''Faust: The Second Part of the Tragedy'' () is the second part of the

tragic A tragedy is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character or cast of characters. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy is to invoke an accompanying catharsis, or a "pain ...

play Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * P ...

Faust Faust ( , ) is the protagonist of a classic German folklore, German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust (). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a deal with the Devil at a ...

'' by

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

. It was published in 1832, the year of Goethe's death. Only part of ''Faust I'' is directly related to the legend of Johann Faust, which dates to at latest the beginning of the 16th century (thus preceding Marlowe's

). The "Gretchen" subplot, although now the most widely known episode of the Faust legend, was of Goethe's own invention. In ''Faust II'', the legend (at least in a version of the 18th century, which came to Goethe's attention) already contained Faust's marriage with Helen and an encounter with an Emperor. But certainly Goethe deals with the legendary material very freely in both parts.

Background

Goethe had been working on ''Faust'' from before 1772 all the way up to his death in 1832 (he had worked on this play for more than 60 years), alternating between parts. In 1797, following

Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, philosopher and historian. Schiller is considered by most Germans to be Germany's most important classical playwright. He was born i ...

's advice, he continued his work on the first part of the play, which he completed in 1805 (the same year of Schiller's death). The first part was published three years later, in 1808. In 1818, Goethe read

Christopher Marlowe Christopher Marlowe ( ; Baptism, baptised 26 February 156430 May 1593), also known as Kit Marlowe, was an English playwright, poet, and translator of the Elizabethan era. Marlowe is among the most famous of the English Renaissance theatre, Eli ...

's play, ''Doctor Faustus'', and he began working on the second part of the play in 1825. The first act of the tragedy's second part was written between 1826 and 1827, whilst the second act was written in a period spacing from 1828 to 1830. Goethe wrote the third act for the better half of 1827, and he continued working on the fifth act in 1828. The fourth act was written between February and July 1831, with Goethe sealing the manuscript (which was to be published after his death), but he sometimes took it out for private readings to his daughter-in-law, Ottilie von Goethe, and to his friend, Johann Peter Eckermann. Goethe died in March of 1832, and the tragedy was published a year later by Eckermann and Friedrich Wilhelm Riemer in the first volume of ''Nachgelassene Werke (Posthumous works).''

Acts

Act I

* ''Graceful area. Faust, bedded on flowery turf, weary, restless, seeking sleep. Dusk. Ghost circle, floating moves, graceful little figures.'' The first act opens with an appeal by Ariel to forgive Faust and ease the cares of his suffering. * ''Hall of the Throne. State Council in anticipation of the emperor. Trumpets. Servants of all kinds, beautifully dressed, step forward. The emperor ascends the throne, to his right the astrologer.'' The first act sees Mephistopheles (playing the role of a fool) saving the imperial finances of the Emperor – and so the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...

– by

money creation Money creation, or money issuance, is the process by which the money supply of a country, or an economic or monetary region,Such as the Eurozone or ECCAS is increased. In most modern economies, money is created by both central banks and comm ...

, introducing the use of

paper money Paper money, often referred to as a note or a bill (North American English), is a type of negotiable promissory note that is payable to the bearer on demand, making it a form of currency. The main types of paper money are government notes, which ...

instead of gold to encourage spending (and economic recovery). * ''Spacious room with side chambers, decorated and dressed up for the masquerade.'' This is by far the most extensive section of the first act, describing the Florentine carnival from the perspective of Goethe, above all based on Antonio Francesco Grazzini's ''Tutti i trionfi'' (1559) – a collection of contemporary "songs and hard lifts". A parade of Florentine notables, including

Dante Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...

and Gianni Schicchi, pass by. * ''Lustgarten, morning sun. Faust, Mephistopheles, decent, not remarkable, according to custom, dressed, and both knees exposed.'' The "Emperor of Thumb" (to use a devilish term of Mephistopheles) describes how much he enjoyed the recent celebrations, and wants more "dergleichen Scherze" (5988). The Emperor appears and blesses the newly introduced paper money from Mephisto, which is adorned with pictures of

Simon Magus Simon Magus (Greek Σίμων ὁ μάγος, Latin: Simon Magus), also known as Simon the Sorcerer or Simon the Magician, was a religious figure whose confrontation with Peter is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. The act of simony, or payi ...

