THE FOUNDERS PRIZE ESSAY: FOREIGN
LITERATURES AND LANGUAGES
Schopenhauer and Faust II
William Robert Brown, Jr.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
It is striking that so little has been made of the
close acquaintance of Arthur Schopenhauer with Goethe
in the years directly preceding the publication of
Schopenhauer's magnum opus, The World as Will and
Representation Goethe's influence on the philosopher was
unmistakable; Schopenhauer quoted ubiquitously from
his three great Western influences--Plato, Kant, and
Goethe--and openly acknowledged the debts he owed
them. He was solitary by nature, and his acquaintance
with Goethe, whom he often cited simply as "G" or
without attribution at all, was the only close personal
relationship with a thinker of stature he ever enjoyed. For
Schopenhauer, the Goethe experience was a once-in-a-
lifetime encounter (Angelika Hiibscher 109), and his chief
work "arose before, during, and after their conversations
of the winter of 1813-1814. . . 'directly in intercourse with
and with an eye towards' Goethe" (Wittkowski 233). A
reader of Goethe, on the other hand, could easily be
forgiven if he were to conclude that Goethe had never
heard of a Dr. Arthur Schopenhauer. Conrady's
exhaustive two-volume biography of Goethe lists
Schopenhauer in the index only once, his sister Adele
once, and his mother Johanna four times. Goethe had
indeed ignored the young Arthur at Frau Schopenhauer's
salons in Weimar before Arthur went off to university at
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Gottingen and Berlin. Yet after the newly graduated Dr. Goethe's daughter Ottilie reports, "With others, he would
Schopenhauer sent Goethe his doctoral thesis, Goethe chat, but with him, young Dr. Arthur, he philosophized II
came to Johanna Schopenhauer'ssalon to ask Arthur if he (Safranski 178). Schopenhauer was admittedly not much
would like to join him in his investigation of colors, and of a social animal, but Goethe saw enough promise in his
an intense series of discussions that extended beyond the ideas to put up with his less admirable social qualities
subject of colors to all possible realms of philosophical (letter to Karl von Knebel, 24 November 1813).
inquiry ensued (Wittkowski 233). But while Goethe, however, was soon to learn that his pupil
Schopenhauer acknowledged the great influence of the had ideas of his own. Even as one of Schopenhauer's
hours he spent in Goethe's company, Goethe had little to idols, Goethe was not immune from contradiction. Just as
say about Schopenhauer. I argue that this is not because Schopenhauer was quick to point out the "errors" of Kant
Goethe did not benefit from Schopenhauer's ideas, but and Plato, he was ready to enumerate Goethe's errors in
rather that he, angered with his pupil, condemned his pet color theory. The crux of his disagreement with
Schopenhauer through silence. Goethe was his belief that perception--in this case,
The nature of light and color was the subject of seeing--necessarily depends on the participation of the
heated discussion during the first part of the nineteenth observing subject, as Hiibscher relates: "when
century. The particle theory of light, promulgated by Schopenhauer . . . declared that the world of the senses
Newton in opposition to the wave theory of Huygens, was our representation and that there would be no light if
was under siege on all sides by observations of visual we did not see it, Goethe gazed at him with his Jupiter
phenomena that Newton's theory could not explain. eyes and said: 'No, it would be you that would not be if
Eventually the particle theory was abandoned in favor of you did not see the light' (Arthur Hiibscher 64-65).11The
a wave theory of light, but this was not generally accepted fundamental difference between Goethe and
yet for some years. Goethe was among those who Schopenhauer was, then, Schopenhauer's contention that
opposed Newton, and his years of anti-Newtonian the phenomenal world is merely the representation of the
observations were published in 1810 as Towardsa Theon}of observing subject, a shadowy illusion without any
Colors, a work that he felt would be the source of his existence in its own right independent of the observer.
lasting fame. He was disheartened by the public reaction, For Goethe, however, as will be seen, light has its own
which ranged chiefly from critical to indifferent. He was existence and is not without value. Goethe and
looking for a disciple to help promote his theory, and it is Schopenhauer ultimately parted ways over this
in this context that he invited Schopenhauer to join him in irreconcilable conflict of Weltanschauunf9 Schopenhauer's
his investigations (Safranski 177-78). Goethe kept his life-denying pessimism was irreconcilable with Goethe's
pupil away from the salons and other social events of eternal optimism. When Schopenhauer departed Weimar
Weimar; he was invited to Goethe's not to socialize, but in May 1814, Goethe summed up the difference between
rather to come alone and speak of serious matters. As them with a couplet in Schopenhauer's notebook: "If you
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want to enjoy your own worth, / You have to give the
world some as well" (Schumann 264). As Schumann force / Which binds the world, and guides its
notes, the break was complete: "Here one can recognize course" (382-383). In Schopenhauerian cant, he wants to
the deep chasm that fundamentally divided the great know the Will. Goethe and Schopenhauer agree,
affirmer of life from its denier. It was a noteworthy however, that lasting satisfaction of this or any other
friendship between the two men who were so different in human desire is impossible. Faust continually experiences
age, temperament, and world view, but a lasting the futility of trying to satisfy his wishes, realizing that
association was impossible" (267). Or, as Goethe wrote in each achievement only marks the beginning of the next
his notebooks from 1816, "Dr. Schopenhauer came to me quest. He upbraids Mephistopheles for failing to
as a sympathetic friend. We discussed much in agreement understand the striving:
with each other, but in the end a certain division could
not be overcome, as in the case of two friends who have Canst thou, poor Devil, give me whatsoever?
