Faust is the
protagonist of a classic
German legend, based on the historical
Johann Georg Faust (c. 1480–1540).
The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a
pact with the Devil at a crossroads, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. The Faust legend has been the basis for
many literary, artistic, cinematic, and musical works that have reinterpreted it through the ages. "Faust" and the adjective "
Faustian" imply a situation in which an ambitious person surrenders moral integrity in order to achieve power and success for a limited term.
[1][2]
The Faust of early books—as well as the ballads, dramas, movies, and puppet-plays which grew out of them—is irrevocably damned because he prefers human to divine knowledge: "he laid the
Holy Scriptures behind the door and under the bench, refused to be called
doctor of theology, but preferred to be styled
doctor of medicine".
[1] Plays and comic puppet theatre loosely based on this legend were popular throughout Germany in the 16th century, often reducing Faust and
Mephistopheles to figures of vulgar fun. The story was popularised in England by
Christopher Marlowe, who gave it a classic treatment in his play
The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (whose date of publication is debated, but likely around 1587).
[3] In
Goethe's reworking of the story two hundred years later, Faust becomes a dissatisfied intellectual who yearns for "more than earthly meat and drink" in his life.