Good and Evil in Faust In Faust Goethe shows many of his opinions on good, evil and religion. Goethe uses characters such as The Lord and Gretchen in the first part of the work to give examples of goodness. Goethe uses characters like Mephistopheles to represent evil. Throughout the work Goethe also uses examples from the church to show how he feels the church works. Goethe's concept of good is that everyone has the capacity to be good and that errors in judgment are what make people bad, but if a person continues to strive these errors will bring them closer to justice. As long as a person continues to move and do things, he will most likely achieve righteousness. This is demonstrated in the bet between Faust and Mephistopheles. Faust says that if at any time he says, "Wait a little! You are so beautiful!" this will happen when Faust dies and serves Mephistopheles. This shows that if Faust stopped wanting to do anything, it would be a horrible sin. The Lord who many perceive as God represents the perfection that Faust is trying to achieve with his life. Gretchen in the first part of the play represents perfection because she is inexperienced and knows nothing else until Faust begins to seduce her. The concept of evil for Goethe can be seen above all in the character of Mephistopheles. Mephistopheles is believed to represent the devil. When he presents himself for the first time he describes himself as "a part of that Power which always desires evil, always procures good... the Spirit which always denies". Mephistopheles' actions such as convincing Faust to take advantage of Gretchen and then telling him to leave her are seen as evil actions. The fact that Mephistopheles spends time with witches that most people see as evil shows that he is evil too. Goethe believes that all people sin sometimes and God forgives us. This is shown when Gretchen is in prison and after all the sin she has committed a voice from heaven grants her salvation. Even though he sinned, most of his sins occurred due to inexperience and he did not sin on purpose. Goethe believes that church and religion are both useless. When Faust leaves Gretchen the first jewels, her mother takes them to church. The church takes them by saying they are trying to help them, but this can be seen as the church is just trying to get money from them.