Faust Image Evolution Research

Faust is a constant literary image in the history of foreign literature,from the 15th century in the history of a real historical figure into the 16th century into the literary works,until the twentieth century,Faust theme is still worked by different writers with different connotation.The first part of this paper is from the context of the time,describe the image evolution of Faust in history.The second part of this paper is based on the German writer Goethe’s "Faust",a classic image,dating back to the image of Faust evolution,the first section,from the historical figures to the legendary hero,Faust is a magician,after his death,people said he sold his soul made the exchange with the devil to obtain all kinds of magic,become a legendary hero,but he was rejected by the upper class of the Christian,he use magic to summon the characters in Homer,merry Helen in literary works,he is a religion of rebel image;In the second section,from the legend of hero to humanist,Marlowe rewrite Faust story into drama,Faust and the devil sign contract with soul exchange 24 years to enjoy life,in order to explore the mysteries of the universe,to realize the aspiration in Renaissance for wealth,fame,power,etc.He pursuit the life enjoying,but he couldn’t get a balance in the soul peace from religion and the secular enjoy.He becomes a tragedy knowledge explorer image in the Renaissance;In the third section,from the humanist to enlightenment fighter,Goethe’s written Faust demand the highest satisfy of the ideal embodiment,Faust as 18 th-century suitors image seeking the ultimate truth.The third part of this paper discussed the classic Faust image from three aspects.Here by Goethe creation of image as investigation object,Faust become a classic in the western literature and even world literature type,the first aspect is ideological,Faust own explore consciousness,self denial consciousness and the consciousness of the pursuit of the ultimate truth,this let him obtain the ideological preparation to know the truth.The second aspect is the art of image promotion,from the narrative,plot,dramatic conflicts and mental rendering method,The author through the depiction of a series of Faust to explore the vast journey of exploring truth.The third aspect is the value of the image sublimation,the author thinks that the image of Faust represents Europe until the 18th century era of the summit of the heroic image;Faust points the way for philosophical human self-realization in religious level and practice level.