How Does Faust View The Problem Of Evil

Faust and An Essay on Man view the problem of evil differently because in An Essay on Man, Alexander Pope proclaims that God created our world as the “best of all possible worlds” and that he also created what humans consider evil to them for ulterior reasons that we, as humans, should not intrude upon to know. We should simply accept it for what it is. Pope ends the first epistle with the statement “Whatever is, is right,” meaning that everything is the best and happens according to God’s plan, even though man may not be able to understand it.
However, Faust views the problem of evil as the devil (also called Mephistopheles) and says how he was consumed, partially attributed to his dissatisfactions with life, even though he has mastered numerous
In An Essay on Man, the answers offered about the problem of evil are to just accept it because it is God’s creation and all that God has created has purpose. However, Faust gives the answer of being loyal to God and not submitting oneself to the devil in order to attain salvation and be saved. Mephistopheles’s gives advice in Faust which is important for understanding God's attitude toward Faust's moral mistakes — one knows good partly through knowing evil, and one cannot know God without it. Additionally, true knowledge comes from experience. However, while the answer to the problem of evil seems to be loyalty to God through the Church, Goethe makes it clear through Faust that there is no need for the Church to be an intermediary because of the corrupt, worldly, and materialistic core of its religious façade. One instance of when an answer is offered, although not taken, is the scene where Faust does not want to pretend that Martha’s husband died but the devil convinces him to follow his instincts and accept Mephistopheles’ plan. Another “answer” to the problem of evil is when Faust is with Gretchen in the garden and seeing and listening to her allows him to regain some of his non-materialism, because he finds that he truly loves her, not just lusts for her. This is an answer to the problem of evil, because it shows how true love and spirituality tie together and could solve the problem of evil. However, because of their unselfish, newfound love and specifically Gretchen’s love for Faust, she is willing to do anything for him, which is could lead to other issues. In the end, despite the amount of sin she has committed, Gretchen is redeemed and proceeds to Heaven, because of her obvious guilt for the situations she caused, like drowning her baby. She is redeemed because her guilt is a result of her knowledge between right and wrong and due to her pure