Faust enters into a pact with Mephistopheles…who empowers Faust to obtain the pleasure he seeks. Faust then seduces Gretchen. But, in doing so, he indirectly causes the deaths of Gretchen’s mother, her brother and ultimately Gretchen herself….Faust realizes that he, like Gretchen, her mother, and her brother, has become a victim—of Mephistopheles….Gretchen has been seduced by Faust; Faust has been seduced by the devil. The Faust tale generates several microdialectics. In the first, the thesis is the predator (Faust), the antithesis is the prey or “victim” (Gretchen), and the synthesis is predator = victim (Faust). Predator and victim are united in Faust, who is both. He is the synthesis.

—LEONARD F. WHEAT, HEGEL’S UNDISCOVERED THESIS-ANTITHESIS-SYNTHESIS DIALECTICS

Who holds the Devil, let him hold him well; He hardly will be caught a second time.

—GOETHE, FAUST, PART ONE