Witch's Kitchen
Faust is made thirty years younger in a witch's kitchen. He sees an image in a magic mirror that will shape the rest of the play.
Summary
The witch's kitchen: cauldron, apes stirring and tending, a general atmosphere of grimy supernatural housekeeping. Mephistopheles enters and is contemptuous — this is beneath him. He would rather build a thousand bridges than stir a witch's brew. But there is a problem. Faust needs to be made young again for any of the plan to work, and the natural means of rejuvenation — field labor, physical discipline, a simple life — is one Faust refuses to accept. So the witch it must be.
The witch arrives and is offended to find Mephistopheles in her kitchen. Mephistopheles talks her around with flattery and a mild threat, and she prepares the rejuvenating draught from her cauldron. While they wait, Faust looks into a magic mirror standing against the wall. He sees a woman in it — of a beauty that seems to him beyond anything the world could actually contain. He cannot look away. Mephistopheles tells him not to stare: after the drink, every woman he looks at will appear to him like that. The mirror is a prologue to Gretchen, and Goethe makes sure the reader understands it.
The witch presents the drink with elaborate ritual — circles, numbers, a liturgy of magic nonsense that Mephistopheles finds ridiculous but endures. Faust drinks. He staggers and nearly falls. Mephistopheles steadies him. When Faust's vision clears he has lost thirty years; he will see the world and its women through young eyes now. They step out into the street. The image from the mirror is still in his eyes.
- DedicationGoethe's personal lyric addressed to the wavering forms — the characters and images — that have waited sixty years for him to...
- Prelude on the StageA director, a poet, and a clown debate backstage. The director wants spectacle, the poet wants posterity, the clown wants fun....
- Prologue in HeavenThe three archangels sing of creation. Mephistopheles arrives and proposes a wager with the Lord over Faust's soul. The Lord...
- NightFaust alone at midnight. He has mastered everything and found it empty. He attempts to summon the Earth Spirit and is repulsed....
- Before the GateEaster Sunday. Faust and Wagner walk among the holiday crowds. Faust states the play's central division: two souls reside within...
- Study (Part 1)Faust returns home with the poodle. The dog transforms into Mephistopheles, dressed as a travelling scholar. He introduces himself...
- Study (Part 2)Mephistopheles returns. They debate life and desire. Faust states his own terms: if you can find me a moment so satisfying I wish...
- Auerbach's CellarA tavern in Leipzig. Four drunken students banter and quarrel. Mephistopheles joins them, bores holes in the table, conjures wine...
- Witch's KitchenA witch's filthy kitchen. Mephistopheles arranges a rejuvenating draught because Faust refuses the natural alternative — years of...
- StreetFaust sees Gretchen leaving the cathedral and propositions her clumsily. She refuses and walks on. He demands Mephistopheles get...
- EveningGretchen's room, entered while she is out. Faust is overwhelmed by the modesty and purity of her life — a true shrine to holiness....
- PromenadeMephistopheles, furious, reports that Gretchen's mother found the jewels, called the priest, and he took them for the church...
- The Neighbor's HouseThe neighbor Martha frets about her absent husband. Gretchen arrives with news of a second jewel casket. Mephistopheles arrives...
- StreetMephistopheles reports that Gretchen will be at Martha's tomorrow. But Faust must act as witness to Martha's husband's death...
- GardenThe four of them in Martha's garden. Mephistopheles flirts grotesquely with Martha to keep her away. Faust and Gretchen walk and...
- Garden PavilionGretchen and Faust caught kissing in the pavilion. Mephistopheles interrupts, drags Faust away, and gives him a sleeping draught...
- Forest and CavernFaust alone in the forest, grateful and guilty. Mephistopheles arrives and delivers a clinical account of Gretchen's state: deeply...
- Gretchen's RoomGretchen alone at the spinning wheel. The play's most famous lyric: "My peace is gone, my heart is heavy. I shall find it never...
- Martha's GardenFaust and Gretchen in Martha's garden. She asks about religion again; he gives the great pantheist answer. She admits she dislikes...
- At the WellGretchen at the well with Lieschen. They gossip about a neighborhood girl who has been seduced and abandoned — pregnant...
- DonjonGretchen at a shrine to the Virgin, weeping, placing fresh flowers. She cries out her distress to the Mother of Sorrows — the...
- Night. Street before Gretchen's DoorValentin waits in the street for the man who ruined his sister. Mephistopheles sings a mocking ballad under Gretchen's window....
- CathedralGretchen in the cathedral. The choir sings the Dies Irae. The Evil Spirit whispers behind her: her mother is dead, her brother in...
- Walpurgis NightWalpurgis Night on the Brocken. Witches gather for the sabbath from every direction. Mephistopheles is delighted; Faust is...
- Walpurgis Night's DreamAn intermezzo on the Brocken. Oberon and Titania's golden wedding, attended by a parade of allegorical figures — Puck, Ariel...
- Gloomy Day. FieldThe only prose scene — a rupture. Faust has learned Gretchen is in prison awaiting execution. He rages at Mephistopheles....
- Night. Open FieldFive lines. Faust and Mephistopheles riding through the night. Witches gather on the gallows hill — a brief flash of horror...
- DungeonThe dungeon. Gretchen is half mad, singing fragments. Faust begs her to flee. She begins to recognize him but will not leave — she...