Explain how Rousseau's man of feeling became Faust in Part Two of Goethe's Faust.

It is easy to identify Rousseau's ideology in
Faust Part I, but harder to find a trace of it in Part II. The
reasons are three-fold. First, sixty years past between the originally published
fragments and Goethe's writing of Part II, recommencing it after his friends and
admirers begged him to complete Faust before the end of his life. Ultimately, Goethe
died just days after completing Faust Parts I and
II. It was sealed, not be opened until after his
death.

Second, Faust was begun in 1772
and helped launch the Romantic period. In 1777, because of a young woman's
self-inflicted death influenced by The Sorrows of Young Werther, a
copy of which was in her pocket, Goethe renounced all association with
Rousseau-influenced Romanticism.

Third, Goethe completed
Faust in the style of Classical drama, with no Romanticism in
Faust Part II, which is steeped instead in the classicalist’s
search for knowledge and reason as is proven by settings, characters, themes, and
allusions. Yet, there are three places where Rousseau-type feeling might be interpreted
as representing Rousseau's man of feeling.

The first is
Faust's encounter with Helen of Troy whom Mephistopheles (Mephisto) has liberated from
the classical underworld. It's interesting to note that when they meet in Part II, Helen
is speaking in Homeric verse and Faust, speaking in Elizabethan verse, teaches her
rhyming.

But
teach me why that man spoke aloud
With curious speech, familiar but
strange.

Faust loves Helen,
who was the first one to stir his passion--before Mephisto coerced him into taking the
youth and love potion that led to Gretchen's undoing. Their courtship and life together
is built on Rousseau's idea of the man of feeling--one who doesn't interrupt his flow of
feeling with the rational task of selecting, combining, and choosing language to produce
an affect of wit and the persuasive power of passion.

The
second is the son that Faust and Helen have. Euphorion is precocious, possessing a
spirit of adventure and exploration. Helen and Faust deeply love and pamper their son:
"It requires two noble hearts / For Love to bless humanity." One day, Euphorion insists
that he can fly and falls to his death: "Onward! I must! I must! / Let me but fly!" The
feeling Faust displays can link him to Rousseau's man of feeling. It is heightened by
his sorrow when Helen is called back to the underworld when their son is no more:
"Mother, don't leave me alone / In the shadows'
domain!"

The third is at the end of Faust's life. He has
completed almost all parts of his land reclamation project yet is plagued because one
old peasant couple has held out against his entreaties and clings to their land, trees,
and chapel--the chapel gives Faust a dread feeling. Mephisto goes too far when Faust in
haste requires that the couple be moved by force to another plot of land that he has
selected. The old couple dies of terror together when Mephisto and his generals storm
in. After Faust's feeling of rage at Mephisto is spent, his feelings turn to remorse and
he says, "Quickly said, too quickly done, I fear!" His final moments are spent in
exalted feelings--further connecting him to the man of felling--after being blinded by
Care, as he envisions a new achievement that will house
millions:

My
last and greatest act of will
Succeeds when ...
[I] make room for
many a million.