Faust is a tragedy in two parts by Johann Wolfgang Goethe. Faust was conceived in the early 1770s. Goethe worked on it all his life. Not in a hurry with publication, he changed what was written, put it aside, interrupting work for decades, and returned to this plot again. It took about 60 years for the tragedy to be completed and published in 1831, less than a year before the death of the author. The premiere of the first part of "Faust" took place on January 19, 1829, in Braunschweig, the second - April 4, 1854 in the theater of Hamburg.
The first version of Faust, the so-called Prafaust, which remained unfinished, was created in 1773-1775. and published only more than a hundred years later, in 1886, by the German philologist Erich Schmidt, who discovered his manuscript in the archives. In 1788, while in Italy, Goethe again turned to his Faust, making some adjustments to the text. In 1790, an unfinished sketch appeared in print under the title “Faust. Fragments. The next stage of work is 1797-1801. It was then that a number of scenes that were fundamentally important for the basic concept of the great tragedy were written. In 1808, the first part of Faust appeared in print. Goethe worked on the second part in 1825-1831 (it was already published in the posthumously published collected works of the poet in 1833).
Faust is a real-life face of the Reformation. There are many testimonies relating to the first half of the 16th century (sometimes contradictory) about the warlock and magician Dr. Faust, his connection with evil spirits, his life and death. At the same time, a number of studies see the prototype of the Faustian collision in the early Christian novel about Pope Clement, a work well known among medieval scribes. (It tells the story of how Simon the Magus, "the father of all heresies", proving his strength in a dispute with the Apostle Peter, changes the appearance of the noble Roman Faust, the father of the righteous Clement and the unfaithful Faustin, giving his face the features of his appearance. However, witchcraft By the will of God, the heresiarch is turned against satanic plans. In the legends about Simon the Magician, Elena the Beautiful is also mentioned.) In 1587, the legend of Faust, spread both orally and in writing, acquired a literary form: a book by an unnamed author published by Johann Spies was published. Its plot and moral are already stated in the title: "The story of Dr. Johann Faust, famous sorcerer and the warlock, how he signed an agreement with the devil for a certain period of time, what miracles he observed at that time, he himself committed and worked, until, finally, his well-deserved reward befell him. Faust in folk book interpreted as a rebel seeking to go beyond scholastic knowledge, an atheist capable of challenging the devil himself. But thirsty for pleasure and glory, he is punished for his exorbitant pride, for his lack of piety and inability to resist temptation. The story of Faust in the legend and folk book is the story of the fall and death of the human soul.
The first person to put the story of Faust into a drama was Shakespeare's contemporary Christopher Marlowe, attracted by the Renaissance scale of the personality of the hero of the legend. Faust from the tragedy of Marlowe migrated to English pantomime and plays for the puppet theater. Itinerant English comedians returned Faust to their homeland: in the middle of the XVIII century. in Germany, many dramatic variations of the story of Faust appeared, which were also intended for puppet shows and were frankly buffoonish and entertaining. (Goethe saw one of these performances as a child.) Love for German antiquity and folk art, passion for Hans Sachs, the famous author of farces of the 17th century, as well as the extraordinary popularity of the image of Faust among German enlighteners (G.E. Lessing's appeal to this legend is typical) nourished Goethe's interest in this plot. “The meaningful puppet comedy about Faust sounded and echoed in me in many ways,” the poet testified much later in Poetry and Truth.
The first version of Goethe's "Faust" - "Prafaust" - is a kind of sketch for the future grandiose picture. In "Prafaust" there is still neither a philosophical dispute between God and the devil about man, nor an agreement between Faust and Mephistopheles, there are no scenes that determine the structure of the tragedy in its final version. But as in all Goethe's works of the first half of the 1770s, the rebellious spirit of Sturm und Drang (the German literary movement of the 1770s-1780s) lives in this sketch. Faust here is not a sage and a philosopher, turned by Mephistopheles into a young man, but from the very beginning - a young man, hot and passionate, a strong personality, a "stormy genius", marked by the features of his creator, preferring sensory perception of the fullness of life to rational knowledge, bravely rushing into the world. As a way to comprehend life, he was given love. The story of Gretchen (not present in the legend) is developed in Prafaust in almost the same detail as in the later Faust, and practically exhausts the plot of this version of the play.
