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ABSTRACT
THE WOMAN IN THE WORKS OF FRIEDRICH HEBBEL: A REEVALUATION
By Ilze Krisciokaitis

The primary concern of this thesis has been the reap-
praisal of the female figures in the works of Friedrich
Hebbel and to ascertain whether they possess a dimension
which is of contemporary interest and can be designated as
modern.

First of all pertinent biographical detail is cited with
the emphasis given to the women who most affected the author.
Hebbel's relationship to his family, Amalie SchOppe, Elise
Lensing and Christine Enghaus is evaluated.

In the process of defining the image of the woman a
chapter is devoted to excerpts from Hebbel's diaries. The
image is traced through selected poetry and prose and further
delineated through the major dramas. The dramas from Judith

to Gyges und sein Ring are chronologically arranged and

 

clearly reflect the close relationship between the life and
work of the author.

In his art one sees Hebbel's attempts to emancipate
himself by the emancipation of the woman. This is not a
social emancipation, nor an emancipation as practiced today

where the woman assumes the characteristics of the man, but

an emancipation which would terminate a general state of
unawareness and lead toward a new emotional, intellectual
and social consciousness on the part of woman. Hebbel
pleads for an attitude towards sex similar to the concept
of New Morality, a new morality based on the awareness of
the individuals. Hebbel seems to sense the era of nebulous
boundaries and advocates a more frank and penetrating out-
look toward sex. He is unable, yet, to recognize "sex as

a good thing" as can Wedekind, since the idiom of his time
and his own rigid morality do not permit this, but he comes
quite close. A good example is his fresh and frankly erotic

prose work, Ein Abend in Strassburg. To Hebbel, it is im-

 

perative that the woman recognize her sensuality as a potent
motivating force and only then can she be a positive factor
in her relationship to the man. Judith clearly illustrates
the devastating effects of the indecisiveness and unawareness
of woman. The author touches upon a "modern" need yet un-
answered.

Through some aspects of his female figures, motivated
by the polarity of his own existence, Hebbel is cognizant
that sex, marriage and woman's role in society have not yet
been resolved by man. It is his awareness of the isolation
in marriage which is similar to a position taken by a con-
temporary author, Max Frisch.

Hebbel's occasional, but frank appraisal of sex, his

pleas for awareness in the woman, his sceptical attitude

toward marriage are all modern aspects of his work. Among
Hebbel's female figures Judith, in the drama by the same
name, is his most modern creation. As an individualistic
woman, who contains within herself irreconciliable, incom-
prehensible motives, she is striving to find her place in

a complex society.

THE WOMAN IN THE WORKS OF FRIEDRICH HEBBEL: A REEVALUATION

By
Ilze Krisciokaitis

A THESIS

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Department of German and Russian

1968

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I want to express my deep gratitude to Professor
Mark O. Kistler for giving me valuable guidance throughout
the course of this work.

Professors William Hughes and Stuart Gallacher have

been helpful in giving me perspective in the writing of
the thesis. Many thanks to them.

ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
INTRODUCTION
Part I. BIOGRAPHICAL AND AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL
Chapter I. HEBBEL'S LIFE AS BACKGROUND FOR HIS WORK
A. Introductory remarks
B. State of scholarship
C. Biographical fact
1. Family
2. Childhood and youth
3. Influential friends
4. Amalie Schoppe
5. Elise Lensing
6. Christine Enghaus

Chapter II. HEBBEL'S DIARIES

Part II. THE WOMAN IN THE WORKS OF HEBBEL
Chapter I. LYRICS
Chapter II. PROSE
Chapter III. DRAMA
A. Judith
. Genoveva

. Maria Magdalena

 

 

B
C
E. Agnes Bernauer
F

. nges und sein Ring

 

iii

11

15
15
17
21
24
26
34
41

53
66

80
80
97
104
121
126

Chapter IV.
CONCLUSION
NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

THE IMAGE OF THE WOMAN

iv

130
136
138
155

Part I

BIOGRAPHICAL AND AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL

INTRODUCTION

Hebbel scholarship has experienced a recent rejuvenation
stimulated partly by the centennial of his death. Reborn
interest in his works tempts one to discard some of the cate-
gorical, dogmatic platitudes and reevaluate a given point of
interest in light of contemporary relevance. Personal predi-
lection and the inability to locate a pertinent and exhaustive
source of information have focused my attention on the woman
in Hebbel's life and works.

Upon investigation of a collection of his works it be-
comes quite apparent that the author devoted much of his
literary and intellectual energies to her image. A glance
at an index of Hebbel's dramas will easily glean such names
as Judith, Mariamne, Agnes Bernauer, Maria Magdalena, Julia,
and Genoveva. These names not only function as perfunctory
titles, but provide the psychological, intellectual and
dramatic focus of each given work. Hebbel's perpetual fas-
cination with the female figure easily arouses interest in
the reader. This is particularly true in this era when
society once more is attempting to explore and define the
role of the female.

This thesis reevaluates the image of the woman in the
life of Friedrich Hebbel, shows how it is represented in his

literary legacy, and ascertains the relevance of biographical

and autobiographical material to literary incarnation. It
may be something of an oversimplification to suggest that
all of Hebbel's female figures comply to one mold, neverthe-
less an attempt is made to compile a composite picture.

The subject also is reevaluated from the contemporary
vantage point to see if there is anything in the works of
Hebbel, apropos the character of the woman, which today may

be considered modern.

Chapter I
HEBBEL'S LIFE AS A BACKGROUND FOR HIS WORK

A. Introductory remarks

 

Six of the completed dramas of Hebbel have the name of

a woman in the title--Judith, Genoveva, Maria Magdalena,

 

 

Julia, Herodes and Mariamne and Agnes Bernauer. Another

 

 

 

Gyges und sein Ring, is almost deceptive in its title, since

 

it easily conjures up the subtitle of Rhodope in the
reader's mind. This simple scanning of an index will clearly
indicate that the female figure holds a prominent position
in the dramas of Hebbel.
The sources of these exponents of femininity seem more

incidental than intended.l

It is as though his speculations
have recalled a wayward echo which suddenly stabilized some
reverberating thought.2 Hebbel has not chosen the names of
women he loved, nor has he endowed his heroines with ordi-
nary, nondescript ones which gain stature and brilliance due
to the character with which they are identified. The source
material he focused on seems to have been dormant informa-
tion, until it served as a catalyst for his thoughts. What
then caused Hebbel to focus on this particular object? Was
he the champion of emancipation or was he in subconscious
search of himself through the "du"?

I should like to note that Hebbel's preoccupation with

the female is neither a novel nor an original one: he merely

A

is unusually intent upon it.3 That man is tragically and
hopelessly alone is a well established and tested truism.
In order to cope with this realization Hebbel attempts to
find a tangible image of the self in the woman. Psycho-
logical predisposition makes it essential for Hebbel to seek
the solution through the reality of another being.
Hebbel's mind seems to seek a profound premise for his
existence, a more individualistic and perceptive reality.
Can it be found in the intimacy of an alter-self? It is here
that the woman finds her way into his art. If one may con-
sider three ways to approach the problem and meaning of ex-
istence-religion, philosophy and art, then it could be said
that Hebbel's way is through his art."l He created from the
core of his very being and from his innermost experiences.5
In few authors do personality and art blend as thorough-
ly as in the case of Hebbel.6 The external circumstances of
Hebbel's life and his compulsion for self analysis7 combine
to create a preoccupation with the self in him. As a re-
sult, it becomes difficult to separate his intellect from
his personality, which in turn merges with his art. He per-
ceived the circumstances of his life in a manner which fos-
tered unusual and excessive self reliance and introspection.8
As Martini aptly states, "Sein Ich war sein einziger Besitz."9
His compulsion for self analysis merges with his intellect
which renders his art subjective. It is as though he wished

to realize his own existence through his intellect, which

becomes the greatest force in his art. Hebbel's art is
neither intuitive interpretation of reality nor an objective
formulation of an intellectual ideal. It seems rather a
combination of psychological necessity and intellectual ob-
jectivity.

Through his art Hebbel tries to delineate a concept
which would render living a more congenial process. He
searches for an insight into human relations and thus into
himself, insight which is not surpassed by many poets of his
time.10 Hebbel's search for the "du" has to be understood in
view of the fact that he experienced a profound incomplete-
ness and duality of the self and existence.11 Furthermore,
this is seen as an intrinsic condition in the coupling of
the man and the woman. Hebbel seems to sense an order of
positives and negatives in nature, but he is unable to com-
prehend the reality of fusion. The coupling seems highly
unsatisfactory.

The woman becomes an integral part of the whole concept
of duality and it is as though he demands a solution of her,
a solution which, of course, she is as unable to provide as
he himself is. Here lies the path toward the idealization of
the woman. Because of this desire to idealise her and have
her become all that which is incomplete in him, she is put
in a position where her inferiority predominates. He would
wish to incorporate in her all that he seeks. In this light

the woman would become the transmitter of higher intellectual

values, almost an ideal figure as in the case of Goethe.l2
As Hebbel writes in his diary, "Wer nicht in dem Weib das
Ideal sieht, wo soll der es fiberhaupt sehen da das Weib
doch offenbar in seiner Blfite die idealste Erscheinung der
Natur ist."l3
The basic hostility between the sexes, however, is so

14 that a more amicable state is almost inconceiv-

fundamental
able. Thus, in man's attempt to extricate himself from his
torturous dichotomy, it becomes convenient to endow the woman
with idealistic properties, to create a vessel for his hopes.
However, the female is an ordinary sensual being. He is
faced with an individual who is just as inadequate as he
himself and moreover her nature is alien15 to him, sometimes
hostile. The relationship between the male and the female
becomes a great unending process of searching for equilibrium
and its inherent hostility provides the cornerstone of
Hebbel's art.16

Hebbel searches for communication and for his own iden-
tity. By placing the problem on a sexual plane, he has
chosen a ground of communication which is delicate, even
daring for his time, a time when the sensuality of the woman
is hardly recognized as an overt fact.19 Here Hebbel seems
to be trapped by the idiom of his day; by the boundaries of
yet unspoken concepts. Hebbel wants to bridge the vast ex-

18

panse of manmade barriers to sexual freedom by spiriting

them away, by leaving them anonymous. He senses the infinite

variations that may be achieved in this relationship and
pursues them through his art.

Hebbel emphasises the psychological instead of the
philosophical factors and in doing so he has struck chords
which are more pertinent and comprehensive today than they
were in his time. The psychological aspect has today found
its vocabulary. It is the psychological factors, not en-
vironment and external influences which are so important in
the works of Hebbe1.19

In the process of interpreting Hebbel's art much empha-
sis has been placed on the philosophical content of his work.
Hebbel 1&3 not a philosopher. He is more of the intuitive
speculator than the logican who operates with precisely de—
fined terminology. This is how Oskar Walzel sees the author.
"Philosophische Schrifften, die er lies, philosophische
Vorlesungen, die er hfirte, wecken eher Abneigung. Dennoch
saugt er sich was an philosophischen Gedanken in der Luft
liegt."2O Philosophical thought served as a catalyst for
formulating his own emotional, psychological and intellectual
thought processes. His philosophical thought is an integral

21

force of his life and art. Possibly, it stems from his

need to escape loneliness through his intellect.22
It is the dichotomy of existence which makes his
philosophical ventures pertinent to the problem at hand.

Each concept, be it the man versus the woman, or the general

versus the particular, has its polar mate. The character of

the woman becomes a link in the bridge to span the vastness
which separates man from his natural pair. Forever present
is the hostility between the sexes and the polarity of sex

and morality. It becomes man's duty to suppress his sensual

desires.23

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B. State of scholarship

 

The revival of interest in Hebbel scholarship has been
prompted by the possibility that the classification of his
work may have been too rigid. He has been assigned the role
of the Hegelian exponent of the individual versus the world
order. A profuse list of dualities would be easily obtain-
able from Hebbel's work and the process to resolve and the
inability to do so may merit another exhaustive investiga-
tion. The scope of perplexities embodied in his work defies
neat and clear evaluation. Is his work based only on the
concept that man has to fit into a grander order of things
and his resistance to do so will be catastrophic?

Contemporary thought is concerned with the individual
himself, not just his relation to the whole. Recent scholar-
ship is making an effort to look behind the scenes of the
great process between the sexes in the works of Hebbel.

What philosophers influenced Hebbel's thought, is it
possible that the basic tragedy of his works point toward
nihilism and not optimism, does the morality of his time
hide a greater psychological depth than is recognized, is he
possibly ironic, is his language more than a dramatic tool,
is there unearthed wealth in the biographical material? These

would be only a few of the questions which are interesting

10

from a contemporary view point.

There is great lack of recent comprehensive biographi-
cal material?“r Besides the standard works of about fifty
years vintage there is an assortment of lesser ones, which
may be considered as abridged versions of the more highly

25

regarded biographies. Possibly one other work, that by

Walzel, offers greater depth.26 Unfortunately, there is no

recent comprehensive biography.27

Only one sprawling, outdated bibliography is in exis-
tence.28 As far as current bibliographical material is con-
cerned, no complete work has been written. There are three
recent, scholarly articles which offer substantial but incom-
plete bibliographies.29

Six works, to be discussed in this section, deal specifi-
cally and only with the subject treated in this thesis, the
woman in the life and works of Hebbel.3O

One of these six, a thesis written by Clara Newport and
published by the University of Wisconsin, gives biographical
material divided chronologically into the significant periods
of his life. The work and the biographical material are
closely meshed. Clara Newport states that there is a great
similarity between Hebbel's theories and the woman characters
which he created. Each detail of a character can be accounted
for by Hebbel. She concludes by saying that it was the women

in his life which caused him to alter his views and as the

woman herself changed, so his model changed.

11

She further states that the pure and beautiful virgin
of Hebbel's early works was borrowed from literature. Later
his heroines were modeled on the image of the devoted Elise.
This expands to include the fact that the woman must suffer
in her love. Eventually Hebbel's women claim the right to
individuality. At first love is idealized, then it becomes
sexual, at which point it awakens cynicism in Hebbel, and
eventually it matures into a noble, pure form, as for in-
stance, friendship. The image expands in scope to include
motherhood as the woman's supreme contribution and eventually
Hebbel learns to respect her individuality and strength.

