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Tove Holmes
German / Comparative Literature

Ken Calhoon, Mentor
Lisa Freinkel, Mentor

Desire and Agency in Faust

In Faust, Goethe presents a model of desire predicated on agency, yet one that cannot be fulfilled despite Faust’s actions. As a brooding scholar he assumes that action will draw him out of the inner world of his cramped study and unrealized desires, leading him to immediate life and satisfaction. He finds, however, that his desires have become displaced, continually expanding into new areas despite his actions. Goethe annunciates this both in form and content of his Faust work. His life-long revisions seem to lead as well to the conclusion that ideas are difficult to realize. The revisions help create the work’s open structure, one in which desire, as well as guilt for the deeds it initiates, is expanding and displaced. Scholars have noted the connection between Faust’s desire for structure and the open and expanding universe of the modern capitalist system. This project seeks to explain the relationship between desire and agency in terms of the indirect violence of capitalism in Faust.