"Prafaust" is a special phenomenon of that period of German history, when the formation of national literature took place. Chopped jerky phrase (most of the scenes are written in prose), rough prosaism of verse in the spirit of Hans Sachs, speech pressure (a surprising number of exclamation marks) and a special fragmentation, sketchiness make up the stylistic features of this tragedy. In the Fragment, the first printed edition of Faust, the prosaisms of Prafaust were removed, some episodes were added, and the scene "Auerbach's Cellar in Leipzig" was rewritten in verse. Both "Prafaust" and "Fragment" are only approaches to a large-scale philosophical tragedy, which was its final poetic version.
The three-stage introduction - three - of the prologue opens the canonical version of Faust. "Dedication" is a lyrical evidence of the significance for the poet of the plot that never let him go. The Theatrical Introduction expresses Goethe's concept of "the whole world is a theatre". And finally - "Prologue in the sky", stating the philosophical theme of the two-part play: what is a man? harmonious creation of God, endowed with that fortitude that will help him, even the fallen one, to rise from any abyss? or a base creature, subject to any temptations, unable to resist the devil, his plaything? The dispute in the Prologue in Heaven between the Lord and the spirit of evil, Mephistopheles, about Faust is an exposition of the dispute that Mephistopheles, having descended to earth, starts with Faust himself.
Faust enters the tragedy as a wise old man, disappointed in modern science tired of life and ready to commit suicide. Dialogue with the scientist Wagner, this embodiment of scholastic knowledge, a walk "outside the city gates" in the crowd of people reminds the sage of dead knowledge that does not go beyond the scientist's office. Undertaking the translation into German Gospel of John, after much thought, he changes the first phrase of the classical text. “In the beginning was the Word” stands in the Gospel. “In the beginning was the Deed,” writes Faust, expressing his conviction in the necessity of practical action. Faust's dissatisfaction with the limits placed on human knowledge provokes the appearance of Mephistopheles.
Faust's agreement with the devil also existed in an old legend, where he himself demanded that Mephistopheles fulfill all his desires and for this he pledged to sell his soul to the devil in 24 years. In Goethe, Mephistopheles offers a similar deal, promising the hero a second youth and all conceivable pleasures. The terms of the contract are not 24 years, but - arbitrarily - the moment when Faust decides that he has comprehended the truth that there is nothing more beautiful in the world than the moment he is experiencing. Knowing the true price of earthly pleasures, the sage easily makes a deal: nothing can force him, convinced of the infinity of knowledge, to glorify a single moment of being. Goethe has a deal with the devil for the philosopher Faust - the opportunity to go through the circle of life anew, to finally understand its eternally elusive meaning.
If in the legend Mephistopheles was a demon traditional for medieval mysteries and legends (in a number of legends he is called the spirit of the Earth), existing only to seduce a person from the true path and plunge into the abyss of sin, then Goethe's figure of Mephistopheles is immeasurably more complicated. The devil is given to man as a companion, so that he, instigated by the demon, never rests on his laurels (thus, in the tragedy the question was raised, if not about the apology of evil, then at least about its origin and place in the Divine plan). Mocking everything in the world, a cynical commentator on life, Mephistopheles is, in fact, the other side of the abyss called "Man". The one that makes you question any truth and go further in your search. The famous self-characterization of Mephistopheles, not devoid of some cunning and sly ambiguity (“I am part of the power that does good without number, wishing evil to everything”) is an expression of the dialectical relationship of the polar principles in the world: good and evil, affirmation and negation, Faust and Mephistopheles. A complex relationship that allowed Goethe to notice that "not only the gloomy, unsatisfied aspirations of the protagonist, but also the mockery and caustic irony of Mephistopheles" are hypostases of his own soul, the soul of Proteus.
The totality of individual episodes that make up the multi-figured composition of both parts of Faust are the stages on the hero's path to truth. The first test is love. The story of Faust and Marguerite occupies almost the entire first part of the tragedy. Guided by Mephistopheles, who restored his youth, Faust finds himself in the role of another legendary hero- Don Giovanni, doomed in the same way as Faust - only in a different form - to the eternal striving for the ideal. And, like Don Juan, Faust runs away from love, and, like Don Juan, love for a woman cannot give him peace, make him stop the moment. The embodiment of the simplicity and naturalness of the natural principle, Gretchen, leading Faust to the origins of folk life, at the same time - the flesh of the flesh of her patriarchal philistine environment. Union with her would mean for Faust a stop on the way, immersion in a small burgher world, the end of knowledge. Margarita becomes a victim of petty-bourgeois prejudices, and, without denying the hero's guilt in her tragic fate, Goethe eventually justifies Faust: to the Mephistopheles exclamation “Condemned to torment”, a voice from above answers: “Saved!”
