The Women of Goethe's Faust: The Seduced; The Trophy; and The Savior.

Abstract

In Goethe’s Faust there are several female characters that move and instill meaning into the mythic narrative. There is the simple but good Gretchen/Margaret ‘The Seduced’; the sublime Helena ‘The Trophy’; and lastly the Virgin Mary ’The Savior’, who comes in to save Faust’s soul at the very end. Dichotomous concepts of the Feminine, of women being either Virgin or Whore, predominate the narrative and have continued into modern times.

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The Women of Goethe’s Faust: The Seduced; The Trophy; and The Savior.
© April 11, 2018, Wendilyn Emrys, M.A.
In Goethe’s Faust there are several female characters that move and instill
meaning into the mythic narrative. There is the simple but good Gretchen/Margaret ‘The
Seduced’, the sublime Helena ‘The Trophy’, and lastly the Virgin Mary ’The Savior’,
who comes in to save Faust’s soul at the very end. Dichotomous concepts of the
Feminine, of women being either Virgin or Whore predominate the narrative, and have
continued into modern times.
Growing up in a primarily Germanic oriented family one may find a simultaneous
offensive-defensive quality to their humor. One should laugh at life, before it laughs at
you. A rather Loki or Trickster quality to one’s basic mental orientation. The character of
Mephistopheles has this quality, and Goethe’s Faust overflows with it.
The Feminine is an underlying core motif in Goethe’s Faust: The Nature Spirit;
Gretchen/Margaret [both names meaning ‘pearl’]; The Mothers; Helena; and the Mater
Gloriosa. How Faust relates to the Feminine in the narrative, determines where he goes
and where he ends up. “The hero who has come under the protection of the Cosmic
Mother cannot be harmed. [. . .] This is the guiding power that runs through the work of
Dante in the female figures of Beatrice and the Virgin, and appears in Goethe’s Faust
successively as Gretchen, Helen of Troy, and the Virgin” (Campbell 71).
Albeit, we are dealing with a male author, from a patriarchal society, of two
centuries ago, the power of the Divine Feminine holds strong within the narrative of
Goethe’s Faust. This works because “the archetype of the feminine has numinosity for

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both sexes because both men and women have been carried in the womb of a woman, and
with the exception of cases of severe deprivation, have been nurtured, cared for, fed
primarily by women during the first years of life” (Wehr 39).
The Nature Spirit most likely represents an aspect of the Divine Feminine: “She is
the psychic factor in nature, an idea formulated in the last century as ‘animism’”
(Hillman 31). Pan-culturally Nature is most often seen as feminine. For the Germano-
Norse she was Erda or Nerthus. For the Old European Cultures, as described by the late
Marija Gimbutas, Ph.D. in her book Civilization of the Goddess, the Divine Feminine as
an Earth Goddess, and as other Goddess forms, was present in many of the prehistoric
cultures of Europe.
It is Faust’s obsession with subjugating the Nature Spirit, seen by most Western
European mythologies as feminine, that drives Faust into his bargain with
Mephistopheles at the start of the narrative. While promoting the concept of the
Enlightenment and Science, Faust uses metaphysical methods to try and control the
supernatural. In Faust, Goethe foreshadows the disasters wrought by the Industrial
Revolution and a dogmatically promoted Science/Enlightenment/Androcentric mentality
upon the Earth.
Mephistopheles cunningly focuses Faust’s obsession with the Nature Spirit unto
Helena via the vision in the mirror. Albeit, at the time Faust does not yet know it is
Helena. Not knowing exactly who the object of his desire is, Faust then focuses his
obsession, as a double or substitute, on Gretchen/Margaret. These themes of illusions,
phantoms, and doubles run throughout the narrative. In Goethe’s Faust, nothing is what is
seems.

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When comparing the narrative of Goethe’s Faust to current, and no doubt past,
social phenomena one is struck at how it foreshadows the practice of powerful men and
their serial wives and families. Gretchen/Margaret could be the archetypal First
Wife/Partner. This First Wife/Partner is often the good maiden and partner who loves and
aids her husband in his career and family goals. [This can happen with successful women
and in gay partnerships, as well, they can also end up having disposable first partners.]
When he, let us call him MBM a.k.a. Mister Big Man, reaches a summit of his
success [he may have others], he discards the First Wife/Partner and takes on either a
trophy mistress or a trophy wife, or multiples in sequence. The First Wife/Partner is his
first marital victim. She is the disposable wife. The family she created either becomes the
disposable family, or he takes the children as part of the image he builds for himself.
Their friends often also stay with the husband, leaving the First Wife/Partner abandoned
and often in dire need.
In his own way, Faust seems to care for, if not love, Gretchen/Margaret, but even
at a time where companionable marriage was becoming popular among the middle and
noble classes, Gretchen/Margaret would not be considered wife material for a man of
Faust’s status. She might have ended up his housekeeper who had his children, but a
marriage would have been something not easily thought of. Faust taking on a false
identity while courting her emphasizes that he started out the relationship in a very
dishonest way. Her going mad and killing their child in what might have been an episode
of guilt allied with Post-Partum Depression ended any chance of their becoming man and
wife. She likely would not have been charged in either her mother or brother’s deaths, if