journeyed together part when one wants to go north and When was a human soul, in its supreme
the other south and who very quickly pass from each endeavor,
other's view" (quoted in Arthur Hiibscher 71). Goethe E'er understood by such as thou?
met with Schopenhauer once more in 1819 after the Yet, hast thou food which never satiates, now,
publication of The World as Will and Representation, and The restless, ruddy gold hast thou,
their conversation was in Goethe's words, "an education That runs, quicksilver-like, one's fingers through
on both sides," but the rest is silence. A game whose winnings no man ever knew. . . .
Goethe was impressed enough by the ideas in (1675-1681)
Schopenhauer's thesis, On theFourfoldRootof thePrinciple
t
of SufficientReason,o take Schopenhauer under his wing. Schopenhauersays very much the same thing:
Schopenhauer's later work also impressed him. Upon
receiving a copy of The World as Will and Representation All willing springs from lack, from deficiency, and
from Schopenhauer, Goethe read it with an intensity thus from suffering. Fulfillment brings this to an
Ottilie had never seen in her father; he told her that many end; yet for one wish that is fulfilled there remain
of its ideas were ones he had felt and shared and that the at least ten that are denied. Further, desiring lasts
work brought him lito a more meaningful understanding a long time, demands and requests go on to
of himself" (Wittkowski 233). This Ubereinstimmung infinity; fulfillment is short and meted out
[agreement] with Schopenhauer's ideas is evident in the sparingly. . .. No attained object of willing can
pages of Faust II. Faust's quest, set forth in the "Night" give a satisfaction that lasts and no longer declines;
scene of part 1, is to know the reality that underlies his but it is always like the alms thrown to a beggar,
phenomenal experience: "That I may detect the irunost which reprieves him today so that his misery may
be prolonged till tomorrow. (WWR 1: 196)
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Nevertheless, the quest goes on. Since the Meister's Apprenticesltip and noted in his copy of The World
knowledge Faust seeks is beyond Mephistopheles-- as Will and Representation:
"omniscient am I not" (1582)--he cannot look to the Devil;
he must look within himself, within the one manifestation Through this alone (that we ourselves are the will)
of the Will he can view without mediation between do we in fact have an anticipation of that which
Subject and Object. Schopenhauer says as much in On the Nature (which also is the will that constitutes our
Will in Nature: "Will [:] . . . whoever asks me what that own being) endeavors to represent, an anticipation
might be I refer to his own inner self where he will find it which in true genius is accompanied by a degree of
whole, yes in colossal size, as a true ens realissimum. I circumspection so that as the genius recognizes the
have thus not explained the world by means of the Idea in individual things he simultaneously
unknown but rather from the best-known thing there is, understands Nature's halting language and now
which is known to us in an entirely different way than all speaks clearly what it only stammers. (Wittkowski
else" (318-19). This inward vision is experienced by Faust 236)
as he is blinded by Care in the "Midnight" scene; as his
outward sight wanes, the inward vision grows: "The In Schopenhauer's terms, Faust's aesthetic
night seems deeper now to press around me / But in my experience takes him behind the veil of Maya, behind
inmost spirit all is light. . ." (11499-11500). This inner time, space, and individuality to know the world as Will
vision results in Faust's salvation. All of the attempts at and no longer as representation. His capacity for
aesthetic detachment frees him from the bonds of the
creation in part 2 are doomed to failure: the conjuring of
Helen, Wagner's creation of Homunculus, and Faust's phenomenal world and saves him (Wittkowski 236). Such
dream-son Euphorion all collapse. Even Faust's final moments, rare though they may be, form the cornerstone
project of land reclamation will fail, as Mephistopheles of Schopenhauer'saesthetic; they offer a brief respite from
confides, "The elements with us are banded / And ruin is the Will's unrelenting yoke as the observer overcomes his
the certain fate" (11549-11550). Yet Faust's blindness hides egoism and sees without self-interest beyond the
from him that the digging he hears is not of the final canal phenomenal world to the Will: "For that moment we are
but of his own grave; with his inward eye he conceives of delivered from the miserable pressure of the will. We
the completion of his project. This aesthetic anticipation celebrate the Sabbath of the penal servitude of willing; the
of his creation is for Faust his highest moment: "In proud wheel of Ixion stands still" (WWR 1: 196). It is this
forefeeling of such lofty bliss / I now enjoy the highest moment of objective aesthetic contemplation that is the
Moment--this!" (11549-11550). Goethe knew this object of Faust's quest that he bids to linger.
