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The legend of Doctor Faustus lives on in modern culture as the Faustian Bargain, a deal with the devil for power, wealth, etc. While the idea of dealing with demonic figures has existed for millenia, the Faustian Bargain typically requires the deal taker to give up their soul, thus dooming them to serve the devil or be tortured for eternity. The stories of Faust all use a devil named :Mephistopheles who does not directly damn Faust, but typically drives him to the path of damnation. However, the cause of damnation typically resides in Faust himself due to his selfish arrogance and unwillingness to turn to God no matter how close he is to eternal torment. To follow the ways in which Faust has remained in the public consciousness, let's first examine the alleged figure of the real Faust before moving on to literature and pop culture.
The Figure
Faust as a character originated in Germany in the 16th century. He was reportedly a real person named Johann Georg Faustus who was an alchemist, physicist, and practiced many other occupations, but he was also reputed as a man who engaged in demonic practices. He studied in Heidelberg University and graduated with a degree in divinity in 1509. Reported witnesses to his connections with devilry include Martin Luther, who developed Lutheranism, and Philip Melanchthon, Luther's friend who was also a Lutheran reformer. Melanchthon himself reported that Faust studied magic at the University of Kraków in Poland.
Records of an actual Faust are questionable. His birthplace and year are not vary between :sources. Despite these questionable claims of Johann Georg Faustus, they give us a starting point for the associations with dark magic and bargains.
Tales
One of the first written legends of Dr. Faustus is the Faustbach written anonymously in 1587, which narrates a collection of tales of Doctor Faustus's journey with Mephostophiles, the devil. The Faustbach sets the formula for the Faustian Bargain: Faust encounters the devil and makes a blood pact that surrenders his soul to Lucifer, the ruler of hell, in exchange for power and pleasure. Thus, he turns away from God and follows the word of the devil. While Mephistopheles gifts him with food and riches, Faust has damned himself to hell without any chance of forgiveness. Despite his pleading, Mephistopheles reaffirms his fate to eternal torture. The book ends with Faust ruminating on his fate, close to repenting for his sins, only to forget it again once Mephistopheles brings him sexual pleasure.
The story's popularity likely came from its reversal of the typical legend of a saint. According to Margueritte De Huszar Allen, the Saint's legend has them overcoming the devil and following God, but Faust instead forsakes God and turns to the devil for support. The Faustbach portrays Faust as a very arrogant man, born rich under pious parents and accomplishing intellectual feats, and yet still straying from God. It's clear that Faust's vice is his pride, his desire for material and physical gains over spiritual enlightenment. Additionally, the magic he summons is very superficial. All he asks from Mephistopheles is food and clothing, and at one point, he "named some fowl he desired," just to see it fly and hit window. Despite his intellect and powers, he only uses them for his selfish gains. He remains stagnant until he realizes that he abandoned God's good graces and begins to repent. However, he becomes so consumed with the reality of hell and his current pleasure that he stops worrying and forgets about repenting.
Plays
Marlowe
The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus is the first written play of Faust publishined in 1592 in England. This story develops the characters of Doctor Faustus and Mephistopheles. He again accepts the bargain, taking Mephistopheles under his servitude for 24 years in exchange for selling his soul to Lucifer. Mephistopheles helps Faust learn magic by bringing him a book which he uses throughout Europe to conjure up images of historigcal figures and to play tricks on people, like making horns grow on a knight who denounced his magic. His actions anger many people, yet he never faces consequences until the 24 years comes to a close. In his final moments, he confesses to his deal to a few scholars, shocking everyone, and yet they help him to repent. However, his penance is not enough, as he is finally dragged to hell.
Marlowe's play builds on the Faustbach with a more developed Faust and Mephistopheles. Faust's actions seem even more superficial, as he mostly tortures people with his spells. However, he becomes more ambitious, at least at first, but he never uses the magic to do anything meaningful. Additionally, he has many moments of repentence, such as when he first takes the deal. He hears a good angel that tells him to repent so that God can forgive him. However, he believes he's beyond salvation, so he ends up never improving himself and stays stuck in his deal that will end with his damnation. Part of this failed repentence is caused by Mephistopheles's insistence that Faust keep up the bargain. Yet, he also admits that he himself feels tortured even when he's outside of hell, as he also feels trapped in his servitude as a devil. But despite his warnings of eternal suffering, Faust takes the bargain anyway, thus establishing a parallel between Faust and Mephistopheles, as they're both doomed to spend eternity in hell.
Goethe
Faust, in Goethe's play Faust published in 1806, is a scholar who feels tortured by his inability to understand the the spiritual realm as well as his old body being unable to feel joy and pleasure. Before he commits suicide, the demon Mephistopheles appears and offers him a bargain. However, Faust, in an act of jest, adds another condition to the bargain. In addition to unlimited knowledge and pleasure, if Faust ever felt so much happiness that he wanted to stay in the moment forever, he'd die right there and begin his servitude to Mephistopheles. After making the deal, he travels with Mephistopheles who helps him learn the arts of magic, become young, and seduce a young girl. His constant search for more leads him to deflower which resulted in a baby born out of wedlock. However, he also didn't know of this pregnancy because he left her immediately after sleeping with her. His actions caused Gretchen to be shamed, and that caused her to drown her baby. Thus, in his search for pleasure, he almost damned a girl to hell.
