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Writing Objective: Write a paper which combines science and literature.

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Faust I, by the German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, illustrates a strong connection between science and the creative intellect in the Romantic period. The first part of the paper introduces Goethe, the period he lived in, and his personal interest in writing Faust I. The second part of the paper describes the Doktor Faustus legend and how Goethe came to write about it. The third part of the paper illustrates Goethe’s connection to science, his study at Weimar, his love of magic, his study of the Cabalists, his own scientific experimentation and his portrayal of the Alchemist in Faust I.

The period that influenced Goethe (1750-1830) was called “the age of “Humanitat” (humanity). Humanitat was a philosophy of life that sincerely believed in the “perfectibility” of humankind or the perfection of people, their lives, and their world through reason.(1) Reason, a sober outlook on everything, made desirous the interpretation of phenomena in the natural world with physics, chemistry and biology. (2) These scientists of reason, who believed in Humanitat, demanded hands-on knowledge that was original, precise, and complete. (3)

It is written that Goethe possessed a “noble and profound naivete about Nature from which came the intellectual energy needed to seek and discover continuity in the complexity of natural phenomena.”(4) That means that Goethe’s curious nature made him energetic about finding order in the complex natural world. Goethe’s own hope was to lead people to the “beneficent conquests of Knowledge and Science.”(5)

It is believed that Goethe first encountered the legend of Doktor Faustus as a child by attending traveling puppet plays, which were abundant in Germany in the middle 1700s.(6) Actually, plays about Doktor Faustus are still popular today, as I myself discovered on two separate trips to Munich. I encountered Doktor Faustus, once in a play with marionettes and again when he himself stood in the Marienplatz in a long dark robe covered with stars. He was wearing a tall, pointed hat and performing magic tricks with scarves and coins. Goethe wrote that he felt kinship with his character Faust. Both were men of science seeking answers to questions that became ever larger and ever more complex, questions that seemed unanswerable by humans, answerable only by knowledge itself, i.e. by God.(7) In the character Faust, Goethe captures our desire to experience all that can be experienced and do all that can be done instead of seeking pure intellectual knowledge which had often been the goal of scientists. (8)

The story of Doktor Faustus is widely varied because it has been a legend for over 500 years. It is possible that the legend of Doktor Faustus was composed in front of a fireplace one evening, and it is also possible that there was an alchemist by the name of Johannes Faustus.

The composite legend of Doktor Faustus is as follows: In the 15th Century, there lived an alchemist named Johannes Georg Faustus. He wandered throughout Northern Germany healing sickness, lecturing on medicine, and performing magic tricks. “Doktor” Faustus sought ultimate knowledge. In order to receive this he made a pact with the devil in which he would be granted ultimate knowledge in return for his eternal soul. Johannes Faustus’s body was found at his study table one morning by his assistant who reported that the shutters were unlocked and swinging in the breeze. It is possible that he was killed by an explosion in the course of an alchemical experiment. Such a mysterious death gave rise to the belief that the devil had come and carried Doktor Faustus away to hell. (9)

The legend of Doktor Faustus was kept alive for over one hundred years by word of mouth until 1592, when Christopher Marlow adapted the legend into a play he titled. The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus. “(10) Marlows play was seen by many. It was popularized and altered by the illiterate public and often took the form of traveling puppet shows.

The puppet plays begin with a brief monologue by Doktor Faustus expounding the virtue of intellectual curiosity. Sometimes the monologue expounds the lust for fame or gold more than for intellectual curiosity. Then comes his pact with the devil and the devil’s magic tricks which are the highlight for both children and adults. Afterward, Faustus makes an attempt at repentance which is foiled by the appearance of a female (usually blond and blue-eyed with a low cut, bulging dirndl-dress) who entraps Faustus into worldly pleasure. Then the devil comes to carry Faustus away.(l 1) A comic element in the puppet plays is often provided by a clown, who appears first as Faust’s servant and in the last act as the night watchman or the town crier or lamp lighter so that Faust’s last hour is punctuated by merriment. In the more serious writings of Marlow and Goethe, Faust’s last hour Is marked by the tolling of the church clock tower bells, a much more serious realization of the fate of one who has sold his soul to the devil. (12)

The tale of Doktor Faustus is a German legend. The germanic origin of the story accounts for its lasting popularity. During the period in which Goethe wrote, it lent itself well to the Sturm und Drang ideals of intellectual pursuit and the duress of existence. (13) It was not coincidence that Goethe came to write about this Doktor Faustus whose pursuits and goals mirrored his own. Goethe was born and educated in the city of Frankfurt He was trained in languages, literature, and law. However, he knew very little about geography or natural history. This changed in the late 1700s when he was invited to the royal court of Weimar. Weimar was a vast country estate in Northern Germany where the intelllgencia of the day congregated: writers, actors, musicians, and scientists from all over Europe who were free to learn, explore, and experiment. (14) (Similar to Dr. Martin Arrowsmith and Dr. Gottlieb at the McGurk Institute in the novel Arrowsmith by Sinclar Lewis) Goethe had a lively interest in natural history and science, so Weimar was paradise for him. He found this environment so intellectually stimulating that he lived to be over 80 years old. (15)

