/ / / Analysis of the finale of Goethe's tragedy "Faust"
The great work of Johann Wolfgang Goethe "Faust" is recognized as a masterpiece of world literature. Work on the tragedy was carried out by the author for almost 40 years. Therefore, "Faust" is not just a work, but a storehouse of Goethe's worldly wisdom.
The main character of the poem is Faust, a scientist who knows a lot about many sciences. However, in his self-deprecating monologue, he calls himself a "fool", because he never knew the secrets of life. Criticizing himself, the hero nevertheless admits that he is much smarter than most other scientists.
Goethe's hero has a real prototype. It was the medieval doctor, scientist and sorcerer Faust. There is a version that Faust is not a surname, but a scientific nickname. Many legends and works of art have been created about the real magician doctor. For example, the Great Rembrandt created the engraving "Faust summons the spirit."
The plot of the poem is in "", where a deal is made, the object of which was the unusual scientist Faust.
At the end of the poem, the hero goes blind. Therefore, he sees the heyday of the city for happy people only with his mind's eye.
Since making a deal with mystical forces, Faust has known many pleasures, even entered into a legal marriage with the most beautiful ancient woman, Elena the Beautiful. But I never felt a truly happy moment. An epiphany comes to him unexpectedly, when he suddenly realizes that the problem was in his egoism. Faust decides to build a city for people to live happily there. But by that time the hero is already old and almost completely blind. deceives his ward and only creates an appearance, which helps to create a dream city. In fact, terrible mythical creatures of lemurs are already circling near Faust. Mephistopheles looks forward to his victory in the dispute. He thinks that Faust's soul will soon be his. However, when that “beautiful moment” comes, the soul of the protagonist flies to heaven, the angels take it away, saying that the soul is saved.
Why did it happen that a person wins in the final, and not mystical forces? The answer must be sought in the great faith of the author in humanity. Goethe believed that a searching man, a free spirit deserves forgiveness.
In heaven, the hero meets his true beloved - who was also forgiven in the first part of the poem. Such a relatively happy ending is an ode to the human nature of Faust and Marguerite.
The author subjects his hero to great trials, various temptations, leads him through hell, purgatory and paradise, believing that only a tested soul is able to realize all the secrets of life. Goethe affirms the greatness of a person who seeks, free in spirit and open in heart to new things in life.
At the end of the poem, he understands why it is worth living. Helping others, not just yourself, is what matters. And so he is finally truly happy.
... Not like everyone else; he serves differently;He does not want to eat or drink in an earthly way;
Like crazy, he is mentally weak,
What he himself feels in the midst of doubts;
Always immersed in my dreams
Then from the sky he wishes the best stars,
Then on earth - all the highest pleasures,
And there is nothing in it - neither close nor far -
Can't quench the gnawing sadness.
Goethe "Faust"
The turbulent Age of Enlightenment gave birth to its rebel heroes who challenged ignorance, passivity, medieval barbarism and prejudice. Progressive writers and the images they created became such heroes. They fought for the freedom and independence of the human person, unleashing their justified anger on the old order. Among these writers was the German poet J. W. Goethe. He sincerely and firmly believed in the triumph of reason on earth and put this belief into the image of the hero of his greatest work - the tragedy "Faust".
The legend of Faust attracted Goethe's attention from an early age. It reflected faith in man, in the strength and greatness of his thought. The poet was close to the image of a person who overcomes any difficulties and temptations and confidently moving forward to achieve his lofty goal. Faust was a type of thinker, striving at all costs to comprehend the secrets of nature and life. All these features were taken by the writer as a basis for creating the image of his hero.
The character of Faust is very complex and contradictory, his soul is tormented all the time by doubts, inspiration is replaced in his heart by sadness and dissatisfaction. Even peering into the atmosphere of his office, which he himself compares with a "deaf stone hole", we see a reflection of that close, stuffy circle from which the hero seeks to break out "to freedom, into the wide world." He wants to know the truth, to study the laws of nature, but instead he is forced to be surrounded by "decay and rubbish." The sciences of that time were dead, they did not give answers to the questions that agitated the inquisitive mind of Faust. He does not find a solution to his problems in magic either.
Faust is aware that the path to the knowledge of truth will not be easy, but nevertheless sets out on this path, driven by a thirst for knowledge.
