Existentialism in Goethe’s Faust Anonymous 11th Grade

Many novels exist that deal with themes characteristic to their own era, but few exceptional ones incorporate ideas developed much later. One of such examples is Goethe’s Faust, a tragic play about the journey of an alchemist (named Faust, who sells his soul to the devil, Mephistopheles), his discovery and enjoyment of life and finally redemption. Faust, a highly intellectual character, expresses his changing feelings about life numerous times throughout the first part of the tragedy. By closely examining Faust's condition, it can be stated that his characteristics are very similar to those of an ‘Absurd Hero' (a concept of a character developed by Albert Camus, a French Philosopher and writer). The concept is part of Absurdism itself, which is closely related to Existentialism. Despite being a predecessor to the ‘Existentialism era', Goethe still incorporated some elements in his play Faust, which were later attributed to Absurdism.

Goethe's protagonist, Faust, directly fits into the description of an ‘Absurd Hero’. Absurd Hero is a concept explained by Albert Camus in his essay The Myth of Sisyphus, where he declares Sisyphus as a perfect example of an Absurd Hero. Most of Camus’s work deals with Existential themes (even...