"Margaret: Judgement of God! I give / Myself to you.
...
Margaret: / Thine I am, father. Save me! / You angels, hosts of heaven, stir, / Encamp about me, be my guard.
Mephisto: She is judged.
Voice (from above): Is saved." (4605 - 4610 [421])
"Angels (floating through the higher atmosphere, carrying Faust's immortal part): Saved is the spirit kingdom's flower / From evil and the grave: / 'Who ever strives with all his power, / We are allowed to save.' " (11934 - 11941 [493])
"The Three: Though a woman greatly sins, / Yet she may come near to thee, / And what her repentance wins / Is hers in eternity: / Grant this good soul, too, the blessing, / That but once forgot, / Ignorant she was transgressing; / Pardon her and spurn her not!" (12061 - 12068 [501])
Working off of Miriam and Patt-man's posts... Here Goethe gives two ways that souls can be accepted by heaven. I know there's the whole, can't ever understand who actually gets to go to heaven, thing, but neither Margaret or Faust really struck me as the type. What is Goethe saying about going to heaven? What is the significance of Margaret rejecting Faust's attempts to free her and instead accepting her punishment and further judgement from Heaven? And even though Faust strove throughout his life (though like Miriam I am not entirely clear to what), what about the whole, conjuring hell spirits and working with Mephistopheles? He wasn't exactly fighting him throughout the book... Is the moral of the story, hell never wins? In other words, is Goethe advocating an all-merciful God/heaven? Will Wagner go to heaven?
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