The second part of the tragedy, monumental, consisting of five acts, is a construction of extreme complexity. Scenes of everyday life are freely connected here with scenes in which the fantastic visions of Goethe are embodied, full of symbolism: historical eras freely succeed each other. In the syllable one hears either the sonorous pace of Alexandrian verse, or the chopped speech of the German Middle Ages, or ancient choirs, or lyrical song. The tragedy is full of political allusions that require special commentary. And all this creates that poetic form into which only the philosophical and aesthetic quests of the late Goethe could be cast.
If the first part of "Faust" is saturated with pictures of everyday life, permeated with the currents of earthly life, then the second part has the character of a grandiose allegory. Faust's wanderings through worlds and spaces - the history of everything human development, as Goethe saw it at the turn of two eras: the era of feudalism, the end of which was put by the Great French Revolution, and the beginning of the era of capitalism.
In the second part, Faust, wise with new experience, tormented by reproaches of conscience, feeling his weak-willed guilt before Margarita, realizes the limits of human capabilities. But the earth, nature return to him vital forces (a reflection of Goethe's pantheism), and with them "the desire to stretch into the distance with a relentless dream in the pursuit of a higher existence." Following the test of love, Mephistopheles leads Faust through the temptations of power, beauty, fame.
The scenes at the court of the emperor, where Faust receives the post of adviser to an insignificant ruler, are pictures of medieval Germany, of the entire feudal system, coming to its own. historical end before the eyes of the poet, in the second half of the 18th century. The episodes with Elena the Beautiful bring Goethe's thought back to the childhood of mankind, to antiquity, whose culture has always been of great importance to the author. The emperor's court is engulfed in the chaos of decay, the union of Faust and Helen is an attempt to save this world with beauty, a reflection of the poet's reflections on the beneficial influence of ancient culture, symbolized by Elena the Beautiful, on the European one. Euphorion, the son of Faust and Helen, is depicted in the tragedy as a symbol of the union of the "ancient and the new". But there is no escape in the flight to the ancient ideal. The child born by Elena is doomed: Euphorion rushes up, towards the sun, and dies like Icarus (it is known that the image of Euphorion is a tribute to the memory of Byron, who died in 1824 and, unlike other romantics, evoked the keenest interest and deep respect for Goethe) .
The historiosophical concept presented in Goethe's Faust is that each socio-economic formation replaces the previous one through its negation. The episode connected with Philemon and Baucis, the mythological married couple, is full of deep meaning. Unlike Greek myth, according to which the gods saved only the hut of Philemon and Baucis from fire in the whole village, rewarding them for their piety, Goethe had to demolish the house of the old people in the interests of new construction. Sympathy for a touching couple is combined in the poet with perceived need denial of their sweet patriarchal way of life, which slows down the pace of civilization. And Mephistopheles, acting as a destroyer, performs here (not for the first time) the role of a creator, creating tomorrow. The flame, in which the rural idyll disappears, clears the way for a bright future (it is characteristic that the image of Faust the city planner, according to contemporaries, arose in Goethe under the influence of news of the stormy activities of Peter I and Prince Potemkin).
An artist entirely shaped by the 18th century, Goethe, who was destined to live another third of the 19th century, managed to reflect in Faust the emergence at the turn of the century of new social relations, based more than in all previous times on the power of money. The inevitable technological progress brings with it a new evil - a reason for the triumph of Mephistopheles, who anticipates the death of everything human in man. But the triumph of Mephistopheles is an alternative to Faust’s decision to devote himself to serving humanity, building his happy future, although the hero’s dream of draining vast spaces hidden under the waves of the sea is frankly utopian: on the new earth, people will be able to start a new, free from any violence, life worthy of a person. The grandiose utopia built by Faust in dreams and deeds is a reflection of Goethe's acquaintance with the theories of the French utopian socialists XVI II century.
