Spring Awakening (play)

Infobox Play
name = Spring Awakening

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caption = A scene from the 1917 English premiere in New York City.
writer = Frank Wedekind
genre = Tragedy
setting = Provincial town in Germany, 1891-1892
premiere = 1906
place = Deutsches Theater, Berlin
orig_lang = German

"Spring Awakening" (German: "Frühlings Erwachen") is the German dramatist Frank Wedekind's first major play and a seminal work in the modern history of theatre. [Banham (1998, 1189) and Boa (1987, 26).] It was written sometime between autumn 1890 and spring 1891, but did not receive its first performance until 20 November 1906, when it premiered at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin under the direction of Max Reinhardt. It carries the sub-title "A Children's Tragedy". [Bond and Bond-Pablé (1993, 1).] The play criticises the sexually-oppressive culture of "fin de siècle" Germany and offers a vivid dramatisation of the erotic fantasies that it breeds. [Boa (1987, 26).] Due to the nature of its content, the play has been often banned.

It was first staged in English in 1917 in New York City. This performance was threatened with closure when the city's Commissioner of Licenses claimed that the play was pornographic, but the Supreme Court issued an injunction to allow the production to proceed. It failed after only a single performance. A musical adaptation of the play opened off Broadway in 2006 and subsequently moved to Broadway, where it garnered 8 Tony Awards, including Best Musical.

Characters

Melchior Gabor: A 14-year-old boy. Melchior is an atheist who, unlike the other children, knows about sexual reproduction. He writes his best friend Moritz an essay about sexual intercourse, which gets him expelled from school after the suicide of his friend and the discovery of the essay. His parents send him to a reformatory after his father discovers he had sexual intercourse with Wendla and got her pregnant.

Wendla Bergmann: A girl who turns 14 at the beginning of the play. She begs her mother to tell her the truth about how babies are born but is never given sufficient facts. In the second act of the play, she is unknowingly raped by Melchior. She ends up getting pregnant by him without any knowledge of reproduction. She dies following a botched abortion arranged by her mother and a midwife who lives across the street from the family home.

Moritz Stiefel: Melchior's best friend and classmate, a student who is traumatized by puberty and his sexual awakenings. Moritz does not understand the "masculine stirrings" and changes happening to him. A poor student due to his lack of concentration and constant pubertal distractions, he passes the midterm exams at the beginning of the play. However, Moritz is ultimately unable to cope with the harshness of society, and when his plea for help from Frau Gabor is unanswered, he commits suicide.

Ilse: A carefree and promiscuous childhood friend of Moritz, Melchior and Wendla. She ran away from home to live a Bohemian life as a model and lover of various painters. Ilse only appears in two scenes throughout the show, and is the last person Moritz speaks to before he commits suicide. She finds the gun he used and hides it.

Hanschen (Hänschen) & Ernst: Two friends and classmates of Melchior and Moritz, who discover they are gay. Hanschen is a kind and loving individual who seduces the frail and timid Ernst. Towards the end of the play, they confess their love for one another. (In the English translation of the play by Jonathan Franzen, Hanschen is called Hansy.)

Otto, Georg, & Robert: Classmates of Melchior and Moritz who attend school with them. They laugh at Moritz and tease him when he threatens to shoot himself. Georg once had a sexual dream about his own mother.

Thea & Martha: The schoolgirl friends of Wendla. Martha has a crush on Moritz and is physically abused by her mother and father. Thea is attracted to Melchior.

Frau Bergmann: Wendla's mother, who seems not to want her child to grow up too quickly and refuses to tell her daughter the truth about reproduction and sexuality.

Frau Gabor: Melchior's mother, who pens a letter to Moritz to show her support of his studies. When she finds the truth of Melchior impregnating Wendla and writing an essay about sexuality for Moritz, she protests sending her son to a reformatory.

Herr Gabor: Melchior's father.

Sonnenstich: The school headmaster who expels Melchior from school upon learning of the essay Melchior wrote for Moritz.

Knuppeldick, Zungenschlag, Fliegentod, Hungergurt: Teachers at Melchior's school.

Pastor Kahlbauch: The town's religious leader, who leads the sermon at Moritz's funeral.

The Masked Man: A mysterious, fate-like stranger who appears in the final scene of the play to offer Melchior hope for redemption.

References

ources

* Banham, Martin, ed. 1998. "Wedekind, Frank." In "The Cambridge Guide to Theatre." Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1189-1190. ISBN 0521434378.
* Boa, Elizabeth. 1987. "The Sexual Circus: Wedekind's Theatre of Subversion". Oxford and New York: Basil Blackwell. ISBN 0631142347.
* Bond, Edward and Elisabeth Bond-Pablé, trans. 1993. "Wedekind: Plays One." By Frank Wedekind. Methuen World Classics ser. London: Methuen. ISBN 0413675408.

External links

* [http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/springawakening/ Study guide to the play] .