Trusting Your Senses Will Help You Achieve Redemption in This World - Part 2

Goethe's Faust

This article is part 2 of my analysis from reading Goethe’s Faust book. It is a continuation from my first article on this book which you can find here.

At the end of Goethe’s Faust Book 1, Faust along with the devil visit Gretchen in her prison cell in order to help her escape. Faust and Gretchen have a conversation about her leaving with him out of the prison. Gretchen is now trusting her senses. She tells Faust about killing her son and mother. She tells him that while she still loves him, but she has accepted her fate of execution as a form of redemption. She is ready to accept responsibility for her actions and will not escape the prison with him.

Gretchen also tells Faust that she is now trusting her senses and should have never listened to what his friend the devil told her to do. She wished him farewell. As the prison guards are opening her prison cell to execute her, Faust and the devil escape. Gretchen is then executed, and voices from heaven come down. The voices say that Gretchen’s spirit will be allowed into heaven, because in the end she accepted responsibility for her actions and has been redeemed.

LESSON TO BE LEANRED

All throughout this story, Faust and Gretchen chose not to trust their senses. They were able to be lied to and manipulated by the devil’s silver tongue. The devil was able to take advantage of them when they were both in a spiritually weak and vulnerable state. This allowed the devil to con and trick them into acting in unethical ways. Spiritual here doesn’t have to be necessarily religious either. Spiritual could also just be who you are as person and your mindset, or mental state.

When I have not trusted my senses, I have also allowed myself to be manipulated and conned by silvery-tongued people as well. Silvery-tongued people could be a fast-talking salesman, or even a politician who sounds too good to be true. I think we have all been taken advantage of at some point in this fashion. If you do not want to be taken advantage of by unscrupulous people, it could be wise to trust your senses and not live your life in a spiritually weak state. Otherwise, you could suffer the same misfortunes as Gretchen and Faust.

The end of Gretchen’s life is an example of what happens if you do trust your senses and aren’t spiritually weak. You can be empowered, take responsibility for you actions in life, and achieve redemption in the end.

REFERENCES:

Goethe, J. (1808). Faust Part One and Two. Dover Thrift Editions