Greetings, it is I, Faust. Im sure youve all heard of me.

Tales of me have grown

throughout the years, from what originally used to be of a small traveling
charlatan, to a great sorcerer who traded his soul to the devil in exchange for
great wealth and power. Many legends have sprung of my deeds and tricks, and
so I am here today to make things clear. I shall describe the progression of
myself through three different renditions made of me and my story. I hereby
present: The Faustian Evolution.
The original figure of Faust was born in 1466, in the small German town of
Helmstadt. Originally named Georgius Helmstetter, I studied in the University of
Heidelburg. I registered in 1483 and due to my prodigal genius, achieved my
bachelors degree in an abnormally fast speed of one year. I was a genius, yet
my studies led me to dabble in the arts of magic. I decided to adopt the name of
Faust, and travel around Germany as a wandering magician, giving out calling
cards that named myself to be a fountainhead of necromancy, astrologer, the
second greatest Magus, chiromancer, pyromancer, and hydromancer. (bragging)
I claimed that Jesus miracles werent that impressive, and that I could produce
them many times over! Want to see one? Maybe later. I even claimed that I was
so wise, that even if all the works of Plato or Aristotle disappeared, I could
produce them all, even with a greater elegance! I was offered a teaching position
in the town of Kreuznach, which I gladly accepted. I was later chased out due to
accusations of seducing the male students, no doubt fabrications made up to
blaspheme my good self. I travelled around for a while, providing my magic to
whatever poor sap needed it. I was chased out by a few towns, Ingolstadt and
Nurnberg, that latter whose mayor called me a great necromancer and
sodomite! Oh, the nerve. I did many great and fantastical things after that, one
of them being riding a barrel of wine out of the cellar of Auerbachs Tavern to the
streets! My tragic death came about in 1540, in the Hotel of the Lion of a small
town of Staufen im Breisgau. My body was found in a grievously mutated state,
being the result of an alchemical mixture gone wrong. Many people took this as
proof that I had been in cahoots with the devil and that he had come to collect
his due! Thus I came to the end of my first version: a charlatan and a crook, who
died a most ignoble death.
I was reborn again in the drama of Marlowe, titled The Tragic History of the Life
and Death of Doctor Faustus, published in 1607. In this, no longer the braggart
charlatan, I was now a young professor who was well versed in all domains of
knowledge. After pondering through what I had learned throughout my entire life,
I arrived at the conclusion that only Necromancy would lead to true power,
honour, and omnipotence. (Awe, dreamful) Visions of what my necromancy
would bring me filled my mind, and I dreamed of learning of the greater powers
and the inner workings of the universe. Filled with these visons, I summoned the
spawn of hell, Mephistopheles. His disgusting visage horrified me, so I demanded
him to take on the appearance of a friar, and we discussed a bargain, in that in
exchange for his powers I would give my eternal soul in 24 years time, and that I
would forsake all that is to do with God. I stabbed my own arm to produce the
blood for the contract, and a divine warning manifested in the wound warning
Homo fuge (man, fly!). I ignored it and signed the contract, damning my soul for
all eternity. After signing the contract, I desired marriage, yet was denied it, as
matrimony is under the domain of God, which I had forsaken for the devil.
Mephistopheles later came along and distracted my woe with endless women,
day and night, to satisfy my lust.

