Although Goethe’s character, which was fiery and intense in his youth, became much more calm with age, there still came to him moments when he was carried away. He had certain eccentricities of an old man, and in particular was often very despotic, and this trait has been the occasion of many stories. His temper, however, became much more certain in his old age, and his general conceptions much more optimistic. Apart from certain short crises, he was happy in his life. In 1828, he settled down at Dornburg and there passed a tranquil existence. “I stay out of doors nearly all day and engage in private conversations with the tendrils of the vine which communicate their excellent ideas to me, ideas about which I shall have marvellous things to tell you”—he wrote to Eckermann on June 15, 1828—“I am composing verses which are quite good, and I hope that it will be given to me to live long in this condition. I am quite contented,” he said to his collaborator, “at the beginning of spring, when I see the first green leaves, I am pleased to watch how, from week to week, one leaf after another appears on the stem. I am delighted in May, when I see a flower-bud; I feel really happy, when in June the rose offers to me its splendour and its perfume” (Eckermann, April 27, 1825). His delight in life at this epoch is also revealed in many letters. “I wish to whisper this in your ear,” he wrote to Zelter on April 29, 1830. “I am delighted to find that even at my great age, ideas come to me the pursuit and development of which would require a second life.”
His conception of life had changed enormously since the epoch of Werther. Goethe himself said: “When one is old, one thinks many things about this world quite different from when one was young” (Eckermann, Dec., 1829). The youthful sensitiveness which had brought him so much suffering was notably dulled. Eckermann was astonished at the way he accepted wounds to his pride. It happened that his design for the new theatre at Weimar was abandoned while it was being constructed, and replaced by another not his own work. Eckermann was much disturbed by this, and went to see Goethe in a state of apprehension. “I was afraid,” he said, “that so unexpected a step would profoundly wound Goethe. Well, there was nothing of the sort; I found him in the best of tempers, quite calm, absolutely above all feelings in the matter.” When he had reached his eighty-fourth year, Goethe had no weariness of life. In his last illness, he showed not the smallest desire to die. He expected to get better, and thought that the approach of summer would restore his strength. The desire to live was strong in him. None the less, he recognised that his cycle of life was finished, and although he had no weariness of life, he felt a kind of satisfaction that life was over. “When, like me, a man has lived eighty years,” he said, “he has hardly the right to live, but ought to be ready every day to die, and to think of putting his house in order” (Eckermann, May 15, 1831). None the less, he continued his work, in particular revising the last two chapters of the second part of Faust. When he had finished them, Goethe was extremely pleased. “I can consider,” he said, “any days which come to me yet as a real gift, as it is a matter of no moment if I write anything more or what such work should be” (Eckermann, June 1, 1831).
Goethe gave Faust one hundred years of life, and it is probable that he thought of that period as his own span. Although he did not reach it, he approached it, after having lived a most active life, full of most valuable lessons for posterity.
IV
GOETHE AND “FAUST”
Faust the biography of Goethe—The three monologues in the first Part—Faust’s pessimism—The brain-fatigue which finds a remedy in love—The romance with Marguerite and its unhappy ending
“Goethe was Faust, Faust Goethe,” said the biographer of the great poet (Bielschowsky, vol. ii, p. 645). Most people admit that in Faust Goethe gave his autobiography on a more detailed scale than in Werther. Why then should I follow my analysis of Goethe himself, which was based on exact facts, with an analysis of Faust? I do so because in addition to the biographical details in Faust, there are many ideas which illuminate the poet’s conception of life. Goethe’s life explains Faust, and Faust explains the soul of its author. And I am convinced that an accurate study of so great a man is of high importance in the investigation of human nature.
The two Parts of Faust correspond with two distinct periods in Goethe’s life. In the first Part, Faust was pessimistic, in the second optimistic. Although many of the high problems that occupy humanity are raised and discussed in Faust, love is the centre on which the drama turns.
In the first Part, conceived and for the most part written during his youth, the chief theme is the love of a young man for a pretty and attractive girl towards whom the hero acts in a fashion opposed to conventional morality. As in most of his principal works, Goethe has made an episode in his own life the basis of Faust. It is the well-known story of Frederique, the daughter of a clergyman, for whom the brilliant young author conceived a violent passion and who returned his affection with a deeper and more enduring feeling. Goethe was alarmed at the possibility of definitely settling his future, and deserted the poor victim of love in an unfortunate state. Later on, he confessed to the Baroness von Stein that he had abandoned Frederique at a time when his desertion was likely to cause the death of the poor girl. “I had wounded to the quick,” he wrote (Bielschowsky, vol. i, p. 135), “the best heart in the world, and I had to repent of it long and almost unendurably.” As an atonement, he made Frederique the heroine of “Goetz” and of “Clavigo,” but not thinking these worthy of her, he immortalised her as the Marguerite of Faust.