Goethe continues the trope of the deal with the devil, though adds the condition of his premature death should he feel a moment of intense pleasure. Faust becomes a more arrogant figure, being so overly confident that he doesn't believe the devil can make him feel happy again. However, his suffering becomes more nuanced, as his abandonment of morality comes from his boredom of the physical realm. He feels like he knows everything in human studies and wants to learn more, but despairs over his inability to understand the spiritual realm. Thus, Faust becomes more of a tragic hero who falls to the devil because of his pains. He mirrors the human desire to learn, yet becomes too obsessed with arcane magic. Mephistopheles also gains a more prominent role like in Marlowe's version. While Faust initiates the bargin in previous iterations, Mephistopheles is the one who comes to Faust in Goethe's version, as the devil wants to prove to God that people are doomed to repeat their vices, in contrast to God's view that man is capable of virtue despite their flaws. However, despite his temptations, Faust prevails and gets into heaven. Thus, Goethe subverts the traditional damnation of Faust as his penance and striving for goodness saves him from his bargain. Faust's salvation is hinted by God in the first few pages: "Man errs so long as he strives." Despite Faust's failures, he always tries to find the right path, thus saving him from eternal torture.
Games
Limbus Company
Limbus Company is a turn based gacha game developed by Project Moon following Dante's journey and their subordinates, called sinners, to the inferno. Each of the main characters (including Dante themself) is based on a character from classic literature, one of them being Faust. Faust is labeled as sinner #2, and while she is under Dante's command, she has knowledge about the company that is confidential even to the executive manager Dante. Her knowledge also extends to other areas, from secrets about corporations to the monsters that live in the Outskirts of the City. While the game has not finished Faust's chapter (which will likely be the last Canto of the Inferno), her character still has clear parallels to earlier versions of Faust. Her desire for knowledge comes from her odd connection to Gesellschaft, a network of connections from other Mirror Worlds. In short, she can communicate with Fausts of other realities and learn things about her world that she should not be privy to. She is also the inventor of the bus that Limbus Company uses, which she names Mephistopheles, which looks like a train and is fueled by human matter. Faust herself has the intellect to be a researcher. What exactly she did before joining Limbus Company is unkown, nor why she has more clearence to confidential information than Dante.
However, her connection to Gesellschaft seems to influence her personality negatively. In one of the Intervellos, her connection to the other Fausts is shattered, so she is unable to access their shared information. This comes in an unfortunate time, when they're trapped on an interdimensional train and passengers have been converted to bloody corpse-like monstrosities. Without her knowledge, Faust must rely on her own observations, analysis, and theories of her fellow sinners. When Faust is handicapped, she visibly enjoys researching the mystery behind the bloody passengers. Additionally, her consulting her fellow sinners surprises them, as she never asked them for anything given her seemingly unlimited knowledge. With the help of her sinners, she deduces that the culprit is a bloodfiend that's hiding in the last carriage. Once she regains her connection to Gesellschaft, she reverts back to her distant personality.
Faust's time away from the Gesellschaft reveals a more energetic side. Goethe's Faust wanted to go back to his more youthful years when he was more excited to learn about the physical world, and thus became corrupted with power in an attempt to learn. Faust in Limbus company seems to share this plight, as her overreliance of Gesellschaft make her dull and eternally bored with the world around her. She rarely takes action, usually letting sinners try things, sometimes ending in success but other times causing difficulties. While connections to the devil are not obvious, it seems like she has already "sold her soul" to gain access to Gesellschaft. Her endless search to know everything seems to contribute to her chronic lassitude, which may lead to her downfall if she doesn't learn to enjoy the process of research and understanding.
Reflection
From a folktale of an evil person greedy for power, to a tragic man who strived to know everything there is, the legend of Faust has morphed throughout history. His plight makes us reflect on our own limits as humans to understand God and the mechanisms of the universe, and yet he also serves as a warning of too much pride. The Faustian Bargain exists in many other literature and pop culture, typically in the form of the occult. The saying that "ignorance is bliss" feels well-matched pertaining to Faust. While it may be impossible to understand life and the universe as a whole, it's the act of discovering our existence that makes life meaningful, even if we cannot truly understand it.
"What I learned"
"I've always been interested in literature, and the stories I read cemented my passion for stories. I was surprised at how artists can enocde subtle information about ideas through artistic techniques, like Titus Kaphar's attempts to mend history and give agency to black people who were opressed and silenced. At the start of this quarter, I didn't pay attention to the worlds that authors make, yet I learned that the world people live in influence their actions and character way more than I initally thought. I am particularly interested in the ways in which people create narratives that speak up against issues, such as Butler's Parable of the Sower and how she wants people to feel. Her sentiment moves me, and I feel motivated to make others feel as well. I hope I can create an engaging archive with mystery and puzzles. Even if it's not as important as Butler or Kaphar, I hope people can enjoy what I make."