anticipation firsthand; he wrote of experiencing a dark This Will-less contemplation is beyond time, space,
"anticipation of great truth" at the conception of Wilhelm or self, and in it Faust's identity literally sinks away as his
body sinks to the ground. The "Mountain Gorges" scene
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that follows marks the beginning of a continual process of The choice of tragedy as the expression of the
Faust's liberation from his identity, as Faust joins a human condition is common to both Goethe and
company of souls seeking a higher plane of existence. This Schopenhauer. For Schopenhauer, the tragedy is the most
is an ongoing process of losing oneself, of shedding the moral form of artistic expression because it represents a
illusion of individuality to recognize oneself as part of an denial and giving up of the Will (MR 3: 32). Yet for
undifferentiated cosmic unity; the Pater Ecstaticus seeks Goethe the tragedy of Faust has a hopeful ending, and it
to be freed of himself through suffering just as the Pater is precisely here where he and Schopenhauer part ways.
Profundus seeks this liberation through love. One recalls Goethe drives this home by a direct association with the
that in "Before the City-Gate" Faust proclaimed his need canonical Western tragedy, Hamlet. The denouement of
to split the corporeal part of himself from the spiritual-- part 2 begins with "Great Outer Court of the Palace," in
his goal is to liberate Subject from Object, "the perceiving" which Goethe invokes the existential Angst of Ophelia's
from the "object of perception," and thus to achieve an funeral; the gravedigging lemurs echo the refrains of the
Aufl1ebung [suspension] of the phenomenal world whose gravediggers in Hamlet. This overt association with
illusory existence derives from the Subject-Object Handet begs the tragedy's central question: Does life have
dichotomy: meaning? For his part, Mephistopheles sees nothing
behind Faust's final vision--'T'is just the same as if it ne'er
Two souls, alas! reside within my breast, existed" (11601)--justas Hamlet sees nothing in the empty
And each withdraws from, and repels, its brother; orbs of Yorick's skull, but the play's conclusion
One with tenacious organs holds in love vehemently rejects this view. Faust's existence on Earth
And clinging lust the world in its embraces; was not without worth; to achieve the higher existence
The other strongly sweeps, this dust above, they seek, the Blessed Boys must first learn from Faust
Into the high ancestral spaces. (1112-1117) what he has learned in the earthly existence they were
denied. This is the paradox; Goethe tells the reader that
Through his aesthetic anticipation he has freed himself his strivings are futile and that he will always be
from the bonds of corporeal existence, and he steps frustrated in life--but yet that life has meaning.
beyond the illusions of the phenomenal world: space, Why, then, if there was such philosophical affinity
time, and individuality; he rejoins the deeper level of between Goethe and Schopenhauer was there hardly any
reality hinted at throughout Faust, whether in the mention of it by Goethe? It seems there was more to their
trappings of the Christian mythos or the mysteries of the acquaintance than two thinkers together for a time who
Mothers, thanks to his ability to overcome himself went off in different philosophical directions. The time
aesthetically. "No Angel divorces / Twin-natures singly spent under Goethe's tutelage left its mark on
grown / That inly mate them / Eternal Love, alone / Can Schopenhauer; even above Plato and Kant, Goethe was
separate them" (11962-11965). the model for Schopenhauer's conception of genius. Yet
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Schopenhauerwas not above pointing out where his idols there is a time to learn / But you are skilled to teach, I
went astray; his writings are peppered with lines like: now discern" (6754-6755). Was this Goethe's rebuke of
"Kant's greatest mistake was. . . ," "where Plato erred was Schopenhauer? It would seem so; there seem to be a
. . . ,u and so on. Goethe, too, found that his proselyte was number of things in the scene that point directly to
a critical one. In 1816 Schopenhauer published his own Schopenhauer. Baccalaureus has just left academia just as
manuscript on color, On Seeing and Colors,which he called Schopenhauer had finished his doctoral thesis at Jena
the comprehensive theory of color Goethe's Towards a when he came to Goethe. Baccalaureus's "storming"
Theory of Colorsdid not provide. While praising Goethe's manner is literally reminiscent of Schopenhauer, whose
observations as the Ausgangspunkt [point of departure] partial deafness from childhood forced him to
