As Wagner and Faust return home to their studies, they meet a black dog on the road that follows Faust back to his room. Faust, however, feels that he probably did more harm than good with his crude medicines. The townspeople crowd around Faust, cheering him because as a young man he and his father helped the people with medicine during a time of plague. The townspeople celebrate Easter, and although Faust feels that he should be with them, he cannot shake his despair at his current situation. Faust describes his passion for nature and for a higher mode of life, but Wagner cannot fathom it. Just as he is about to take the poison, a chorus of angels appears announcing Easter day and stops him from completing the act.įaust walks outside his town with Wagner, a fellow scholar. In his despair, Faust brews a poison to commit suicide. He summons a Spirit to come and be with him, but this only reinforces the fact that he is human and not spirit and therefore cannot share the Spirit’s higher knowledge. Books and chemistry can no longer define his life for him, and he longs to live a life in harmony with Nature and with the universe. He has been a scholar and an alchemist, and he feels as though he has come to the end of all knowledge. The play introduces Faust while he sits in his study in despair over his life.

The Lord agrees, claiming that Faust will remain a loyal follower. Mephistopheles makes a bet with The Lord that he will be able to turn one of his servants, Dr. Mankind is corrupt, he claims, and he revels in the evil and disaster that he is able to cause. While angels worship The Lord for his creation, Mephistopheles, the Devil, complains about the state of affairs in the world.

Faust part 1 by goethe