Goethe (1749–1832) was a German poet and playwright. He has devoted his life to literary creation. His works occupy an important place not only in Germany, but also in world literature.
The poetic drama "Faust" is Goethe's most important masterpiece, consisting of two volumes and more than 12,000 lines. The work is based on a 16th-century German legend about Dr. Faust. The legendary Dr. Faust was knowledgeable and proficient in magic, selling his soul to the devil in order to gain knowledge and power. Goethe transformed this folklore and raised Faust to a figure who constantly pursued the richest knowledge, the most beautiful things, and the noblest ideals on earth. After going through the stages of study, love, court, beauty and other stages, Faust, at the last moment of his life, in the struggle against nature, realized that the purpose of life should be to fight for life and freedom. The devil Mephistopheles helped Faust deepen his sins and hindered him from moving upwards, but all ended in failure. Faust and Mephistopheles, two very different images, embody the dialectical relationship between beauty and ugliness, positive and negative. Faust is listed alongside Homer's epic, Dante's Divine Comedy, and Shakespeare's Hamlet among the four masterpieces of European literature.
Another of Goethe's internationally renowned works is the epistolary novel The Frequent Annoyances of Young Werther. The young Werther opposed feudal customs and hated the bureaucratic nobility. However, due to his ideals that are not tolerated by society, coupled with unfortunate love, he finally ended his short life by suicide. As soon as this anti-feudal work was published, it immediately resonated among young people and was translated into the language of many European countries.
Goethe never stopped writing from his childhood until the eve of his death, and he wrote a large number of literary works using various literary genres, making an important contribution to enriching the treasure house of human culture.