Goethe

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Goethes Faust IIIn your text and handbook, you
have covered part I of Faust this presentation
is to let you know what happens in Part II
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Act 1

• Faust is revived from a long sleep, purged of
  feelings of guilt, and given new hope by
  benevolent spirits.
• He and Mephisto then go to the German emperor's
  court, where they "solve" the emperor's fiscal
  problems by introducing paper money and further
  mock the greed of the courtiers in a great
  carnival celebration.
• After descending to the realm of the Mothers,
  all-powerful but unknown goddesses, Faust returns
  with the ability to conjure Helen of Troy and
  Paris for the emperor.
• Faust falls prey to his own desire for Helen, who
  vanishes as Faust tries to grasp her, whereupon
  he falls unconscious. 

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Act 2

• Mephisto brings the unconscious Faust to the old
  study. He comes upon Wagner, now a famous
  professor himself, who is creating life in the
  laboratory.
• Homunculus, the small human figure resulting from
  this experiment,  takes Mephisto and the still
  unconscious Faust with him to the Classical
  Walpurgisnight in Greece, where gods, demigods,
  and other figures from ancient mythology are
  gathered.
• Here, Faust awakes and goes on a search for
  Helen, which leads him to the underworld.
• Mephisto wanders and resists seduction among the
  mythic creatures and acquires a suitably ugly
  shape for himself from the hideous Phorcyads.  

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Act 3

• Helen emerges from the underworld and returns to
  Sparta, only to have to fear that her husband
  Menelaus intends to kill her.
• Mephisto, in the frightening shape of Phorcyads,
  convinces her to seek refuge in a medieval castle
  in the north, where Faust in the role of a knight
  awaits her.
• He courts and wins Helen, and they relocate to
  Arcadia and have a son, Euphorion, the beautiful
  and graceful embodiment of poetry.
• But when Euphorion attempts to fly and fails
  like Icarus, first he and then Helen in her
  grief vanish from Faust's life.
• Mephisto wants to take Faust again into journeys
  of pleasure, but Faust has learned he wants now
  to serve others and not just himself

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Act 4

• Faust turning his energies towards a plan to
  reclaim land from the sea.
• Mephisto convinces him to support the emperor in
  a war against a rival, which is won with the help
  of three figures at Mephisto's service who
  represent primeval forces of violence.
• As a reward, the emperor grants Faust coastal
  lands where he can proceed with his reclamation
  plans.

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Act 5

• All the land is his except for a tiny piece owned
  by an old couple who refuse to sell.
  Mephistopheles engineers their dispossession, and
  they die of fright, a guest is murdered, the
  place is burned--Faust is overcome with remorse.
• Eventually these events lead him to repent he
  extricates himself from involvement with
  Mephistopheles.
• Faust is visited by the allegorical figures of
  Want, Debt, Need, and Care, and Care strikes him
  blind.
• At end, Faust has a vision of ideal human
  society, balanced between competition and
  cooperation. If this vision could be realized, he
  might say the words of his wager. Faust dies.
• Mephistopheles thinking he has won gathers a
  host of demons to grab his soul as it leaves his
  body, but a host of angels drop roses on the
  demons. Mephistopheles gets distracted, Faust's
  soul is carried away by angels.
• Fausts vision of happiness was not about his own
  happiness but the happiness of others
• Last scene glimpses of purgatory, with various
  groups working patiently to purify themselves.
  Gretchen's voice is heard among one group of
  penitents, helping Faust move forward.