What does the language in Goethe's Faust mean?

Question

It seems that the character Faust seems to complain throughout the first part of the book because he is unsatisfied with everything. However the structure and style of the whole story is really confusing. Is it supposed to be shakespearean or something?

Answer 1

The sites below may help you:
"Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust is a tragic play and the best known version of the Faust story. It was published in two parts: Faust Part One (Faust: der Tragödie erster Teil) and Faust Part Two (Faust: der Tragödie zweiter Teil). 4612 lines long, the play is a closet drama, meaning that it is meant to be read rather than performed. It is Goethe's most famous work and considered by many to be the greatest work of German literature, and by some of Modern literature."

"Scene-by-Scene Summaries
These synopses very briefly summarize each scene of Faust I and Faust II and, for selected scenes, provide links to information about historical, literary, and mythological events and characters that are made reference to.
Goethe's drama Faust I is not divided into acts, but structured as a sequence of scenes in a variety of settings. After a dedicatory poem and a prelude in the theater, the actual plot begins with a prologue in heaven, where Mephistopheles, the devil, challenges the Lord that he can lead astray the Lord's favourite striving scholar, Dr. Faust. We then see Faust in his study, attempting and failing to gain knowledge of nature and the universe by magic means. "