Faust/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Alternate Character Interpretation: Even in individual versions, there is considerable variation in how characters in the story are treated. Faust -- driven to his bargain from love or suffering mankind, or looking for a cheap and easy way to lord it over others? Mephistopheles -- Anti-Hero seeking to subvert God's injustice, or diabolical hater wanting to damn others to his own misery? Wagner? Gretchen? The Emperor? God? The variations are endless.
  • What an Idiot!: Sure, I'll give up eternal happiness to be best buds with the Embodiment of Treachery and Pure Evil! Where do I sign?!
  • What Do You Mean It's Not Didactic?: Some authors (including Goethe!) have claimed that they had no basic message to convey in their versions of the story.
  • * What Do You Mean It's Not Symbolic?: Do you mean that Mephistopheles does not stand for Martin Luther, Napoleon Bonaparte, Adolf Hitler, or The Tri-Lateral Commission?
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