Setting and story summary

Marguerite’s garden. (This is sometimes Act III.)

Siébel is picking flowers for Marguerite (“Faites-lui mes aveux”), but, true to Méphistophélès’s prediction, they all fade in his hands. Happily, however, when he dips his hand in a nearby font of holy water, the flowers he picks remain fresh, and he exhorts them to express his love to Marguerite. Méphistophélès and Faust now enter the garden but hide when they notice Siébel, who is still picking flowers and planning to declare his love to Marguerite. He fastens the bouquet to her door and leaves. Méphistophélès promises Faust that he will provide a much better gift. Faust, having impatiently dismissed him, reverently approaches Marguerite’s cottage (“Salut! demeure chaste et pure”).

Méphistophélès returns with a casket of jewels. When Faust despairs of winning Marguerite, Méphistophélès, placing the casket next to Siébel’s bouquet, assures him that this gift will win her over. The two hide in the garden as Marguerite enters. She wonders about the young man she met at the fair and pensively sits at her spinning wheel, singing a ballad about the king of Thulé and interrupting her song with musings on the handsome stranger (“Il était un roi de Thulé”). Her thoughts turn to her brother, and then she sees Siébel’s bouquet—and the jewel case. Hesitatingly she opens it and is astonished to find a treasure of gems. She picks out a pair of earrings and, finding a mirror in the case, delightedly admires herself and imagines meeting the handsome stranger again (Jewel Song: “Ah! je ris de me voir si belle en ce miroir”).

Marthe Schwerlein, her neighbour, is equally delighted to see Marguerite so adorned. As they admire the jewels together, Méphistophélès and Faust come out of hiding. Méphistophélès tells Marthe that her husband is dead and sends her his greetings. Marthe faints, but Méphistophélès revives her; he tells her that her husband has left her nothing and urges her to find a replacement. Faust woos Marguerite as Méphistophélès does the same with Marthe, who is captivated. Marguerite tells Faust of her family tragedies: her mother and little sister are dead, and her brother has gone off to war. Meanwhile, Méphistophélès and Marthe have already started bickering over his having to leave. Faust begs Marguerite to believe that he loves her. Night has fallen, and Marguerite asks Faust to leave. When he refuses, she slips away, and he follows. Méphistophélès, tired of Marthe, hides, and she runs off to find him. Left alone, Méphistophélès calls upon the night to enfold the lovers in its shadows, and upon the flowers to seduce Marguerite’s heart. He then disappears.

Faust and Marguerite return. Marguerite again asks him to leave, but he takes her hand and extols her beauty. Marguerite then plays “he loves me, he loves me not” with a flower, ending up with “he loves me.” Faust affirms that this is true and promises her eternal joy (“O nuit d’amour”). Marguerite, frightened at his passionate embrace, begs him again to leave. At last she promises to see him at dawn the next day. She rushes into the house, throwing him a kiss as she goes.

Faust, thinking better of the plan to seduce Marguerite, attempts to flee, but Méphistophélès stops him. He makes Faust watch Marguerite at her window, musing on her love (“Il m’aime, il m’aime”). Faust, inflamed with passion, rushes to her as Méphistophélès triumphantly laughs.

Act III

Scene 1. A room in Marguerite’s house a few months later. (Sometimes Act IV. The order of the scenes in this act can vary by production.)

A group of girls outside mock Marguerite because her lover has run away. Once she would have done the same, but now she is the object of ridicule. She mourns for her absent lover (“Il ne revient pas”). Siébel arrives and comforts her. He swears to kill the man who made her pregnant and then abandoned her. But Marguerite still loves Faust. Siébel takes her hand and declares his love for her (“Si le bonheur à sourire t’invite”). Marguerite, grateful, tells him that she will go to church to pray for Faust and for her unborn child.

Scene 2. Outside Marguerite’s house.

The soldiers have returned victorious from the battlefield (Soldiers’ Chorus). Valentin greets Siébel, who tells him that Marguerite is in church. After the soldiers march off, Valentin invites Siébel to his house, but Siébel refuses. When Valentin demands an explanation, Siébel begs him to have mercy on Marguerite and tries unsuccessfully to keep him from entering the house. Faust and Méphistophélès approach the house. Méphistophélès chides Faust for trying to see Marguerite again and reminds him that the black Sabbath is at hand. But, since Faust insists, Méphistophélès decides to get Marguerite to come out with a sarcastic serenade, accompanying himself on a guitar (“Vous qui faites l’endormie”).

Valentin rushes out of the house, smashes Méphistophélès’s guitar, and challenges either one of them to a duel. Faust, horrified to learn that this is Marguerite’s brother, draws his sword at Méphistophélès’s urging. Valentin throws away the medallion that Marguerite gave him and attacks. Méphistophélès whispers to Faust to just thrust; he will parry for him. Valentin quickly falls, mortally wounded. Méphistophélès drags Faust away as a crowd gathers. Marguerite appears with Siébel to find her brother accusing her lover and cursing her with his dying breath.

Scene 3. A church.

Marguerite is praying. Méphistophélès, hidden from her by a pillar, summons the demons of hell to torture her soul. Still invisible to Marguerite, he mocks her former innocence and relishes her fall and damnation. In anguish she cries out to heaven as Méphistophélès condemns her to hell.

Act IV

Scene 1. Walpurgisnacht. (The act is sometimes Act V, and Scene 1 is often omitted in performance.)

Méphistophélès has brought Faust to his kingdom, where demons are revelling. He tells Faust to drown his sorrows in wine. While doing so, Faust sees a vision of Marguerite with the mark of an axe blade on her throat. He demands that Méphistophélès take him to her.

Scene 2. A prison.

Marguerite has gone mad and killed her child. As she sleeps in her cell, Faust and Méphistophélès arrive. Méphistophélès warns Faust that the scaffold is ready for her and that he does not have much time to persuade Marguerite to leave with him. Méphistophélès goes outside to wait. Faust is overcome with remorse and cries out to Marguerite, waking her. She is overjoyed at his return, but, when he attempts to take her away, her mind begins to wander, reminiscing about their first encounter and their love scene in the garden. Méphistophélès calls out to them to come now or all will be lost. Marguerite is terrified to see Méphistophélès as he really is—a demon from hell. She resists their attempts to persuade her to flee, calling upon the angels to take her soul to heaven (“Anges purs, anges radieux”). Seeing blood on Faust’s hands, she rebuffs him in horror. As a celestial choir declares her saved, she ascends to heaven.