A dull, warm student just beginning his studies under Faust, the student comes knocking at his professor’s study seeking wisdom but is instead received by Mephistopheles, who is disguised as a scholar in cap and gown. The devil advises the student to focus on words over meanings, among other generally unsound intellectual habits, and the student takes his bad words to heart. Later, after graduating and becoming the baccalaureate, the student complains to Mephistopheles, again in disguise, that his education has been nothing but lies told by the old to the young, with the old not even believing the lies they told. Mephistopheles calls him a pompous ass for thinking that original thoughts still exist.
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The student/the baccalaureate Character Timeline in Faust
The timeline below shows where the character The student/the baccalaureate appears in Faust. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 1: Faust’s Study 3
...feels that he cannot face him. Mephistopheles dons a cap and gown to speak to the student instead, and Faust exits the study. The devil boasts to himself that Faust will soon...
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The student enters the study. Mephistopheles, pretending to be Faust himself, welcomes him. The student says he...
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Mephistopheles goes on to advise the student to study metaphysics, a branch of philosophy, which the devil says isn’t meant for the...
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Mephistopheles then tells the student that theology is as much poison as it is medicine. He advises him to study...
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The student inquires about Mephistopheles’ perspective on medicine. In an aside, the devil says he’s grown bored...
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Finally, the student asks Mephistopheles to write a favorable message in his album (a book in which contributions...
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Part 2: Act 2: A High-Vaulted, Narrow Gothic Room (Faust’s Study 4)
...his soul away with, and there’s the gown Mephistopheles disguised himself in when he told the student all that nonsense. The devil takes down the gown and shakes it out. Insects fly...
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Mephistopheles sits in a dignified pose when the student , now called the baccalaureate (whom the devil told nonsense to many years ago) comes...
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Farewell, Mephistopheles says to the baccalaureate , that pompous ass! He imagines that the young man would be much offended to...
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