Goethe's Faust Lesson Plan

Why does Goethe’s Faust have three prefatory sections?

It is helpful to think of the first three sections of Goethe's Faust as leading upward towards the play's true beginning, which is the wager made between God and Mephistopheles.

The progression from the "Dedication" to the "Prelude on the Stage" to the "Prelude in Heaven" reveals a movement up from the lonely and evanescent world of the Solitary Mortal, to the dynamic and posterity-facing world of Art, to the heavenly world of the Highest and Eternal Good. Each circle is more elevated and encompassing than the last, and each raises the stakes for the subsequent action of the Faust play.

Equally, these three sections...