ABSTRACT
It might look as if the obvious has been reached by an unnecessarily circuitous route, for quite clearly the social, religious and moral proscription which the lovers transgress is the rule that the gratification of sexual desire is allowed only within monogamous marriage. It is true that marriage is precluded by the exigencies of the story being dramatized: a domesticated Faust settling down to married life with kids and a mortgage is simply no longer the Faust of legend. There the family history of the patriarchs is pushed into the foreground of Goethe's narrative, especially their marriages which 'nach orientalischer Sitte' are not monogamous. In the tale the 'Schmuckkastchen' does not figure as a gift. Lieschens lines in the scene 'Am Brunnen' remind us of the contrast between the innocence of Gretchen's acceptance of Faust's gifts and the social morality which proscribes the sexual return.
