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
Find My Friends
Introduced with the iPhone 4S, Find My Friends is an iPhone app that allows users to see where their friends are based on the GPS location of their ...
Contributor
Featured blossaries
stanley soerianto
0
Terms
107
Blossaries
6
Followers
Top Ten Coolest Concept Cars
Browers Terms By Category
- Digital Signal Processors (DSP)(1099)
- Test equipment(1007)
- Semiconductor quality(321)
- Silicon wafer(101)
- Components, parts & accessories(10)
- Process equipment(6)
Semiconductors(2548) Terms
- Journalism(537)
- Newspaper(79)
- Investigative journalism(44)
News service(660) Terms
- Action toys(4)
- Skill toys(3)
- Animals & stuffed toys(2)
- Educational toys(1)
- Baby toys(1)
Toys and games(11) Terms
- General accounting(956)
- Auditing(714)
- Tax(314)
- Payroll(302)
- Property(1)
Accounting(2287) Terms
- General law(5868)
- Courts(823)
- Patent & trademark(449)
- DNA forensics(434)
- Family law(220)
- Legal aid (criminal)(82)