Goethes Faust: Witchs Kitchen I. Summary Faust and Mephistopheles enter the witchs lair.

There was a cauldron that was being kept watch by two apes. They approached the apes and asked where the witch was. They answered that she was away, and after being asked what they were guarding in the cauldron, they told Faust and the devil that it was a water beggar soup. The apes invited them to play a game of chance and accused the devil of coming to steal their potion. Faust finds a magical mirror and looks into it and sees a beautiful woman that he falls in love with and asks the devil where she can be found. He calms Faust down and reassures him that he will introduce him to the beautiful woman in time. Now that the cauldron was unguarded, it boiled and overflowed and the witch appeared from the flames. She was angry and tossed hot flames at the apes and the visitors. Mephistopheles was angered by her inhospitality and retaliated. Realizing who she was dealing with, she recoiled and apologized. The devil explained that he shed his old form and asks for a glassful of her famous juice. The witch warned them that if Faust drinks it unprepared he will die within the hour but the devil assured her that he will be fine. She then makes the drink and gives it to Faust. The devil tells Faust that they need to go in order for him to perspire and feel the potions effects immediately. Faust asks to see the woman again but the devil rejects this and said that because of the potion, he will lust after every woman he sees. In a street, a woman passed by Faust and he became enamored by her. He demands the devil to get her for him but the devil said that he has no power over her. Faust insists but Mephistopheles explained that he will need time to tempt the girl. Faust was unsatisfied so the devil took him to her room where he can

masturbate if he wishes and fantasize about the girl. Faust asks the devil of a gift to give to the girl and the devil told him of the existence of hidden treasures.

II.

Analysis This part of Faust is both symbolic and has some relation to some other work,

none of the two being greater than the other. The first to be discussed will be the symbolisms on this part. On doing some prior research and reading, it was said that the scene happened earlier before they went on the witchs lair, in the tavern somehow showed that Mephistopheles, the devil, was slowly losing his hold over Faust, and so the sort of parody in the broken crown and sieve scepter. Another one under the symbolic part was how the witchs antics looked like a parody of the Eucharistic rites, the spoken as the prayers, perhaps, and Fausts drinking as the intaking of the Eucharist. This was probably a protest against Catholic practices during the authors time. The woman, too, was made a symbol for ideal beauty and that eroticism as in the case of Faust has been made a part of his striving youth, because the potion worked and he was already, should we say, aroused even before drinking the potion while he was entranced by the woman that he saw in the mirror. The last one in line in the symbolic part is how the apes were in reference to some evolutionary aspect; that in Fausts quest of regaining his youth, he is abandoning the civilized institutions and higher form of intellectual development and moving back to his baser, animal instincts, which he think is portrayed in the eroticism with regards to the woman in the mirror. As for the relation to other works, the

incantation scene is very similar to a scene in Shakespeares Macbeth, where the witches

were also chanting nonsensical rhymes. At the very last part, the devils aside mentioned women as Helena which could be referred to Troys Helen, the beauty that launched a thousand ships.

REFERENCES: Runyon, C. (n.d). Witchs Kitchen. Retrieved from http://legacy.owensboro.kctcs.edu/crunyon/CE/03-Goethe/48692.htm