. The Emperor begins to understand its meaning and to squander it, as do his advisors. Goethe here satirizes the introduction of paper money during the French Revolution, with various advisors possibly representing Danton, Sieyès and other figures. * ''Dark gallery. Faust. Mephistopheles.'' Faust enters the "realm of the mothers" – variously described as the depths of the psyche or the womb – in order to bring back the "ideal form" of beauty for the Emperor's delight. In this case, the ideal forms are

Helen of Troy Helen (), also known as Helen of Troy, or Helen of Sparta, and in Latin as Helena, was a figure in Greek mythology said to have been the most beautiful woman in the world. She was believed to have been the daughter of Zeus and Leda (mythology), ...

and her lover

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. Faust summons their spirits from

Hades Hades (; , , later ), in the ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, is the god of the dead and the king of the Greek underworld, underworld, with which his name became synonymous. Hades was the eldest son of Cronus and Rhea ...

, but the emperor and the male members of his court criticize Paris's appearance, while the women of the court criticize Helen's appearance. Faust falls in love with Helen. In a fit of jealously toward Paris, who is now abducting Helen, Faust destroys the illusion and the act ends in darkness and tumult.

Act II

Mephistopheles transports the unconscious Faust into his old study. Mephistopheles, donning Faust's robe once again, resumes his conversation with the freshman, who is now a cynical baccalaureus. The

Homunculus A homunculus ( , , ; "little person", : homunculi , , ) is a small human being. Popularized in 16th-century alchemy and 19th-century fiction, it has historically referred to the creation of a miniature, fully formed human. The concept has root ...

, an artificial human being created by Wagner, Faust's former famulus, by means of an alchemical process, leads Faust and

Mephistopheles Mephistopheles ( , ), also known as Mephostophilis or Mephisto, is a demon featured in German folklore, originating as the chief devil in the Faust legend. He has since become a stock character appearing in Mephistopheles in the arts and popular ...

to the "Classical Walpurgisnacht", where they encounter gods and monsters from Greek antiquity. Faust, still searching for Helen, is led by the sybil Manto into the Underworld. Mephistopheles, meanwhile, meets the Phorkyads or Phorcydes (another name for the

Graeae In Greek mythology, the Graeae (; ''Graiai'', , alternatively spelled Graiai), also called the Grey Sisters and the Phorcides (), were three sisters who had gray hair from their birth and shared one eye and one tooth among them. They were the ...

), three hideous hags who share one tooth and one eye between them, and he disguises himself as one of them. Guided by the sea-god

Proteus In Greek mythology, Proteus ( ; ) is an early prophetic sea god or god of rivers and oceanic bodies of water, one of several deities whom Homer calls the "Old Man of the Sea" (''hálios gérôn''). Some who ascribe a specific domain to Prote ...

, the Homunculus is initiated into the process of becoming fully human, but his glass flask shatters, and he dies.

Act III

The third act begins with Helen's arrival at the palace of

Menelaus In Greek mythology, Menelaus (; ) was a Greek king of Mycenaean (pre- Dorian) Sparta. According to the ''Iliad'', the Trojan war began as a result of Menelaus's wife, Helen, fleeing to Troy with the Trojan prince Paris. Menelaus was a central ...

in Sparta, accompanied by women, who, as in Classical drama, constitute the chorus. The hideous Phorkyas appears at the hearth, and warns Helen that Menelaus means to sacrifice her and her attendants. Distraught at this new knowledge, Helen implores Phorkyas to save them. Phorkyas transports Helen and the chorus to Faust's fortress, where Helen and Faust declare their love for each other. After defeating Menelaus' army, Faust proclaims the pastoral beauty of the Arcadian countryside. The scene changes in time and space: a range of rocky caverns, with a shadowy grove extending to the foot of the rocks. Phorkyas, now Faust and Helen's attendant, explains to the newly-woken chorus that during the past interval Faust and Helen have had a spirited son named Euphorion, who charms all with his beauty and gift for music. The wild Euphorion, becoming increasingly bold in his flight, falls to his death (in allusion to

Icarus In Greek mythology, Icarus (; , ) was the son of the master craftsman Daedalus, the architect of the labyrinth of Crete. After Theseus, king of Athens and enemy of King Minos, escaped from the labyrinth, Minos suspected that Icarus and Daedalu ...

), whereupon the sorrowful Helen disappears in a mist to Hades (in allusion to the legend of

Orpheus In Greek mythology, Orpheus (; , classical pronunciation: ) was a Thracians, Thracian bard, legendary musician and prophet. He was also a renowned Ancient Greek poetry, poet and, according to legend, travelled with Jason and the Argonauts in se ...

