Mephistopheles Limitations

Mephistopheles criticizes mankind’s limitations as well as Faust’s, someone whose dissatisfaction with life drives their pursuit of limits. Mephistopheles is unrestrained in his statements on humans’ limits in his response to Faust’s criticism of his attitude towards Margareta’s condition. Mephistopheles indicates Faust’s current anger is “the end of our wit’s tether” to say that there is no strength left in Faust’s sense of mind. The end of the tether is where Mephistopheles states “poor human brains always snap” to generalize to the whole human condition. The tether symbolizes a limit to the capacities of Faust’s or any human’s mind. Limits are also projected onto the whole of a human rather than just a mind when Mephistopheles questions
why Faust “ma[d]e common cause with” Mephistopheles’ kind “if [he] can’t stand the pace” and why he’d “try to fly if” he had “no head for heights”. Mephistopheles underscores Faust’s confines to insult him and clarify human nature.
However, Faust has been aware of his limitations and has strove to break them. Mephistopheles suggests that Faust has forced himself into this mess instead of evil influences “forc[ing] [them]selves on” him. This is true because Faust took on a challenge. He wanted to break his limits which also limit mankind’s potential. After Mephistopheles stopped Faust from committing suicide, Faust’s dissatisfaction with life has drove him to surpass man’s boundaries. His drive relates back to the bet between God and Mephistopheles in which God’s view of human nature is that man is imperfect but potential for good can be realized. Faust’s situation is encompassing of man’s drive to improve himself, although he is sometimes misguided. The chase for perfection by an imperfect being such as Faust has led to the end of the tether.