As indicated in the title, the work of Frau Brachvogel
stresses the fact that Hebbel's characters are modern. Her
thesis is that Hebbel is modern because he is the first
author to deal in depth with the problems of the woman in
marriage. (Classical drama, with the exception of Medea,
took the woman up to the wedding.) Women are beset by their
own unique problems. She goes on to mention great authors
(Goethe) who were married to insignificant women and points
out that Hebbel was the first to marry an equal and thus came
his inspiration for dramas of women who were married. Hebbel
was not a feminist, he was inspired by his marriage.

Frau Mitscherlich's book is an ecstatic adulation of
Hebbel. No other race but the Germans have had such a prophet
as Hebbel. Modern life demands a full-blooded woman and

Hebbel has created her. Judith is so real, so true. As the

l2

author says: "Wie weiblich, und wie echt Hebbel." Similar
emotional outbursts dispose of about six of Hebbel's dramas.

Janssen's book presents the biographies of the women
in Hebbel's life--his mother, Elise, Christine and Amalie
Schoppe. Hebbel himself emerges as the genius born of in-
significant parents. The father meant nothing to the boy and
the mother was merely kind and devoted. Furthermore, Hebbel
never developed an attachment to home or homeland. Thus, his
pride, sensuality and genius are explained by the fact that
he was the son of an intellectually significant man, Pastor
Volckman. (The mother had been his maid.) Amalie Schoppe is
praised as an author, and Janssen explains the difficulties
between her and Hebbel as having been caused by unkind
friends. Elise emerges as a woman of excellent education who
was pure and good in spite of the fact that Hebbel took
cruel advantage of her. There is much detail about the family
life of Christine and Hebbel. Christine is characterized
as intelligent and even shrewd.

Frieda Knecht deals with love and marriage in Hebbel's
life and his dramas. She presents pertinent material from
the diaries. She suggests that Hebbel may have wished for
a double standard of morality, one for the man, one for the
woman. His egotistical sensuality loved the youth and beauty
of Emma Schrdder and Josephe Schwarz; yet, his strong ethical
inclination forced him to dissolve the affairs. Hebbel may

have been so lonely because he was such a great personality.

13

In this work Elise's goodness and Hebbel's egotism emerge.
The marriage to Christine was often a battle because of
their strong personalities. Hebbel was not an emancipator
of the flesh. For him the woman was above all, a mother.
She could be an equal partner to the man, but never like the
man. It was his strong ethical sense which elevated the
woman to a position to be honored. The tragedy lies in the
essential and basic differences between the sexes.

The thesis of Elise Dosenheimer's work is that the basic
tragedy of Hebbel's works is a dual one. It is not the bound-
less greatness of an individual, but the whole process of
living as it unfolds among the sexes. The duality of things
is at the basis of Friedrich Hebbel and his art; this is also
carried over into the realm of the erotic. The man and the
woman are by nature enemies; she is destined to remain on a
lower plane and endure in a narrow circle of activity. Her
tragic guilt lies in the attempt to escape this circle.
Hebbel wishes to endow her with ethical values, so that she
may become an agent of harmony to the man. Man's sin against
the woman is his "Masslosigkeit."

Hobbel's dramas are inspired by experiences in marriage,
but his art as a whole is based on idea, not experience. His
lovers are not destroyed with each other, but because of each
other. Hebbel is not the first to deal with this process be-
tween the sexes, but he does so consistently. He is not an

artist devoted to sex psychology, but is motivated by the

14

tragedy of the total duality.

To reiterate, there is an apparent revitalization of
Hebbel scholarship, relevant questions have been raised, but
the emphasis still remains on the void to be filled. There
is need for a biography, a bibliography, source material and

31 One is faced with an

monographs on specific subjects.
ambiguity-~much of the comprehensive scholarly work on Hebbel,
due to the nature of the work, deals with the woman in the
life and works of Hebbel. Yet, there are few works which
deal solely with this subject, none recent.32 Regardless of
the vieWpoint taken or the subject of investigation, the fe-
male figure can not be divorced from the discourse at hand.
She is an integral component of Hebbeliana. Conversely, no
definitive, contemporary work on this subject exists. Of the
about half a dozen available works none have been published

33

since 1925 and they range from highly regarded to ludi-

3
crous. If Hebbel's literary stature and the pertinence of
his work are to be maintained, reevaluation of certain as-

pects from a contemporary viewpoint is in order.

15

C. Biographical facts

 

1. Family
Friedrich Hebbel was the child of poor and uneducated

parents. They had, at one time, owned an unpretentious home-
stead, but an unfortunate financial venture on the father's
part reduced the family to absolute poverty. No longer did
even the very poor look up to the poor Hebbel family. The
parents and the household exhibited no distinguishing char-
acteristics. Conspicuous character traits, talents, tradi—
tions or unique events were not apparent in the lives of
Hebbel's parents. The household seems to have been destitute
spiritually and economically. Hebbel's own accounts of his
childhood and parents are tinted by retrospective vision and
what seems to be his personal attempt to set his house in

order. As he himself writes,

"Wer sein Leben darstelle, der solle, wie Goethe, nur

das Liebliche, Schdne, das Bewichtigende und Ausgleichende
herVOrheben, das man auch in den dunkelsten Verhéltnisse
auffinden lasstf hervorheben und das fibrige aus sich
beruhen lassen.'35

The family lived a hand-to-mouth existence, with both
parents working intermittently. The father was an embittered
man. He does not emerge as a strong, manly figure who ex-
perienced much hardship in his life; he did not function as

the patriarchal head of the household, but merely as the

16

ineffectual breadwinner. More benevolently, he has been

described as earnest.36 As a grown man, Hebbel remarked

that it was poverty that made his father the way he was.

This may well be an astute observation, but does economic
poverty presuppose spiritual poverty?

Hebbel's father seems to have found little pleasure in
the natural association with his children and was unable to
give of himself to his children. Hate toward his "wolves"
seems to have been the predominant emotion.37 Hebbel's in-
heritance from his father was poverty, not much more.38

The definitive biographies of Hebbel do not dwell on
the question of who his real father was. Klaus Friedrich
Hebbel is Friedrich's natural and legal father. Sadger and
Janssen, however, suggest that the mother, during the course
of her duties as the housekeeper to Pastor Vockmann, became
involved with the latter and that he fathered her son,
Friedrich. Sadger pictures Vockmann as a talented and sen-
suous individual, which in turn explains Friedrich's other-
wise inexplicable talent. This information derives from
rather erratic and obscure scholarship. This, however, does
not eradicate its existence. Klaus Hebbel is said to have
possessed an extremely quick and violent temper, which eventu—
ally was also discerned in the son.39

Hebbel's mother was an insignificant woman who showed a

40

natural attachment and devotion to her children. The

mother is credited with the fact that in spite of their

l7

poverty the children seldom suffered real hunger. She even
managed to save the best scraps of food for her sons and
protected them from their father. But she, too, was plagued
by the same poverty which was so detrimental to his father.
This woman, no more than her husband, was able to free her
spirit from this condition. The household was held together
by a common hunger and the sensual bond between the parents.
It is a small wonder that Hebbel did not profess a deep
attachment to his parental homestead nor to the land where

41

he was born.

2. Childhood and Youth

 

Hebbel's childhood must have been the lonely existence
of an exceptional child. Insidious poverty, uneducated
parents, equally destitute peers constituted the immediate
world about him. His intellectual endowment may not have
been apparent to others, but he surely was aware of what was
an inherent part of his makeup. His sensitivity and intel-
lect developed in spite of an environment hostile to them.

He possessed an extremely vivid imagination, which manifested

itself in fantastic dreams and easily animated inanimate ob-

JeCtS-ue He was not a loquacious child and spent much time

alone.l+3 He even avoided school and played by himself.ML
Hebbel started school at the early age of four and was

taught by an old maid teacher whose ultimate treasure was

the secret of writing. Even in this little school success

18

was measured by the thickness of the father's wallet. Fried-
rich was not an unusually precocious child. He did, never-
theless, show some artistic talent and exhibited early
aesthetic tendencies, he could not abide ugly people.45 He
did, at an early age, exhibit a passionate and melodramatic
natureu6 and devoured romantic and passionate literature47
with the fervor of any intelligent child. In his early child-
hood, Friedrich was withdrawn, peculiar, proud, not particu-
larly brilliant and reasonably genial child. Only luck
saved him from becoming a bricklayer's apprentice. Even
though he was intelligent, society did ndt intend for a boy
like Friedrich Hebbel to reach too high. Paul Bornstein ex-
pressed this view,

"War er doch armer Leute Kind! Die Wflrde und Bedeu-

tung eines Menschen mass man eben zu seiner Zeit fast

noch mehr nach dem Geldbeutel als jetzt. Das er

nach seiner Konfirmation Schreibelehrling wurde, war

dem gewohmlichen Manne nur ein Beweis daffir dass der

Mauersohn zu 'hoch hinaus' wollte."48

After Fraulein Susanne's school Hebbel continued his
education under the teacher Dethlefsen. Here Hebbel excelled
in his studies and gave credence to the fact that he was more
capable than other children. Dethlefsen favored his bright
pupil and encouraged him to borrow his own books. Hebbel
had learned so well that upon his father's death he came to
the attention of the parish overseer Mohr who engaged him as

an errand boy and scribe, and eventually as secretary.

Mohr was not inclined to encourage the boy's intellectual

19

development, since he too was a poor man's child who had
been hired for minimal reward to do a job. Gratitude was to
be expected from the boy, not further help from Mohr. Hebbel,
himself, remembered the years at Mohr's house with bitter-
ness. However, in view of contemporary social conditions
they may not have been so completely bad.49 Hebbel was prob-
ably not subjugated to exceptional injustice. Considering
his characteristic pride it is doubtful that he would have
remained, had he been truly mistreated.50

One must wonder at the boy's vehement resentment of his
situation. Or is it the vehemence of the grown man who finds
it convenient to blame his privation on a grander order than
himself? From the vantage point of his socio-economic con-
dition he exhibits monumental effrontery in his assumption
that the world should have offered him something better. The
feeling of depravity is a relative one, it is unlikely that
others in his situation were in better circumstances. He had
not yet formalized the belief that it was poverty which
thwarted his path and it is likely that he spent an ordinary
youth, with the resentment appearing in maturity.

The resentment of his impoverished state became more
acute as he found himself in a world where the opposite end
of the social spectrum was represented. He encountered this

as he left home to become a student.51

His great pride
suffered immensely and his poverty began to haunt him. He

was unable to solve this problem by practical means and even

20

less capable to coexist with it. He became preoccupied with
it and remained supersensitive to it for the rest of his
life.52 The poverty of his youth cast a shadow of gloom on
his courage and vitality, yet, he claimed it to be his re-
sponsibility.53 Poverty almost became a facade for him.5u
From his homeland, Dithmarschen, Hebbel carried the
legacy of poverty and pride. It also taught him introspec-

56

tion, suffering and to fight for his existence. Undoubted-

ly, the geographic, social, economic and historical conditions
of his people influenced Hebbel's personality and his work.56
The people of Dithmarschen were Nordic peasants who had to

eke out their living with unbending will in presence of the
unyielding and depressing elements.

The pleasures of these people must have been simple and
few, even the climactic conditions were not designed to in-
spire overt joviality. The devastating fight for survival
and the bleak area must have suppressed a man's fiercest
passions and forced him to turn inward. Dithmarschen also
left its indelible mark on Hebbel and the characteristics of
the proud introvert are evident in his personality as well
as in his work. The heroic and stern qualities of the
Dithmarsch peasantry live on in his works.57 However,

15‘8

Dithmarschen represented imprisonment to Hebbe and in
retrospect he himself feels only bitterness towards it, as
he writes in his diaries. "Dass ich in Dithmarschen geistig

schon so hoch stand...und dennoch gesellschaftlich so

21

niedrig gestellt ward, ist das grosste Unglfick meines
59
It

Lebens.

3. Influential Friends

 

What was Friedrich Hebbel like and what kind of rela-
tionships had his childhold and youth prepared him for? One
learns from exposure and contact with the world. In Hebbel's
case both had been limited. The image of the woman that he
took with him is one of passive, inconsequential suffering.
There are not traces of forcefulness, energy, insight or
individuality in the dominant female figures of the first
twenty years of his life. Also apparent is the lack of mean-
ingful relationships with other males during this period.
Devotion, emulation and friendship toward the father were
non-existent in the son. Nor was there a father substitute
figure to whom Hebbel had been attracted. Mohr came into
Hebbel's life when he already had built the walls of adoles-
cence around himself and was himself an inaccessible person-
ality. Dethlefsen was the incarnation of the devoted teacher
figure, but the relationship, though amiable, lacked depth
and intimacy. There was a brother, Johann, but this is a
mere biological fact and not an emotional brotherhood. The
young Hebbel had formed no strong and lasting friendships
with another man. The female figure of his childhood is
little more than a passive, devoted slave and the male is a

rather negative intangible one. Blind, egotistical pride

22

which plagued him for the rest of his life must have been
conceived here.60 The young Hebbel was lacking in educa-
tional background, means, social graces, experience and
possessed a willful, proud, arrogant and dour personality.
He was also both intelligent and sensitive. He had missed
much, and the male relationships he formed during his life-
time were not free from unusual stress.

Hebbel met Emil Rousseau in Heidelberg while both were
students there and the two men became friends. This friend-
ship almost exhibited the torments and passions of a love
affair. He wanted to possess and dominate Rousseau who in
turn was attracted to the stronger personality. He was

willing to suffer Hebbel's passionate and vacillating moods,61

since he also embodied intellectual depth for which Rousseau's
sensitive nature yearned. The stronger, arrogant man wanted
a devoted and faithful adherent, not a relationship in which
he would have to give of himself. It was a passionate and
precarious association, built on mutual sensitivity and dia-
metric needs. One of the first shattering experiences of
Hebbel's life was the death of Rousseau.62 As he writes to
Elise, he never realized a new friendship like this one!
"Erst jetzt is die Welt mir 6de....O, Elise, das war
der beste Mensch, den die Erde je getragen hat....
Er war mir alles, was ein Mensch in dem hochsten,
wfirdigsten Verhéltnis dem andern sein kann."63

The other outstanding male relationship of Hebbel's life

was his association with Emil Kuh, who was his friend, admirer

23

and eventually biographer. It is a graphic illustration of
the insurmountable difficulties which Hebbel's personality
brought to these friendships. In his association with Kuh,
Hebbel allowed for no other alliances. In this case, it was
Kuh's attachment to a woman. Hebbel would not abide a dual
alliance. He was unable to tolerate the self of another and

there could be but one deity.64 As Hebbel himself says,

friendship demanded subjugation65

and as he writes in his
diaries, "Du hast ein Feind. Was heisst das? Du hasteinen
Menschen vor dir, den du entweder zu deinen Freund oder zu
deinem Knecht machen sollst."66
Hebbel's friendships were erratic and short lived. Yet,
Hebbel was motivated by a need to form intimate and lasting
friendships.67 How does a man attain compatability with a
woman if he is unable to do so with a male? Does he regard
the woman as a sexual object or does he relegate her to the
realms of ethereal idealism by ignoring the existence of her
sexuality? Even in the realm of the erotic he suffered from
incompatability, the gift of intimate communication was never
his.68
Hebbel was a sensual person, but this clashed with the
attitudes of his childhood. The ethical values in the Hebbel
family were reaped from the Bible through which a vengeful
God became a real part of the child's existence. The Bible

was the most important book in the household and Jehova's

stern commandments rang in the ears of the children.69 God's

24

law was to love one another and to be severely punished for
transgressions. Hebbel was taught of the "pure" love between
men and women and one which is quickly converted into sin.70
On this basis, a purely sensual relationship was doomed to

failure for Hebbel.

