Faust is perhaps my favorite play and story. I have uploaded the script to the ‘The Tragical Hisory of Docktor Faustus’ by Christopher Marlowe and also the Goethe version ‘Faust’ parts one and two.
I will be reading these texts soon and making threads about them.
Faust has many interesting aspects that are philosophical through and through.
The writing of the contract with the devil, with his own blood, is like the ego is a substance ‘in the blood’ that is spilled onto the page. Desires and drives are spelled out on the page with a time reference too, Faust becomes an abject/ reject and a project by defining his subjectivity in relation to Mephistopheles. Even though Faust has him at his service, Mephistopheles is more free than Faust.
It is worthwhile to study the etymological origins of the word Mephistopheles and the development of the character historically and the whole pact thing as a literary meme throughout European history and its predecessors. You may even like to write a nice article collating that information.
There’s something very humane about Mephistopheles, that’s why I wanted to read the Goethe version, as Mephistopheles seems to be what Faust is destined to become and he feels compassion towards him.
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