Faust (First Part, Translated by Peter Salm)

Human’s Nature according to Goethe in ‘Faust’
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Human’s Nature according to Goethe in ‘Faust’ The importance of being a complete human being has exemplified itself through the changes a human being undergoes since conception. A human being undergoes metamorphosis they age and die eventually. In order far a person to be complete, they have to grow; this growth consist different aspects. It is not confined to physical growth as normally perceived. To completely grow it needs a person’s initiative. Spiritual growth, physical growth, emotional growth, financial growth, intellectual growth all entail the idea of being complete in a human being’s mind. Socrates noted that, men are moved to action not by who they are, rather by their own opinions and convictions. The desire that man has to complete himself leads him to engage in the unknown to satisfy this urge. Scientific experiments help to show the need by man to be complete and understand the environment and try understanding things beyond their scope. What comes with this urge to self improve oneself, is either positive or negative. The scientific revolutions that have rocked the world have helped improve the man’s situation but at the same time, they have led to destruction.  Goethe has demonstrated this need of man to improve himself through the character Faust. Faust struggles to better himself in every possible way. Faust who is a scientist and doctor is a very intelligent man. However, he still thinks that he has not reached the pinnacle of education. Faust is of the view that every bit of education has got to be attained if he is to be complete. Given the fact that he is also unhappy with life he makes a decision which turns out to be disastrous not to him alone but to others as well. He makes a deal with the devil (Mephistopheles). This he did because he wanted to understand everything and he figured that he could not do it alone. Because of this thirst of intellectual completeness, two people ended up dying. On the onset, Faust though that he would be happy once he gained all the knowledge, but it begs the question, was getting the information really important to warrant the death of the two people? He had to watch as his wife and her brother die just because he was greedy to acquire all the knowledge. In the end he still gains nothing, in fact he loses more than he acquires. This illustrates that while it is important to strive for self improvement in order to realise completeness, it is important to realise that it is good to know or acquire information, but at the same time we need not be extremely greedy and selfish in the process. To me his advancement was a mistake as it only brought him more stress. It shows how man is not satisfied with what he has. Many other people in his time would have really wanted to be in his position and be able to enjoy his level of intellectual depth, but he did not realise this at all. The predicament of Faust tries to show us that man’s intention of completeness however important, is also limited. What Faust was trying to achieve –in this case- limitless intellect, was a mistake and the limitless intellect was not meant for him after all. It only brought him more harm than good. If he had stuck to the required confines of knowledge definitely he would not have suffered and he would not have made others suffer.  Spiritual development is also included in the package of man’s search for completion. Faust spiritual journey shows how as human beings we strive to find answers to the unknown through hard ways when the answers to the spiritual questions are just a stone throw away. Faust was deeply rooted with the devil. He believed the devil would get him anything he wanted just because the devil said so. He did not realise that in getting favours from the devil, he had to sell his soul....