Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend. He is a scholar who is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. The Faust legend has been the basis for many literary, artistic, cinematic, and musical works that have reinterpreted it through the ages. "Faust" and the adjective "Faustian" imply a situation in which an ambitious person surrenders moral integrity in order to achieve power and success for a delimited term.

The Faust of early books—as well as the ballads, dramas, movies, and puppet-plays which grew out of them—is irrevocably damned because he prefers human to divine knowledge; "he laid the Holy Scriptures behind the door and under the bench, refused to be called doctor of Theology, but preferred to be styled doctor of Medicine".Plays and comic puppet theatre loosely based on this legend were popular throughout Germany in the 16th century, often reducing Faust and Mephistopheles to figures of vulgar fun. The story was popularised in England by Christopher Marlowe, who gave it a classic treatment in his play, The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (date for publication is debated, but was likely around 1587).In Goethe's reworking of the story two hundred years later, Faust becomes a dissatisfied intellectual who yearns for "more than earthly meat and drink" in his life.

Christopher Marlowe used this work as the basis for his more ambitious play, The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (published c. 1604). Marlowe also borrowed from John Foxe's Book of Martyrs, on the exchanges between Pope Adrian VI and a rival pope.

Goethe's Faust

Another important version of the legend is the play Faust, written by the German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The first part, which is the one more closely connected to the earlier legend, was published in 1808, the second posthumously in 1832.

Goethe's Faust complicates the simple Christian moral of the original legend. A hybrid between a play and an extended poem, Goethe's two-part "closet drama" is epic in scope. It gathers together references from Christian, medieval, Roman, eastern, and Hellenic poetry, philosophy, and literature.

The composition and refinement of Goethe's own version of the legend occupied him for over sixty years (though not continuously). The final version, published after his death, is recognized as a great work of German literature.

The story concerns the fate of Faust in his quest for the true essence of life ("was die Welt im Innersten zusammenhält"). Frustrated with learning and the limits to his knowledge, power, and enjoyment of life, he attracts the attention of the Devil (represented by Mephistopheles), who makes a bet with Faust that he will be able to satisfy him; a notion that Faust is incredibly reluctant towards, as he believes this happy zenith will never come. This is a significant difference between Goethe's "Faust" and Marlowe's; Faust is not the one who suggests the wager.

Murnau's Faust

F.W. Murnau, director of the classic Nosferatu, directed a silent version of Faust that premiered in 1926. Murnau's film featured special effects that were remarkable for the time. Many of these shots are impressive today.

In one, Mephisto towers over a town, dark wings spread wide, as a fog rolls in bringing the plague. In another, an extended montage sequence shows Faust, mounted behind Mephisto, riding through the heavens, and the camera view, effectively swooping through quickly changing panoramic backgrounds, courses past snowy mountains, high promontories and cliffs, and waterfalls.

Faust (1926) FW Murnau Opening View

Faust 1926 - The Evocation of Mephisto

Faust (1926) High Quality F.W. Murnau 640

The Oldest Remedy - Nosferatu (1979)

Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) 1080p

Goethe Greatest German writer. A universal genius.writer and statesman. His body of work includes epic and lyric poetry written in a variety of metres and styles; prose and verse dramas; memoirs; an autobiography; literary and aesthetic criticism; treatises on botany, anatomy, and colour; and four novels. In addition, numerous literary and scientific fragments, more than 10,000 letters, and nearly 3,000 drawings by him exist.

Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe

Ran Court Theatre at WeimarForefront of German theatre producing his work and the work of Schiller, Lessing, Shakespeare and CalderonThis was different than escapist and domestic drama that was going on in Germany.

He tried to galvanize the theatre into a first rate theatre company. He was a dictator. No improve. Laid down rules. Divided the stage in squares. One of the first directors in modern sense. He did the same with the audience. He trained them.

Goethe had a great effect on the nineteenth century. In many respects, he was the originator of many ideas which later became widespread. He produced volumes of poetry, essays, criticism, a theory of colours and early work on evolution and linguistics.

Best Plays, Faust, Torquato Tasso and Iphigenie in Taurus

Schiller. Close friend of Goethe. poet, philosopher, physician, historian, and playwright.Thought drama should transform ordinary experience rather than replicate it.

Friedrich Schiller

Plays

Die Räuber (The Robbers), 1781 Fiesco (Die Verschwörung des Fiesco zu Genua), 1783 Kabale und Liebe (Intrigue and Love), 1784 Don Karlos, Infant von Spanien (Don Carlos[1787 Wallenstein , 1800 Maria Stuart (Mary Stuart), 1800

Die Jungfrau von Orleans (The Maid of Orleans), 1801 Turandot, Prinzessin von China, 1801 Die Braut von Messina (The Bride of Messina), 1803 Wilhelm Tell (William Tell), 1804 Demetrius (unfinished at his death)

Their movement in German literature was Sturm and Drang. Literally Storm and Stress.

Rebellion against neoclassicismBoth used verseFive act structureShocking materialStylized production styleWanted to lead the spectator into the realm of ideal truth.Many written few performedExperimental and full of emotion