4..Amalie Schoppe

 

Among the women figures outside of the immediate family
who influenced Hebbel, Amalie Schoppe occupies the initial
position. She was a curious mother-woman figure that Hebbel
encountered upon leaving Dithmarschen. Amalie Schoppe was
an author and published a woman's magazine at the time when
she met Hebbel. Hebbel's personality and economic status had
prepared him for this encounter. Amalie Schoppe was ready
to arrange a subsidy for the poor, young student and Hebbel
felt obliged to accept this expediency. Hebbel lacked the

noble manliness71

which would have enabled him to accept
assistance graciously, yet, his personality paved the way for
a situation in which he was ready to have some one else carry
the burden of his daily needs. The relationship was strained
due to differences in temperament and Hebbel's inimical per-
sonality traits.72
In spite of her grandiose intent Amalie Schoppe exerted

a limited influence on Hebbel.73 The affinity of this middle
aged woman for Hebbel lay in her pretentions to being an

author of note. She did, however, admit that he might not
have judged her so. She felt herself to be the spiritual

25

mother of Hebbel, since she was the one to recognize and
salvage this talent from anonymity. As her writing, her
praise for Hebbel was prolific, as she saw in his Judith the
equal of EEEEE with Shakespearean overtones. She gave Hebbel
an education by providing for Latin instruction and even a
friend--Janinsky.7)4

Amalie Schoppe was intelligent, energetic and upon her
father's death had been forced to make her own living. Moti-
vated by need for security, she eventually entered into a bad
marriage.75 After her husband's death her literary penchant
enabled her to make a living. She had the respect of those
who knew her76 and engaged in what today would be called
charity work. There is a touch of the do-gooder in her and
sporadic illusions of grandeur.

Unable to achieve greatness through her own efforts, she
seemed to want to invest herself in helping others realize
their ambitions. Her desire to help the young and promising
Hebbel was genuine, but it was taintéiby hero worship of the
middle aged woman writer for the young man of literary aspi-
rations. The relationship was marred by overtones of manip-
ulation. Hebbel was virgin ground to be cultivated by proper
education, indoctrination and friends. Had she succeeded,
he would have become a brilliant son-friend-protege to re-
place her aspirations for her own children, who had not de-
veloped the way the mother had intended. Her manipulations

proved innocuous. Only Hebbel's pride was hurt, since he

26

had been placed in the role of the humble recipient and
quickly balked at her overtures. The alliance was neither

amiable nor lasting.

5. Elise Lensing

 

Through Amalie Schoppe Hebbel met Elise Lensing, who at
this time was nine years older than Hebbel, but unlike Hebbel
possessed social graces, education and adequate resources.
Her chronological age put her at the precarious interval

"ein

where the female changes from "ein junges Madchen" to
Fraulein." Her single state incurred speculation, the com-
mon suspicion cast upon the able bodied single female. Elise
was a respected, but nebulous figure, whose past was said to
have included a lover.77
Hebbel's affairs were not in a state which allowed for
impetuous, thwarting alliances, yet, Elise provided a haven
for his perturbed existence at a very low immediate cost.
Elise had received an adequate education and was considered
a lady. She frequented the lending library, attended the
theatre and was well versed in the social graces of the
time.78 Tb Hebbel, who was fully lacking in social ameni-
ties and was ill at ease in company,79 she must have repre-
sented refinement. The true depth of her education is ques-
tionable. The claim that she read Rousseau in the original

0
French, is doubtful. Nowhere in her letters does she

dwell on her facility with this language and she tends to

t ‘ y
m‘ssoelr t.

content an

27

misspell the French words that she does use. The style,
content and even the spelling obviously exhibit the fact
that she was literate, but not much more. The extent of her
education is now irrelevant, to Hebbel she was an educated
and well mannered lady. It seems absurd to conjecture that
Hebbel was attracted to Elise because of her brilliant in-
tellect. It was the stability of her adequate education and
manner, combined with an unobtrusively bright mind, which
attracted Hebbel. Elise had money, not much money, but
enough to live independently and to impress the financially
embarrassed Hebbel. The money had been an inheritance from

81

her father. The combination of all these external factors
presented a highly desirable picture to the young Hebbel who
even indulged his pretentions slightly and is known to have
referred to her as "von Lansing." Insignificant as this di-
vergence from the truth is, it gives an indication of what
he yearned for and valued.

Elise was known for her compassion for the poor and her
charitable works.82 The initial altruistic motivations to-
ward Hebbel soon assumed a different aura. Elise's unevent-
ful, lonely life gained a new meaning; she was needed, she
could give not only her help and care, but her whole being.
She fell in love and devoted her life to Hebbel. But she
was in no position to bargain; she had lost a woman's great-

est asset, her youth, not her need to be loved and to love.

Consequently, I do not intend to exalt her sacrifice nor

28

suggest that she is a figure women should always be proud
of.83 She possessed a sensual nature,8n which demanded
satisfaCtion and was not devoid of pleasure. Unfortunate
and unconventional as the relationship was, she had entered
into one of life's most meaningful experiences with Hebbel,
she was involved with another person.

Elise's greatest handicap in life seems to have been
poor health, which in turn rendered her supersensitive.

This is how Wilhelm Rutz depicts her. "Elise war offenbar
eine jener Naturen, denen seelische Zartheit, Empfindsamkeit
und Reizbarkeit auf der Grundlage eines zarten Korpers zur
Quelle vieler Leiden wird."85 She was given to melancholia
and cried easily.86 She was emotional and impressionable and
even dreamed dreams inspired by Hebbel. Elise was too sub-
missive.

At this time Hebbel's predicament would have been equally
difficult had he loved Elise, but he did not. Instead, he
attempted to idealize her. Possibly this was his way to jus-
tify himself and to gratify his ego. He would have belittled
himself, had he dismissed Elise as an indiscreet indulgence,
rather, she became all that is good in humanity, even if only
by Hebbel's demand itself. Again, to quote Rutz, "Elise ist
das Weib in dem Hebbel seine Idee der Menschheit verkorpert
sieht, sehen will, das er seinem Ideal gewaltsam verhohnt

"87

wenn es ihm nicht von selbst gleichkommt. Hebbel willed

to Elise all the admirable qualities that he yearned for.

29

She was not all that he believed her to be. At moments
Hebbel praised Elise as the noblest of all women.88 He
loved to think of her and love her as a Madonna. The
Madonna, however, is self effacing and demands nothing.

An ambiguity in this relationship is apparent here, he pre-
ferred to think of her as the holy Madonna with no sensual
or emotional demands, yet it is this very passive slavery of
Elise which repelled him and he did feel a sexual attraction.
In his love for "Beppi" he celebrated the beauty of her
primitive, earthy and charming nature, which he could not

see in Elise. "Beppi" lived in a world of religion, love and

0
dream.9 Hebbel attempted to divest Elise of all sensuality

and thought of their relationship as a glorious friendship.91
His overtures to prove the genuine depth of this intimate
friendship are rather crude and devoid of understanding. He
wrote candid letters to Elise of his passion for other women
and deluded himself into thinking that his relationship with
Elise was different from the ordinary ones between man and
woman. They loved each other like brother and sister. Hebbel

2
9 It

thinks of "ein freundliches menschliches Verhaltnis."
was his desire to extricate himself from this involvement
which caused him to see it as a mere friendship. The sensual
element introduces the unbearable polarity. He was unable
to satisfy his sexual desires and simultaneously adjust them

93

to his moral codes. Were Elise truly a self effacing Ma-

donna, he could adore her at will and dismiss her at will, all

30

the time maintaining her unmarred image. Elise was not.
And soon Hebbel found himself bound to a benefactor to whom
he felt indebted and at the same time wished to escape.94
Elise was unable to help in this escape, she had made
an inexorable commitment. She had for six years supported
Hebbel and even aided the members of his family.95 Subse-
quently, she found herself with child and exhausted finances.
She had, of her own volition, become Hebbel's virtual slave
and encountered financial and emotional bankruptcy.
Enigmatic as Hebbel's image of Elise might have been,96
Elise's attitude toward Hebbel was much clearer. Elise had
given love and shelter, but Hebbel wished to make his spirit-

97 and was unable to legitimize their sen-

ual home elsewhere
sual relationship. Elise's obvious demand was marriage.

Hebbel's objection to marriage was both simple and in-
tricate. He did not love her and did not have the resources
to maintain a family, he was emotionally and socially up-
rooted; in short, marriage was the thing he needed least.
Yet, he had accepted this woman's commitment and was still
unable to decline it. He did, however, decline the responsi-
bility. His reasons, in view of his personality and even
general consensus, were valid. He believed himself to be a
unique individual, a genius, not an ordinary man to be bound
by marriage.

Hebbel also lacked the funds for marriage and the lack

of money was one of the perpetual problems of his life.

31

Curiously, he allowed this to become such a constraining
handicap. He could have easily been employed, but he de-
clined all avenues of expediency. Hebbel's pride borders
on stupidity with masochistic overtones. Lack of money
caused him to starve and freeze, which often lead to in-
capacitating illness and periods of unproductivity. More-
over, he found satisfaction in comparing himself to other

98

famous men in similar circumstances.

To Hebbel, the prospect of marriage aroused ambivalent
feelings in him. His nature demanded that he both follow
the demands of his genius and accommodate his need for a
woman in his life. This ambivalence was compounded by the
realization that the woman proposed as his marriage partner
was a woman that he did not love. The whole relationship
assumed the proportions of a perpetual see-saw, each perturb-
ance upset the balance and, yet, he could not get off. At
one point Elise suggested that he need not marry her, which
Hebbel countered by a resolute intention to do just that.99
Hebbel suggested marriage as a contradictory measure to ap-
pease Elise's incessant imploring and to comfort her in time
of crisis, such as the death of his son, Max. The mother of
his child was his only concern and he was ready to sacrifice
himself for her.100 Undoubtedly, his genuine pity for the
mother was intensified by guilt over the neglect of his

102

son.101 He felt for Elise and not with her. In a moment

of despair he was willing to sacrifice himself, yet, soon

32

came the realization that the primary duty was to himself and
wrote, "Es gibt Fille, wo Pflichterfullen sfindigen heisst."103
To perform the duty and marry would be to sacrifice his in-
nermost drives and to shackle his art, as Hebbel himself
states, "Schfittle alles ab, was dich in deiner Entwicklung
hemmt, wenn's auch ein Mensch ware, der dich liebt, denn
was dich vernichtet, kann keinen andern fb'rdern."lOLL

The schism between wish and deed attained its greatest
depth here. If the man is so devoted to the pursuit of his
unhampered development and to his art, is he not already
thwarted by a devastating, not socially sanctioned relation-
ship with another person?r He condemns himself to excrutiating
emotional torments, which can be no less shackling than mar-
riage. Hebbel claimed he was too involved in creative work
to experience a real love affair. He did, however, spend
himself on something less than real. (hnrcnum sire two chil-
dren and wage an indefatigable psychological war for his
identity with a woman and be free?_ He had to violate stand-
ards of bourgoise morality and human rights in order to save
his art.105 If he violated accepted morality and another
human being, he also violated his most precious possession--
his individual freedom. His struggle with Elise was a futile
one, the conflict was within himself. Hunger, insecurity
and sex shackled Hebbel to Elise. It was not his great pas-
sion for art which thwarted his great passion for Elise, his
sexuality and morality were incompatible. His sexuality had

incurred a debt which his morality could not expiate and this

33

very conflict became an integral part of his being. This
consciousness of guilt even constituted one of the principal
themes of his dramatic work.106

Elise Lensing had compromised herself socially and emo-
tionally. She was getting old, poor and had born two illegi-
timate children. With the death of Max the final estrange-
ment of Hebbel and Elise107 set in and she was left alone.

Elise's character exhibits a curious anomoly of passivi-
ty and extreme egotism. Circumstances had reduced her to a
shadow of events and she was incapable of adding dignity to
this horrible reality. Yet, she had the persistent audacity
to make vain demands; her ego could not be appeased and she
clamored for the theoretical right. Deprived of thds, she
haunted it for the rest of her life.

Having buried the children and the expectancy of mar-
riage, Elise transferred her search for belonging to the new
Hebbel family and Christine's illegitimate son, Carl. She
became a vicarious member of the family. Carl gave purpose
to her existence and provided a link to Hebbel.

Elise's correspondence with Christine is, in a sense,

a sum total of her life. Her dedication is evident in her
care for Carl. On the whole, her letters are laced with re-
sentment and indictment of Hebbel. Elise explicitly complains
that Hebbel's letters indicate only ill moods and worries

that his child may have inherited this tendency.108 All of

which tends to make her ill for days.109 Resentment and

34

self-pity are evident throughout her letters. Life is one
great iniquity, "denn die welche es am mehresten bedflrfen
bekommen es am wenigsten."110 The best people suffer the
most. Apparently egotism and self-pity cohabit very easily.
The ultimate picture of Elise that emerges is one of a
defeated, elderly woman who has attempted to forge her iden-
tity through her devotion to others. Hers was an ordinary
existence plagued by extreme suffering and bound to the
trivialities man is doomed to when forced to eke out his ex-
istence step by step. Her adequate education and intelligence
did not, however, provide an astute and critical insight of
the self. Ill health and devastating circumstances plunged
her into egotistical self-pity and resentment, culminating
in neurotic morbidity. Elise was unable to see that self-
sacrifice is a grand and lethal illusion, which is duly

transformed into alienation.

