In medieval Europe, government and social class existed under the authority of the Catholic Church. God was the supreme authority, and church authorities made and enforced His laws. Any punishment for crimes was both civil and spiritual. For Faust, his loss of faith means that he also loses the moral constraints of this medieval society. Without a fear of the afterlife, Faust has no obligation to act in accordance with the laws and structures of the church. • Would you consider Faust to be akin to a classical epic? Why or why not? One could consider Goethe’s masterwork to be a modern epic. While classical epics depicted a hero venturing into the unknown world in order to find some sort of truth about the nature of life, Goethe’s Faust participates in an inward journey, exploring his own soul and intellect in search of the truth of his own life. The play demonstrates the subjective turn in Modernism, in which the importance of the self comes to occupy the place of prominence in philosop