Goethe’s Faust, Part One
Faust’s threshold pentagram
A pentagram on Faust’s threshold traps Mephistopheles after he enters in the poodle’s form. The spirit explains that the outer angle has been left open. He says that spirits must withdraw by the same place through which they entered. The imperfect drawing and this rule together make his visit into a temporary imprisonment.
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In the sources
Principal account
LiteraryA pentagram on Faust’s threshold traps Mephistopheles after he enters in the poodle’s form. The spirit explains that the outer angle has been left open.
Further detail
LiteraryHe says that spirits must withdraw by the same place through which they entered. The imperfect drawing and this rule together make his visit into a temporary imprisonment.
Context & interpretation
This entry follows the character, setting or motif in Part One of Goethe’s drama as translated by Bayard Taylor. Its supernatural events and spoken claims belong to the play, rather than serving as historical biography or independently established accounts of spirits.
Original passages
Source 1
Faust
the drawing's not completedOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Goethe’s Faust, Part One; active reader leaf 83
Exact passage checked against active scan text and original-leaf mapping; scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0088-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0088-E001-P0083
- Original scan leaf
- 84
- Recorded leaf number
- 84
- Current Reader position
- 80
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 2
Faust
Where they have entered in, there also they withdrawOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Goethe’s Faust, Part One; active reader leaf 83
Exact passage checked against active scan text and original-leaf mapping; scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0088-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0088-E001-P0083
- Original scan leaf
- 84
- Recorded leaf number
- 84
- Current Reader position
- 80
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed