Goethe's Faust

Set in the 1400s (with a bit of leeway for mixed elements Goethe originally included), our tale begins with the devil's infamous wager - not just with Faust, but with God for a human soul. As a black poodle, Satan follows Wagner, a page, to his master Faust, the most learned human in the world. Presenting his case, promises and terrifying power, Mephisto (short for Mephistopheles) convinces Faust, who has grown despondent nearing the end of his life with so much knowledge yet no perceived outcome, and on the verge of suicide, to sign the wager: An eternity of service and all the desires he could ask for, with one caveat - if he should ever find true satisfaction, the devil will have his first soul to entrap all humankind. Firstly disappointed with the devil's initial locale - a bar - Faust begins to see he may be in over his head after the devil's charms ruin the lives of three drunks. Pressed forward, Faust accompanies the devil to a more ethereal place and meets Mephisto's servants in the form of lemurs and a witch, who grants him his youth once again. Especially pleased by this (and perhaps the devil's secret addition of a mysterious vial) Faust happily sets off into town to try out his new advantages. In a fateful meeting, Faust runs into a young girl named Gretchen. Despite her plain looks he is bewitched and demands the devil win her for him. What follows is a ruckus both cause in her home while trying to avoid the girl arrived early for supper. Entranced by his attention, note and jewels, Gretchen likewise begins to fall for the doctor and laments to her friend Martha her mother's prevention of a meeting. The devil is far from finished yet and ensures both the object of his master's affections and her rather brutish friend are able to be further entwined in Faust's desires. Not all is in Mephisto's favour however, as Faust relates he's not finding the expected joy he'd hoped. Pushing his desires further Mephisto sets up a plan to have Faust sleep with the girl which leaves her mother, brother and eventually illegitimate child dead. In a stunning scene often the finale of stage and adapted productions, Faust begs Gretchen, imprisoned for murder, to steal away with him, but she refuses and accepts her fate. Fleeing the prison, Faust does not witness a small light in the girl's cell as she passes away offering a small hope of salvation. Drained by his experiences and perhaps of his humanity, Faust continues into the oft-excluded second half of the story where the devil places him at the side of the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire. Dealing with well-versed but incompetent ministers, vain nobles and a mystical then ruined astrologer, Faust is demanded to produce the most beautiful woman in the world - Helen of Troy. Despite procuring an acceptable sight Faust's lust gets in the way and the facade comes collapsing around him. Once again listless, the devil takes more pains for Faust to try and provide the full soul of Helen, by an elaborate plan disguising himself as the doctor to access his page who has built an artificial human - Homonculus - that can find Chrion (a centaur) to lead them to the battlefields of Troy during its famous war. There is a reason this part of the play is usually not performed. Arriving in Troy at the head his modern army, Faust wins Helen, then the ancient world as ten years pass and his family life along with his empire grows. When neglecting his son Euphorion leads to the latter's death, Faust finds the whole facade crumble as the previous one did and returns to the HRE to dispatch the emperor and become ruler himself of all one can know and see. With the entire world at his command Faust has one last thing to conquer - nature herself. Creating a magnificent project to push back the seas Faust finds one last comfort in a pair of thankful citizens whose homes he restores. But in his usual twist Mephisto ensures Faust's happiness ruined as the two are accidentally executed on Faust's orders, along with all people in the world. Calculated to bring about Faust's downfall, the devil's plan forces a maddened Faust into a chapel where, spared a few minutes from Satan's influence, the doctor is able to be visited by other spirits. The embodiment of Care offers the doctor one last way out, which he rejects, and so banishes the devil's illusions by blinding Faust. As the world around him once more crumbles - revealing all to be mere illusion and the world simply gone on since his time as advisor to the Emperor - the doctor sees his intents clear at last and rejoices in now finding the purpose he has sought all along. But that is exactly what the devil ordered. Happily guiding a much-aged Faust to his grave, Mephisto quietly tucks his master in one last time as, wager over, Faust is sealed in stone and positioned to descend into Hell to now serve HIS master for all eternity. Thus ends the Tragedy of Doctor Heinrich Faust. Until... Descending herself from the heavens, Gretchen, now an angel, claims Faust's soul for God. Understandably irate, the devil demands an explanation and the thesis of Goethe's masterwork - the most famous play, if not writing, in German history - is stated: Those who ever strive shall always be saved. Gretchen explains Faust's transformation from a selfish miser to man seeking to only undo his wrongs and better the world, despite the devil's offers of granting his every whim. In the face of his mistakes and easy ways out Faust still turned to good and the last moments find him on a misty mountain, his fate uncertain. Another traveller in the devil's realm appears, famed writer Dante Alighieri, and converses with Faust about the larger questions like humanity's purpose and his own in the grand scheme. With unknown but comforting figures on the horizon, Faust follows his guide who himself was once guided, into the unending journey of humanity that cannot be fully understood by any one of the infinite number who walk its path.