Faust
Faust is about the protagonist of a German legendary character who is a highly rated successful scholar. He was born of God-fearing folks in Roda, a place found in the province of Weimar. During his early age, he seemed to lack understanding and common sense, but later on proved to be a scholar. He mastered the Holy Scriptures, mathematics, sciences of medicine, sorcery, prophesy, astrology and necromancy. Despite all these, he feels bored, disappointed and dissatisfied with his life. He makes a decision to approach the devil and makes a covenant with him for limitless knowledge and magic powers to enable him indulge in worldly pleasures.
One night he prepares to a crossroads near Wittenberg in the Spesser Forest to meet the devil. The devil arrives in the event of a great storm angered for being summoned contrary to his will. When the lightening and winds subsides, Mephistopheles, the devil’s representative, appears and asks Dr. Faustus to state his will. They agree to a deal with Faust: that Mephistopheles will serve Dr. Faustus with his magic powers, provide him with all information he might demand and without lying to him. They strike a deal on the condition that Dr. Faustus, after a period of twenty four years, will surrender his soul and body to the devil. Dr. Faustus confirms the pact with the devil by renouncing his Christian faith and writing down a signature by his own blood to formalize the deal.
After the deal, Dr. Feustus’ life is filled with luxury, comfort and perversion. Everything he needed was within his grasp: sumptuous food, fine wines, elegant clothing, and even beautiful women. He gained fame in the land and was never limited by the earthly constraints as he could travel from the furthest stars to the depths of hell. His Students and other scholars were amazed with his knowledge of earth and heaven. However, after the twenty-four year limit indenture to the devil, Dr. Faustus grows more melancholy, and he decides to bequeath his riches to his young apprentice, Christoph Wagner, a student from the University of Wittenberg. On the very last day, shortly past midnight, the devil claims his soul and at daybreak, his students find his corpse lying on a pile of manure.
This German legendary has formed the basis for many artistic, literary, musical and cinematic works that have seen the original Faust legend reinterpreted over the ages. The adjective Faustian implies a circumstance where an ambitious individual ushers away moral integrity just to achieve power, knowledge, success and worldly pleasures for a delimited period.