Goethe professed that he was unable to learn anything from books. Therefore, he subscribed enthusiastically to the theory of the day which championed hands-on science, field observation, and precise measurement (16)

Goethe began with botany which was a prerequisite for medicine, his main interest. (17) He procured for himself his own private Gartenhaus (similar to a greenhouse) at Weimar. For several of his first years, before he became involved in administrative duties, he sowed seeds and planted trees and took great pleasure In watching them grow, something he had never been able to do in the city of his birth. (18) His extensive study of botany led him to write Metamorphose der Pflanzen (my translation: The Development of Plants) in 1790. It was the culmination of his study of botany. From botany he turned to geology. (19)

Geology absorbed Goethe as much as botany had. For many years Goethe was so busy with the study of rocks that he employed a full time assistant(20)

Before coming to Weimar, Goethe was interested in magic, which may have come from his own childhood experiences with the Doktor Faustus puppet plays. He was interested in the symbolic meaning of magic, using magic to express the relationship between humans, the visible world, and the invisible world that has power over us in the visible world. The use of magic symbolized obtaining and controlling the power that they believed governed their universe. Possession of these powers would allow the magician to become more than human, allowing him to experience all that could be experienced. Goethe, In his time of reason, could only dream about these superhuman qualities, but he could give the powerful gift of magic to his character, Faust(21)

In the year 1769, Goethe began a long study of the Cabalistic texts. In this same year he began planning a play about Doktor Faustus. He began by writing Urfaust, then the Fragment in 1790, and finally Faust I, which he finished in 1808.(22)

From the Cabalists’ writing, Goethe used two ideas in his writing of Faust I: his character of the Erdgeist the earth spirit and his characterization of the devil. Goethe read the Cabalists’ texts in Latin or Greek but Faust /was written in German. Therefore, the concepts of the Cabalists may have been altered in Goethe’s mind as he made the transition onto paper or in the writing and re-writing of Faust I before the final play of 1808. Goethe’s earth spirit, the Erdgeist from the Cabalistic point of view would have been a personification of Earth as one of the four classical elements of which the universe was composed or possibly of Earth as one of the heavenly bodies.(23)

However, the actual conception of the Cabalist was the anima terrae. The anima terrae is the Earth as a heavenly body with a soul or vital principle at its center, but according to the Cabalists, the Earth was not one of the four classical elements. (24)

Also from the Cabalists came Goethe’s characterization of the devil. Goethe’s evil spirit, given the aristocratic name of Mephistopheles, was a spirit of greater dignity and status than other literary devils of the time. (25)

Alongside his literature career, natural history study, and bureaucratic duties, Goethe also dabbled in alchemy. He experimented with creating Mittelsalz (sal-medium). In one of his methods he described treating “queer ingredients of the Macrocosm and the Microcosm in a mysterious and strange way.”(sonderbare Ingredienzen des Makrokosmus und Mikrokosmus auf eine geheimnisvolle wunderliche Weise)(26) I would translate “geheimnisvolle” as secret and “wunderliche” as wonderful. This would translate Goethe’s experiment as, “treating queer ingredients of the Macrocosm and Microcosm in a secret and wonderful way.” We may laugh at such experimental methods today but they were considered to be at the forefront of science in Goethe’s day.

All of these components-Goethe’s study of natural history at Weimar, his study of the Cabalists’ writings, his fascination with magic, and his own experimentation in alchemical methods- culminated in his writing Faust I. It is the characterization of Faust, an alchemist in search of ultimate knowledge and experience, which was the climax of his research. Goethe described his alchemist Faust as follows:

Who in his dusky workshop bending

With proved adepts in company Made, from his recipes unending.

Opposing substances agree. (27)

Goethe himself was an alchemist and an admirer of alchemy and alchemists. His work, Faust I, clearly shows Goethe’s love of science.

Works Cited

Bruford, W.H. Culture and Society in Classical Weimar. London: Cambridge University Press, 1962.

Mason, Eudo C. Goethe’s Faust Its Genesis and Purport. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1967.

Rose, J.H., C.H. Herford, E.C.K. Conner, and M.E. Sadler. Germany in the Nineteenth Century. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1912.

Smeed, J.W. Faust in Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 1975.

Thompson, C.J.S. The Lure and Romance of Alchemy. New York: Outlet Book Company Inc., 1990.

ENDNOTES

1. Bruford, W.H. Culture and Society in Classical Weimar, 1.
2. Rose, J.H. et al. German in the Nineteenth Century, 41.
3. Rose, 38.
4. Rose, 32.
5. Rose, 5.
6. Mason, Eudo C. Goethe’s Faust Its Genesis and Purport, 4.
7. Smeed, J.W. Faust in Literature, 8.
8. Smeed, 21.
9. Mason, 2.
10. Mason, 3.
11. Smeed, 6.
12. Smeed 6.
13. Smeed, 7.
14. Bruford, 142.
15. Bruford, 150.
16. Bruford, 148.
17. Bruford, 142.
18. Bruford, 142.
19. Rose, 34.
20. Bruford, 147.
21. Smeed, 94.
22. Mason, 84.
23. Mason, 136.
24. Mason, 133.
25. Mason, 171.
26. Mason, 127.
27. Thompson, C.J.S. The Lure and Romance of Alchemy, 106.