Faust: Der Tragödie Zweiter Teil
1808
Faust: Der Tragödie Zweiter Teil
1808
Faust Part Two picks up where its predecessor left off: an aging Faust, sated but not satisfied by the sensual indulgences of the first pact, now hungers for something more enduring than personal pleasure. He enters into a new agreement with Mephistopheles, this time demanding to be actively engaged with the world through grand projects, political power, and aesthetic achievement rather than passive consumption. The action unfolds in a sprawling, dreamlike narrative that moves from imperial courts to classical antiquity, from mythological episodes to allegorical pageants. Faust becomes entangled in a doomed political crisis, falls in love with the spirit of Helen of Troy, fathers a child who flies too close to the sun, and ultimately dedicates himself to reclaiming land from the sea as a monument to human will. The play builds toward a profound theological paradox: the devil loses his bet. In a conclusion that shocked readers and defied genre expectations, Goethe grants his protagonist not damnation but redemption, arguing that the perpetual striving of a noble soul, even without earthly success, merits divine grace.
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“All hope abandon, ye who enter here.””
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“The more a thing is perfect, the more it feels pleasure and pain.””
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“L'amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle.””
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“The devil is not as black as he is painted.””
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Through me you pass into the city of woe:Through me you pass into eternal pain:Through me among the people lost for aye.Justice the founder of my fabric moved:To rear me was the task of power divine,Supremest wisdom, and primeval love.Before me things create were none, save thingsEternal, and eternal I shall endure.All hope abandon, ye who enter here.””
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Consider your origin. You were not formed to live like brutes but to follow virtue and knowledge.””
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“O human race, born to fly upward, wherefore at a little wind dost thou so fall?””
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Into the eternal darkness, into fire and into ice. ””
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“The man who lies asleep will never waken fame, and his desire and all his life drift past him like a dream, and the traces of his memory fade from time like smoke in air, or ripples on a stream.””
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
