what's good about goethe's faust? i don't get it

>>9818834
read more and come back to it when you're older

also bookmark this page/save a screenshot and revisit it when you're older so you can have a hearty chuckle at the follies of youth

>>9818834

pt 2 is incredibly difficult and requires familiarity with ancient and scholastic mysticism. pt 1 is a classic reworking of the classic faustus legend and is a fun read even independently of its importance.

the guy took decades to finish it, so it will probably take some time to understand it, as well.

also, im sure its much better in german.

File: faust (1960).png (273KB, 544x400px) Image search: [Google]

273KB, 544x400px

>>9818870
well after pt 1 i dont give a fuck about pt 2

>>9818843
tell me what's the profound truth about women? gretchen is not like any women irl. the older one gets, the less one can even relate to faust being attracted to something as artificial as her.
>but thats not real gretchen, it's the idealistic image of gretchen inside faust's mind. she's not a woman, she's a symbol for pure truth. an unreachable thing in itself.
ZZZZZzz, there must be more to an alleged masterpiece

I liked the first part as a retelling of don quijote and sancho's adventures

>>9818910
you need to go back

what was with that Joycean interlude with all the different weird characters (that was my favorite part kek)

>>9818910
If you read it the way Hesse tells you to read it in his book the steppenwolf you would imagine all the characters as a part of fausts soul. Gretchen as the pure religious side of faust and mephisto as the scientific side that strives for power.
Thus making sense of the famous quote "zwei Seelen leben ach inmeiner Brust"

>>9818941
then who's gretchen's mother?

>>9818910

>not reading part 2
>not literally shedding tears when Faust tries to sublimate his will to power in service of society and his fellow humans and thinking he has finally found meaning in public works projects even while in his blindness mephistopheles demons trick him by making shovel sounds instead of actually working

jesus christ

>>9818941
And i believe that the bet with the whole "verweile doch du bist so schön" thing stands for faust choosing to live a more quiet life he doesnt want to create new moments and experiences but he chooses to stay in one moment so his soul gets taken by mephisto

>>9818972
isnt that just the literal interpretation..?

>>9818956
Well I am not 100% certain but seeing that gretchen symbolizes fausts inocence I would say that religion is her mother? Because she forces gretchen to stay at home etc and be innocent if i remember correctly

>>9818972

I think I disagree with you and would like to formulate a response but I'm not quite sure on account of your thinking being so garbled.

>>9818977
Yeah it is but i dont know how much op got out of the book so i just write everything my classmates in highschool missed when reading it(i had a pretty un/lit/ class so thats why i wrote that obvious one).

>>9818910

She isn't a symbol of pure truth she is aesthetic meaning as beauty. She's the woman meme and it has its place in an alleged masterpiece because it's a universal experience. I'm sure that's boring to you though since you're a fag.

>>9819005
Sorry english isnt my first language what do you disagree on?

>>9818928
walpurgis night. shit gets weird in pt 2

>>9818928

Autobiographical interlude of Goethe and his friends on a typical Wednesday night out.