The poetic drama "Faust" is Goethe's most important masterpiece, with a total poem length of 12,111 lines. From the conception in 1770 to the completion of the draft in 1831, the creation took 60 years. The work is based on the social reality of Germany and Europe from the 18th to the early 19th century. Through the life of the protagonist's hard pursuit, it summarizes the entire process of advanced intellectuals during the rise of the bourgeoisie who were dissatisfied with reality and worked hard to explore the meaning of life and an ideal society.
The prototype of the protagonist, Faust, is a semi-mythical and semi-real figure in European medieval legends. He seems to be a magician. Legend has it that he made a contract with the devil to sell his soul for 34 years, enjoy himself during his lifetime, and go to hell after his death. At the end of the 18th century, there were more than 20 writers in Germany using this theme.
"Heavenly Prologue" is the beginning of the plot. With the universe as the background, a debate unfolded between the Emperor of Heaven and the Devil Mephistopheles about whether and how people can realize their ideals in life: the Devil denies people and the world, but the Emperor of Heaven believes in the spiritual power of people. You will never lose your way.” In this broad background, Faust bets and makes a pact with the devil, on the condition that the devil serves Faust in this life, and Faust's soul will belong to the devil after his death. This bet provides the conditions for Faust to go to heaven and earth. , is also a powerful test of his spiritual strength. The poetic drama runs through Faust's spiritual exploration and is roughly divided into five stages:
The first stage is the tragedy of knowledge, which mainly describes Faust's escape from the medieval spirit in "returning to nature" yoke and gain new life. Faust was originally a "doctor" and "mentor" who was "well-read" in the Middle Ages, but he felt that his knowledge was not helpful in saving the world and benefiting the people, and his study life was like going to jail. So he decided to "start a new life with a pure spirit." He made a bet with the devil Mephistopheles: Try to satisfy his desires as long as he says "You are so beautiful, please stay a moment!" He will die. Mephistopheles uses the witch's medicine to restore Faust's youth and complete his resurrection from spirit to body. The new-born Faust got rid of the shackles of medieval scholasticism and became a new bourgeois humanist. With a strong desire to enter the world, he wanted to create a "truly beautiful" world for mankind.
The second stage is the tragedy of love, describing Faust's love life and his exploration of life and ideals. The love between Faust and Margaret is a tragedy, and the essence of the tragic conflict is the contradiction between the emerging bourgeoisie's demands for individual freedom and the feudal forces. At this stage, Faust experienced the contradiction between greedy desire and restrained desire, and broke away from the quagmire of egoism.
The third stage is a political tragedy, describing the devil Mephistopheles tempting Faust to serve the feudal court, but Faust's efforts cannot save the destruction of the feudal dynasty. The failure of political life shows that high office, high salary, glory and wealth are not the beauty he pursues.
The fourth stage is the tragedy of beauty. Faust married Helen, the embodiment of "beauty", but the marriage ended in failure. It shows that classical art with only form and no soul is not beautiful. Faust's pursuit and combination of "beauty" implies that the author's ideal of exploring social reform is doomed to be fruitless because it is completely divorced from reality.
The fifth stage is the tragedy of the career, describing the realization of Faust's ideal. Faust spent his life exploring, and finally discovered that the beauty is to work creatively with the people, transform nature, and create a free land. He was satisfied with the seaside kingdom he worked hard to create and believed that his ideals had been realized. Then he shouted: "You are so beautiful, please stay a moment!" According to the oath, Faust fell to the ground and died. However, his soul was not owned by the devil but was taken up to heaven by angels.
The five processes of Faust’s exploration summarize the path of spiritual exploration of European and German bourgeois intellectuals from the Renaissance to the early 19th century. Faust’s process of self-improvement in exploring truth and pursuing beauty, It is the enlightenment process of breaking away from the ignorance of the Middle Ages, overcoming internal and external contradictions, and creating the ideal kingdom of the bourgeoisie. It embodies the ideology of the rising bourgeoisie. Faust embodies a spirit that affirms the positive meaning of life and devotes himself to practice with action; a negative spirit that dares to deny all ugly things and wrong ideas; and a fighting spirit of constant self-improvement in the pursuit of an ideal life.
"Faust" is a poetic drama, which can be read as a history of European thought, but it is not a philosophy textbook, but first and foremost a "drama". Goethe said, "It is not an idea, but a process of action and plot." Goethe is a great poet, and "Faust" is a treasure trove of his poetry, which includes "all poetry styles in Europe" (Feng Zhiyu), but the "poetry" in the play by no means exists in isolation. The dialogues and monologues of the characters are all lines of poetry. "Faust" uses contradictions and contrasts to create characters, with a strong lyrical color and pungent irony. The work uses the majestic and magnificent scenes of nature as the background to show the activities and development of the characters. The artistic expression methods of poetry are rich and varied, the poetry style and rhyme chosen are perfectly matched with the content of the expression, and the language is colorful, philosophy and passion. It can be called a masterpiece of the combination of realism and romanticism.