Angels-MEPHISTOPHELES

The name Mephistopheles etymologically means “he who loves not
the light,” in contrast with Lucifer (light bearer). The name originat-
ed during the Renaissance from a combination
of Greek, Latin, and possibly Hebrew elements,
which explains the existence of variants of the
name, such as Mephisto, Mephistophilus (in
Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor),
Mephist, and Mephisto.
The most well-known account of Mephistopheles
can be found in the story of Faustus,
who sold his soul to the Devil. The mythical
story, which originated during medieval times,
drew upon the life of a philosopher who decided
to make a living by casting horoscopes and predicting
the future. In the following decades the
story was transformed into the legend of a
philosopher who abandoned philosophy and
joined league with the Devil to devote himself to
practicing magic. Mephistopheles agrees to teach
the doctor the Devil’s knowledge and powers in
exchange for Faust’s soul.
The legend of Faust became a major topic
of artistic inspiration in poetry and music following
the creation of Doctor Faustus by
Christopher Marlowe (1564–93). The trend
reached its zenith with the 1831 publication of
Faust: Eine Tragodie by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832),
and continued to inspire nineteenth-century literature on the Devil.
Goethe’s Faust, upon the termination of twenty-five years of devilish
practice, repents and is saved. Faust’s Devil was also somewhat
metamorphosed from the medieval role of enemy in a dueling contest
with Christ or with a saint or a virgin; the contest of the Devil in the
eighteenth century became internalized, the battle taking place within
oneself. This “new” devil was to a certain degree sympathetic to the
human condition, and rather introspective. The Devil’s introspection
and humanization became a pattern in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries and can be found reflected in some of the characters in
Shakespeare’s tragedies.
Ultimately, Goethe’s Devil did not remain exclusively Christian:
he became a more complex, multifaceted, and ambiguous character
representing not only evil against good, but also the oppositions of
matter against spirit and chaos versus order.
Although later operas have been produced that depict the Faust
story, Goethe’s Mephistopheles remains the most powerful interpretation
of the character.