Act 4 Summary

Scene 1 High Mountains

This act begins where the previous Act left off. Faust, after Helen's disintegration, wraps himself in her veil and clothing, which turn into a cloud, which transports him into the sky. At the beginning of this Act, Faust has just landed on a mountain, still enclosed by his cloud. Upon landing, however, the cloud drifts away from him and merges with other clouds in the sky, taking on the female forms of Leda and her daughter, Helen. Eventually the huge cloud forms dissolve and are left with another form that reminds Faust of his love from Part I, Gretchen. Faust comments that this form does not dissolve, but instead draws him upwards.

At that moment, Mephistopheles appears and says that the landscape reminds him of his home, hell. Faust thinks he is joking, but Mephistopheles, deadly serious, recounts the tale...