Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
(1749–1832)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is unquestionably the colossus of German literature. Goethe, like Leonardo da Vinci, was truly a "universal man." He was trained as a lawyer and for ten years served as chief minister of state to the duchy of Saxe-Weimar. As a serious student of biology, Goethe made some perceptive suggestions concerning the nature of matter. He was also an amateur cellist, a painter, and a fine athlete. But it was as a writer that Goethe found himself idolized everywhere in Europe when in 1774 he published The Sorrows of Young Werther—an emotional novel of thwarted love that leads to suicide.
Goethe's accomplishments as a writer range through all kinds of literature. He wrote numerous lyric poems about his turbulent love affairs, as well as two epic poems. He also wrote other fiction in addition to Werther, and he wrote a book of criticism, a travel account, and an autobiography. His first notable work, written at the age of twenty-three, was a drama. During his years in Weimar, Goethe served as the director of the state theater and during this time he wrote several plays.
The great work of Goethe's life is
Faust. He cast the story in dramatic form, though its poetic qualities are more notable than its theatrical ones. Published in two parts—the first in 1808 and the second after his death—the play occupied Goethe's entire life. The earliest draft had been written before he went to Weimar, and Part II was finished very shortly before his death more than fifty years later. Consequently,
Faust is a large work, reflecting all of Goethe's diverse and intensely felt experiences, his wide learning, and his probing thought.
The historical Faust was a quack scholar-magician of the early sixteenth century, who became a legend in his own time. The popular English play
Doctor Faustus, written by Christopher Marlowe, gave the German legend wide currency. Goethe only used a few details from the legend about a man whose restless search for truth leads him to make a pact with the Devil. Goethe's
Faust is his own unique creation. Most particularly, the salvation that Faust finds at the end of his quest is Goethe's startling alteration of the traditional moral of the legend, which has Faust carried off by demons as punishment for his impudence and sin. This striking characteristic of Goethe's
Faust is announced in the Prologue in Heaven and is fulfilled at the end of Part II. Faust's errors will be justified and he will find the fulfillment he seeks because he refused to accept humanity's lot in passive obedience to a higher power.