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she had not murdered her child. However, even in Faust Part 1, Gretchen/Margaret’s
giving herself over to salvation by an unknown power in Heaven, foreshadows what
happens at the end of Faust Part 2 so many years later.
The Trophy Wife/Partner is comparable to Helena, the perfect accessory for
MBM. MBM, and Faust, desire her at first, and often only, for her physical appearance.
In a way the Trophy might end up a sort of phantom, unreal in personhood, or made to
seem unreal in personhood. She supports support MBM’s image of success.
Sometimes, sadly, the Trophy Wife/Partner appears to be a double for the First
Wife/Partner. A physical double of a younger version of the First Wife/Partner. How
damaging this must be for the self-esteem of the First Wife/Partner. In some twisted
instances, where MBM has serial wives/mistresses/partners this pattern of doubles
continues over time and in multiple relationships.
The Trophy Wife/Partner is often conventionally beautiful and seemingly
unattainable for MBM. Unless of course, MBM has great wealth and/or power. Her
unreal beauty, or purported beauty, often makes her unknowable to MBM. He has her
around for her appearance, usually, not who she really is. Often quite younger than
MBM, or from a different background, they appear to have little in common. She is there
for the appearance of success that she gives MBM.
Their child or children may end, as in Goethe’s Faust, a cipher or problem
children because there appears to be little attachment or understanding in their lives. They
are a simulacrum of a real wife or children, or perhaps they are allotted to be so. This is
not just a Western phenomenon, it is also found in narratives from the Far East, since the

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fall of polygamy. Where once a First Wife/Partner had a certain stable status, not publicly
affected by the addition of subsequent wives and partners, now successful men in the Far
East are divorcing their First Wives/Partners and taking on Trophy Wives/Partners.
However, Goethe’s Helena, is both a phantom and not a phantom. While a Trophy
Wife, she goes beyond the stereotype. Helena’s character becomes very real, as written
by Goethe, and evokes no little sympathy when she finds that she is going to be sacrificed
by Menelaus. Even she is unsure if she is the Helena of Troy, or the Helena double who
lived in Egypt during the Trojan War. In a way, she is a double phantom. Either a
phantom because she is a double, or a phantom because she was always a phantom who
Faust summoned with the assistance of The Mothers. Yet that question does not stay in
the forefront of our minds as we see that she becomes a true partner to Faust, has a child
with him, and when she loses that child – as with Gretchen/Margaret, she loses herself,
and is lost by Faust. As in the old myths, when dealing with magicians, sorcerers, Gods
and Goddesses, demons and devils, often everything that you desire that is given to you
ends up an illusion or is lost.
This problem child of theirs, Euphorion, represents the possessive and over-
reaching character of Faust multiplied. Euphorion desires everything, and he wants it
now. As with Icarus, he flies too fast and too high, and is destroyed by his own exuberant
desires.
Faust obtained his first phantom Helena from The Mothers. The Mothers exist in
various forms in Western European Mythology. Was Goethe thinking of the Germano-
Norse Norns or the Greco-Roman Fates? Perhaps he is referring the Trois Matres of the
Celtic-Romano sphere when he created The Mothers in Faust? Perhaps he was just

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thinking in a primordial archetypal way? No matter, they are a presence of the Divine
Feminine in the narrative. They are so remote, and so powerful, that they unnerve even
Mephistopheles.
Faust continues to desire the Nature that he cannot have without destroying it. He
wants the Arcadian dream of Baucis and Philemon. When he requests this from
Mephistopheles, and his henchmen, they kill the elderly couple, burn down the temple
and sacred trees, and destroy Faust’s Arcadian dream. It seems that Faust’s great failing
is his need to possess beings and things.
After this is when Care creeps into Faust’s sphere. Perhaps we might better see
Care as Empathy. Described as feminine in nature, she tries to creep into Faust’s
consciousness, rather like a psychopath suddenly developing empathy. He tries to rebuff
her, but she blinds him. Faust is soon in extremis and Mephistopheles comes to collect
Faust’s soul.
This is where the narrative gets bawdily comedic and Mephistopheles ends up
hoisted on his own petard, so to speak. Mephistopheles has driven Faust, and Faust has
driven himself, by Faust’s desire for things and beings. This is where Heaven, or to be
more precise, the Divine Feminine in the form of the Virgin Mary as Mater Gloriosa,
saves Faust’s soul from damnation with a subterfuge.
She sends down a pack of cute little cherubim and angels to distract, confuse, and
arouse Mephistopheles and his devil henchmen. The Virgin Mary uses desire as a tool to
defeat the Devil. The Virgin Mary becomes the Trickster and outflanks the Devil in the
form of Mephistopheles.

