Research Paper on:
Goethe’s Faust - A Soul Torn Between Gretchen and Mephistopheles

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
to forget his existential problems and plunge into the heights and depths of the unknown to extend his intellectual reach. His famous pact with the devil to gain youth and  enhanced creativity and turn his back on his past characterizes the problem of modern science. Many natural scientists prefer to credit memory with a minimal role in knowledge acquisition and  criticize scholastics with being too enamored of words instead of action. This aversion to the past and obsession for novelty is dangerous as was the case with Faust. There  are those Goethe scholars who believe that the tragedy engendered by Gretchen constitutes the center of Fausts tragedy. While it most certainly occupies the center of Fausts drama of  memory, it does not transcend the larger events that are taking place on the specifically spiritual plane for Faust.The scene takes place in the garden behind Marthas house. Two couples,  Margaret and and Martha and Mephistopheles, stroll back and forth across the stage representing a garden. The audience is able to pick up pieces of the conversation from first  one couple and then the other. Faust assures Gretchen that one look from her gives him more pleasure than all the worlds wisdom and he punctuates his statement by kissing  Gretchens hand. The other couple is directed to pass by in the stage notes, and Mephistopheles and Martha take their place. Mephistopheles tells the supposed widow that he must  keep traveling in search of adventure. Martha advises him to settle down, clearly, she would prefer with her. As Faust and Gretchen reappear, he asks her if she is  often lonely. Often, replied. Meanwhile, Martha continues flirting with the Devil. It is hard for me to convince you of the need for a home and a family, she says.