In service to humanity, in practical work, Faust finally finds himself and the highest meaning of existence. The embodiment of the eternal movement forward, he is ready to stop the moment when he hears the sound of shovels, indicating for him the beginning of work to drain the swamp. Faust's famous dying monologue is imbued with the idea of collective daily work and eternal battle - "only he who has known the fight for life deserves life and freedom." However, having found the ultimate goal, Faust immediately becomes the prey of the devil. Stop is the same as death. There is a deep philosophical meaning in the fact that by the end of his second life, Faust is blind, and the sound he takes for the noise of work is actually produced by lemurs called by Mephistopheles to dig Faust's grave. Only a blind man can stop a moment. (However, a careful reading of the words of the sage, beginning with the most important reservation given in the conditional mood: "Then I would say ...", shows that the demon, like a true scholastic, clung to the letter, but not the meaning of the whole phrase; thus, Faust did not find peace and God won the argument with the devil.) Knowledge is infinite, absolute truth is only a series of relative truths.
Although seemingly defeated in the fight with Mephistopheles, Faust still remains the winner. At the end of the tragedy, when he was placed in a coffin, his soul was carried away by angels to heaven. The “immortal essence” of Faust triumphs, symbolizing the triumph of Man.
"Faust" by Goethe - artistic synthesis creative way great poet. Here are presented all the literary searches that the author went through: "storm and onslaught", "Weimar classicism" and even an echo of Goethe's generally unaccepted romanticism. Tragedy contains a brilliant insight into dialectics as a method of knowing being. Representing the most complex set of political, historical, theosophical and philosophical problems, "Faust" sums up the results of the era of enlightenment and at the same time forms a timeless model of the entire universe.
The global significance of the tragedy "Faust" was recognized during the lifetime of the author. The Russian reading public has many attempts to translate the tragedy. The translation by N.A. was recognized as the most accurate in relation to the original. Kholodkovsky, the most powerful in terms of poetic power - B.L. Pasternak.
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, "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.
Main character 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 Margaret-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 at life search and thus 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 higher education, built on methodical attendance at classes and drawing up notes that no one needs. Scientific problems are reflected in the philosophical dispute between Anaxagoras and Thales, who defend different points view of the origin of the world - volcanic and water.
"Faust" is a work that declared its greatness after the death of the author and has not subsided since then. The phrase "Goethe - Faust" is so well known that even a person who is not fond of literature has heard about it, perhaps without even suspecting who wrote whom - either Goethe's Faust, or Goethe's Faust. However, the philosophical drama is not only the invaluable heritage of the writer, but also one of the brightest phenomena of the Enlightenment.
"Faust" not only gives the reader a bewitching plot, mysticism, and mystery, but also raises the most important philosophical questions. Goethe wrote this work for sixty years of his life, and the play was published after the death of the writer. The history of the creation of the work is interesting not only for the long period of its writing. Already the name of the tragedy opaquely alludes to the physician Johann Faust, who lived in the 16th century, who, by virtue of his merits, acquired envious people. The doctor was credited with supernatural powers, supposedly he could even resurrect people from the dead. The author changes the plot, supplements the play with characters and events, and, as if on a red carpet, solemnly enters the history of world art.
The essence of the work
The drama opens with a dedication, followed by two prologues and two movements. Selling your soul to the devil is a story for all time, in addition, a curious reader is also waiting for a journey through time.
In the theatrical prologue, an argument begins between the director, the actor and the poet, and each of them, in fact, has his own truth. The director is trying to explain to the creator that it makes no sense to create a great work, since the majority of viewers are not able to appreciate it, to which the poet stubbornly and indignantly disagrees - he believes that for a creative person, first of all, it is not the taste of the crowd that is important, but the idea of the creativity.
Turning the page, we see that Goethe sent us to heaven, where a new dispute is brewing, only this time between the devil Mephistopheles and God. According to the representative of darkness, a person is not worthy of any praise, and God allows you to test the strength of your beloved creation in the person of the industrious Faust in order to prove the opposite to the devil.
The next two parts are an attempt by Mephistopheles to win the argument, namely, the devilish temptations will come into play one after another: alcohol and fun, youth and love, wealth and power. Any desire without any obstacles, until Faust finds what is worthy of life and happiness and is equivalent to the soul that the devil usually takes for his services.
Genre
Goethe himself called his work a tragedy, and literary critics - dramatic poem, which is also difficult to argue about, because the depth of the images and the power of the lyricism of "Faust" is unusually high level. The genre nature of the book also leans towards the play, although only individual episodes can be staged on the stage. The drama also has an epic beginning, lyrical and tragic motifs, so it is difficult to attribute it to a specific genre, but it will not be wrong to say that Goethe's great work is a philosophical tragedy, a poem and a play all rolled into one.
