For ambitious people, life is not enough. All the deeds we can achieve during our lifetime are limited by our perishable bodies. From the moment we’re born, we start a slow process of decay from which there’s no return. During childhood, we’re unaware of the limits of our life. We create expectations for the future, hoping or even assuring ourselves that we’ll be able to reach all of our fantasies and that our existence will be utterly glorious. Eventually, once we become sort of mature adults, we struggle through life with the intention of achieving at least partially one of our wildest dreams, sometimes succeeding, and other times failing. Either the case, the result is always the same: we’re never satisfied. We strive for the things we crave and desire, and once we get them, we feel nothing but disappointment. But is there anything that could truly please us? What is it that we want to achieve?
Perhaps, the exact thing we want to break are the limits of our mortality. In folklore and literature we can find examples of stories where ambitious characters sell their soul to the devil to obtain their deepest desires: money, beauty, fame, or wealth.
However, the Lord of darkness is a party one shouldn’t mess with. The ambitious who make pacts with the devil always fail to read the small print. No one can fool the devil, and you’re in the wrong if you believe that selling your soul won’t have any consequences. The following books portray the stories of some of these insatiable men who tried to fool Satan himself just to get their fill.
Faust (1832), Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
During the German Renaissance, a scholar, alchemist, and magician named Johann Georg Faust was accused by the Catholic Church of being a blasphemous man in league with the devil. Because of this, German folk said the man had actually sold his soul to Satan, inspiring Christopher Marlowe’s play The Tragic History of Doctor Faustus. In the late nineteenth century, Goethe revived the legend through a book that is globally regarded as the cornerstone of the Romantic movement. In Goethe’s book, Faust sells his soul to Mephistopheles in exchange for infinite knowledge, because he claims that by doing so he will be able to satisfy his search for knowledge. However, due to the devil’s mischief, by the end of the first book Faust ends up in a lustful relationship that only causes him grief and greater loneliness than he had ever experienced.
The Devil’s Elixirs (1815), E.T.A. Hoffmann
Another German romantic, Hoffmann’s fiction is made with that same stuff as those scary blogs that keep you up all night. In The Devil’s Elixirs, Medardus, a young Capuchin monk, is entrusted to safeguard the relics of his convent. Among them is the devil’s elixir, a potion that will make the person who drinks it belong to the devil. Medardus is too tempted by the elixir and drinks it, only to discover that he needs it in order to stay rational. After doing this, he is sent to Rome, where he unexpectedly throws a Count from a balcony, who’s actually his half-brother. Little does he know that this man will later become his own lunatic doppelgänger, who will cross his path and take everything he holds dear away, including his own sense of self.
“The Bet” (1889), Anton Chekhov
Chekhov’s story makes a sweet twist in the usual devil’s pact, because it digs deeper in the judicial aspect of it. A banker and a lawyer debate over what’s worse, a life prison or the death penalty. The banker plays the devil’s part, and he bets the lawyer that he can’t live in isolation for more than fifteen years. Hence, the lawyer agrees to give away fifteen years of his life just to prove his point. After setting himself in isolation, however, the lawyer dedicates himself to the study of arts and science. Meanwhile, the banker slowly loses his fortune, eventually realizing he won’t be able to pay the bet. The lawyer, nevertheless, leaves the cell just before the bet’s due, because he has lost the interest in material goods throughout his years of isolation.
“Young Goodman Brown” (1835), Nathaniel Hawthorne
Goodman Brown is a young newlywed man who, while walking in the woods, encounters a man who reminds him of his grandfather. He walks with him at night, and he eventually finds a clearing where there seems to be a sort of ritual to worship the Devil in which he and his wife participate. Waking up shaken the next day, he doesn’t know if what he saw the night before was real or fantasy, but this makes him suspicious of everyone around him, which leaves him in misery until his death.
“The Bottle Imp” (1891), Robert Louis Stevenson
Keawe, a poor Hawaiian youth, buys a bottle from an old man who tells him that it has genie within it that will grant him any wish. However, there’s a catch: the owner must always sell the bottle to a lower price than what it costed him, and he has to sell it before his death if he does not want his soul to end in hell. Soon, Keawe wishes for his life to be filled with riches, but all of these come at the price of cursing his family and bringing sickness into his life.
Peter Schlehmil (1814) Adelbert von Chamisso
In Chamisso’s story, Peter Schlehmil meets the devil and sells him his shadow in exchange for the sack of Fortunatus, a purse which perpetually replenishes all of the gold that is drawn from it. Schlehmil does this deal, believing that he can live perfectly without his shadow, but slowly he realizes that no society will accept a man so different from others. After this, he resigns himself to a life of seclusion and study.
Have you ever thought of making a pact with the devil to get what you desire most? What would it be?
If you’re curious knowing more about the devil and his brethren, take a look at this list to meet the medieval demons that could ruin your life, and if you’re into modern horror, you will certainly enjoy knowing about the real life demons that torment the legendary Stephen King.
References: Griselda Heppel