6. Christine Enghaus

 

"Wo sich zwei Menschen umarmen, da bilden sie einen Kreis,"lll

this is Hebbel's affirmation of marriage after his union with
Christine. The statement was made by the same man who spent
years pontificating that marriage was not designed for the
genius.

Hebbel's "Wanderjahre" culminated and expired with his
meeting of Christine Enghaus. Hebbel, at this time, was

thirty-three years old and Christine was twenty—nine. She

35

was an experienced actress and was accustomed to supporting
herself. Indicative of her stamina and individuality is
the fact that without imposing social background or educa-
tion she had managed to attain a measure of success and
affluence. She also had an illegitimate son, Carl.

Christine was attractive, had a natural penchant for her

profession and was an excellent mimic.112

The public liked
her and after she became a "drawing card" in Hamburg she was
invited to Vienna.113 Success came with the ability to iden-
tify with the character she portrayed, even though she was
hampered by weak diction and older actors who monopolized the
better roles. Christine was devoted to her art, respected
it. Her demonaic projection predisposed her for the roles

in Hebbel's dramas, which she had aspired to portray previous
to their meeting.

"Schwarze Augen schauten in blaue hinein, wie blitzende
Sterne in einen blauen See, und der reine Grund der Seelen
liess sich erblicken."llu This is an overromanticized ver—
sion of the rational meeting of Hebbel and Christine. These
two experienced people had encountered stark reality long
before they met each other. They had learned to survive and
suspect. They were two iconoclasts of idyllic love, im-
probable candidates for passionate transport. Poverty, in-
security, ill health and emotional entanglements had etched
their imprint on the artist's face. Pity, instead of passion,

was one of the emotions which drove Christine to the

36

ll
melancholy Hebbel. 5 Christine understood his work and

offered him an economic base, which set him free to do what
he wanted to do most.116

Hebbel, on the other hand, at the age of thirty-three,
was still uprooted and had formed no inseparable ties with
any location or individual during his wanderings. Having
found no harmony or peace in his relationship with Elise or
his male friends, Hebbel was still on his quest to belong.
His memories of love and companionship were tinged with
guilt, and he sought a relationship which would offer him emo-
tional comfort and security.

Having failed to retain the idealized image of Elise, he
attempted to emancipate himself by emancipating Elise and
thus stabilizing the equilibrium of moral responsibility.
In spite of this, he still retained his original conception
that the woman belongs in the narrowest circle.117 True eman-
cipation, Hebbel would have regarded as the crime of his
century.118 The emancipation of the woman would deprive man
of the humanizing factor in life. Even though emancipation
would have served Hebbel's purpose, he still wished to seek
the idealized "du" in the female and was reluctant to ab-
dicate this prerogative by demoting her to an equal. There
exists a clash between the desire to have the woman as an
emancipated equal and to retain her image as an ideal. Hebbel

was unable to emancipate Elise and thus set himself free,

nor could he maintain his image of her.

37

The woman Hebbel had known had been passive and alien
to his personality.119 In Christine Hebbel met a woman whom
he considered to be an individual, i.e., he did not have to
take sole responsibility of her life, nor would he have to
adore a Madonna. Christine could become a partner in living.

It is curious that the man who protested being confined
to matrimony so eloquently and on such profound grounds, now
found a haven in the arrangement. The pursuit of his art
and freedom were the very essence of his life, if one is to
take the following statement at face value which he made in
his diaries.

"Es ist meine Uberzeugung und wird is in alle Ewigkeit

bleiben, dass der ganze Mensch derjenige Kraft in ihm

angehdrt, die die bedeutendste ist, denn aus ihr

allein entspringt sein eigenes Glfick und zugleich

aller Nutzen, den die Welt vor ihm ziehen kann,

Diese Kraft ist in mir die poetische."l20
With Christine, this poetic urge was easily compatible with
marriage and on the whole a less tempestuous outlook on mar-
riage became possible. "The trend toward a more conservative
interpretation of life can be attributed to the fact that
Hebbel's marriage with Christine Enghausen had relieved him
of his concern for Elise Lensing, and the problem of emanci-
pation, for which his relation to her had been responsible."121

Hebbel was unable to combine marriage and art until he
met Christine. The urgency and singlemindedness of his ar-

tistic inclination are suspect. Why was it even essential

to use the argument of his creativity against the prospect

38

of marriage? Were he so convinced of his desires, he was
free to pursue his course. He expressed the desire to be
the artist who frees himself from all that is conventional.
It was the conventional, however, which attracted him suffi-
ciently to constitute a valid struggle. The artist wanted
to pursue his Muse, yet found himself bound by conventional
morality and even conventional desires. Egotistical pride
superseded artistic dedication. Hebbel struggled with guilt
inspired by injured morality, while his artistic egotism
prohibited him from compromising himself. Not, compromising
his art, but compromising his image of what his manner of
living should be. He was not strong and free enough to pur-
sue his art irrelevant of external trivia. He could not
marry Elise, not because he did not love her, but because life
with Elise offered no conventional or emotional security.

122 which saved him from

Christine did offer love and security,
utter despair. It is the security which she offered that en-
abled Hebbel to sever the ties with Elise.

With his marriage to Christine Hebbel entered a new

123 The tragic aspect of marriage lies

sphere of creativity.
in the inherent loneliness and isolation of man, not in the
institution itself. With his marriage Hebbel seemed to ac-
cept this. Elise Dosenheimer sees in this the attempt to
overcome the basic duality.

"Er hat dieses Symbol so gestaltet, wie er es seiner

Weltanschauung her sehen und gestalten musste: als
das ewige Problem, die Einsamkeit des Individuums, die

39
Zweiheit des Geschlechtes zu fiberwinden, eine in

sich metaphysische gegebene Dissonanz in seiner
ebensometaphysischer geforderten Harmonie aufzuheben.

"124
Marriage must always be a struggle not only against loneli-
ness, but against the basic animosity and strangeness of the
sexes.125

The marriage of Christine and Friedrich Hebbel may be
considered one of the best marriages,126 if not the only in-
stance in the history of German literature when two equals
shared each other's lives.127 Christine freed Hebbel from
routine and daily worries for the last sixteen years of his
life. Hebbel mellowed and Christine's horizons were expanded.
It was her life with Hebbel which taught her to understand

the works of the greater intellect and to find her own style.128

The intellectual superiority of Hebbel provided the corner—
stone of the relationship.

The marriage was not without difficulties. Hebbel's
personality made him a dictatorial and moody husband. His
ill health and hypochondria detracted from domestic felicity.
It is also a curiouslysad fact that Hebbel felt the need to
take not only hunger and illness, but incidental trivia too
seriously. In certain personal matters he seemed to possess
no sense of humor.129 His impoverished background had also
taught him exaggerated frugality which bordered on miserli-

ness and contrasted with Christine's laxer attitude toward

130
money, His tightness with money reflected an even deeper

inability to give. His life had taught him to take and not

40

131

to give. Christine's tolerance of her husband's inade-
quacy is admirable and possibly the basis for Hebbel's event-
ual idealization of his wife. With Christine his home be-

came his whole world,132 whereas before he insisted on travel
in order to make the world his home. In his diaries he

writes, "Wie ruhrt mich jeder Blick in die weibliche Natur."133

On the whole, the Hebbel household is said to have been
a happy, contented picture of homelife, which exuded a north
German simplicity and was presided over by the father fig-

134
ure.

The marriage is a testimonial to the fact that Hebbel's
personality demanded instead of rejected marriage. Hebbel
responded very favorably to an ordered, stable and affection-
ate household. He took great pride in his wife and in his
role as the father of the house and it was he who needed the
security and affection of marriage. Hebbel, after the mar-

riage, became a very conventional and pedantic husband who

needed the family and thrived on the relationship.

Chapter II
HEBBEL'S DIARIES

Before turning to the woman in Hebbel's art, I would
like to include some of the relevant material from his diaries,
which proves to be a rich source. It is not a source filled
with intimate revelations; rather, an often cautious and re-
flective attempt to relate to the world and events around
him. 5 There is a preponderance of autobiographical material
dealing with the woman in his life and with the female in
general. References to intimate relationships have been
filtered through self possessed rationalization. Only on
rare occasions do his diaries reveal severe emotional
stress.136 The meticulously kept, extensive diaries present
the chronicle of the man's life in a rational, calculated
manner. Fleeting glimpses of the naked man are to be seen
in the well mannered entries; the brutality of complete
honesty with oneself is lacking in this effort at self analy-
sis. Yet, they give us some inkling of Hebbel's life and
personality. Easy and frank social intercourse was never
mastered by Hebbel, causing him to retreat within himself
for maximum security. The frigid exterior repelled possible
harm to the vulnerable interior. This makes itself apparent
in the autobiographical material.

Hebbel's observations are valid since they offer factual

41

42

information, but one also senses that the diaries present
his personality in a manner in which he would have liked to
have been seen by others and even by himself. As also seen
by Oskar Walzel, he is never completely frank.

"Soviel er fiber sich sein Sinnen und sein Formen zu

Papier gebracht hat, lasst er doch zuweilen im

entscheidenden Augenblick seinen Beobachter in Stich

und hullt sich, wo die wichtigstelGeheimnisse seines 137

Lebens in Betracht kommen, in ratselvolles Schweigen."
Life and work tend to merge in the diaries, providing a gen-
erous exposure of the woman therein.

"Das Weib und der Mann in ihrem Verhfiltnis zu einander;

8
jenes diesen vernichtend."l3

Indicative of Hebbel's thought
on the man vis a vis the woman is the juxtaposition of the
ideal versus reality. Hebbel's idealism is apparent in his
assumption that there exists or should exist a grand and
comprehensive idea which presumes an ultimately pure and per-
fect relationship between the male and the female, but the
individuals themselves are responsible for its destruction.
It is as though the relationship exists in the regions of a
yet dormant awareness. If it is the nature of man that he
is unable to maintain this pure state, what is natural about
its existence? It is man's nature to destroy it. Man can
strive toward an ideal, but he is incapable of living it.

"Es ist ganz natdrlich das jedes Geschlecht das Ideal
der Menschheit in dem anderen erblickt, der Mann im Weib und

"139

das Weib im Mann. The extraordinary persistence to

equate the sensually and psychologically based relationship

43

between man and woman with an ideal is here further intensi-
fied. Hebbel yearns for an ideal state of existence, which
he suggests may be found through the woman. If this is to
be an emotional, physical, intellectual or social arrange-
ment is not clear. Both sexes search for the ideal in the
other. Man is destined to live with the awareness of his
own imperfections and it is this awareness of his inadequacy
which motivates him to search for perfection in the opposite
sex.

The female quickly falls short of the norm through her
inability to come to terms with her own image of what she
wishes the male to be.

"Es ist merkwflrdig, wie die Frauen, die am Mann doch

nur eben das lieben, was ihrer Natur gerade entge-

gengesetzt ist, ihn doch so gerne zu dem machen wollen,
was sie selbst sind; die sind G6ttinen, die nur seine

Sfinde vergdttern und ihm die Sfinden dennoch nie

vergeben. 140
Inadequacy and unawareness again dominate. The woman is
attracted to the man because of his strength and vitality,
yet, these are the veryrqualities which will subjugate her.
This she fears, and fear, not love becomesthe basis for the
relationship. Moreover, if society puts the woman in a posi-
tion where she is chastized for submitting to the male and
absolves him of all responsibility, then no doubt her reac-
tion is indeed one of revenge, to chastize her counterpart

and to alleviate her loneliness by demoting the male to an

equal level. On one hand, Hebbel assumes a pure alliance

44

between the sexes, where each can find the ideal in the
other and conversely there prevails a perpetual animosity
between the two.

"Liebe gleicht die naturliche Feindschaft aus zwischen
Mann und Weib."lb'l It seems that this simple statement is
to be taken as just that and no more. Hebbel operates on
two levels in his relationship with the woman. On one level
he , is motivated by a desire for a sexual partner but he
resents this relationship if he cannot justify it in terms
of "pure" love. (Such as with Elise.) On the other hand,
if his morality is not offended, if there is love, he feels
quite satisfied that the ideal had been attained. (As with
Christine.)

Man also searches for his own identity through love--
love of child, parent, friend, mate."Auch das ist eine
wichtige Seite an der Liebe, dass der Liebende eine
Versicherung des persbnlichen Wertes erhélt, dass er sich
sagen darf; ich bin zu etwas da, ich bin kein leeres Nichts."lu2
Hebbel's personality forced him to search for an emotional
oasis, he searches for love so that he might see his own
worth. Curiously, he does not recognize that others may be
as desperate as he, and the women who clutched at him were
fleeing the identical nothingness that he tries to escape.

The instant cure, of course, is possession, temporary

or permanent. Hebbel's temperament may have preferred the

former, but his moral predilection demanded the latter. In

45

such a case the love would have to be mutual and conform to
current moral norms. Any deviation would be considered ex-
cessive and undesirable. Mutual seems to be the key word.

