Hexenglaube und Verantwortung zur Walpurgisnacht in Goethe's Faust I

Abstract

Goethe did not primarily suppress the Paralipomena to the Walpurgisnacht because of the obscenity of the scenes with Satan. There are three more important reasons. 1. The participation in the witches' meeting during the Walpurgis Night is intended as one of the entertainments promised by Mephistopheles. It is not to be regarded as a counter-declaration to the Prolog im Himmel. The contents of Satan's speech would also have been inappropriate for such a counter-declaration. 2. The Hochgerichtsszene manifests the inclusion of the monks' orders of the inquisition as the core of the infernal event but without any influence on the progression of the play. 3. The more powerful the presentation of witchcraft was with its connection to evil, the more it confirmed the obsessive belief in witches. The horrible consequences of this belief were still clearly present in the playwright's mind and in those of his contemporaries.