Rousseau began writing in 1750
(Discours) and Goethe wrote the first portions of the
Urfaust (original fragment of Faust) in 1772,
therefore it is reasonable that there may be influences of Rousseau's philosophical
ideas in Faust Part I. It is harder to maintain that Rousseau's
ideas appear in Part II, which is developed in a Classical vein and
holds extensive Classical allusion. In 1777, Goethe repudiated Romanticism, which sprang
from his Rousseau-influenced ideas in The Sorrows of Young Werther,
which actually gave birth to Romanticism. His repudiation came when, in
HistoryWorld.net."
href="http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?ParagraphID=kjv#2261">1777,
he saw that a young woman who had drowned herself went to her death with a copy of
The Sorrows of Young Werther in her
pocket.
You might say that Faust becomes Rousseau's man of
feeling beginning from "Witches' Kitchen." It is here that he sees the image of Helen of
Troy in a magic mirror and, as a result, agrees to Mephistopheles’ (Mephisto’s) coercion
to take the witch's love and youth potion. As a result of the potion, his passions are
awakened, after having slept for his lifetime, and he directs his feelings at
Gretchen.
Throughout their courtship and his ultimate
seduction of her, his passions and feelings take more sway up to the moment that Faust,
under the control of Mephisto, meets and slays Valentine, Gretchen's beloved brother.
The ultimate demonstration of his feelings occurs in "Dreary Day: A Field." Mephisto has
told Faust of Gretchen's suffering--though it is not shown on stage--and Faust loudly
berates him and curses him for withholding the information from
him:
Treacherous, contemptible spirit, and thou hast
concealed it from me! ... Stand and defy me with thine intolerable presence! ... [Thou]
hast concealed from me her increasing wretchedness, and suffered her to go helplessly to
ruin! ... Dog! Abominable monster! ... O woe! woe which no human soul can grasp
...!
This and the scenes that
follow are considered by most critics to be Goethe's crowning achievements for the
heightened realism of intense emotion they carry. Faust demands that Mephisto rescue
Gretchen: "Rescue her, or woe to thee! The fearfullest curse be upon thee for thousands
of ages!" Mephisto points out the limits of his power, but Faust, in his love and
horror, is adamant: "Take me thither! She shall be free!" Mephisto cautions him about
the "guilt of blood" that "still lies upon the town" because Valentine was slain. Faust
scorns the mention of his own guilt and demands, "Take me thither, I say, and liberate
her!" Mephisto capitulates, within the limits of his power, and says, "the magic steeds
are ready, I will carry you off," to which Faust echoes, "Up and
away!"
In "Dungeon," the emotion crescendos and grows even
more painfully realistic and intense as Gretchen, half crazed, insists upon her
punishment, and Faust, despite his desperation and despair, is unable to convince her to
allow herself to be rescued. These scenes certainly show Faust as a Rousseauean
href="http://books.google.com/books?id=poqbnNBhkDEC&pg=PA289&lpg=PA289&dq=Rousseau%E2%80%99s+%E2%80%9Cman+of+feeling%E2%80%9D&source=bl&ots=Ch6MRBXG1c&sig=Hl8h50zgelpr51c0BqZmTvVPogw&hl=en&ei=5deFTfBVxNeBB--Nud4I&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDsQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=Rousseau%E2%80%99s%20%E2%80%9Cman%20of%20feeling%E2%80%9D&f=false">man
of feeling, which is defined, in short, as one who declines to interrupt the
flow of passion and feeling and further declines to act within reasonableness and
select, combine, and choose the right words and phrases that create the witty and
persuasive expressions of language used and preferred by a rational--not a feeling--man
[person].
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