The relationship between Faust and Mephisto

Faust - Goethe's famous tragedy

• Over a period of about 60 years, Goethe repeatedly worked on the story of Faust (including Doctor Faustus). This is an inquisitive man who finds it difficult to cope with the fact that some things are not accessible to science. He wants to know "what holds the world together at its core" and secretly wishes for a certain equality with God.
• Then Mephisto the devil makes a bet with God in heaven. He believes that man is little more than an animal in the end, and wants to prove to God that he can lead a good, intelligent, and virtuous man like Faust to ruin. God is against it. Mephisto first appears to Faust as a poodle, but soon reveals himself. He assures the doctor that he will fulfill all his wishes for the rest of his life and bring him love happiness if he gets his soul in return after Faust's death.
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• Faust agrees, from now on the two are companions. Mephisto is now trying to bring worldly joys closer to the inquisitive doctor. When Faust does not allow himself to be inspired by mere parties, the devil gets him a magic potion, which is supposed to make him young and desirable again. Faust takes the potion and tries to win over an innocent girl named Gretchen.
• Gretchen is very virtuous, but with Mephistus' help Faust manages to seduce her. As a result of the illegitimate misstep, she becomes pregnant and loses her reputation. Desperate, she drowns her newborn child and is sentenced to death for it. Faust persuades Mephisto to free her together with him, but Gretchen doesn't want that. While still in dungeon, she prays to God to save her soul, through which she will be redeemed. Faust and Mephisto are left alone.

You see that story von Faust is closely interwoven with that of Mephisto from the first encounter. But what kind of relationship is there between the two of them?

The relationship between Mephisto and the protagonist

To say that the two of them are simply friends or companions is far too short. It does not apply to business partners either - although "happiness against soul" is actually a trade. Still, if you want to understand the relationship between the two, you need to be more abstract.

• At the beginning of the tragedy, Faust is a learned and well-read, but unhappy man. He is dissatisfied with the limitation of his knowledge, he wants more.
• This is where Mephisto starts - but not with the promise to give him more knowledge, but more "fun". Now try to see Mephisto not as a living being, but as something that comes from Faust himself.
• He realizes that he cannot uncover the world's last secrets. Disappointed in science, he withdraws into the worldly. In a sense, he wants to catch up on what he has wasted on science - above all his physical happiness.
• For this he is now selling his good soul piece by piece. First of all, he gives himself up to vanity by artificially rejuvenating himself. Then he desperately wants to seduce a virgin. In order to get at her, he accepts a jewelry theft and a break-in.
• So the register of sins of Doctor Faust is getting bigger and bigger and he is sinking - from God's point of view - ever deeper. But everything bad that comes from the doctor is carried out in the tragedy of Mephisto.
• So it is he who ensures that Faust is younger again, he introduces him to Gretchen, he finally gives the two of them access to the dungeon in order to free them.

You can do it in the interpretation portray Mephisto as the evil side of Faust - the part of him that doesn't care about morals and decency. Due to Faust's initial disappointment with science and his search for meaning, this evil side grows stronger and stronger. After all, the doctor's whole life is determined by Mephisto, that is, his evil side. And this is how the relationship between the two can be characterized: Mephisto is the devil in Faust, his bad side. The more he lets her grow stronger, the more she leads him into the abyss.