). The chorus of women, undesirous of joining their mistress in the Underworld, revert to nature, which they extol in songs of praise. As the act ends, Phorkyas is revealed to be Mephistopheles in disguise.

Act IV

In the fourth act, Faust finds himself taken away from Arcadia to a mountain top in Germany. Watching a cloud that is dividing into two, he recognizes in one part Helen and in the other Gretchen. The cloud with the form of Helen moves eastward, while Gretchen's cloud rises heavenward. Then Mephistopheles, who has cast off his Greek appearance, joins Faust again. Mephistopheles strikes up a geognostic dispute about the genesis of the Earth's surface and especially the mountain region of this scene. Afterwards, Faust states, as his new higher purpose, that he wants to reclaim new land. His underlying idea is to control the elements or even to subdue nature. Subsequently, Faust focuses on controlling the sea, from which he reclaims new land by means of dikes and drainage ditches. But a war breaks out between the Emperor and a rival emperor, interrupting Faust's plans. Mephistopheles introduces the three mighty men (German: ) Bullyboy, Grab-quick and Hold-tight ("Raufebold", "Habebald", "Haltefest") who are to help suppress the revolt and implement Faust's ambitious project. With their assistance Faust achieves victory for the Emperor. The three mighty men reveal dubious behaviours as looters which cast a long shadow over their future services. As a reward for his military service, Faust is given a fiefdom on the seashore.

Act V

An indefinite time has passed since the end of the previous act, and Faust is now an old but powerful man favored by the king. Using dikes and dams to push back the sea, Faust has built a castle on the reclaimed land. Upon seeing the hut of an old peasant couple,

Baucis and Philemon Baucis and Philemon () are two characters from Greek mythology, only known to us from Ovid's ''Metamorphoses''. Baucis and Philemon were an old married couple in the region of Tyana, which Ovid places in Phrygia, and the only ones in their t ...

, with a nearby chapel, Faust becomes irritated that these two structures do not belong to him, and orders them removed. Mephistopheles, overinterpreting Faust's orders, murders the old couple. The personification of Care breathes upon Faust's eyes, making him blind. Upon disclosing his plans to better the lives of his subjects, motivated perhaps out of guilt, he recognizes the moment of sheer bliss which he would seek to prolong, and drops dead. Mephistopheles, finding that Faust has lost his wager, tries to claim his soul. Although Mephistopheles has won his bet with Faust, he has lost the wager he made with God in the Prologue to Part I that Faust could be deterred from righteous pursuits. Angels suddenly appear, dropping rose-petals on the demons, who flee. Mephistopheles stands his ground, however, and, under the aphrodisiac influence of the roses, lusts after the angels, who whisk away Faust's soul while he is thus distracted. The scene abruptly changes to a wilderness inhabited by holy

anchorite In Christianity, an anchorite or anchoret (female: anchoress); () is someone who, for religious reasons, withdraws from secular society to be able to lead an intensely prayer-oriented, Asceticism , ascetic, or Eucharist-focused life. Anchorit ...

s: "Mountain-gorges, Forest, Rock, Desert". ''Pater Profundus'' discloses the parable of nature, which is a harbinger of divine love. The angels bearing Faust's soul appear in heaven. After the enraptured Doctor Marianus extols the Eternal Feminine, the virgin Mary, ''Mater Gloriosa'', appears from on high. Three biblical holy women, ''Magna Peccatrix'' (the Great Sinneress, Luke 7:36), ''Mulier Samaritana'' (the Samaritan woman, John 4), and ''Maria Aegyptiaca'' (''Acts of the Saints''), plead for Faust's soul, while ''Una Poenitentium'' ("a penitent", formerly Gretchen) also pleads for grace and offers to lead the reborn Faust into the higher spheres of heaven. ''Mater Gloriosa'' grants her wish. The ''Chorus Mysticus'' ends the drama: All that is transient Is parable only: The unattainable Here becomes reality: The indescribable, Here is done: Woman, eternal 'das Ewig-Weibliche'', "the eternal female" Beckons us on.

