Gloomy Day. Field

A gloomy day, open field. The only prose scene in the play — Goethe dropping the verse conventions to mark this as something different, a break in the fabric of the drama. Faust has learned the news: Gretchen is in prison. She is charged with infanticide — the child she bore him has been found dead — and she is awaiting execution by drowning in the executioner's vat.

He is in a fury beyond normal expression. He attacks Mephistopheles: wretchedly wandering, imprisoned, as a criminal — that lovely, unhappy creature! Treacherous, worthless spirit! Mephistopheles takes the attack without flinching. He cannot open prison doors by magic; he cannot undo the legal process. He turns the question back on Faust with surgical precision: save her! Who was it that plunged her into ruin — I or you? Faust screams. Mephistopheles is steady.

He has not finished. He lays out the logic cleanly: who reached into her peaceful life? Who laid the first stone? Did Mephistopheles force himself on Faust? Did he make any choice on Faust's behalf? Faust cannot answer. He demands they go immediately. Mephistopheles agrees: if Faust wishes to attempt the rescue, they must go tonight, before dawn. He calls up the horses. They will ride to the prison. What happens when they get there is not in Mephistopheles's power to guarantee.