Point of View

The story is written as a play and so the point of view is meant to be the point of view of the audience. The audience is not omniscient, but rather a type of impartial spectator to the action onstage. Oftentimes the audience will be given inside information by Mephistopheles, while Faust or another character is away from the scene, but the audience does not know anymore about the motivations and thoughts of the characters than what they are told and what they deduce on their own.

Still, through soliloquies and greater familiarity, there is a slight advantage given to the point of view of Mephistopheles and Faust. The audience often knows what Faust and Mephistopheles know, though the other characters on screen may be unaware. This is most strikingly true in Act III where Mephistopheles convinces the spirit Helen that she is in Sparta again...