Bringing Faust to life as a character requires an acceptance of the idea of knowledge as power. Portrayed as a genius among laymen, Faust makes what can be considered the ultimate sacrifice in the context of the play--giving up is soul--as a way to attain knowledge he can't on his own, as well as love.
This intense desire for knowledge leads to the pact made with Mephistopheles that drives the rest of the plot forward, even though it's a desire that is never fully explained. We open on Faust trying to gain knowledge by mystical means, his failure in which leads him to contemplate suicide. He's willing to end his life and eventually sell his soul in the name of knowledge, in the name of power. The devil is able to grant him power he couldn't attain on his own. Taken at face value, this deal is simply an intellectual looking to further his own academic pursuits. But most scholars can accept a limit to knowledge, that they can only know so much. This is not the case with Faust. He refuses to accept anything less than a supernatural intellectual level for himself, and this eventually leads him to do the unthinkable. The tragedy in Faust lies not in those who die over the course of the play or the evil pact that starts it all, but in how personally crippling Faust's desire to know everything is.
This intense desire for knowledge leads to the pact made with Mephistopheles that drives the rest of the plot forward, even though it's a desire that is never fully explained. We open on Faust trying to gain knowledge by mystical means, his failure in which leads him to contemplate suicide. He's willing to end his life and eventually sell his soul in the name of knowledge, in the name of power. The devil is able to grant him power he couldn't attain on his own. Taken at face value, this deal is simply an intellectual looking to further his own academic pursuits. But most scholars can accept a limit to knowledge, that they can only know so much. This is not the case with Faust. He refuses to accept anything less than a supernatural intellectual level for himself, and this eventually leads him to do the unthinkable. The tragedy in Faust lies not in those who die over the course of the play or the evil pact that starts it all, but in how personally crippling Faust's desire to know everything is.
I really enjoyed your post and I think your observation at the end is exactly right. The tragedy is Faust's desire to know everything rather than the numerous events that take place.
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