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Faust being saved was Goethe’s invention. The historic Faust is said to have been
found dead in a very gruesome and demonic fashion. Goethe draws on a long-held belief
that the Virgin Mary was a Savior, a Soteira, of damned souls. One just asks for her aid
and any pact with the Devil was negated and the person’s soul, no matter how evil or
what they had done, was saved, and taken to Heaven.
Various reasons were given for the Virgin Mary being accorded this power. That
the Virgin Mary has a special ability to get her Son to give in to her requests. That if a
damned soul appeals to her compassionate nature, they will be saved.
Apparently, even in Heaven, Jesus is a Momma’s Boy. Or that as Queen of
Heaven, as the Divine Feminine, she holds that power within herself. Numerous
artworks, covering centuries, depict the Virgin Mary doing just this. Saving the souls of
the damned from eternal pain and suffering. Goethe is appealing to a very long held,
treasured, and Catholic myth. One that the Protestants tried to exorcise when they
lessened The Virgin Mary’s overt importance in their belief system. [See Figs. 1-3].
However, Goethe makes clear the reason that this is happens. It is not that Faust
asks to be forgiven – which is the usual codicil for this form of salvation. Just that he has
strived, and most importantly, that Gretchen/Margaret, who had asked for forgiveness,
interceded with the Virgin for the salvation of Faust’s soul. Another reason may have
been that as Goethe himself was approaching his end, he was hoping to be embraced by
the Divine Feminine when he passed on:
DOCTOR MARIANUS (prostrate, adoring):
Penitents, behold elated
The redeeming face;

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Grateful, be regenerated
For a life of grace.
That all good minds would grow keen
To serve thee alone;
Holy virgin, mother, queen,
Goddess on thy throne!
(Goethe and Kaufmann 503)
Whilst Goethe’s Faust is a ripping yarn, to most contemporary audiences, it might
ring hollow. Many may wish to see the Divine Feminine as Justice, to see her pay back a
wrongdoer for their malignant deeds. Most do not want to see them escape punishment or
retribution. If everyone can be forgiven, just by asking, why conduct yourself in a benign
manner. If the users and the abusers are saved merely by asking, why be kind? Love
conquers all, is not palatable, when the beloved is bad. While Goethe’s kind heart, and
the Divine Feminine, save Faust, one might prefer to see him in Tartarus.

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Works Cited
Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1973.
Print.
Downing, Christine. Mirrors of the Self: Archetypal Images That Shape Your Life. Los
Angeles: Tarcher, 1991. Print.
Gimbutas, Marija. The Civilization of the Goddess: The World of Old Europe. San
Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1993. Print.
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von, and Walter Arnold. Kaufmann. Goethe's Faust. New
York: Anchor, 1990. Print.
Hillman, James. "Anima: Guide to the Soul." Mirrors of the Self: Archetypal Images That
Shape Your Life. Ed. Christine Downing. Los Angeles: Tarcher, 1991. 30-32.
Print.
Wehr, Demaris. "Animus: The Inner Man." Mirrors of the Self: Archetypal Images That
Shape Your Life. Ed. Christine Downing. Los Angeles: Tarcher, 1991. 33-47.
Print.

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Works Consulted
Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1973.
Print.
Downing, Christine. Mirrors of the Self: Archetypal Images That Shape Your Life. Los
Angeles: Tarcher, 1991. Print.
Gimbutas, Marija. The Civilization of the Goddess: The World of Old Europe. San
Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1993. Print.
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von, and Walter Arnold. Kaufmann. Goethe's Faust. New
York: Anchor, 1990. Print.
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von, Stuart Atkins, and David E. Wellbery. Faust I & II.
Princeton: Princeton UP, 2014. Print.
Hillman, James. "Anima: Guide to the Soul." Mirrors of the Self: Archetypal Images That
Shape Your Life. Ed. Christine Downing. Los Angeles: Tarcher, 1991. 30-32.
Print.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. Nietzsche: "The Birth of Tragedy" and Other Writings. Ed.
Raymond Geuss and Ronald Speirs. Trans. Ronald Speirs. Cambridge: Cambridge
UP, 1999. Print.
Wehr, Demaris. "Animus: The Inner Man." Mirrors of the Self: Archetypal Images That
Shape Your Life. Ed. Christine Downing. Los Angeles: Tarcher, 1991. 33-47.
Print.

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FIGURES
Figure 1 - The Virgin Mary punches the Devil.
From the St. Alban’s Psalter,
circa 1240 CE
blogs.bl.uk/.a/6a00d8341c464853ef01b8d26cc4da970c-800wi.jpg

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Figure 2 - The Virgin Mary wrestles the Devil to save a soul.
From the ‘Taymouth Hours’, c.1325–40 CE
http://blogs.bl.uk/.a/6a00d8341c464853ef01b7c8e26493970b-500wi.jpg

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Figure 3 - Madonna Del Soccorso takes a club to the Devil
http://www.wdtprs.com/blog/images/MARY/12_01_28_soccorso.jpg