Main characters and their characteristics
- Faust is the protagonist of Goethe's tragedy, an outstanding scientist and doctor who knew many of the mysteries of science, but was still disappointed in life. He is not satisfied with the fragmentary and incomplete information that he owns, and it seems to him that nothing will help him come to the knowledge of the higher meaning of being. The desperate character even contemplated suicide. He enters into an agreement with the messenger of the dark forces in order to find happiness - something that is really worth living for. First of all, he is driven by a thirst for knowledge and freedom of spirit, so he becomes a difficult task for the devil.
- "A particle of power that wished eternally evil, doing only good"- a rather controversial image of the trait of Mephistopheles. The focus of evil forces, the messenger of hell, the genius of temptation and the antipode of Faust. The character believes that “everything that exists is worthy of death”, because he knows how to manipulate the best divine creation through his many vulnerabilities, and everything seems to indicate how negatively the reader should treat the devil, but damn it! The hero evokes sympathy even from God, to say nothing of the reading public. Goethe creates not just Satan, but a witty, caustic, insightful and cynical trickster, from whom it is so difficult to look away.
- From actors Margarita (Gretchen) can also be singled out separately. A young, modest, commoner who believes in God, Faust's beloved. An earthly simple girl who paid to save her soul own life. The protagonist falls in love with Margarita, but she is not the meaning of his life.
- The most important theme of the work is the eternal confrontation between good and evil, where the side of evil, Mephistopheles, is trying to seduce the good, desperate Faust.
- After the dedication, the theme of creativity lurked in the theatrical prologue. The position of each of the disputants can be understood, because the director thinks about the taste of the public that pays money, the actor - about the most profitable role to please the crowd, and the poet - about creativity in general. It is not difficult to guess how Goethe understands art and on whose side he stands.
- Faust is such a multifaceted work that here we even find the theme of selfishness, which is not striking, but when discovered, explains why the character was not satisfied with knowledge. The hero enlightened only for himself, and did not help the people, so his information accumulated over the years was useless. From this follows the theme of the relativity of any knowledge - that they are unproductive without application, resolves the question of why the knowledge of the sciences did not lead Faust to the meaning of life.
- Easily passing through the temptation of wine and fun, Faust does not even realize that the next test will be much more difficult, because he will have to indulge in an unearthly feeling. Meeting the young Marguerite on the pages of the work and seeing Faust's insane passion for her, we look at the theme of love. The girl attracts the protagonist with her purity and impeccable sense of truth, in addition, she guesses about the nature of Mephistopheles. The love of the characters entails misfortune, and in the dungeon Gretchen repents for her sins. The next meeting of lovers is expected only in heaven, but in the arms of Marguerite, Faust did not ask to wait a moment, otherwise the work would have ended without the second part.
- Looking closely at Faust's beloved, we note that young Gretchen evokes sympathy from readers, but she is guilty of the death of her mother, who did not wake up after a sleeping potion. Also, through the fault of Margarita, her brother Valentine and an illegitimate child from Faust die, for which the girl ends up in prison. She suffers from the sins she has committed. Faust invites her to escape, but the captive asks him to leave, surrendering completely to her torment and repentance. Thus, another theme is raised in the tragedy - the theme of moral choice. Gretchen chose death and God's judgment over running away with the devil, and in doing so saved her soul.
- The great legacy of Goethe is also fraught with philosophical polemical moments. In the second part, we will look again into Faust's office, where the diligent Wagner is working on an experiment, creating a person artificially. The very image of the Homunculus is unique, hiding a clue in his life and searches. He yearns for a real existence in the real world, although he knows something that Faust cannot yet realize. Goethe's intention to add such an ambiguous character as the Homunculus to the play is revealed in the presentation of entelechy, the spirit, as it enters into life before any experience.
- The problem of finding the meaning of life is also relevant in Goethe's work. It is from the seeming absence of truth that Faust thinks about suicide, because his works and achievements did not bring him satisfaction. However, passing with Mephistopheles through everything that can become the goal of a person's life, the hero nevertheless learns the truth. And since the work refers to, the view of the main character on the world coincides with the worldview of this era.
- If you look closely at the main character, you will notice that at first the tragedy does not let him out of his own office, and he himself does not really try to get out of it. Hidden in this important detail is the problem of cowardice. Studying science, Faust, as if afraid of life itself, hid from it behind books. Therefore, the appearance of Mephistopheles is important not only for the dispute between God and Satan, but also for the test subject himself. The devil takes a talented doctor outside, plunges him into the real world, full of mysteries and adventures, so the character stops hiding in the pages of textbooks and lives anew, for real.
