Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's two-part dramatic poem — Faust Part I (1808) and Part II (1832) — following the scholar Faust who makes a wager with Mephistopheles: if Faust ever finds a moment so satisfying he wishes it to last forever, Mephistopheles owns his soul.
Creates the defining myth of Western modernity — the Faustian bargain, the individual who trades their soul for unlimited knowledge and experience — and Goethe's resolution (Faust is saved by his striving, not by his goodness) makes restless human ambition itself the path to redemption.
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