Home > Terms > English, UK (UE) > Faust
Faust
The protagonist of a German folk tale who makes a deal with the demon Mephistopheles for knowledge and power beyond the earthly realm. In exchange, he has to give up his soul when he dies.
In the story he uses his powers to seduce a young innocent girl, Gretchen, whose life he ruins. Ultimately Gretchen is killed but her pure soul is accepted into heaven. In Goethe's popularized version of the tale, Faust's soul is saved when he dies by angels, who have seen Faust's attempts to do good in the world.
The adjective 'Faustian' is sometimes used to refer to a deal that has heavy consequences for one side.
- Part of Speech: proper noun
- Synonym(s):
- Blossary:
- Industry/Domain: Literature
- Category: Fiction
- Company:
- Product:
- Acronym-Abbreviation:
Other Languages:
Member comments
Terms in the News
Featured Terms
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC)
Television network that was an original proponent of the ACTV ATV schemes. NBC was also the first network to announce its intention to shift from NTSC ...
Contributor
Featured blossaries
dnatalia
0
Terms
60
Blossaries
2
Followers
World's Most Influential Women 2014
Browers Terms By Category
- Wedding gowns(129)
- Wedding cake(34)
- Grooms(34)
- Wedding florals(25)
- Royal wedding(21)
- Honeymoons(5)
Weddings(254) Terms
- Osteopathy(423)
- Acupuncture(18)
- Alternative psychotherapy(17)
- Ayurveda(9)
- Homeopathy(7)
- Naturopathy(3)
Alternative therapy(489) Terms
- Biochemistry(4818)
- Molecular biology(4701)
- Microbiology(1476)
- Ecology(1425)
- Toxicology(1415)
- Cell biology(1236)
Biology(22133) Terms
- Satellites(455)
- Space flight(332)
- Control systems(178)
- Space shuttle(72)
Aerospace(1037) Terms
- Home theatre system(386)
- Television(289)
- Amplifier(190)
- Digital camera(164)
- Digital photo frame(27)
- Radio(7)