Analysis of Dichotomies in Goethe’s Faust

Mephistopheles’s suggestion, in the Prologue to Faust, that humans are burdensome sets the stage for an overarching aspect of the play. The word burdensome can be defined as difficult to carry out/fulfill, taxing or undesirably restrictive. Mephistopheles has seen that the possession of reason and intelligence has made mankind unhappy, as they only employ their reason in bestial and cruel ways, and this troubles him. He continues to say, mankind suffers endlessly, so that even he, the devil himself, is reluctant to antagonize them. Furthermore, the unending striving for truth as well as the aim for “complete” eternal truth are at the forefront during the entirety of the play. This struggle and dissatisfaction felt by Faust with regard to the finite limits on man's potential is the driving force that motivates him in all that he does as he aspires to find a way to progress beyond the limitations set on human experience and perception. This attempt on Faust’s part elicits numerous dichotomies throughout the story.

The duality that plagues Faust as mentioned by the “two souls” which “dwell within” his breast is an expression of his torn personality. On the one hand, he wants to lead an earthly or worldly life full of wealth, fame, success, and the satisfaction of lustful desires. On the other hand, however, he yearns to soar to the very greatest heights, both spiritually and intellectually and to go beyond the bounds of Earth and know the unknown. The latter desire is the one that will lead him to enter into a diabolical pact with Mephistopheles.

This duality has fascinating parallels to Schiller’s concept of the sense and form drives. He posits that the sense drive comes from human physical existence as matter while being constrained by time and the changing of this matter during that time. To contrast, the form drive is a function of the person grounded in itself. This drive is man's rational nature, and its goal is to give man freedom, so he could bring harmony to the variety of things in the world. The form drive also thus insists on truth and on the right. The sense drive and the form drive are in competition, and overpower one another in the person. To maximize the potential of the two drives, Schiller argues one cannot overpower or limit the other. Clearly, Faust seems to be struggling with a very similar conflict. He wants to completely penetrate and unite with the particular, but also to transcend and unite with the universal/multiplicity.

In uncomplicated terms, Faust wants to be like a god because he is dissatisfied with his earthly life and craves for the type of power and control over others that only a god can exert. By selling his earthly soul to Mephistopheles, Faust is willing to sever it from its 'brother,' as he calls it. From that point forward, there will be only a singular god-like soul, ceaselessly striving towards a higher form of existence.

The pact between Faust and Mephistopheles must first be preceded by the wager between Mephistopheles and God. During the Prologue, God mentions Faust as a man who is not debased by reason and who will eventually be guided by his reason to a knowledge of the truth. However, Mephistopheles differs in his evaluation of Faust's potential. He condemns Faust's present indecisive confusion, but God excuses it by saying, 'Men make mistakes as long as they strive.' He asserts that Faust in the end will attain understanding and peace of mind. God and Mephistopheles proceed to make their wager in order to settle this dispute. As long as Faust lives, Mephistopholes may attempt to influence and conquer him, but if his judgment of Faust is shown to be incorrect, he will have to admit that 'A good man with his groping intuitions! Still knows the path that is true and fit.'

Now, the actual pact between Faust and Mephistopholes will have potential consequences on the aforementioned wager between Mephistopheles and God. The premise is as follows: Faust vows that he will never express satisfaction with the present moment, but if he does, he will turn his soul over to Mephistopheles. Mephistopheles is liable to give Faust unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. To Faust, these terms seem extremely favorable, as he believes himself to be in a position where he cannot lose. He is in the state of no longer believing his mind is good enough and nothing seems to bring him joy, pleasure, or anything else for that matter; he ventures contemplating about power and potentially becoming God. Faust wants Telos revealed, and this can only occur if Mephistopheles is able to make him rest satisfied. To Faust, if he becomes God, he wins. And, all that is required is a singular moment of Mephistopheles “winning” the pact for Faust to actually win. In other words, this is a bet that Faust cannot lose.