We see how full of life, joy, and vivid perception of nature the scene of the appearance of the hero at the spring festival is filled with. He feels the resurrection of the people themselves, who strive to escape "from the stuffy city into the field, into the light." Such moods and atmosphere are very close to the state of mind of Faust himself. After all, he wants not only to know the world, but also to convey a ray of knowledge to other people. This is the reason for his desire to translate into his native language the Gospel - one of the most popular and important books. But here he is seized by doubts. “In the beginning was the Word, and the word was God,” says the great book. But the hero objects: "I cannot value the word so highly." He confidently replaces the text: "Act is the beginning of being." And this phrase contains the main meaning of his image. Goethe affirms the idea of continuous movement forward, constant action, creative work. Since only in this case a person can know himself and the world around him. Faust, according to N. G. Chernyshevsky, "... needs a deeper truth, a fuller life, that's why he must enter into an alliance with Mephistopheles, that is, negation." It is in a collision with Mephistopheles, in a dispute with him, in an attempt to prove him wrong, that the character of the hero develops. He understands that he cannot stand still, will not find peace and will not want to stop the moment. Faust, seized with a thirst for search and knowledge, will forever strive forward.
What will you give, miserable demon, what pleasures?
The human spirit and proud aspirations
Like you, is it possible to understand?
The hero answers his tempter, who wants to drown his aspirations in a whirlpool of base pleasures. Faust takes an oath never to succumb to the temptation of peace and contentment:
When on the bed of sleep, in contentment and peace,
I'll fall, then my time has come!
When you flatter me falsely
And I'll be happy with myself
With sensual delight when you deceive me,
Then - the end!
Yes, the way of Faust is difficult, he is constantly seized by new illusions, which then collapse; he is haunted by failure and disappointment. But, having gone through all the trials, having resisted all the temptations, the hero does not lose faith in a bright future, in the power of the human mind, in the strength of the human spirit. He understands that high aspirations and dreams are not enough to achieve progress. You have to fight for the golden age, because
Only he is worthy of life and freedom,
Who goes to battle for them every day.
People should believe in themselves and rely only on their own strength, on their "free labor" - such is the conclusion of Faust.
The image created by Goethe entered the world culture as one of the "eternal images". With his work, the author hoped to awaken in people the desire for excellence, to help form a generation full of courage, dignity, fortitude and a thirst for activity. Until the end of his days, he did not lose faith in man, in his high destiny.
Analysis of Goethe's work "Faust" allows us to conclude that it is the most ambitious, great and incomprehensible work in all world literature. The heroes of the work are so diverse, and the time frame is blurred and limitless, that the genre, composition and theme of the work are still the subject of controversy in the world of literary criticism. "Faust" analysis can be useful for students of grade 9 to prepare for literature lessons, test and creative work.
Brief analysis
Year of writing- about 1773 -1831.
History of creation- The work was written over 60 years. Starting at the age of 20, the author finished it a year and a half before his death. The idea of the tragedy was influenced by the Sturm und Drang society (opposing feudalism in Germany), in which the author was a member.
Subject is the meaning of human existence.
Composition- form - a drama for reading, part 1 - 25 scenes, part 2 - 5 actions. The first part has fairly clear compositional elements.
Genre- philosophical tragedy, dramatic poem, play.
Direction- romanticism.
History of creation
"Faust" is the fruit of the writer's work, which lasted almost his entire life. Naturally, the work "grew" along with its author, it absorbed the system of views of European society for half a century. The story of the German warlock Faust, who really existed in the 16th century in Germany, was taken as the basis of their works by many writers, poets, composers, and artists.
However, Johann Goethe made this image as alive, feeling, thinking as possible, defined him as a person striving for the truth. The legends about Dr. Faust are rather gloomy, he is accused of apostasy, practicing magic and sorcery, resurrecting people, and having an inappropriate lifestyle. According to legend, he performed tricks, healed the sick, and was a wanderer. Before Goethe, no one focused on the fact that the great scientist is looking for answers to eternal questions, that he is great in his thirst for truth, he is faithful to the cause he has chosen.
The beginning of the writer's work on "Faust" fell on his twenty years of age. Then the future scientist and great writer did not know that he would create this work all his life, that it would become a great immortal masterpiece of all times and peoples. From 1773 to 1775, work on numerous scenes of the tragedy proceeded most favorably.
In 1790, the friendship of Goethe and Schiller led to the fact that the latter persuaded the poet to continue working on Faust and certainly complete this masterpiece. Between 1825-31, already at an advanced age, Goethe completed his life's work. He did not want to print it during his lifetime, the will indicated the desire to publish Faust after the death of the writer. In 1832, the entire work was published.
