Name Date from Faust: “Prologue in Heaven” and from “The First Part of the Tragedy” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Literary Analysis: Romanticism Goethe was a leading figure in the major intellectual, artistic, and literary movement of the nineteenth century known as Romanticism. Some key characteristics of the Romantic sensibility are • a reverence for nature • a belief that emotion and intuition are at least as important as reason in the search for truth • the championing of the principles of freedom, equality, and individuality • a faith in and concern for the common people This last trait of Romanticism spurred a fascination with medieval folk traditions, especially in their references to the supernatural. The demonic powers widely, if fancifully, attributed to the medieval scholar and magician Johann Faust spurred rumors that he had sold his soul to the devil. For Goethe, the Faust legend proved to be a thematic mother lode that he mined for a dramatic portrayal of a host of Romantic concerns: the limits of human knowledge, the conflict between reason and the emotions, the restless striving of the human spirit, and the uncertain prospects of spiritual fulfillment. DIRECTIONS: Answer the following questions about Romanticism in Faust. 1. In the “Prologue in Heaven,” Mephistopheles speaks these words to God: “He [Faust] is as strange today as that first day you made him. / His life would be not so bad, not quite, / Had you not granted him a gleam of Heaven’s light; / He calls it Reason, uses it not the least / Except to be more beastly than any beast.” Do you agree with Mephistopheles that the use of reason can make humans “more beastly than any beast”? Explain your answer. 2. In “The First Part of the Tragedy,” the scholar Faust, a man of knowledge, ironically declares, “I have long loathed knowledge in all its fashions.” What aspect of Romantic philosophy is expressed in this remark? 3. Faust personifies the Romantic view of humankind as a species tormented by spiritual and intellectual thirsts that it cannot satisfy. Do you think that Faust would be more satisfied if he were living today? Explain your answer. Unit 7 Resources: Revolution and Reaction © Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Pearson Prentice Hall. All rights reserved. 8