SUMMARY OF GOETHE’S FAUST PART II

In Acts 1-3 the main theme is Faust's desire to unite with the all-time paragon of human beauty, Helen of Troy. This is symbolic of passionate dedication to quest for beauty as one of the supreme drives of humankind.

He gets the girl; they produce a son, Euphorion--incarnation of poetic spirit.

As the offspring of two absolutes, Euphorion attempts the impossible (trying to fly from a cliff) and is killed. Helen leaves Faust to rejoin her son in Hades.

Act 4: Faust decides to try to tame the sea. Views the tide as an emblem of enormous power wasting itself in futile repetition. Lots of time spent getting the rights to the seacoast.

Act 5: Faust is master of a huge amount of territory; lives in seacoast palace. All the land is his except for a tiny piece owned by an old couple who refuse to sell. Mephistopheles engineers their dispossession, and they die of fright when their door is battered down. A guest is murdered, the place is burned--Faust is overcome with remorse.

Eventually these events lead him to recognize his cardinal sin of impatience and to repent of it; extricates himself from involvement with Mephistopheles. Is left blind and on the verge of death.

At end, Faust has a vision of ideal human society, balanced between competition and cooperation. If this vision could be realized, he might say the words of his wager.

Faust dies. Just before that happens, he says:

He only earns both freedom and existence
Who must reconquer them every day.

Mephistopheles gathers a host of demons to grab his soul as it leaves his body, but a host of angels drop roses on the demons. Mephistopheles gets distracted by the naked bodies of young male angels--wants to see more. Meanwhile, Faust's soul is carried away. Angels say:

Pure spirits' peer, from evil coil
He was vouchsafed exemption;
"Whoever strives in ceaseless toil,
Him we may grant redemption."

And when on high, transfigured love
Has added intercession,
The blessed will throng to him above
With welcoming compassion.

Last scene: glimpses of purgatory, with various groups working patiently to purify themselves. Gretchen's voice is heard among one group of penitents.

Chorus Mysticus: ecstatic vision of all earthly confusion clarified; the "Ewig-Weibliche" leads us onward.