Still, you cannot forget the major reason why I signed my soul away: it was to
gain deeper knowledge of the world, about the power of the universe and its
creation. (Exasperated) I attempted to get Mephistopheles to engage in
theoretical debate with me, yet the things he said were so simple that even my
apprentice Wagner knew them! He just attempted to distract me to think about
baser matters, carnal thoughts and other such frivolous things. Understanding
that I had now damned my soul to eternal torment, I became haunted for many
days, conjuring up the spirit of Homer to sing and soothe me. I wouldve taken
my life and called out to Christ for help, yet Lucifer appeared in his stead to warn
me that I had already given my life to his grasp. Instead, he summoned the
seven cardinal sins to perform for me. They were absolutely delightful, and they
distracted me from my thoughts of damnation. (Sad) Thus began the
degeneration of myself: No longer hungering after primeval knowledge, I had
now fallen so far as to be satisfied with a mere show of sins.
After this, I travelled across the glove to visit Rome. There I had such fun playing
tricks on the pope and his friars, blowing on his nose while invisible and throwing
firecrackers everywhere. Instead of my original goal of understanding the
intelligence behind the world, I was now preoccupied with cheap tricks and
pranks, having being degraded by my contract with the devil. (Begin rant)
Through the rest of my 24 years I only degenerated lower and lower, playing
tricks in the court of the roman emperor instead of using my newfound powers to
benefit mankind or gain omnipotence and honour, as I had dreamt about before
contacting the devil. I bickered over a mere 40 dollars for a horse, a far call from
the visions I had of using my powers to gain wealth and power! Oh, how the
mighty have fallen! (Calm self before continuing)
I spent the rest of my life trying to distract myself with physical pleasures, having
degraded to a similar level of my first self, going around playing tricks and doing
frivolous things, trying to not think of my approaching fate. Yet an old man
approached me, attempting to redeem me from my damnation in hell. After a
wavering of conscience, in the end I decided to keep my contract, as I desired
the most beautiful woman in the world as my lover. More distraction to keep me
from thinking of my eternal damnation, I thought that I could find paradise in her,
giving up hope of entering the true one. And thus in the end I am taken by devils
off to hell, living out the last hours of my life in a depressed state, understanding
that I had sinned so greatly that I had no redemption. And here my second
version ends: a once great man reduced to a base animal concerned with desires
of the flesh.
My last rebirth was in Goethes Faust, published 1604, and is my latest and
greatest form. Still a wise professor, no longer do I seek personal gain and
power, but I now seek enlightenment from my dissatisfaction of knowledge
through magic. Yet even magic rebukes me. Again a recurring theme of
depression appears, both being realizations of hopelessness, with my second
version being distressed due to the realization of his damnation and my current
version being unhappy due to the realization that knowledge can no longer
satisfy. The devil does appear again, yet in this he is much more refined and
elegant compared to the devil of Marlowe. As the themes of good and evil played
a much larger role in my second version, the contrast between the two are also
larger. Here the devil himself initiates contact with me, instead of the other way
around. The contract this time around, lasts until I experience a moment of joy

that I wish to keep forever, instead of a mere 24 years. Mephistopheles brings

me to the tavern of Auerbach where the devil plays tricks on the people there.
My third self is much more refined than the first and second ones, as he is not
interested and is actually disgusted with the playing of these pranks, as
compared to the second one. Yet the devil does manage to induce lust within me
towards a maiden by the name of Gretchen, and now themes of corruption
similar to the second version appear. Seeing a beauty in the mirror that is similar
to the Helen of Troy that my second reincarnation was obsessed with, both
versions become obsessed with lust over an eternal feminine. Helen of Troy or
Gretchen, both in the end lead to my end, with Helen of Troy keeping me in the
contract with the devil and thus damning me, and Gretchen leading me to save
her from her prison, which she gets rescued from her prison. The essential thing
though, is the difference of my attitudes between them. Helen was an object of
lust, yet Gretchen was the only person I truly loved. In the end, when
Mephistopheles comes to snatch my soul, he encounters resistance in the form
of God, who saves my soul while explaining that souls that are in harmony with
the Love that motivates the world will receive the grace of God. This is also
alluded to in my second version, where I attempt to marry yet cannot do so, as
matrimony, and true love, come under the designation of God.
And so my journey comes to an end: Although all parts of my stories share
similar elements and themes, in the end, my journey is one of redemption. The
corruption of my character remains the same throughout my versions, but
essentially the contrast of Love and Lust are the things that damn, or redeem me
in the end.