Jane V. Curran, “Goethe’s Helen: A Play within a Play," IJCT 7 (2000-2001), pp. 165-176.

Helen’s name is first mentioned in Goethe’s Faust I during the Witches’ Kitchen scene, long before she appears in person. In Faust II Act 1, she is briefly conjured up onto a stage for the entertainment of an audience in the Imperial Palace. After witnessing this first appearance of Helen, Faust is thrust into the world of the Classical Walpurgis Night, to experience the company of a whole series of ancient and mythological creatures, by way of preparation for his ultimate meeting face to face with Helen. When the two do come together, Goethe employs a number of poetic and metrical devices to create an atmosphere suggestive of ancient Greek tragedy, into which he then introduces Faust as a modern hero. Linguistic assimilation takes place on both sides, so that Goethe, by incorporating modern material into it, builds onto the myth of Helen. In composing his Helena-Akt, Goethe uses methods which accord with Aristotle’s remarks in the Poetics concerning the re-use of myth by tragedians.