which made his work possible (which indeed it was), overcompensate, making him often loud and
Schopenhauer was more than willing to point out where overbearing, and Baccalaureus has just as little tact as
he "had made. . . an essential stride beyond [Goethe]" Schopenhauer did himself. Baccalaureus's audacious
(OSC 645). When Schopenhauersent Goethe a copy of his claim, liThe world was not, ere I created it" (6794),
new work, he hoped for approval but got silence. His parallels the audacious opening words of The World as
attempts at tact did not help matters; Goethe did not want Will and Representatiofr liThe world is my representation. II
to hear Schopenhauer speak glowingly of his conviction The light imagery--"Darkness behind, the Glory leading
that it would be the name Schopenhauer that would be me" (6806)--seems to have a double meaning, both in the
taught to future generations of schoolchildren as the literal sense of Schopenhauer's subject-oriented color
discoverer of the one true theory of color (letter to Goethe, theory--"There would be no light if I did not see it"--and
11 November 1815). He goes on in the same letter to in the figurative sense of Schopenhauer's vision of himself
suggest that Goethe might now be advised to undertake illuminating the world with his theory. Goethe's
another field of endeavor, perhaps in one of the higher assertion of the light's existence--"No, it would be you
realms of poesy. Goethe's silence was most painful for that would not be if you did not see the light"--is echoed
Schopenhauer, who did not intend any offense, and only here when Baccalaureus claims, "Save through my will,
sadly does he recognize himself in one of Goethe's no Devil can there be," and the Devil responds, liThe
epigrams, which Schopenhauer cites in the introduction Devil, though, will trip thee presently II (6791-6792). There
to his color theory: "I'd gladly bear the teacher's burden is still further evidence pointing to Schopenhauer. Upon
longer / If students weren't so quick to become teachers completing The World as Will and Representation, the
themselves II (OSC 645). nearly thirty-year-old Schopenhauer sent Goethe a copy
But that sounds familiar. In "A High-Arched, of the work, calling it lithe fruit. . . of my life" and quoting
Narrow Gothic Chamber," the curious scene with Helvetius that men do all the original thinking of which
Baccalaureus, Mephistopheles appears in the guise of they are capable by their thirtieth year (letter to Goethe,
Faust reproaching the prodigal student: "Beyond a doubt 23 June 1818). Baccalaureus states this same sentiment
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somewhat more bluntly: "When one has passed his
"Uber den Willen in der Natur." Kleinere Schriften. Zurich:
thirtieth year / One then is just the same as
Haffmans, 1987. 169-321.
dead" (6787-6788).The almost seventy-year-oldGoethe, it "Uber das Sehn und die Farben." Kleinere Sc1mften Ziirich:
would seem, would beg to differ; in Mephistopheles's Haffmans,1987. 633-728.
voice,he takes the unusual step of directly addressing the Arthur SchopenlJauer: Manuscript Remains. Trans. E. F.. J. Payne.
younger members of the audience, admonishing them not Oxford: Berg, 1988.
to disregard the wisdom of their elders: G
Arthur Sc1lOpenI1auer: esal1lmelte Briefe. Ed. Arthur Hiibscher
Bouvier: Bonn, 1978.
My words, I see, have left you cold; Schumann, Detlev. "Goethe und die Familie Schopenhauer." Studien
For you, my children, it may fall so: zur Goethezeit: BeiheftZUlliEuphorion18 (1981): 257-80.
Consider now, the Devil's old; Wiukowski, Wolfgang. "Goethe, Schopenhauer und Fausts SchluBvision."
To understand him, be old also! (6815-6818) Goet/1eYearbookS (1990): 233-68.
NOTES
I cite Faust by line number and abbreviateSchopenhauer's works in
citation as follows: The World as Will and Representation is ttVWR;On Seeing
and Colors is OSC; Manuscript Remains is MR. Except where a translator is
cited, the translations are my own. Letters from Schopenhauer come from
Gesal1ll1lelteBriefe. Goethe's letter to Knebel is found in iiber Arthur
Schopenhauer.
WORKS CITED
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. Faust. Trans. Bayard Taylor. New
York: Washington Square, 1964.
Haffmans, Gerd, ed. iiber Art/nITSchopenhauer. Diogenes: Ziirich,1977.
Hiibscher, Angelika. Arthur Schopenhauer: Leben und Werk in Texten und
Bildem Frankfurt: Insel,1989.
Hiibscher, Arthur. Denkergegen den Strom. Bonn: Bouvier, 1973.
Safranski, Riidiger. Sc110penhauerand the Wild Years of Philosophy. Trans.
Ewald Osers. Cambridge: Harvard,1990.
Schopenhauer, Arthur. The World as Will and Representation Trans. E. F.
J. Payne. New York: Dover, 1969.
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