Ancient parallels

The final words are spoken by a "Chorus Mysticus", i.e. a chorus related to the mysteries, which alludes to an "indescribable" process in which "the eternal feminine leads us on". This resembles ancient mystery religions, and particularly the mysteries of Isis, more than it does orthodox Christian mysticism. In ancient rites of initiation into the mysteries of the goddess Isis, the initiate was guided by a nonverbal process called the " epopteia". The last words of Goethe's ''Faust Part II'' call to mind the "epopteia", which is a nonverbal and indescribable process, associated with the sense of sight. Similarly, a few lines earlier, Faust petitions the angels for a vision of the ''Queen of heaven'': Mightiest empress of the world, Let me, in the blue Pavilion of the sky unfurl'd, Thy mystery view! Höchste Herrscherin der Welt! Lasse mich, im blauen, Ausgespannten Himmelszelt Dein Geheimniß schauen. (11997–12000) Likewise in his final words, Faust prays to the Mater Gloriosa using the titles "Virgin, Mother, Queen" (11995) and also "Goddess" (12100). This goes beyond orthodox Christian teaching, for although "Queen of heaven" is a Christian title of the Virgin Mary, Christian churches balk at calling her "Goddess", which would imply polytheism. However, in the mysteries of Isis, a goddess was indeed invoked by the title "Queen of heaven" -- as witnessed by

Apuleius Apuleius ( ), also called Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis (c. 124 – after 170), was a Numidians, Numidian Latin-language prose writer, Platonist philosopher and rhetorician. He was born in the Roman Empire, Roman Numidia (Roman province), province ...

's ''

The Golden Ass The ''Metamorphoses'' of Apuleius, which Augustine of Hippo referred to as ''The Golden Ass'' (Latin: ''Asinus aureus''), is the only ancient Roman novel in Latin to survive in its entirety. The protagonist of the novel is Lucius. At the end of ...

'', an important source for the modern understanding of ancient mystery religions. The protagonist of the ''Golden Ass'' begins his prayer to the "Goddess" by calling her "Queen of Heaven". Apuleius also calls Isis "mother of all Nature ... whose sole divinity is worshipped in differing forms, with varying rites, under many names, by all the world."Apuleius: ''The Golden Ass, Book XI:5–6.'' See also: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/TheGoldenAssXI.php. Goethe echoes this motif of the archetypal "mother of Nature", for instance at the beginning of ''Faust Part I'', Doctor Faust refers to Nature as a "veiled goddess", in explicit reference to the ancient veiled Isis, who was also identified as goddess and mother of nature: Mysterious, even in broad daylight, Nature won't let her veil be raised: What your spirit can't bring to sight, Won't by screws and levers be displayed. Geheimnißvoll am lichten Tag Läßt sich Natur des Schleyers nicht berauben, Und was sie deinem Geist nicht offenbaren mag, Das zwingst du ihr nicht ab mit Hebeln und mit Schrauben. (672–675)

Goethe's statements about ''Faust II''

In the context of Act III:

I never doubted that the readers for whom I effectively wrote would grasp the principal significance of the portrayal straight away. It is time that the impassioned dispute between classicists and romantics should finally be reconciled. The principal thing is that we should properly cultivate ourselves; the source from which we do so would not matter, if we did not have to fear the possibility of miscultivation by appealing to false models. For it is certainly a broader and purer insight into and around Greek and Roman literature to which we owe our liberation from the monkish barbarism of the period between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Is it not from this high level that we can learn to appreciate everything in its true physical and aesthetic value, both what is oldest and what is newest? – Goethe's letter to K. J. L. Iken September 27, 1827 (translation of Rüdiger Bubner)

Rather in the context of Act III:

"Yet, ... it all appeals to the senses, and on the stage would satisfy the eye: more I did not intend. Let the crowd of spectators take pleasure in the spectacle; the higher import will not escape the initiated, as has been the case with the 'Magic Flute', and other things beside." – ''Conversations with Goethe'' by Johann Peter Eckermann January 25, 1827 (translated by John Oxenford)

In the context of Act IV "The Mothers! Mothers! nay, it sounds so strange." (6216–6217):

"I can reveal to you no more ..except that I found, in Plutarch, that in ancient Greece mention was made of the Mothers as divinities. This is all that I owe to others, the rest is my own invention. Take the manuscript home with you, study it carefully, and see what you can make of it." – ''Conversations with Goethe'' by Johann Peter Eckermann January 10, 1830 (translated by John Oxenford) "But, in the second part, there is scarcely anything of the subjective; here is seen a higher, broader, clearer, more passionless world, and he who has not looked about him and had some experience, will not know what to make of it." – ''Conversations with Goethe'' by Johann Peter Eckermann February 17, 1831 (translated by John Oxenford)

Notes

External links

* * * {{Authority control 1832 plays Epic poems in German 2 Books published posthumously Tragedy plays