"Die Liebe ist durchaus egoistisch, und dies macht

sich nur nicht darum ffihlbar, weil hier meistens'

ein Egoismus mit dem andern zusammentrifft, dem, wenn

der eine wie der andere auf den Bestiz entbrannt ist,

kann von Fessel keine Rede sein."l43

"Die Weiber kennen keinen Gott als den Gott der Liebe

44

und kein Sakrament als das Sakrament der Ehe."l Hebbel
himself was a moral and conventional man. This accusation
could just as well be directed against himself. He, too,
had great difficulty to acknowledge the fact that he could
find intimate associations outside the boundaries of love
and marriage,

"Woher die Abneigung artistischer Naturen gegen die

bfirgerlichen Verhaltnisse? Weil diese, wie zum

Beispiel die Ehe, von allem schdnen Menschlichen den

Duft abstreifen, schon dadurch, weil sie es zwingen

wollen, langer zu dauern als es in den meisten

Fallen kann." 145
Marriage is regarded as a state of confinement, desired by
the insecure female and the ordinary man. The sensitive,
perceptive man finds it unacceptable, because it curtails
his search for the ideal. Personal independence and lack of
moral restrictions may make the institution unacceptable to
certain individuals who are able to escape the social con-
fines of their society. Furthermore, Hebbel seems to commit

the grave error of equating marriage with either heaven or

hell. He fails to place it in ordinary reality. Personal

46

coincidence, not personal conviction causes him to either
fear it like the eternal fires or to escape into its haven.
The thought of, not marriage in general, but a particular
marriage fills him with aversion,
"Meinen Ansichten fiber die Ehe wfinsch ich keinen
Beifall, am wenigsten unter dem weiblichen Geschlecht.
Sie gehen fiberhaupt nicht auf die Ehe selbst, sondern
auf mein Verhéltnis zur Ehe. Mir wird alles nnverana
derliche zur Schranke und alle Schranke zur Besch-
rankung. Die Ehe ist eine burgerliche, physische und
in unendlich vielen Fallen auch geistige Notwendigkeit.
Der Notwendigkeit ist die Menschheit unterordnet, jede
ist aber mit Regalien verknupft. Das Individuum darf
sich der Notwendigkeit entziehen, wenn es Kraft hat,
den Freibrief durch Aufopferung zu ldsen, darin liegt
seine Freiheit. Ich kann alles, nur das nicht, was
ich muss."l46
, Hebbel's keen understanding of man's loneliness and the
awareness of the probability of this being the permanent state
is surpassed only by his own greater desire to attain a
measure of comfort in belonging and the demands of his own
morality. The possibility for the attainment of a pure re-
lationship and the ideal through the "du," become theoretical
questions, as does the worthiness of marriage as an institu-
tion and the ultimate disillusionment with the "du." The
reality of living to him was such that marriage became an
essential, it provided a mold for his life which his consti-
tution demanded. "Die Ehe gibt dem einzelnen Begrenzung
14
und dadurch dem Ganzen Sicherheit." 7
The woman is seen in the most flattering light in the
role of the mother. The question of motherhood versus some

other form of endeavor on the female's part is still

47

irrelevant in Hebbel's time. The woman possesses a unique
and revered holiness in motherhood, a serene state alien
to the male. "Eine Mutter, eine Schwangre, oder eine im
Kreise ihrer Kinder; wo ware im Leben des Mannes eine
Situation, die dieser an Heiligkeit gliche."148 The whole
matter seems rarely self evident and endowed with great
simplicity; this is the woman's domain where the male can
easily decline responsibility. "Gutes Weib, gutes
Geschlecht."l"9

Hebbel's analysis of the woman who has had a child and
still must relate to the male is probably more particular
than universal. "Das Weib sobald es ein Kind hat, liebt
den Mann nur noch so, wie er selbst das Kind liebt."150
Universal appeal is taxed by equating the woman's love for
a man, the woman's love for her child. This applies to a
particular moral value, the woman's role as the preserver
of society and its structure. She guards her young at any
price and her need for the male becomes secondary. This is
pertinent to specific events in his own life. He felt he
deserved Elise's wrath instead of her love due to his ne-
glect of the children.

"Das Weib ist dem engsten Kreis gebannt; wenn die
BlumenZEiebel ihr Glas zerspringt, geht sie aus."15This oft
quoted theme sets the tone of Hebbel's attitude toward the

female. Many reverberations of this theme resound through-

out his life and work. It probably constitutes the dominant

48

and most tormenting "Leitmotiv," and shows how closely his
thinking was linked to the mores of the nineteenth century.
The woman is the one who has to bear and rear, her situa—
tion is quite clearly delineated. While she is devoted to
the survival of her children, the male is free to pursue
completely unrelated endeavors. He can exert his energies
and abilities in directions which are alien to the female.
The exact division of responsibility becomes a moral and
ethical question. If society places the woman in a position
where her sole responsibility and activity is the rearing of
a child, the same society puts a formidable responsibility on
the male by expecting him to be the forger of its ideas and
ideals. If the woman is indeed confined to a narrow and ab-
solute circle which she may escape only through her own de-
struction, she can in no way join the male in the world of
ideas. By delegating the woman to a circle of isolated and
confined activity, both become isolated. It is as though
Hebbel laments the restrictions of his society which have
been placed on the female, thusly, condemning him too to
isolation.

The two may never meet on an artificially constructed
path which is contrary to their nature, only absolute aware-
ness and comprehension of their inner selves can hope to
accomplish this.

"Das Weibes Natur is Beschrankung, Grenze, darum muss

sie ins Unbegrenzte streben; des Mannes Natur ist das
Unbegrenzte, darum muss er sich zu begrenzen suchen.

49

Innerstes Vermégen und innerste Fessel sind immer

eins; was die Uhr zur Uhr macht, halt sich zugleich

ab, etwas andere, als Uhr zu sein."152

The woman does not emerge as an individual, but as a
form of life which can only thrive by attaching itself to
the male. "Das echte Weib ist seinem eigenen Gefuhl.naoh,
nichts fur sich, es ist nur etwas in seinem Verhaltnis zu

Mann, Kind oder Geliebten."153

The woman is in no position
to render an original, individualistic contribution; she
can only express herself in relation to another person. Her
sole motivation for action is to escape the subjugation by
the male.154
The fact that the woman is confined to a narrow sphere
of activity simultaneously renders her more prone to petty
maliciousness. "Warum ist das 'unbedeutendste Weib immer
schneller mit einer Intrige usw, als der geistreichste Mann?
Well in ihrer Natur ist, was in uns Talent sein muss."155
By nature her visionary level is set so low that any trivia
provides diversion and useless activity.
"Manner sind auf Vorzfige bei ihres gleichen nicht so
neidisch wie die Weiber. Jene rechnen sich alles
zu, was ihrem Geschlecht angehdrt; Jeder hat Amerika
mit entdeckt und den Faust mitgemacht. Diese glauben
sich immer um soviel verkfirzt, als eine Mitschwester
mehr besitzt."156
The male then is capable of vicarious grandeur, while the
female can only count the possessions in the next household.
Her life is not constituted of idealistic visions and pro-

ductive activity, it is a life devoted to things and the

50

most prosaic of man's needs. Hebbel even goes so far as to
suggest a basic tie between the devil himself and the
woman, whereas none exists between the devil's grandmother
and the male.157 One tends to dismiss this as a fatuous
idea born of a bad moment.
Hebbel shows some cruelty and lack of understanding to-
ward the woman through his insistence that her sphere is a
narrow one and by simultaneously demanding that she accept
responsibility for life's consequences to a greater extent
than the man. If the man is able to remain aloof, he is
free from all responsibility. If, however, his own needs
demand involvement, why should the woman not expect to share
the burden?
"Ein edles Madchen: sowie sie sieht, dass ihr Geliebter
sich von ihr entfernt, in demselben Grade, um ihm
Schmerz und Vorwurfe zu ersparen, entfernt sich von
ihm, und als ihm das Herz bricht, sagt sie, ohne das
er ihr Opfer ahnt; wir taugen nicht fur einander,
widersteht seinen Bitten, scheint alle Schuld zu
tragen und macht uns frei."158
Indeed, Hebbel admires the self sacrifice of the woman who
can love and demand nothing in return, even more, deny her
own love and need in order to free the man from his guilt.
"Darum sflndigt ein Weib, das Liebe gibt, ohne Liebe

zu empfangen; die Strafe trifft nicht nur sie allein."159

Is Hebbel's cruelty born of guilt rooted in the highest ideal-
ism? Is he yearning for a world in which man's consciousness
would be liberated from a man made ethic, which would allow

the male and the female to meet on a ground of intimacy and

51

compatability, a ground where neither society nor morality
would demand adherence to its laws. Man would then liberate
his subconscious self and experience moments of high intensi-
ty in his life, moments shared by a partner similarly liber-
ated. If man's attempt to attain communication are foiled
by barriers which bind his real self, here then lies
Hebbel's bitterness against the woman. To her nothing re-
mains, but "Durch Dulden Tun: Idee des Weibes."160

The woman has become paralyzed by her inability to ex-
ert herself. "Man muss dem Weib keine Rechte, nur Privilegien,
einraumen. Sie wollen diese auch lieber, als jene."161
Were she only able to look toward to the future and not be
tied to the past.l62 If she were able to forge her own
rights and not be subjugated to her menial privileges then
her new freedom may pave the way to a better society.
"Zuweilen mein' ich, eine reine weibliche Natur kdnne mich
retten."163

"Das Weib muss nach der Herrschaft fiber den Mann

streben, weil sie fuhlt, dass die Natur sie bestimmt

hat, ihm unterwfirfig zu sein, und weil sie nun in

jedem einzelnen Fall prfifen muss, ob das Individuum,

dem sidhvis-a-vis befindet, imstande ist, das ihm

seinem Geschlecht noch zustande Rechte auszufiben. Sie

strebt also nach einem Ziel, das sie unglflcklich macht,

wenn sies erreicht."l64
The ambivalence of Hebbel's attitudes toward the woman is
reinforced; he yearns for a woman who understands herself
and her needs so that she too can be free to pursue her ideal
which would eventually merge with that of the male. Converse-

ly, he can not allow her to obtain absolute freedom, her

52

freedom has to relate to that of the man. Thus, he is not
striving for a twentieth century type of emancipation, where
the woman acquires her freedom by assuming the properties

of the male, which is to make them equal, i.e., the concern
is not with social emancipation of the woman, but an eman-
cipation of her awareness.

"Das Weib und die Sittlichkeit stehen in einem Ver-
haltnis zueinander, wie heutzutage leider die Weiber
und die Unsittlichkeit. Ubrigens sind sie zu
entschuldigen. Die Gesellschaft hat sie emanzipiert,
statt, dass nun der Mann die emanzipieren sollte.
Darin steckt die Wurzel alles Ubels, Ffir das Weib
gehdrt der beschrankteste, der engste, Kreis, Fur sie
gerinnt das Weltall in einen Tropfen zusammen. Sie
ist die Wfinschelrute, die dem Mann die Schatze der
Erde anzeigt. Sie allein kdnnte den Himmel entbehren,
wenn's keinen gabe, denn ffir sie ist er nur Tradition,
kein Weib hatt' ihn erfinden. Dass jede sich hineinsehnt,
kommt daher...weil sie sein wollen, wo wir sind. Weh
denen, die das Weib, diese Marketenderin des Augenblicks,
zur Sonnenuhr machten, durch die die Ewigkeit ihre
Stunden anzeigt." 165

The woman is to be the anchor of life. Her sentiments are
rooted in her bloodstream around which her world gravitates.
Her function is to provide the man with a tangible world
which provides him with a take off point for the discovery
of the world. To have society liberate her from this task
would be to rob the man of an essential part of his exis-
tence, her liberation has to come through the man himself,

not through society.166 "Gleichgewicht wohl, aber nicht

Gleichheit."167

Part II

THE WOMAN IN THE WORKS OF HEBBEL

Chapter I

LYRICS

Hebbel's forte was his dramatic art. His poetry and
short prose creations do not constitute an impressive part of
his literary output. Neither of these categories has been
considered in this paper from any other aspect, but its rele—
vant content expressed within. Some of the poems chosen re—
late to a specific woman; others deal with this theme in
general. The poems are arranged in chronological order,
here.

"Auf ein altes Madchen" was written while Hebbel was
still in Dithmarschen, in 1835 and already shows his pessi-
mistic outlook. In the first stanza of the poem, Hebbel sees
the girl who has lost her youth, whose only longing is for
death, who now stands as an unapproachable and cold monument
to her life. But as ghosts may wander by night, her heart,
upon occasion, shakes its frigid crust and its old emotions
arise in their former glory. For a brief moment she shines
in her youthful splendor. Then, once more, the coldness
repels.

Mir aber wird es trub zumute,

Mir sagt ein unbekannter Schmerz,
Dass tief in dir verschlossen ruht,
Was Gott bestimmt hat ffir mein Herz,

Und wills dann hin zu dir mich ziehn,
Ach, mit allmachtiger Gewalt,

53

54
So muss ich stumm und blutend fliehen,
Denn du bist wieder tot und kalt.l68

In this last stanza one finds Hebbel's ever present
torment, the isolation of man. For a brief moment he sees
a passion and depth of feeling in the woman which beckons to
him, inviting his heart to join in a glory destined for him
by Godhimself. The glimmer of the promise is painfully brief
and he retreats as though deaf and dumb in the face of cold
and empty reality. Only brief moments of illumination
pierce the nothingness.

The word "old" in the title has little chronological
value, it serves to evoke an image, a barren, cold and life-
less image. It is an image of life forever lost; she may
exhibit occasional intensity, but her heart can not sustain
it and hope is quickly shattered.

The theme of man's vain search for an ideal and trans-
porting love also reverberates in "Liebesgeheimnis." The
"poet says that you may call love a dream, but he calls it a
painful awakening. When awake, man is bound to the petti-
ness and weakness of reality. A pilgrim sleeps under a tree
and dreams an invigorating dream, only to awaken and quickly
close his eyes again, in order to dream again.

Du nennst die Liebe ein entzfickend Triumen,
Ich nenne sie ein schmerzliches Erwachen;
Wir ffihlen uns in Sden Schlummers Réumen
Gekettet an unwurdig-nichtige Sachen,

Wir schauern, es ergreift uns, ohne Séumen
Frei fur das hohe Leben uns zu machen,

Allein, wir Armen sind gar fest gebunden, 169
Bald ist der Mut, das Sehnen auch, entschwunden.

55

The second stanza of the poem reinforces the theme ex-
pressed in the firSt through a rather redundant analogy of
a weary pilgrim who rests in the shade of the tree and finds
the rejuvenating breeze and brilliant stars to be nothing
but a dream.

Love may be labeled an enchanting dream, but in reality
it is but a cruel awakening, an awakening of the senses,
which temporarily have become aware of a more brilliant exis-
tence. In his oversensitized state the keen senses liberate
the man from worthless and empty pursuits. And, yet, it is
as though man is indeed afraid to abandon the security of his
misery and eventually even closes his eyes to the threatening
vision.

This poem was written in Munchen only a year after "Auf
ein altes Madchen" and again shows the pessimism of the young
poet. He has even become disenchanted by the idea of love
and has no more courage or imagination to encourage it.

In "Tandelei," the poet looks into the eyes of his love
and sees the beautiful reflection of himself. The reflection
disappears with a beautiful and pearly tear. He sees the re-
flection appear and fade even more beautifully than it came.

Ich schaute dir ins Auge schnell;
Du blicktest gar zu mild,
Und lieblich sah ich, klar und hell,
Darin mein eignes Bild.
This deceptively lighthearted first stanza introduces

the poem, which ends with,

56

So dir im Auge, wundersam
Sah ich mich selbst entstehn,
Und, als die stille Trans kam;
Noch schdner mich vergehn.l7O
"Tandelei" is one of the few poems which begins in a
gay and light mood. The lover sees his reflection in the

girl's eye "hell und klar,’ which blends into a magical
multi colored rainbow. As the girl's eye grows misty, her
tear falls "perlenklar und rein" into the pool of light.