- The work also presents readers with a negative image of the people. Mephistopheles, back in the Prologue in Heaven, says that God's creation does not value reason and behaves like cattle, so he is disgusted with people. The Lord cites Faust as a counter argument, but the reader will still encounter the problem of the ignorance of the crowd in the pub where students gather. Mephistopheles hopes that the character will succumb to fun, but he, on the contrary, wants to leave as soon as possible.
- The play brings to light rather controversial characters, and Valentine, Margaret's brother, is also a great example. He stands up for the honor of his sister when he gets into a fight with her "boyfriends", soon dying from Faust's sword. The work reveals the problem of honor and dishonor just on the example of Valentine and his sister. The brother's worthy deed commands respect, but here it is rather twofold: after all, dying, he curses Gretchen, thus betraying her to universal disgrace.
Themes
A work containing an agreement between a hardworking person and the devil, in other words, a deal with the devil, gives the reader not only an exciting, adventurous plot, but also relevant topics for reflection. Mephistopheles is testing the protagonist, giving him a completely different life, and now the “bookworm” Faust is waiting for fun, love and wealth. In exchange for earthly bliss, he gives Mephistopheles his soul, which, after death, must go to hell.
Problems
So, Faust gets a second chance to spend his life, no longer sitting in his office. It is unthinkable, but any desire can be fulfilled in an instant, the hero is surrounded by such temptations of the devil, which are quite difficult to resist ordinary person. Is it possible to remain yourself when everything is subject to your will - the main intrigue of this situation. The problematic of the work lies precisely in the answer to the question, is it really possible to stand on the positions of virtue, when everything that you only wish comes true? Goethe sets Faust as an example for us, because the character does not allow Mephistopheles to completely master his mind, but is still looking for the meaning of life, something for which a moment can really delay. Aspiring to the truth, a good doctor not only does not turn into a part of an evil demon, his tempter, but also does not lose his most positive qualities.
The meaning of the work
After long joint adventures with Mephistopheles, Faust still finds the meaning of existence, imagining a prosperous country and a free people. As soon as the hero understands that the truth lies in constant work and the ability to live for the sake of others, he utters the cherished words “Instant! Oh, how beautiful you are, wait a bit" and dies . After the death of Faust, the angels saved his soul from evil forces, rewarding his insatiable desire for enlightenment and resistance to the temptations of the demon in order to achieve his goal. The idea of the work is hidden not only in the direction of the main character's soul to heaven after an agreement with Mephistopheles, but also in Faust's remark: "Only he is worthy of life and freedom, who every day goes to battle for them." Goethe emphasizes his idea by the fact that thanks to overcoming obstacles for the benefit of the people and self-development of Faust, the messenger of hell loses the argument.
What does it teach?
Goethe not only reflects the ideals of the Enlightenment era in his work, but also inspires us to think about the high destiny of man. Faust gives the public useful lesson: constant striving for the truth, knowledge of the sciences and the desire to help the people save the soul from hell even after a deal with the devil. In the real world, there is no guarantee that Mephistopheles will give us plenty of fun before we realize the great meaning of being, so the attentive reader should mentally shake Faust's hand, praising him for his stamina and thanking him for such a quality hint.
Interesting? Save it on your wall!In the center of the play A.M. Gorky "At the Bottom" - not so much human destinies as a clash of ideas, a dispute about a person, about the meaning of life. The core of this dispute is the problem of truth and lies, the perception of life as it really is, with all its hopelessness and the harsh truth of the life of the people of the "bottom", or life with illusions, in whatever various forms they may appear. The very composition of the play, its inner movement debunk Luke's philosophy. At the beginning of the play, we see that almost all the characters are obsessed with their dream, their illusion. The appearance of Luke with his preaching of consolation and reconciliation strengthens the inhabitants of the rooming house in the correctness of their obscure desires and thoughts. But instead of peace and silence in Kostylev's rooming house, sharp dramatic events are brewing, which culminate in the scene of the murder of old Kostylev. The harsh truth of life refutes Luka's comforting lie, and long before the finale, in the third act, Luka quietly disappears.
