Faust is clearly an ambitious man who s

ets high goals and strives for excellence. Despite his stature as a successful and knowledgeable scholar, Faust suffers from a type of mid-life crisis. He reflects on all of the work he had done and all of the knowledge he had gained, only to say “And here I am, for all my lore, The wretched fool I was before” (93). Faust feels no pride for his knowledge and criticizes the foolishness he displayed in his studies. He does not even want credit for his father’s well-known works with medicine: “How little father and son Deserve such fame for their poor art. My father was obscure, if quite genteel, And pondered over nature and every sacred sphere In his own cranky way, though quite sincere, With ardent, though with wayward, zeal” (139). The reason why Faust feels his father’s studies, and in turn his own, were “wayward,” is because Faust comes to the painful understanding that there are boundaries on human knowledge. He describes these boundaries by saying, “Life’s every stirring is oppressed By an unfathomed agony” (97). Faust is greatly troubled with these boundaries, the “unfathomed agony,” and strives to learn more. His ambition to learn is so fierce that he almost takes his own life after Faust’s realization that “I am not like the gods! I’m like the worm that burrows in the dust, Who… is crushed and buried by a wanderers heel” (113). Faust feels as if his existence and knowledge is miniscule in relation to the larger picture. He desperately wishes to have “a magic cloak into my hands To carry me to distant lands” (145). Faust’s striving to learn is so great that in order to be god-like and learn things beyond the human realm, he coincides with the Mephisto.

Faust deserves redemption because he remains ambitious while not adopting Mephisto’s beliefs. Ambition typically can be synonymous with evil, for one may sometimes use false ways in order to reach their aspirations. Faust, on the other hand, harnesses ambition from its natural tendency to lead to evil. He shows great valor and stoicism in not allowing evil to penetrate his own ideal. He should be commended for not allowing the overwhelming temptation of the power of the Devil at his side to in

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