The Literature Book

99

See also: Candide 96–97 ■ The Sorrows of Young Werther 105 ■ Nachstücke 111 ■ Faust 112–15 ■ Jane Eyre 128–31 ■

Wuthering Heights 132–37 ■ The Brothers Karamazov 200–01

RENAISSANCE TO ENLIGHTENMENT

inheritance. The Robbers broke

taboos. The plot involved violence,

robbery, and murder, and it is the

hero, Karl, who leads the gang that

commits the illegal and violent acts.

In the depths of his passion he even

kills his innocent cousin Amalia, to

whom he is betrothed. The language

of the play is as wild and stormy as

the emotions it expresses, but it is

also lyrical too, and The Robbers

is regarded as one of the finest

examples of dramatic writing in

German literature. It is still

considered a masterpiece today,

and many critics also see in it the

beginnings of European melodrama.

The Sturm und Drang movement

was made up of energetic young

men—most were in their 20s, the

oldest only in their 30s. Perhaps as

the authors grew older, they lost

their taste for youthful rebellion,

which might account for the

movement’s brevity. Many chose

more reflective modes of expression

thereafter, as the storm-and-urge

era settled into a long and fruitful

period of Weimar Classicism and

German Romanticism. ■

Friedrich Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von

Schiller (1759–1805) was born in

Württemburg, Germany. A poet,

playwright, philosopher, and

historian, he wrote The Robbers

while still at school. The play

made him an overnight sensation,

but it did not provide financial

independence. Schiller later

became a professor of history

and philosophy in Jena, whose

university is now named after

him. His friendship with Goethe

led, in the late 18th century, to

their setting up the Weimar

Theater, which would become

the leading theater in Germany.

Schiller was ill throughout his

life, and he died of tuberculosis

at 45 in 1805, after making

a fruitful return to playwriting

in his last few years. He is

still considered by many to be

Germany’s greatest classical

playwright.

Other key works

1784 Intrigue and Love

1786 “Ode to Joy”

1787 Don Carlos

1794 On the Aesthetic Education

of Man

1800 Wallenstein

Desire and envy

A melancholic, violent twin murders

his more gentle brother over a woman he

desires for himself in Die Zwillinge

(“The Twins”; 1776) by Friedrich

Maximilian von Klinger.

Freedom

In Götz von Berlichingen (1773) by

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, an

honorable noble who prizes his freedom

is unable to adapt to a world in which

cynical forces pursue power politics.

Oppression

In Friedrich Schiller’s play Don Carlos

(1787), the main protagonist tries to

free the oppressed people of Flanders.

The work strove to expose the horrors

of the Inquisition.

Manipulation

The Soldiers (1776), by Jakob Michael

Reinhold Lenz, tells the story of the

beautiful Marie, who becomes the

plaything of chauvinist young noble

officers, resulting in murder and suicide.

Sturm und Drang

The subjects of Sturm und

Drang works were

typically sensational,

reflecting the passions

of their writers.

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