Plays: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Egmont, Iphigenia in Tauris, Torquato Tasso (German Library) [Paperback]

Frank G. Ryder (Author)

Book Description

Series: German Library | Publication Date: December 1, 1992

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Plays Egmont, Iphigenia in Tauris, Torquato Tasso. This volume will serve to illustrate the range of Goethe's long and unparalleled career.

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Text: English, German (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 276 pages
• Publisher: Continuum (December 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 082640717X
• ISBN-13: 978-0826407177
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,521,749 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4.0 out of 5 stars Wolves have invaded the barn, but the shepherds keep arguing about a handful of wool, April 13, 2011

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H. Schneider "Hamlet" (Pandistan) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Plays: Heinrich von Kleist (German Library) (Paperback)

2011 is Heinrich von Kleist Year!
Kleist shot himself dead 200 years ago, after first killing a young woman, whom he had talked into a `suicide' pact. That was the end of one of the foremost prose writers in the German language, and of a much played playwright. He was 34 years old.
The death anniversary leads to the staging of many Kleist revivals in German theatres. As I will miss most, if not all these events, I decided to read his collected plays.

`The Schroffenstein Family', an apprentice work, was a melodramatic attempt at putting the Romeo and Juliet theme into a Germanic family conflict. It is a tragedy of errors with little merit and without much redemption from great language. No great classic.

`The Broken Jug' (or Pitcher, in other translations): main theme is sexual harassment and abuse of power. Nevertheless, it is a comedy: it is made funny by the clumsiness of its main character, a village judge who has to preside over a case where he himself was the actual perpetrator. The situation is made more complicated by the presence of a superior on an inspection tour. The play lives on comic language and puns.

`Amphitryon', another comedy: about identity theft. Jupiter/Zeus is keen on Alkmene. To get at her he impersonates her husband Amphitryon. We have a passionate love triangle involving a somewhat ridiculous `god' and two mixed up earthlings. The physical outcome of the godly adventure will be baby Hercules. As much as we owe Greek civilization, not all myths have remained alive until now. Survival is especially lacking where the Olympians are involved.

`Penthesilea' also goes back to Greek mythology, but stays more in properly tragic realms. The heroine, an Amazone leader during the war about Troy, is stark raving mad. Kleist would have had much to tell a shrink if the profession had already existed. I find it hard to take it quite serious. Goethe called the play unplayable, and he was quite right. Nevertheless I have seen it staged. That stage version (in Frankfurt) had Penthesilea give in to cannibalistic urges. She loved Achilles so much that she ate him.

Then another love-struck woman: `Kaethchen of Heilbronn', a medieval melodrama in full romantic bloom. This is maybe Kleist's main contribution to the romantic school. Kate is a 15 y old commoner who falls for a knight and follows him like a stalker, leaving father and betrothed behind. Many complications lead to a messy happy end. I rather like this play. It has the same powerful language as Kleist's prose tales.

`The Battle of Teutoburg Forest' is about the mythic nation-building battle of Germanic tribes against the power of Rome. This event is the take-off point of national fantasies of grand Germania. The play itself, however, is really about Napoleon's invasion of Germany. It was a passionate patriotic appeal for a war of liberation, but had no effect at the time, as it could not be played due to political realities. Later it became a seminal text for German nationalism. It was a cult hit during Nazi times. Later the East Germans tried to re-interpret it as anti-American. My review headline is from this play.

`The Prince of Homburg' is Kleist's most Prussian work: an officer in 18th century Prussia disobeys an order and wins a battle because he attacks the Swedish lines when he shouldn't have. Not acceptable behavior in military circles. The Great Elector of Brandenburg, his ruler, sentences him to death for his disobedience. At first, the prince can't believe that this is happening to him, but when the verdict is signed and he waits for death while the country celebrates the victory over Sweden, he falls into deep fear. The Elector is confronted by different sides with reasons for changing his stance.
The story is not historically accurate. The thoughts about obedience and discipline versus personal initiative and the bottom line are real enough though. Wasn't it more important that he won? Was it real disobedience or just a mix up in the heat of the confrontation? The play could not be staged during Kleist's life as the royal house of the Hohenzollern felt their family honor insulted. Many consider this Kleist's most poetic play.

The man was an extremist in his characters, in his plays, like in his prose, like in his life. Look at his Kohlhaas, his Marquise of O, his Penthesilea, his Kaethchen... nearly all his heroes and heroines have a foot in the realm of the pathological, if not more than a foot. It makes for colorful theatre. It shows that the man must have been an interesting character too. A recent book published new theories about the reasons for his suicide. His life would have made an interesting Kleist play or tale.