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Faust: Gretchen in prison

Faust wants to lead Gretchen out of her prison cell. She only slowly recognizes him and demands the closeness he is too rushed to give her.

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Casting range
Margarete 16-22; Faust 30-65.
Duration
4.5 min
Difficulty
Advanced
Relationship
Former lovers whose reunion is shaped by guilt and an approaching execution.
Role balance
Margarete carries the longer passages; Faust has to act in short bursts.
Setting
A prison cell at night. Faust has opened the door and is trying to save Margarete before her execution.
Scene heading
INT. PRISON CELL - NIGHT
Content notes
Approaching execution, Mention of a child who was killed, Imprisonment, & Acute mental crisis
Language
English
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Scene work

What is playable here

Objective
Faust wants to escape; Margarete wants to be certain their love still exists.
Obstacle
His hurry and her shifting perception keep them from taking the next step together.
Relationship
Their old intimacy returns for a moment, but closeness and rescue mean different things to each of them.
Stakes
Every delay shrinks their chance of escaping before morning.
Turn
Margarete recognizes Faust. That very moment of closeness makes her aware of how his kisses have changed, and of her own guilt.

Playing age 16-22

Margarete

Wants: Find her lover again in the man in front of her and be sure of his closeness.

Up against: At first she takes him for the executioner. Once she recognizes him, his haste does not match her longing.

Choice prompts

  • For each section, decide who you actually see in front of you.
  • Let recognition come from his voice before you are sure of his face.
  • Test his love with every plea for closeness. The answer that does not come changes the room.

Playing age 30-65

Faust

Wants: Get Margarete to leave the cell with him at once.

Up against: She follows her own perceptions, while he feels every lost second as danger.

Choice prompts

  • Keep a concrete escape route in view, even when you turn toward her.
  • Find the moment an order stops working and you need another way in.
  • Play the short replies as attempts to reach her. Listen before you push for haste again.
Full script

Faust: Gretchen in prison

Download PDFDownload Fountain

INT. PRISON CELL - NIGHT

hiding herself on her pallet.

Margarete

No! No! They’re coming. Bitter death!

Faust

Hush! Hush! I’ve come to set you free.

Margarete

If you are human, feel how I’m in need.

Faust

Your cries will wake the guards! Please, quietly!

Margarete

Who gave you, hangman, all this power Over me? You come for me at midnight’s hour. Have mercy, let me live, let me be! Can’t it wait till morning? Is that too long? I am still so young, so young! And must die now, so soon! I was lovely too, and that was my ruin. My love was near, and now he’s far away, The wreath lies torn, the flowers scattered every way. Don’t seize me with such violence! Spare me! What have I done to you? What offense? Don’t let me beg in vain, I pray, I’ve never seen you before in all my days!

Faust

How can I bear this misery!

Margarete

I’m in your power now, completely. Only let me nurse the baby first. All night I held it, rocked it sweetly; They took it from me, to make me hurt, And now they say I killed it. And I will never be happy again. They sing songs about me! People are so wicked! There’s an old tale that ends that way, Who told them it means me?

Faust

A man who loves you lies here at your feet To unlock this bondage of misery.

Margarete

Oh, let us kneel and call upon the saints! Look! Under these stairs, Under the door, Hell boils and roars! The Evil One, In horrible wrath, Is raging on and on!

Faust

Gretchen! Gretchen!

Margarete

That was my love’s voice! Where is he? I heard him calling. I’m free! No one shall stop me. Into his arms I’ll fly, Upon his breast I’ll lie! He called Gretchen! He stood there at the door. Through all the howling, clattering of hell’s uproar, Through all the cruel and devilish jeering, I knew the sweet, the loving voice I was hearing.

Faust

It’s me!

Margarete

It’s you! Oh, say it once again! It’s him! It’s him! Where has it gone, all the pain? Where is the terror of the prison? The chains? It’s you! You’ve come to save me. I am saved! Already the street is here again, Where I first saw you, back then. And the sunny garden too, Where Martha and I waited for you.

Faust

Come with me! Come!

Margarete

Oh, stay, I love to stay so much where you stay.

Faust

Away! If you delay, We’ll pay for this, and pay it dearly.

Margarete

What? Can’t you kiss me, really? My love, so short a time away from me, And you’ve forgotten how to kiss? Can it be? Why, with my arms around you, am I so afraid? When once your words, your glances made A whole heaven come flooding over me, And you kissed me as though you would smother me. Kiss me! Or I’ll kiss you! Oh no! Your lips are cold, They’re dumb. Where has your love Gone to? Who robbed me of it? Who?

Faust

Come! Follow me! Take heart, my love, be brave! I’ll hold you with a thousand times the fire, Only follow me! I ask you only this!

Margarete

And is it you, then? Are you sure of this?

Faust

It’s me! Come with me!

Margarete

You’re loosening the chains, You take me in your arms again. How is it that you don’t shrink back from me? And do you know, my love, who it is you’re setting free?

Original: public domain

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Faust. Eine Tragödie · Kerker, Verse 4423-4505 · J. G. Cotta, Tübingen, 1808; Erstausgabe, Transkription nach dem Faksimile auf Wikisource

Translated by blablabla (2026)

Translation license

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