Faust

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust is a tragic play in verse. Faust does not seek power through knowledge, but access to transcendent knowledge denied to the rational mind. Faust takes place in multiple settings, the first of which is heaven. Mephistopheles makes a bet with God: he says that he can lure God's favorite human being (Faust), who is striving to learn everything that can be known, away from righteous pursuits. The next scene takes place in Faust's study where Faust, despairing at the vanity of scientific, humanitarian and religious learning, turns to magic for the showering of infinite knowledge.