As previously mentioned, Goethe sets up many dichotomies — reason versus animalistic desires, spirituality versus materialism, love versus lust — that are examined throughout the course of the text, usually following Faust’s sudden changes in mood or behaviour. For example, Faust must commit several sins against reason in order to seduce Gretchen and thus fulfill his desire to find love. In these choices that Faust must make, Mephistopheles usually represents the more animalistic side of Faust’s psyche, acting as a foil and tempter to the full range of human experience. Gretchen, in contrast, is the part of Faust that is pure and innocent, appealing to the more tender and loving side of Faust. Indeed, Faust is often torn between his lust for Gretchen and his love for her, causing these polarized forces to wrestle within his conscience for dominance. An example of the contrast in the two duos can be seen in the guidance of Mephistopheles, helping Faust trick and bribe Margaret, into thinking that he loves her and, of course, she comes to love him. This of course is all part of Mephistopheles plan to ensnare Faust and win the wager by presenting Faust with that moment which will cause him to “linger a while”.

Now, Faust, in a way, is trying to recreate Christianity. He has translated the opening passage of the Gospel of John and is presenting an ideology to the reader. The main takeaway throughout the play, and rather similar to Hegel, is that negation is going to bring hope. It is as if Faust has been resurrected from religion, which reflects one’s life and is a projection of human beings rather than something outside of human existence. Humans are creating the God, and in the case of the play, the created God seems to be Faust. He sees the hollowness of longing for religion. Again, mind, along with everything else, is no longer sufficient, but rather Faust is in need of more: power and the potentiality to truly be God. Faust continues on to learn that this experience of alienation is the engine towards negation. Furthermore, through negation, errors must be appropriated instead of brushed aside and forgotten. This action, in turn may leave one unmoored between a duality, much like Faust is. Another important lesson is the journey Faust is on where there is toleration of striving in different ways, as opposed to knowing the actual truth. Faust seems to want the unmediated add immediate contact with the real as illustrated by the usage of magic in contrast with words and mediation.

The role of the repeated ascent and descent in the play is that they are essentially the same. Faust’s journey down is really also his journey up. The negation that is occurring is removing, or bringing Faust down, but through the act and appropriation he is indeed also ascending. Similarly, the acts, as well as the setting seem to be fitting of this structure. Also, the numerous dualities between sense/formal drive, as well as characters, throughout the play go in hand with the opposing ascension and descent. Also, the continuous reference to the stage can be attributed to the prelude, in which another duality, between the poet and the clown, is being mediated by the manager. This seems to be a microcosm of the greater meanings and lessons littered throughout the play and thus is frequently referenced.

Gretchen is an idealized symbol representing purity and innocence, which is a stark contrast to the diabolical Faust. Consequently, her soul becomes corrupted due to her involvement with Faust, and she proceeds to commit a series of crimes. Her sacrifices of moral and religious conscience are wasted. She is now not only a traitor to her beliefs, her God, and herself, she is forsaken, ashamed, guilty, and alone. Unlike Faust, however, Gretchen did not choose to make a pact with the devil; she is merely an innocent pawn in a game of which she is singularly unaware. Despite her dreadful actions, traces of her former purity still remain. She knows that she did something wrong; she also knows that she must atone for her sins. Even in the derangement of her emotional and moral pain as she awaits the dawn of the executioner's day, Gretchen recognizes her own moral guilt and forgives Faust for his. The fundamental purity, or goodness, of Gretchen's character is confirmed by a chorus of angels who loudly proclaim her salvation during the last scene. Gretchen’s salvation is not necessarily intended as an example for others to follow. Her experience reveals the pitfalls that may arise when one is not striving for oneself but rather being led astray by an outside force. Likewise, her subplot is an important part of Faust’s story for if she is him, in the case of their duality, he kills himself in the dungeon and symbolically ridding of guilt and original sin. Furthermore an interesting dialectic arises as Margaret is saved for Faust to be able to leave the past and continue.