Essay Example on Faust: A German Legend

Mephistopheles is a devils agent who gave Faust advice to forsake his heavens promise and instead work on achieving his worldly goals. Faust makes a deal with the devil about selling his soul by the demon (Mephistopheles) warns him of the consequences. "How men torment themselves is what I see" was Mephistopheles remarks towards what was happening in Faust life. Faust worked so hard in order to discover various things about the gospel and later of the world. According to the gospel or the Bible, the devil sometimes comes into our lives through different ways passing us through hard times in order to lose trust and faith in God and become his follower. The consequences are even harder than what one was passing through before. Sometimes we individuals torture ourselves but trying too hard to understand things that cannot be solved or questions that have no answers.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Doctor Faust was the cause of his own suffering in one way or another. He tries to commit suicide by drinking poison when he tries to call a spirit to live with him because he wants to connect with the world as he thinks he has gathered all the knowledge that he can get from all books and he wants to explore more. Lack of being contented is personal so this suffering was personally caused.

During the Easter celebrations, a dog appeared to Doctor Faust while he was trying to interpret the book of John from the bible and later changed to be Mephistopheles. He promised to help him in acquiring the power which could help him connect with the world, spirits and the environment. He promises Faust to give him the powers and in return, he becomes his servant. The devil is the main cause of peoples suffering in this case as we see he made it possible for Dr. Faust and Gretchen to hook up. Later Gretchen gets presents which are evil and hides it from her mother. She then gets pregnant out of wedlock which leads to the death of his brother who was stubbed by Faust while confronting him. We see again that the devil sends an evil spirit that takes over her and consoles her.

After Gretchen got pregnant she felt very guilty after overhearing some passersby's talking about a woman who aborted her kid and was currently a beggar in the streets and she runs to the church to ask God to have pity, mercy and forgive her. Gretchen eventually kills their newborn child and she gets arrested but now she had become mentally challenged or psychotic. Faust starts blaming Mephistopheles to making his life unhappy even after promising to help him. Gretchen is filled with guilt and Dr. Faust leaves her for Gods judgment because biblically it's only God who should judge.

Conclusion

Everyone is guilty if it's true and proven that he or she committed a certain crime or sin. Someone can drag you along in their problems but you will be both guilty by participation. The fault was guilty of murdering Gretchen's brother and making her pregnant before wedlock as well as Gretchen who was guilty of killing the little child. The devil pulled Faust in all this mess while promising him power but everyone has to be judged accordingly. You can be suffering because of somebody else but still, be guilty because of your actions in various situations. Only God can judge for our sins but also there is the authority and the constitutions that run the world so one can be held captive due to their actions but with proven evidence.

References

Brown, J. K. (1986). Goethe's Faust: The German Tragedy. Cornell University Press.

Lifton, R. J. (1997). Doubling: the Faustian bargain. The web of violence: From interpersonal to global, 29-44.