As the tear falls so does the reflection and the beautiful
moment is forever gone. In this poem can be seen one of the

motives common to Hebbel, the search for the "du."

Man yearns
to relate to another and in the eyes of the lover longs to
see his own identity. He can not hope to measure and under-
stand himself in a void. As in the majority of Hebbel's
lyrics the yearning is a vain one and a pessimistic aura of
loneliness remains.

This poem was written in Heidelberg a year after he had
met Elise. It may reflect Hebbel's affair with her. His
loneliness had been met with tenderness and devotion, but
this, too, quickly passed.

The perpetual nuances of the bright reflections which
fade into darkness are once more found in "Einziges Geschle-
densein."

Schlummernd im schwellenden Grfln

Liegst du, wo Lfifte dich facheln!

Madchen, was spiegelt dies Lacheln,
Spiegelt dies zarte Erglfihn?

57

Ach, wie beschleicht es mit Schmerz
Kalt mir den innersten Frieden!
Génzlich, wie nie noch, geschieden
Ffihlt sich.von deinem mein Herz.
Was, wie ein gdttlicher Hauch,
Jetzt dich durchzittert, das Leben,
Eh du erwachst, wirds erschweben,
Nimmer erfreut es mich auch. 171

Light and laughter play over the image of the woman and
fill the onlooker with fear and pain; he knows not its mean-
ing or how to approach and capture it. This breath of God
only makes itself felt in moments when the woman is asleep,
i.e., when she is oblivious of her assumed pose, when she al-
lows her inner, sheltered self to escape. As soon as she
awakens, she quickly withdraws. The life within her is un-
known to herself and it can never charm another.

"Einziges Geschiedensein" is characteristic of Hebbel's
outlook on love. In his love life he never seems to find
what he searches for. Beppi Schwarz was such a breath of
life, but she too fades away. And a woman like Elise prob-
ably conveyed to Hebbel that she was not even aware that
there was in her "ein gfittlicher Hauch."

"An Hedwig" is written to a girl who here is compared to
spring. It was spring and you were light and gay as spring
itself which filled me with its charm. But then came the day
of parting. Seldom did I think of you, only in my gentle
moods, When the day of my death comes, I shall see you once

again. As you were my angel of life, you will be my angel of

death. At the start and the end of the day, man likes to

58

lift his eyes to the heavens.
Es war ein schdner Fruhlingszeit,
Als ich dich fand bei Spiel und Scherz,
Da drangte all die Lieblichkeit
Sich blind, wie nie noch an mein Herz.
Nach manchem Tag kam dann der Tag,
Der uns, vielleicht auf ewig schied;
Ich trug es, wie mans tragen mag,
Wenn man den Frfihling scheiden sieht.172

The dominant image here, is spring and the mood suggests
awakening, love and youth. Hebbel dwells on the similarity
between the young, fresh girl and the fragrant entrancing
season in which they meet. There is the joy in each other,
in being with each other with no forboding intrusions. Its
gaiety is finally dispersed when the inevitable parting or
the shattering of the beautiful moment occurs. The memory, like
the memory of spring will always remain.

This poem, like the previous one, was written in
Mfinchen, in 1837. It may have been inspired by an actress173
and is one of Hebbel's lightest and most impersonal lyrics.
It celebrates nothing but the moment.

"An Elise," written in 1840, is one of the poems in
which Hebbel attempts to idealize Elise. He sees Elise in
her dream as she is given a harp by an angel. She, however,
is reluctant to play it and only with encouragement does'she
consent and on the wings of the beautiful music, she humbly
enters heaven.

Und ihre T6ne lfisten
Dein innerlichstes Sein;
Die Himmelstore sprangen

Schon auf, dich zu empfangen,
Da hieltest du in Demut ein.l74

59

Hebbel's relationship to Elise was always overshadowed
by his guilt feelings toward her. It seems that an easy and
convenient way to ease this may have been to believe that
there was some special quality in Elise which not even he
could recognize, but which would ultimately bring her a de-
served reward for her suffering. "An Elise" is part of the
process to idealize her.

In "Das Heiligste," Hebbel speaks of a love which is
pure and innocent and not based on passion. As this new "I"
bursts forth, liberated by the experience of pure love, can
man hope to decipher the secrets of nature. In this love,
the best of latent qualities in men and women will mix. This
union is blessed by God himself. Love is innocence, not pas—
sion.

Nein, keusch in Liebe, die die Unschuld spiegelt,
Und schamhaft zitternd, wahrend sie sich trfinken;

The emphasis is on the words "keusch" and "schamhaft."
The lovers meet each other very modestly while trying to sup-
press sensual desires which are shameful. Only then, can the
lovers hope to attain a finer plateau of existence, hope to
be united in a beautiful and edifying love.

Und aus dem Sch6pfungsborn, im Ich entsiegelt,
Springt eine Welle, die die Sterne lenken.

Thus, free from earthy desires and needs the man becomes
part of a greater destiny and comprehends an existence for-
bidden to him without this ethereal experience. In their

common bond the lovers become much more aware of the whole

60

than they otherwise could.
Was in dem Geist des Mannes, ungestaltet,
Und in der Brust des Weibes, kaum empfunden,
Als Schdnstes dammerte, das muss sich mischen;

This experience allows man to formulate his finest
spiritual sensibilities and awakens an awareness in the
woman, which would otherwise remain dormant. This love,
and friendship helps man formulate what he already senses
in himself by being a man. In the woman, however, it is this
experience which causes her to realize concepts which she
would otherwise not be aware of. The man is more eager to
attain this refined love—friendship state which would lead
to a new God inspired humanity. The man leads and the woman
follows him. Love expands his intrinsic awareness, whereas
in the woman it opens a life never before perceived. It is a
relationship which is destined to elevate and refine. The
sensual becomes subservient to the spiritual.

Gott aber tut, die eben sich entfaltet,
Die lichten Bilder seiner jfingsten Stunden
Hinzu, die unverkdrperten und frischen.l75

This poem, written in 1842 in Hamburg seems to reflect
Hebbel's attitude towards his affair with Elise and possibly
the other women that he knew up to this time. To him, they
all seemed intellectually inferior, it was he, the man, who
was searching for a love affair which would be both spiritual
and sensual, but the women he encountered persistently failed

him in this respect.

The roles of the man and the woman are defined in "Mann

61

und Weib," written in 1837, it is a poem which again portrays
the woman as an uninspired being and embodies the same theme
as, "Ffir das Weib gehhrt der beschrankteste, der engste,
Kreis."

Dem Weibe ist ein schbnes Los beschieden,

Was sie auch hat, sie hat es ganz und immer,

Sie greut sich an des fernsten Sternes Schimmer,

Allein sie schliesst sich ab in klarem Frieden.

Der Mann wird nie so sehr von Gluck gemieden,

Als er es meidet, denn er fast es nimmer,

Gleichgflltig, wird es besser, wird es schlimmer,

Er hart nicht auf, das Dasein umzuschmieden.

Ihr ist es wie ein zugeworfner Faden,

Sie halt sich dran, und schaudert vor den Wogen,

Die unten draun, und trinkt des Himmels Lflfte.

Er widersteht nicht, sich im Meer zu baden,

Und forscht, vom hellen Leben abgezogen,
Ob Gott sich nicht verbirgt im Schoss der Grfifte.

176

The woman is the creature whose destiny is clearly de-
lineated before her eyes, she gladly accepts it and feels
happy and secure in this knowledge. She can experience great
joy in the unattainable and beautiful, but she is not tor-
mented by the need to abandon her lot. The man, on the other
hand, has the compulsion to explore the unknown, to yearn
for what he does not understand and has not experienced. The
woman clutches her routine security as though it were her
life, ignoring the abyss below and taking strength in the
knowledge of heaven above. The woman herself would never
disturb this order. The man, on the other hand, finds no

peace in security.

This seems to be Hebbel's accusation against women like

62

Elise and Amalie Schoppe, who, somehow, have cheated him and
have brought nothing to his life, but their narrow worlds.
Later, he himself finds comfort in security and conformity,
as can be seen in his marriage to Christine.
The culmination of love is found in the realization of

dream and death, not in reality, as expressed in "Ich und Du."

Wir traumten von einander

Und sind davon erwacht,

Wir leben, um uns zu lieben,

Und sinden zurfick in die Nacht.

Du tratst aus meinem Traume,

Aus deinem trat ich hervor,

Wir sterben, wenn sich eines

In andern ganz verlor.

Auf einer Lilie zittern

Zwei Tropfen, rein und rund,

Zerfliessen in eins und rollen

Hinab in des Kelches Grund.l77

The beautiful dream of loving one another is intruded

upon by reality which causes the dream to retreat. This
dream has no place in the regions of life, it exists in the
twilight of death, which promises a state where no unbearable
reality will disturb its existence. The last stanza, not
through content, but the tone almost strikes a note of op-
timism. The imagery is rarely rich and beautiful, opulent
drops of dew which rest on the lush green of the leaf roll
into one as a rich and fertilizing fluid and drop on the
goblet earth. Love is not yet a component of reality, but
the possibility of its realization conjures up images full

of life and promise.

63

"Ich und Du" and "Gebet" were both written in the year
1843. "Gebet" is another angelic vision of Elise. The poet
begs fortune to let just a drop of happiness fall to the
earth and encourage someone who so deserves it.

Ach! sie weint den sflsseren Dank,
Als die anderen alle,

Die du glflcklich und reich gemacht;
Lass ihn fallen, den Tropfenil78

Hebbel had by this time left Elise, her first child had
died and he felt there was nothing he could do but say a
prayer that a drOp of happiness would fall.

"An Christine Enghausen" was written in Vienna in 1846,
the year of their marriage. Hebbel here speaks directly to
his wife. You are the one who awakens the nebulous figures
in the writer's mind and you are the one who transforms them
into reality. No matter what the external world thinks, we
will always have each other. Only where this perfect circle
of two exists, can one hope to find true happiness.

One drastic deviation from the somber and depressing
mood found in the love lyrics is Hebbel's praise of Christine.
Here the pendulum has swung to the other extreme, not only
has the lovers' quest been answered, but reality corresponds
to what reality was conceived to be. Christine is the wife
of a poet and thus her greatest gift to him is to be able to
stimulate his fantasy.

Du trankst das Dichters démmernde Gestalten,

Die fingstlich zwischen Sein und Nichtsein schweben,

Mit deinem Blut, und gibst den Schatten Leben,

In denen ungeborne Seelen walten.l79

It is Christine who has become his great inspiration,

64

whose very being gives meaning and life to his work. He even
goes a step further to suggest that now that they have found
each other they need little else.

Doch dieses Deutschland wird uns schwer erwarmen,
Darum lass uns eins das andre belohnen.l80

As if to say, we have found our sphere of perfect unity and
others may only intrude upon it.

The last stanza of the poem is in praise of the joy of
living which can be found when man and woman can live in har-
mony and is a clear reflection of the newly found happiness
in his marriage. Here lies the confirmation of the attain-
ability of the "du" and affirmation of marriage as the
greatest joy man can know.181

No treu und fest sich Mann und Weib umarmen,

Da ist ein Kreis, da ist der Kreis geschlossen,

In dem die hdchsten Menschenfreuden wohnen.l82

The unifying theme of these lyrics is man's search for-
the "du" in perfect and lasting love. Moments of illumi-
nating intensity occur when the promise is seen in the
woman. These moments are painfully rare and elusive.

Hebbel's associations with Beppi Schwarz, Emma Schrdder,
Elise and even Amalie Schoppe had offered him occasional
friendship and love. But none culminated in a rewarding re-
lationship which in turn seems to motivate Hebbel to blame
the woman for this disappointment.

The woman is aware of her earth bound destiny and finds

security in it.and does not torment herself with longings

for the unattainable. She is trapped in what to her is a

65

secure pattern and she does not dare enter regions of a new
awareness. The man wishes to see his reflection in the eyes
of another being. The whole process, however, is doomed to
failure until the woman can break the circle of her confine-
ment.

On the whole, Hebbel's lyrics exude pessimism and de-
pression. Moreover, they lack originality and insight. He
attempts to deal with a very general condition of man from a
very narrow point of view.183 It is as though his sensitive
intellect perceives the fact of loneliness, disappointment,
illusion, impermanence and death as polarities to hope, beau-
ty, love and life, but is incapable of transforming self
evident fact into poetic mold, with the result that he man-

ages to achieve mere effect.184

The tone of the lyrics
changes greatly when he finds a specific and immediate an~
tidote to his desolate mood, as he finds perfection in Chris-
tine and an ideal marriage.

Hebbel's lyrics are unsophisticated and constitute a
minor part of his work, nevertheless, they are a component

185

of his literary legacy and express the everpresent tragic

ambivalence of his artistic creations.

Chapter II

PROSE

Some of Hebbel's prose works exhibit such incredulous
naiveté of theme and form that the reader almost becomes
weary and suspects a facade which conceals a kernel too in-
tricate for the casual glance. Dreams and accidents are
profusely scattered throughout the narratives which, on
occasion, are punctuated by humor and an inclination toward
the psychological.

In Die Rauberbraut, Emilie rebukes the love of her

 

childhood friend, the young forester, Gustav. He is so
overcome by misery that he follows her to the woods, where
he intends to have them both die together. At this moment,
Emilie is saved by the young Victorin. During the following
night, Victorin and Emilie depart for his hideout. Gustav
has, meanwhile, joined a band of outlaws and sworn loyalty
to his leader, Victorin. Eventually, Gustav saves Victorin's
life and because of this is released from his oath of loyal-
ty. He immediately kills Victorin. He once more forces
himself on Emilie who jumps out of the window. Gustav follows.
The characters seem to grope in a world of semi-con—
sciousness. Even though the setting and plot of a robber
world is reminiscent of Schiller, one has the uncomfortable
feeling of walking through a primeval forest. Were it not

for the fact that Hebbel was only nineteen at the time, one

66

67
would indeed suspect being witness to a dance staged by semi-
conscious, suggesting a score of pseudo-psychological impli—
cations.