Subject
The meaning of human life, the structure of the world, love, power, money, unlimited desires and their consequences - this is only a part of topics that are touched upon by the author of Faust. Highlight main idea in such a large-scale work is quite difficult. The tragedy of Goethe teaches that absolute knowledge is not always good, a person is too weak a being to, having passed the devilish trials, keep his soul unharmed and pure.
Above idea"Faust" disputes of literary critics and critics still do not subside. The thirst for knowledge of the world, emotional, physical, intellectual, inevitably leads to the death of the soul, because going on about one's desires is a deliberate failure. Goethe filled the work with a serious philosophical issues, while the plot is based on a folk legend. If we add to this ideas enlightenment and criticism of the Middle Ages - you get an absolutely unique creation - such was the tragedy "Faust".
Composition
"Faust" in its form can be attributed to the drama for reading, not all of its scenes are suitable for staging in the theater. The work has a transparent composition: initiation, prologue on earth (in the theater), prologue in heaven, the plot of the action, the development of events, the climax and the denouement. The second part of "Faust" is very abstract, it is difficult to single out obvious structural compositional elements in it.
The main feature of the composition of "Faust" is its multi-layered, focus on reading with a visual representation of what is happening "on the stage". The first part consists of 25 scenes, the second - 5 acts. Despite the complexity of the play, it is quite holistic in terms of meaning and art.
Genre
The author himself defined the genre of the work as a tragedy. Literary critics tend to consider Goethe's masterpiece a dramatic poem, because it is full of lyricism and deeply poetic. Considering that many scenes from Faust can be staged in a theater, the work can also be called a play. It should be noted that the work has a fairly clear epic beginning, so it is rather difficult to dwell on a particular genre.
Faust is a tragedy written by Johann Wolfgang Goethe.
"Faust" analysis
Genre- a philosophical tragedy, therefore the main thing in it is not the external course of events, but the development of Goethe's thought. By the scale of the image of reality, the depth of images and the power of lyricism, the work can be called a poem.
The plot of the tragedy - the first part is an eternal love story, the second - the story of eternity. The first part depicts the "microworld" of a person, his individual, personal life, the second part, the "macroworld", reflects the socio-political life of mankind.
Issues- life and death, good and evil, the essence of being, the purpose of man in the world, man and nature, man and the universe, knowledge of the world, love, art and its role in society
Subject- the search for a person the meaning of life and his purpose.
The protagonist of the philosophical tragedy in verse - Dr. Faust - embodies the social dreams of his time about a comprehensive knowledge of the world. The change of the medieval cultural formation to a new one, the revivalist one and the Enlightenment one that followed it, is best revealed in the artistic image of a person who is ready to give his soul for true knowledge. The real warlock Faust, who lived in Europe at the end of the 15th century, became the prototype of the literary character. Goethe's Faust combined the features of all the literary Fausts that preceded him: Faust the God-fighter K. Marlo, Faust the Protestant scientist Lessing, Faust the genius Klinger. At the same time, the German classic Faust turned out to be more lively and passionate than his predecessors. Goethe's Faust is, first of all, a poet: a man endowed with an unquenchable thirst for life, a desire to know the universe around him, the nature of things and his own feelings.
The protagonist of the tragedy is alien to the petty-bourgeois conventions of his time. He cannot, like Wagner, learn the secrets of being from books. He needs the free expanse of forests and fields, the magical dances of fairies and witches' covens of the late German Middle Ages, the bodily sensuality of antiquity, embodied in the most beautiful woman who ever lived on earth, and the effective force of the New Age, capable of subordinating nature. Given by God to be torn to pieces by Mephistopheles, Faust is only partially likened to the biblical Job, who went through a chain of difficult life trials and tribulations. The hero of Goethe, if he loses anything in the tragedy, then only himself - his best feelings (love for Margarita-Gretchen), his sincere intentions (to prevent water from spilling on fertile lands). He is fascinated by the vital energy of Mephistopheles and his own dreams of beauty.
Like the classical heroes of romanticism, Faust is not able to perceive happiness in its earthly incarnation. Carried away by magical dances, he loses his beloved and daughter. Happiness with Elena is more to his liking, but even here the hero will be disappointed: the legendary heroine is just a myth, a shadow of the past. Coming out of Hades, she again descends into him after her dead son, leaving Faust to his era. At the same time, the hero of Goethe, with all the satanic temptations, does not lose his "good spiritual thoughts." Making mistakes and sinning, he is not afraid to admit and try to correct his mistakes, he does not stop in his life search and thus is pleasing to the Almighty, who declared at the beginning of the tragedy: “He who seeks is forced to wander.” And Faust is saved precisely because his life “was spent in aspirations”, which allowed him to get closer to the truth, to strengthen himself spiritually, to understand that the main thing is an action that brings good and freedom to people.
