This scene reiterates Goethe’s low opinion of the established Church, which has already been noted in Commentary to Part One. The Emperor’s indiscriminate rewarding of his courtiers and his neglect of his kingdom’s real problems emphasizes the decadence of his Empire and any other human institution that is not organized according to sound and harmonious moral principles. In payment for his services, the Emperor gives Faust a large strip of what he thinks is worthless land. This is an additional demonstration of the Emperor’s lack of imagination and good sense. It also serves to call attention to Faust’s courage and dedication in attempting to reclaim the land for human use.
Faust’s great project, an achievement that is of widespread and permanent value to mankind, is seen through the eyes of a simple peasant couple. The couple’s prayer in the chapel to the “old God” is a symbolic expression of resistance to Faust’s new regime. The names Philemon and Baucis evoke ian idyllic old Greek legend in which a couple with the same names offered hospitality to Zeus and Hermes when the gods were travelling through the earth incognito. It is an ironic portent of events to come, but also definitively establishes the old people’s virtue and innocence.
Faust, now more than one hundred years old, broods in his palace garden about his failure to acquire the old couple’s house and orchard. Mephisto and the Three Mighty Men return from a pirating expedition and land at the new port that Faust has built. They report the success of their voyage to him. He orders them to evict Philemon and Baucis from their cottage and secure the property for him.
The innocent and peaceful lives of Philemon and Baucis make him feel guilty and uneasy. Faust’s comment that their cottage is situated on high. “Original” ground, i.e. land not created by his drainage projects and his annoyance when he hears the bells from the chapel where they are praying, shows that he resents the natural life enjoyed by Philemon and Baucis because he is unable to participate in it. He believes foolishly that the possession of their land will satisfy his moral craving and bring him the peace he desires.
Deep Night
Faust learns to his sorrow that Mephisto and the Three Mighty Men have carried out his orders with more violence than he intended. Philemon and Baucis and their wanderer friend have been killed, and the house and orchard, which Faust coveted, have been burned. Faust is overcome by remorse and anger at this miscarriage of his plans. Left alone, he begins to feel strange premonitions.
Now he is genuinely sorry for what has happened and realizes that he is completely responsible for their deaths, even though this had not been the intent of the orders he gave Mephisto. This is the first time that Faust has taken on himself the full blame for the evil consequences of his acts and is a major step in his personal moral development.
Faust has been rapidly coming to a state of moral regeneration as a result of meditations on his experiences caused by the needless deaths of Philemon and Baucis. He has at last rejected his constant obsession about his own destiny, and by so doing has begun to find himself through service to others and active leadership in humanity’s struggle to build a better world.
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