The Character of Mephistopheles in Faust Mephistopheles, from Goethe's epic poem Faust, is one of the most interesting characters when examined carefully. Much like today's crude interpretations of the devil, Mephistopheles was a skeptic, a gambler, confident, witty, stubborn, intelligent, creative, tempting, and of course, evil. There were very ironic things about him. Although he was evil, he was a force of goodness. The evil in him was represented in the negative aspects of Faust's personality, which showed that no matter how powerful the Lord was, the devil would always impact a person's life and decisions. Mephistopheles was a skeptic and a gambler. In the “Prologue in Heaven,” Mephistopheles bet the Lord that he could turn Faust against him and make him do harm. This was ironic because most people would never dream of speaking to the Lord this way. This showed that Mephistopheles was confident and witty. He was very set in his ways and beliefs and found it difficult to believe that God could maintain total control over Faust, or anyone else. Although Mephistopheles was a skeptic when it came to many things such as the natural phenomena of life, he believed the Lord when he told Mephistopheles that he had power. Mephistopheles even preached this word to people. After speaking with one of Faust's students, he wrote in his yearbook. It said: "Eritis sicut Deus, scientes bonum et malorum", which means "You will be like God, knowing good and evil". (line 2075) This is a quote from the book Genesis 3:5 of the Bible. With this quote Mephistopheles was admitting that God had power and knew what good and evil were. He also believed that he could surpass God, so he claimed to be more powerful than the Lord. Mephistopheles was very intelligent and creative when it came to luring his victims to evil. In "Out of the City Gates", Mephistopheles disguised himself as a dog and followed Faust home. Faust knew that this dog was evil. He said the dog was "circling around him" and "a trail of fire flowed behind him" (lines 1175-1179). Every time Faust began to read the Bible, the dog would bark as a sign of disbelief and error about it. The next day, in Faust's study, the devil showed up again, but this time in the form of a nobleman tempting Faust to "a life of wealth and unlimited pleasures" in exchange for his soul for eternity..