Mephistopheles comes forward at the burial to seek the soul of Faust to which he has every claim. However, Angels come down from on high, and while some of them distract Mephisto by flirting with him, others raise the soul of Faust heavenwards. The spirit of Faust is led by the Angels through a chorus of anchorites and blessed souls into the presence of Mary, Mater Gloriosa. The final words of the play echo the importance of the feminine to this process of redemption. All that shall pass away is but reflection.
All insufficiency here finds perfection.
All that s mysterious here finds the day. Woman in all of us show us our way. The closing scene in Goethe s Faust had always been, to me, unsatisfactory, leaving many energies of the drama unresolved. Seeing the production did not entirely remove my doubts, though it seemed to work well enough dramatically, providing a resolution or release after the climax of Faust being raised to Heaven. Later, after meditating on the experience, I came to see more clearly what Goethe intended.