Luka suffers the biggest defeat in a dispute with Satin. In the last act, when Luka is no longer in the rooming house and everyone is arguing about who he is and what he is trying to achieve, Satin first defends him. He denies that Luke is a conscious deceiver, a charlatan: “Be silent! You are all cattle! Dube ... keep quiet about the old man! .. The old man is not a charlatan! What is truth? Man is the truth! He understood this... you - no!.. He lied... but - it's out of pity for you, damn you! But in the heat of the argument, without noticing it, Satin turns into Luke's opponent. “There are many people who lie out of pity for their neighbor... I know! I read! They lie beautifully, inspiringly, excitingly!.. There is a comforting lie, a reconciling lie... a lie justifies the heaviness that crushed the worker's hand... and accuses those who are dying of hunger... I know the lie! Those who are weak in soul!., and who live on other people's juices, need a lie ... Some of them are supported by it, others are covered by it ... And who is his own master ... who is independent and does not eat someone else's - why does he need a lie ?. Lies are the religion of slaves and masters... Truth is God free man!" This monologue of Sateen proclaims a new attitude towards man. The comforting lie is called by him the religion of "slaves and masters." The lie as the "religion of the owners" is embodied by the owner of the rooming house, Kostylev, who lives on other people's juices. Luke, on the other hand, embodies a lie as a "religion of slaves", expressing their weakness and depression, their inability to fight, their tendency to patience and reconciliation, and forgiveness.
Once upon a time, Luke, in a rooming house, in response to the question of whether there is a God, said: “If you believe, there is; if you don’t believe it, no…” This idea was the basis of his philosophy: if you like it, believe it and be comforted. Satin, starting from the thought of Luke, draws a completely different conclusion: a person is free to choose his attitude both to faith and to life, to its structure and its order: “Does he pray? Wonderful! A person can believe or not believe .., This is his business! A man is free... he pays for everything himself: for faith, for unbelief, for love, for intelligence - a man pays for everything himself, and therefore he is free!.. Man is the truth!” A monologue for the glory of man Satin utters in moments of spiritual uplift. Gorky understood how inorganic such a speech was for the character of the hero: “... Satin's speech about a man is pale. However, except for Satin, there is no one to say it to, and he cannot say it better, more clearly. Even so, this speech sounds alien to his language.
Gorky posed the problem of true and false humanism in the drama "At the Bottom" - he was the first to pose it so broadly and passionately, forcing millions of people in the world to think about this problem. Reflecting on the images of people thrown to the “bottom” of life, millions of people said to themselves: even if thrown back, almost to a cave life, a person does not turn into a beast, it means that the human is stronger than the animal; if, even at the very bottom of life, sparks of faith in the possibility of happiness on earth flare up in a person, it means that this faith is inextinguishable. And millions of people on earth began to repeat the inspired words from the play "At the Bottom": "Man - that's the truth!", "Man - it sounds proud!", "Everything is in a person, for a person!" Filled with bright faith in a person with capital letter, the words of Satin have long ceased to be in the minds of people as an aphorism of Satin, they have healed as a wise saying of Gorky himself.
Sateen's monologue acquires a special romantic coloring also because the hymn to Man sounds at the very “bottom” of life, in the most cruel circumstances, “in the basement, similar to a cave”, in which “former” people live, thrown out and not needed by anyone. Sateen's monologue sounds like a challenge to these circumstances and at the same time as a challenge to humility and comforting compassion. In this challenge, there is the consonance of Sateen's monologue with the revolutionary moods growing in the country. The question arose before the reader: what needs to be done in order for a person to become a person again and gain independence and freedom? The conclusion was suggested by the play's finale and Sateen's sublime monologue: “A man is the truth! Only man exists, everything else is the work of his hands and his brain! Human! This is magnificent!..” If a person is beautiful in his essence and only a system based on exploitation reduces him to a terrifying state, everything must be done to create conditions when a person becomes truly free and beautiful. This is how Sateen's words were received in the early 1900s. Artist of the Moscow Art theater B, I. Kachalov recalled: "The play was perceived as a petrel play, which foreshadowed the coming storm and called to the storm."
The times described by Gorky in the play "At the Bottom" are long gone. But the sacred need for Gorky - to awaken the personality, its ability to think, to comprehend what exists - does not grow old. Now that I'm up difficult task to rebuild life, human relations, the demands of a meaningful spiritual life have received an unprecedented spread. A thinking reader and viewer can learn a lot for themselves. And this is the secret of the unfading value of Gorky's play "At the Bottom".
