored with tempting people who are easily tempted, like the members of the Emperor’s court. Only Faust’s soul is a big enough catch to hold Mephistopheles’ attention and energy in the drama.

PART 2: ACT 1: KNIGHT’S HALL

Summary

The Emperor and his Court have already entered the dimly lit Knight’s Hall. They are arranged as if to watch a theatrical production. Mephistopheles enters, followed by Faust with a tripod containing a bowl of incense, announced by the astrologer. Grandiosely from the proscenium (that part of a stage in front of the curtain), Faust invokes the Mothers, touches his key to the bowl, and summons Paris.

Analysis

In contrast with the Walpurgis Night’s Dream, which was an empty satirical illusion, the summoning of Helen and Paris is imbued with an almost religious dignity. This is indicative of Goethe’s admiration for Classical Greek culture. The incense alludes to the Catholic Mass.

Summary

Paris appears, and the women in the audience praise him for his youthful vigor and his delicious lips, but the men criticize his coarseness, stiffness, his lowborn air, his femininity, and his boorishness. Then Helen enters. She’s pretty but not his style, Mephistopheles says. Faust, however, is enraptured with the beauty he’s summoned. He says it makes his world desirable and firmly grounded. He declares his devotion to, love for, and idolization of Helen, along with his madness. Men in the audience lavishly praise Helen, but the women criticize her, for bad proportions, ungainly feet, and for looking ugly next to Paris.

Analysis

The courtiers don’t really understand the beauties of Helen and Paris. Goethe is suggesting that reason and passion have become so disconnected in the modern world that people are no longer capable of admiring Classical ideals of beauty, where reason and passion are intermixed. Faust has never encountered ideal beauty before, only innocence in Gretchen, and he at once falls in love with Helen. The devil appreciates only the ugly.

Summary

The astrologer observes that Paris is boldly seizing Helen, perhaps even abducting her. Faust orders the ghost to stop but he does not. Faust vows to rescue Helen and possess her himself. Faust leaps up and attempts to seize Helen. He touches his key to Paris. An explosion results that leaves Faust lying on the floor. The phantom figures have dissolved.

Analysis

Faust, whose desire for transcendence is reawakened by Helen, suddenly feels that he can’t find meaning in life without her. He can’t just contemplate her beauty, but must possess it. As she is right now, however, Helen is a mere image from the past. Faust will have to bring her into his world if he is to love her.

Summary

Mephistopheles hoists Faust onto his shoulders. That’s life, he says, and adds that to be encumbered with a fool can’t even help the devil. Darkness and noisy confusion ensue as the curtain falls. This is the end of Act I of Part II.

Analysis

Just as the Emperor leaves his duties to chase pleasure, so does Faust impulsively resolve to leave his position at court to chase beauty. He is still quite spiritually blind and egotistically self-serving.

PART 2: ACT 2: A HIGH-VAULTED, NARROW GOTHIC ROOM (FAUST’S STUDY 4)

Summary

Faust is in his former study, unchanged since his days as a professor. Mephistopheles enters from behind a curtain and finds his master lying on an old-fashioned bed, pining for Helen in his dreams. The devil observes that nothing has changed—there’s the pen Faust signed his soul away with, and there’s the gown Mephistopheles disguised himself in when he told the student all that nonsense. The devil takes down the gown and shakes it out. Insects fly out of its fur, greeting him in song, and he puts it on.

Analysis

Faust is lovesick after discovering and losing Helen, but he cannot pursue beauty until he has more knowledge, hence the return to the study and Goethe’s satire of intellectualism. Nothing has changed here—Wagner maintains the place like a shrine to his former master.

Summary

Mephistopheles wants someone to play professor with, so he pulls a bell chord, summoning from a dark corridor the famulus (an attendant), later called Nicodemus, who is Wagner’s assistant in scholarship. The famulus is frightened of the giant wearing Faust’s old woolen gown, but the devil beckons him and he comes. Mephistopheles says he knows of Wagner’s fame, eclipsing now that of even Faust. The famulus says that Wagner is very modest and has not reconciled himself to Faust’s disappearance. He still prays for Faust’s return.

Analysis

Wagner has taken Faust’s place as the leading intellectual authority at the university, and he now has his own servile assistant. The world rages beyond the university walls like a storm, but the university is strangely unchanged and disconnected from reality. The cycle of professor and student never ends, and ultimately it leads nowhere.

Summary

Mephistopheles orders the famulus to lead him to Wagner, but the famulus explains that Wagner is deeply involved with a great project and has set a prohibition on visitors. The devil says that Wagner will not refuse to see him, for he himself hastened the success of Faust’s former assistant. The famulus exits.

Analysis

The devil is cunning to say that he hastened Wagner’s success. The master-pupil hierarchy and careerism at the university are permitted to interrupt the course of serious study as almost nothing else is. This is one of the university’s greatest flaws.

Summary

Mephistopheles sits in a dignified pose when the student, now called the baccalaureate (whom the devil told nonsense to many years ago) comes storming down the hall. The baccalaureate complains that his education has been nothing but lies told by the old to the young, with the old not even believing the lies they told. He tells the devil this, and, after a pause, the devil agrees: what’s been called knowledge up to now doesn’t deserve the name. The baccalaureate goes on to condemn old age as frosty impotence and to celebrate youth as power and freedom. He exits.

Analysis

Years ago the student unquestioningly accepted all of the devil’s advice. Now that he is older, he is disillusioned by his education, which he thinks is so much nonsense (echoing Faust in this sentiment, of course). Ironically, it is the conviction that one knows better than one’s elders that keeps the university alive. This dissatisfaction breeds new research and theories which themselves become dissatisfactory in their turn. So the university goes in circles.

Summary

Farewell, Mephistopheles says to the baccalaureate, that pompous ass! He imagines that the young man would be much offended to hear that there are no wise and stupid thoughts that have not already been thought. The devil then addresses the younger members of the audience, saying that they may be left cold by what he says now, but when they grow old they’ll understand him.

Analysis

The jaded Mephistopheles knows, like the writer of the Biblical book Ecclesiastes, that there are no new thoughts left in the world. The search for knowledge is just a recycling and representation of old ideas. We’re all pompous asses, in the devil’s eyes, if we think that we have original ideas.