The tale is built around Emilie who is led to destruc-
tion by the passionate desire of two men for her.186 Emilie
is pressured by the young forester187 to yield to him, but she

H188

breathlessly declines. "Emiliens engelmilde Stimme begs

him to relent in his demands; she may offer him friendship,
but as for love, "Ich kann nicht."189 Her vehement, "kann
nicht" sets the tone of mystery. It is impossible to conceive
of Emily as a character of rigid resolve. Consequently, there
must be a greater fountain of inspiration lurking in the
background. The forester immediately sets to resolve the
problem by murder, but succeeds only in inducing an even
greater state of unconsciousness. "Sie sank mit einem

"190

Angstgeschrei am Boden. The rescuer appears.

"Da erwachte Emilie aus der Ohnmacht, worin sie bisher
gelegen, aber nur, um mit einem wiederholten Schrei
in eine neue zu fallen, als ihr Blick auch die beiden
Manner fiel."
Even when awake, she is obviously not. Her first question
of where am I, has a self evident answer. For a girl who has
just survived attempted murder and been rescued by a lover,
she could at the very minimum experience fright and gratitude,
but the Sleeping beauty has only been kissed, not awakened
by the prince.
The rebuked forester plunges into criminal activity,

where he is accepted as a man of great experience at the hands

of a woman. "Ein Weib, sagt der Alte, war es, welches der

68
Menschheit ihr Paradies raubte."192 An incongruous, pompous
utterance in View of the fact that the woman here is a mere
lily-like Sleepwalker. Through intricate maneuvers of acci-
dent and mystery the forester beheads the true love, and re-
sumes the pursuit which he had given up. Emilie, is still
true to her lover and "mit fibermenschlicher Kraft der
Unschuld stiesst sie ihn zuriick."193 Both fly through a
convenient window to all-merciful death.

The violent passions of the forester have brought about
the death of three people. The object of the passion, who
abandons home in the middle of the night to follow a man
she has just met, emerges as a saint inspired by super human
strength due to her innocence. In fact, she is disturbed by
little else but pure passion, like the forester. Emilie
represents the signing, fainting, semiconscious female,
who is, however, motivated by her sensuality. Emile reflects

the women of Hebbel's youth and this image of her remains

with him throughout his life and work.

A female of similar mold plays a more incidental role
in a tale of greater depth, Matteo. The first part of the
story concerns itself with the beautiful and well liked boy,
Matteo, who becomes ill and is left disfigured. No one
wishes to have him around or to give him a job. Then he
saves the life of a man threatened by his wife's lover, whom
he kills. The couple's child is almost killed and a recon-

ciliation ensues. Matteo is kept in the house where his

69

ugliness is a virtue.

A woman is confronted with her husband's knowledge of
an adulterous escapade. In the ensuing rage their child is
almost killed which startles the woman out of her cold in-
solence. The child lives.

"Als die Hngstliche aufhorchende Frau dieses Wort

vernahm, rutschte sie auf ihren Knieen, herbei, nahm

den Fuss ihres Mannes und setzte sich ihn stillschwei-

gend auf den Necken. In ihrem Innern auf ersten Mal

von einem Gedanken zerspaltet, der sie, wie in

blutrotem Licht, von fern die ungeheure Verwirrung

erkennen liess, die ein Weib, das die eheliche

Schranken leichtsinnig fiberspringt, in alle menschliche

Verhaltnisse hinein bringt."l94

Here the woman, through lack of awareness, not desire has
strayed from the path prescribed for her. Her behavior can
not be attributed to her, since she has not yet awakened to
her true role. The grotesque incident of her lover's murder
and the attempted murder of her child in an instant show her
the right path and transform her into a meek, subservient and
obedient wife. She has undergone no great transformation,
but the external events indicate that a new mode of living
may certainly be more permanent. She has not come to terms
with herself, "wie im blutroten Licht," she recognizes a
mysterious code which the woman is destined to follow. She
remains just a cog in a machinery which is as incomprehensible
to her as is her own self. The repentant posture is one
completely subservient to her husband who regains not a

partner, but a servile shadow. This woman is much like Elise,

she allows events to manipulate her while she can neither

7O

understand nor alter them.

The two prose selections, Die Rauberbraut and Matteo

 

have an air of absurdity about them which almost makes them
palatable to the contemporary reader. The determination with
which the simple minded forester takes after Emilie and

death is much more comic than it is tragic. So is the end-
ing when both voluntarily dispatch themselves through the
nearest window. It is the world of Durrenmatt, the inco-
herent world where grand tragedy has become impossible. Gro-
tesque elements are also added in Matteo's disfigured face
and the child who is thrown and almost killed in a quarrel
between his parents. This, too, ends on the absurd note

that all that is necessary to keep peace in the house is a

boy with an ugly and scarred face.

Herr Haidvggel und seine Familie is a story of a poor

 

family who is about to starve and freeze to death because the
man will not work. He is proud, gay, lazy, the big operator.
The situation is saved by a windfall inheritance. In this
story, a most incompatible couple lead a desolate existence
where the woman emerges at her worst. On the surface the
husband is an unworthy slob who is guilty of gross negligence
toward his family, which is near freezing and starving. His
mate is the solid, devoted, and nagging variety. The indict-
ment of the man's lack of responsibility and loose moral

fiber become his glorification, while the woman inadvertently

71

represents that which is detrimental to man and society.
"Nun, warum lésst ihr die K6pfe so hangen? Lustig, wie

ich bin!"195

With this incongruous greeting comes Herr
Haidvogel to his desolate family hearth, the fire of which
has just gone out with forebddingsof doom. When the wife
reminds him of this fact, he merrily attacks their one and
only chair to kindle the fire. He announces the death of his
wife's ex—suitor with an, "Ihn hat heute mittag der Teufel

1 6
geholt." 9

The drop-out husband and father emerges as the
lovable bufoon, who chooses to make his life a dream instead
of a nightmare. His schemes of striking the pot of gold
evaporate, but he does manage to strike a basket of feastly
food, which the grand sweep of his proud hand almost manages
to turn down. In the meantime, the wife stands by with grim
determination to make things even worse than they are. She
is more immediately concerned with shelter and food for her
brood, but this does not cause her to exhibit any more energy
or common sense than her husband, it merely serves to orient
her entire existence around the potatoes which she does not
even have. She pays lip service to the need to slave in
order to feed and clothe the family, yet she is only a pas-
sive force which at best tends to deteriorate instead of
benefit the whole lot.

Her gravest sin is that she, as opposed to her husband,

who provides no wood for the fire, dispenses no human warmth.

Her mind and heart reside with the potatoes. The amusing

72

accounts of her husband's escapades evoke a fearful, "Ich

"197

zittrel, as she pulls the children closer to her bosom

to shield them from immanent doom. "Gott! Gott!"--seufzte

198 It is as

die Frau....Was wird aus den armen Kindern!"
though she evokes God, not in.her true concern over her
children, but to prove herself in better company than her
husband.

Her husband receives the last blow when she prepares to
strike out on her own.

"Nichts kannst du--versetztedie Frau....Nichts ohne

mich, ohne meine Einwillung kommt kein Pfennig in

deine Hande, und ich werde daffir sorgen, dass das

Jammerleben das jetzt zu Ende ist, nicht wieder

anfangen kann."l99
In her last litany against her husband she still shows no
inkling of the fact that even though her husband is an irre-
sponsible loafer, his indefatigable hangman's humor is the
only ray of sunshine in her life. Moreover, there is no
indication that her resolve is more than any of her husband's
boasts. It seems to be more of an attempt to balance the
bankrupt book of morality, according to its dictates she has
to emerge on the side of the assets. Her single statement
does not, however, annul her previously exhibited spiritual
bankruptcy. She does maintain her right to place the blame
at the man's feet and to keep her bleak and morose outlook
on life.

Hebbel's mother had been much like Herr Haidvogel's

wife, who had no more to offer than her devotion to gathering

73

the last crumbs and to shelter her children from starvation

and the cold.

Ein Abend in Strassburg is a short selection from what

 

was to be a more extensive log of travels. It is also a
rare excursion into the purely erotic. The traveler finds
himself in Strassburg hungry, cold and above all lonely. He
meets a girl, makes love to her and leaves.

"Ich glaubte, mich eines kalten, finstern Grabes, worin
ich schon auf langeweiligen Hobelspanen gelegen, recht gut

"200

ZU erinnern;,,, Someone may come, "Bursch, der Jflngste

201
Tag ist noch nicht angebrochen, und dich hat keiner gerufen."

The traveler's loneliness and dejection are so elemental, there
is no comfort or consolation for the man, lest it be in the
nearness of another human body, nothing but the warmth and
tenderness of another person can convince him that he too
still lives, has to live. It is irrelevant that a girl who
can relieve this desperate loneliness and fright knows
nothing of him or his feeling. But she looks at him, "mit
den grossen, flammenden Augen, voll von Glut und Geffihl....
Diese Augen schienen mir die Wunder-Quellen alles Lebens."202
The eyes full of passion dispel the horrors and remind him
of the surging life and desire within himself. And he finds
that the purely sensuous desire which brings the man and

woman to each other offers more than just a moment of warmth,

it is as though a deeper bond has been formed, the strangers

74

have become friends while knowing nothing of each other, but
their need to be held by someone. In this knowledge is
found an intimacy so deep that it touches the very depth of
each being. The knowledge of this common condition makes

it possible for one to live again. No words are needed,

203

except, "Kusse mich noch einmal."

The mood of Ein Abend in Strassburg is plainly erotic,

 

it does not remain a subterranean moving force, it is frankly
and openly dealt with. There is fire in the eyes of the woman
which reminds man of the source of life within himself. More
significantly, eroticism is dealt with as a positive and re-
juvenating element in a man's life. It is sensuous desire

for another which is an immediate antidote to man's fright-
ful isolation and this realization itself transcends the
initial impulse and enhances the sensual pleasure. The erotic
element has indeed been dealt with frankly and delicately,

but the woman remains nameless and faceless, which is the

very reason why this approach is possible for Hebbel. She

is conjured up by the.poet's feverish imagination, she exists
in the regions of the mind or in a realm of his life which

in no way relates to the rest of the pattern which he attempts
to follow. This woman has no name, she belongs nowhere, nor
has she any other existence outside the world of erotica. She
could not accompany him in the light of day while he goes
through the motions of his "life." She is life to him for a

moment, but as a person participating in a prescribed pattern

75

of behavior she does not exist. She remains an erotic
vision, divorced from reality.

Ein Abend in Strassburg is one of the most vivid and

 

warm treatments of sex in a man's life in the works of the
author who dealt with the great "Prozess" between the sexes.
It seems that it should be considered as one of Hebbel's
most modern works because the subject receives an honest
appraisal uncluttered by non essential, external trivia.

The desire that binds man and woman is the very basis of ex-
istence, it is the desire for life itself, the wish to ex-
perience life and to give life.

Hebbel's most obviously erotic prose work seems to be
one of his best which is also true in respect to Gerhart
Hauptmann's "Der Ketzer von Soana,"in which a frustrated
priest absolutely revels in pagan practices. Hauptmann
celebrates the victory of Dionysos, as does Hebbel in Egg
Abend in Strassburg. Hebbel is not as detailed and explicit
as Hauptmann, but sex is dealt with in such a manner that the
story remains fresh and moving today.

The whole episode may possibly be considered as an anti-
dote to the intricately involved affair with Elise. Other
elements, such as the desire for security, were part of the
relationship with her. Above all, a generous measure of
guilt was added. It never was, as it never could have been,
a purely sensual bond. It is as though Hebbel here has cap-

tured a dream wish. This is what I wanted when I was cold

76

and lonely, this is how beautiful an experience with Elise
could have been. Elise's dependence, the children, her de-
mands and the guilt should never have complicated the sim-
plicity of the basic situation. It is Ein Abend in Strass-

burg that he yearns for, no more.

Anng presents a young and beautiful girl who is employed
as a maid. Her beauty and temperament single her out and
draw unkind attention from others. When she is unjustly
punished for a minor mistake, she becomes irrational. Her
lover comes and wishes to take her to a dance, but she has
to remain and spin. He shows no sympathy and abandons her.

A lamp falls and sets the house on fire and Anna is unable
to control herself or the fire.
A gay, little song opens the chronicle of the maid, Anna.

Anna is "frisch und blfihend,"204

as she spends her life in
servility to a meek and miserable master. She lacks the pos-
ture of her station in life and exhibits traits which are
bound to shatter her circle of existence. Anna is full of
exuberance and the joy of the young, but the vehemence with
which she exhibits these traits in her position in life in-
dicate that she is driven by a greater force than the rele-
vant events around her. There are obvious cracks in the
shell of prescribed behavior. The servant girl reacts too
violently to criticism that she incurs an even greater wrong

20
and her punishment plunges her into "ganzlicher Verwirrung." 5

77

Anna possesses the pride and passion of the young. She dis-
misses interference with, "Ich weiss schon Bescheid."206

As Anna accepts the punishment for a minor misdemeanor, she
remains "gelassen, well im Innersten zerschlagen."207 This
is the first real indication of the intensity of Anna's devi-
ation from expected behavior; the maid is not overtly dis-
traught, she retains external composure, while internally

she experiences utter despair. After a night spent at
spinning flax, she emerges with "wild ums Gesicht herunter-

hangenden Locken."208

Even attempts at outer composure have
been abandoned, events and Anna's mind driveher into destruc-
tion. At the outbreak of a fire, there is nothing left of
her rational self, but an "Ach! Ach!"209 From this moment

on she is unable to cope with herself and the world and

slips into the most convenient of escapes--sleep. She

never awakens, merely participates in a final sleepwalking
episode. "Anna‘mit der Tollkfihnheit der Verzweiflung,
weinend, schreiend, sich in die Brust zerschlagend, dann
wieder lachend, stfirzte sich in jede Gefahr, rettete, lfischte,
und war aller anderen zugleich Gegenstand des ErstaunensJ

"210 With the final

der Bewunderung und unheimliches Ratsel.
surge of energy she dives into the holocaust and dissipates
herself in the flames.

Anna represents one of the most complex women characters

in Hebbel's prose. Her beauty, youth, exhuberance and pride

are incompatible to her situation in life and thus would

78

provide ample conflict. This, however, is not the true basis
of the conflict. The clash is within Anna herself, she has
tapped a source which she is incapable of harnessing. She has
been awakened to a greater awareness of herself and her de-
sires, but she can not cope with this new consciousnes, she
is incapable of relating it to her environment. Anna wants to
be free to do, dance and love, but the prospect is so heady
that it releases a chaos of emotion. The innocuous little
verse which is on Anna's lips already sets the stage for the
events to come.

