Goethe's Faust Lesson Plan

Consider the Walpurgis Night celebrations which Faust attends. What is the significance of this scene?

In the Walpurgis Night celebrations, we see Faust doing exactly that which he seemed disinclined to do at the beginning of the play, when he went with Mephistopheles to Auerbach's wine cellar. Faust dances and he drinks; he loses himself in revelry and conviviality; he (probably) makes love to beautiful women.

A contrast is also made in this scene with Faust's earlier visit to the witch's kitchen. As students will surely recall, witches in Goethe's Faust ultimately derive their knowledge of the dark arts from Mephistopheles. In mingling freely with the sorcerous...