The famous tragedy of Goethe is a unique work that raises to the surface of the reader's perception not only eternal philosophical questions, but also a number of social and scientific problems of its time. In Faust, Goethe criticizes a narrow-minded society that lives on greed and sensual pleasure. The author, in the person of Mephistopheles, heartily mocks the German system of higher education, built on methodical attendance at classes and drawing up notes that no one needs. Scientific problems were reflected in the philosophical dispute between Anaxagoras and Thales, who defend different points of view of the origin of the world - volcanic and water.
The tragedy "Faust" was written for a very long time and unevenly - for fifty-seven years. The full text of Faust is divided into two large parts. The first includes the love story of Faust, who magically regained his youth, and the young girl Marguerite. This story is traced from their first meeting to the death of Margarita. Two prologues open the tragedy: "Prologue in the theater" and "Prologue in heaven." The prologue in the theater connects the work with modernity and is devoted to a discussion of what should be staged in the theater in order to satisfy the tastes of the public. The second prologue, conveying the conversation of the Lord with Mephistopheles, refers the reader to the Bible, thereby indicating the enduring significance of the play's problems.
The text of the first part is divided into twenty-five scenes. Events begin with the monologues of Faust, an old scientist, about his deep doubts about the usefulness and truth of his knowledge, about disappointment in a fruitless science. These reflections turn into a determination to change their lives and indulge in secret magical pursuits, which leads to the appearance in the life of Faust of the demon Mephistopheles, carrying with him the temptation with the promises of youth and the fulfillment of all desires. To understand the author's thoughts about the nature of Mephistopheles, the following dialogue between Faust and him is important:
Faust
"So who are you?"
Mephistopheles
- I am a particle of strength,
Desiring evil forever, doing only good.
Mephistopheles' answer should not be seen as a simple desire of the devil to deceive a person. With these words, Goethe conveys his philosophical understanding of the impossibility of the triumph of evil in the world - it is always transformed into good. Goethe wants to say that evil is temporary, it is constantly denied by God's will, which creates good. It is this thought that explains the salvation of the criminal Margarita at the end of scene 25. This moral law of life was shared by Pushkin, Lermontov and other prominent writers and thinkers. In the XX century M.A. Bulgakov used this dialogue as an epigraph to The Master and Margarita.
The second part of "Faust" was created in the XIX century (1806-1831). Unlike the first part, which was based on a love story, in the second part Goethe transfers the plot of the tragedy to conditional situations generated by ancient mythology and history. Antiquity, the cradle of modern humanity, is intertwined in Goethe with Christian beliefs and symbols, images and ideals. The second part consists of five acts in which Faust ascends to the insight of the truth about the purpose of human life.
At the culmination of the fifth act, Faust proclaims the highest meaning of human life in labor and service for the benefit of people. Here is how he talks about the great work of draining the swamp and creating a flowering land:
I am committed to this idea! Life years
Gone in vain; clear before me
The final conclusion of earthly wisdom:
All my life in the struggle of a harsh, continuous
Let the child, and the husband, and the elder lead,
So that I can see in the brilliance of wondrous power
Free land, my free people!
It was in this monologue that the words that became textbooks sounded:
Only he is worthy of life and freedom,
Who every day goes to fight for them!
Before the finale of the tragedy, Goethe leads Faust to a bold statement of the "supreme moment" he has achieved as a "beautiful moment" - it lies in the creativity of man, his work, which bears fruit for subsequent generations. Faust begins to understand the purpose of a person in life - he must bring good to people. Having overcome pride and selfishness, Faust is not afraid of defeat in a dispute with Mephistopheles, because he knows that now he is invincible:
Then I would say: a moment,
You're great, hold on!
And the flow of centuries would not be bold
The trace I left!
In anticipation of that wondrous moment
I now taste my highest moment.
It would seem that Faust violated the contract, Mephistopheles triumphs:
Poor, empty, miserable moment!
But time is king; the last moment has come
The old man who fought so long has fallen,
The clock is up!
Mephistopheles considered that he defeated Faust, taking his life, but the devil was not in control of the soul of a person if he makes a high choice in favor of people's happiness. Mephistopheles owns only the body of Faust, the angels descended from heaven carry away the immortal soul of Faust. The result of the tragedy is that man overcame temptation and evil was defeated.