Himmel blau und mild die Luft,

Blumen voll von Tau und Duft,

Und am Abend Tanz und Spiel,

Das ist mehr, als allzuviel.2ll

Anna is the irrational woman who shatters the circle of
her existence by the discovery of the well of a new conscious-
ness within herself, which engulfs her in its fury. She has
become the divining rod for a new life, a force so great that
it absorbs and destroys the rod. The woman has not yet found
herself, she has sprung her boundaries. Her society provides
no point of reference for this outburst. Her own psychologi-
cal constitution is unprepared to deal with it.
Anna is the woman which the women in Hebbel's life were

not. She is beautiful and full of life; she can not serve
and spin and suffer in peace. There is an intensity and vi-

tality in Anna which was characteristic only of the women of

Hebbel's imagination. The women like Elise, Amalie, Beppi and

79

his mother were drab and passive. There seems to be a dream
figure in Hebbel which would exhibit the warmth of the woman

in Ein Abend in Strassburg, the intensity of an Anna, com-

 

bined with the easy charm of Agnes. In short, an antidote
to reality.

In the prose, the female emerges as a servile person who
wanders through events in a state of semi-consciousness. She
assumes a role doled out to her by her environment and re-
mains a passive participant. Her sensuality is a motivating
force, but she is not prepared to recognize this nor to deal
with it. She has no identity of her own and can make no con-

tribution to the whole.

Chapter III

DRAMA

Friedrich Hebbel's dramas are much more highly regarded
than are his prose and poetry. It is in his dramas that
Hebbel most vividly projects his intellectual and emotional
image of the female character, and where incompatability,
isolation, love and guilt receive their fullest treatment.

One prominent drama, Die Niebelungen, has not been in-

 

cluded because this drama encompasses aspects of Hebbel's
art which are not pertinent to the subject treated here.
Hebbel has reworked the mythological and folk material with
emphasis on the extraordinary individual and the interim
period between two great periods of history. The heroines
of this triology are not insignificant, but the emphasis for
this whole work lies elsewhere.

The dramas that are discussed in this thesis are ar-

ranged in chronological order.

A. Judith
Possibly inspired by the daring and exploratory spirit
of the young man and by his own predicament with Elise Lensing,
JUdith emerges as one of Hebbel's most modern dramas. It is
:n1ch.not only within the framework of his time and thought,
but; also in reference to contemporary society.
In Judith the grandeur of Holofernes' does not emerge

_fr<>n1 his actions as the drama unfolds, it is, rather, a

80

81

fait accompli which is reiterated throughout. This analysis
shall proceed on exactly the same basis. Holofernes is "der
erste und letzte Mann der Erde."212 He is the embodiment of
what the female conceives the ideal and complete male to be.
The monumental greatness and identity of Holofernes rest on
the fact that he is a man.

Hebbel felt trapped in a situation with Elise that he
could neither tolerate nor terminate. The elements which
entered into it were neither his own making nor could they be
clearly understood or rejected by him. Possibly the answer
could have been sought for in a totally new frame of refer-
ence. If a new identity and awareness could be assigned to
Elise, then the man would not have to be the mere "violator."
It is interesting to note that the man's greatness exists
mainly in the eyes of the woman and this is his downfall.

It is through his "sin" against the woman that his destruc-
tion is implemented. Holofernes is only described as being
a great and ruthless warrior in the drama, and while the de-
velopment of Holofernes is in no way shown, he attains his
ultimate greatness in the eyes of Judith. It is she who
slays him for this. Hebbel's own guilt and suffering exist
only as long as he views himself vis-a-vis Elise. He be-
comes "masslos" in relation to her and is "slain."

Moreover, it is not simply a matter of the "bad" being

" evil being slain by innocence.

punished by the "good,
Holofernes has been slain for the wrong motives. It is as
though Hebbel, in Judith, tries to understand the individual,

mainly the woman, in this instance, and to determine the true

82

motivations for her acts and their consequences. It is an
attempt to illuminate the possibilities of an Elise in re-
spect to himself. Hebbel is not a Holofernes any more than
Elise is Judith, but the drama is an opus born of these two
individuals. To quote Hebbel, "Das Leben ist nie etwas, es
ist nur die Gelegenheit zu einem etwas."213
In order to relate to Holofernes, Judith has to forge
her own identity through the recognition of her own sex, her
individuality has to be built around this. Viewed from one
level, Judith is on God's errand, but she remains only

214
human. This very fact makes it essential for Judith to

come to terms with her sexuality in order to emerge as a com-

plete being. If the drama is indeed "nur Geschlechtertragfidie,"

as Martini states, who is Judith, the female protagonist of
this tragedy?

"Was sagst du zu diesem Traum?"216 This innocent ques-
tion put to Mirza by Judith is the first and characteristic
utterance by the heroine. She lives in a world of dreams and
their interpretation is an integral part of her make-up.

From the very beginning, Judith is psychologically introverted,
she turns to the subconscious instead of the conscious world.
As she relates her dream, the uncertainty is intensified, an
urgent groping for an intangible awareness is evident in her
words. "Ich ging und ging und mir wars qanz eilig, und doch
wusste ich nicht, wohin michs trieb."217 She is deaf to
Mirza;.it is the voice of her dreams that Judith wants to

hear. With frightful urgency the dream expands and she can

touch the sun and feel an abyss under her feet, while she

215

83

herself is almost dizzy with pride. She loses control and
plunging into despair calls on God to help her. She is
fascinated by the dream, because it dares and invites her
to expand her consciousness. Even sleep itself provides a
path toward the same goal. "Wenn der Mensch im Schlaf liegt,
aufgelést, nicht mehr zusammengehalten durch das Bewusstsein
seiner selbst...."218
There is another level of awareness which she yearns to
attain. Her's is the knowledge that there is a greater power
and consciousness. This is not a blind and dogmatic belief
in God, it is knowing that there are horizons yet unattained.
Her belief is knowing.219 For the woman the path to a new
level of awareness is through her own sensuality and her in-
ner being. Her own identity has to be recognized and forged,
before it can merge with another. In his diaries Hebbel writes,
"Ich habe jetzt die Judith zwischen Weib und Jungfrau
in die Mitte gestellt und ihre Tat so allerdings moti-
viert; erfragt sich nur, ob Judith nicht hiedurch ihre
symbolische Bedeutung verliert, ob sie nicht zur
blossen Exegese eines dfinklen Menschencharakters
herabsinkt. 220
This indeed is a very pertinent question. Except, one would
have to quarrel with Hebbel's own language. Is he being
quite honest here by being so cautious that the symbolic
meaning of Judith may deteriorate "zur blossen Exegese."
It is the word "bloss" that seems unnecessary and overly
cautious. Judith may offer an insight into the darkened

depth of human character. Man has to recognize the chaos

existing beneath his feet, in order to yearn for the light

84

above. The word "bloss" is hardly applicable.

According to Gerd Kleinschmidt, Judith "handelt aus
dem Unbewussten."221 She reacts to events in a manner which
is not even comprehensible to herself. When Mirza presses
her to listen while she talks about Ephraim, Judith claims
disinterest, "weil michs vor Manner schaudert."222 Why so?
She has had a unique experience with her husband Monasses
which has left her a widow-virgin. Reluctantly she had
given herself into marriage only to find that her husband re-
mains impotent. "Mir wards unheimlich; komm, komm! rief ich,
und schamte mich gar nicht, dass ichs tat."223 Judith here
exhibits overt sexual desire which is rebuked, an extremely
serious transgression against the woman, even if she openly
recognized this fact for what it is. Judith and Monasses
proceed to comply with the social demands of marriage, but

"22" is between them. So there

"etwas Dunkles, Unbekanntes
is. In Judith's mind there persists the unspoken thought,
Monasses did not find her sexually desirable.

"Ein Weib ist ein Nichts; nur durch den Mann kann sie
etwas werden, die kann Mutter durch ihn werden."225 This
is how Judith sees the place of a woman. Motherhood is a
self evident fact; is one to believe that Judith regrets only
not having conceived a child? As Mirza reminds her, she
could choose a new husband from the best of men. But Judith
responds "Du hast mich nicht verstanden. Meine Schfinheit ist

"226

die Tollkirsche, ihr Genuss bringt Wahnsinn und Tod. Her

85

beauty drives her to the threshhold of madness, it teaches
her to expect passionate desire from a man, a passion which
she desires, but is unable to formulate to herself or another.

Her subconscious desire is ever present. "Ich mdgt ihn
sehen! (Fflr sich) Was sagt ich da!"227 This is her reaction
to the name of Holofernes, the man who has come to destroy
her land and people. He is also the greatest of all men and
to be desired by such a man, as she was not by Monasses, is
more than she can allow her consciousness to acknowledge. When
Ephraim suggests that Holofernes would come only because of
her, Judith may with clear consciousness voice the delectable
thought: "M6gt es so sein! Dann brauch ich ja nur zu ihm
hinaus zu gehen, und Stadt und Land ware gerettet."228
Judith is excited and tantalized by the thought that this
man, this one and only Holofernes would come for her alone,
driven by mad desire.

Love to her is not companionship, friendship and mother-
hood; it is the passion that burns in her. Ephraim's declara-
tions of love repel and annoy her and she exclaims, "Kann
Liebe Pflicht sein? Muss ich diesem meine Hand reichen,
damit er seinen Dolch fallen lasst. Fast glaub ichs!"229
Ephraim does not excite her as a man. Judith even suggests
to him that if he has courage to kill a man like Holofernes,
he may earn the right to hope for her favor.. He would then

grow in stature and it would be ecstacy to seduce such a man

who would be attractive to all women on account of his power

86

and valor. She dares Ephraim to take her with these words:
"Ich, die du liebst, ich, die ich dich fiber dich
selbst ethhen wollte, um dich wieder zu lieben
zu k8nnen, ich leg ihn dir in die Seele, und er
ist dir nichts als eine Last, die dich nur tiefer
in den Staub drfickt?"23O

If Ephraim would only lift his sword! Judith presses her

point by saying to Mirza:
"Jedes Weib hat ein Recht, von jedem Mann zu verlangen,
dass er ein Held sei. Ist dir nicht, wenn du einen
siehst als sahst du, was du sein mdgtest, sein
solltest."23l

Is this merely the eternal fallacy for the woman to believe

232 Not so. It is the

that she sees greatness in a man.
woman's desire to justify her passion. Even though Judith
will not recognize the true motivating force within herself,
she senses that her desire would again be belittled were he
not worthy of her.

On the whole, Hebbel's treatment of sex in this drama
introduces one of its "modern" aspects. Even though not ex-
plicitly stated, it is one of the significant factors in
Judith as in some other works. It is not of importance that
the subject is dealt with, but how it is dealt with. Sex is
not idealized into the realm of pure love nor is it simply
treated as one of the baser aspects of a woman. Hebbel ac-
knowledges this drive in the woman which she has not yet been
able to reconcile to her psychological and social framework.

If the woman has another identity besides that of the mother

and the propagator of ethical values in society, how then

87

does her sensuality affect her and how does it relate to
the whole?

What Hebbel lacks most in his attitude toward sex is a
sense of humor. There is too much of the struggle between
the spirit and the flesh in Hebbel, as there is in Strind-
berg. Hebbel, like Frank Wedekind, knows that questions of
sexual freedom can only be discussed in view of social con-
ditions and situations,238 but he can not resolve his basic
conflict and can not even conceive of doing it with humor.
To Wedekind, sex and the battle between the sexes is a good

thing,23"

to Hebbel, yes, but.Hebbel can recognize sex as a
purely good thing in a very contemporary manner, but it loses
its bite as he adjusts it to assorted other factors. Lulu,
in Wedekind's Erdgeist is an aware and amoral woman who

finds pleasure in her sex and the fact that it gives pleasure
to others. She knows that she is desirable and wants to be
such. "Wie gefall' ich Ihnen?" and "Ich bin mir meiner

!"235 are characteristic utterances for

vollkommen bewusst
Lulu. This is something the sensual heroines of Hebbel, like
Judith and Maria Magdalena, could never have said. They can
not flaunt their sensuality in the brash manner of a Lulu,
because Hebbel's most daring visions of the woman are
strained through his morality and idealism. Judith, too,
knows that she is desirable, but she can not live with this

fact in peace. Lulu is the emancipated woman, Judith is not;

neither is socially emancipated. Hebbel has, however,

88

recognized and dealt with an exciting problem.

Since Judith can find no man who is willing to kill
Holofernes and thus become his equal in her eyes, she feels
free to accept it as her duty to face Holofernes herself.
Her mission becomes a holy cause. Her subconscious demands
this action and by placing it in the hands of God provides

236 She exists in an emotion-

it with a psychological anchor.
al whirlpool with only moments of rational insight.237 Judith
is a dissatisfied woman who seeks self assertion on an erotic

238

basis, but is not willing to define herself clearly. She
puts herself in the hands of God to clarify her own position
and escape from one unsuccessful encounter with a man into
the hands of God. In Hebbel's own words: "Judith ist der
schwindelnde Gipfelpunkt des Judentums, jenes Volkes,
welches mit der Gottheit selbst in persenlicher Beziehung zu

2 .
" 39 On this level, her encounter with

stehen glaubt.
Holofernes enters another realm; she has to perform a noble
deed and recognizes that "Der weg zu meinem Tod geht durch

die Sfinde."2"0

But for this she can be thankful since this
is what makes her deed possible and she say%"Was ich sonst
fur Fluch hielt, erscheint mir nun wie Segen."2"l Her beauty
will become the means to annihilate her sworn enemy. Judith
seeks a chance to test the power of her beauty, the power of
her sensuality. She has failed with Monasses. Ephraim will
not give his life for her, the supreme test will come with

The Man. In her subconscious, the atmosphere is electrified

with eroticism: "Gott, lass ihn Greuel begehren unter meinen

89

Augen, blutige Greuel, aber schfitze mich, dass ich nichts

"242 Judith is helpless in the face of

Gutes von ihm sehe.

anything good?"3 it is her greatest fear that she would

have to admire Holofernes, since this would force her to

admit her passion, which in turn would spring the boundaries

of her being, and most importantly force her to recognize

that she is not only on God's errand, but a very human one.
The indecisiveness toward her deed is another character-

I

istic of her "modernism.' She abdicates any responsibility
of her actions and places herself in the hands of God. Her
failure lies not in her ultimate loss of initiative and re—
sistance, but in her failure to recognize the irreconcila-
bility of the various inherent possibilities.

As Judith prepares to leave for her encounter with
Holofernes, she hears accounts of his brutality toward women:
"Hab Dank, Holofernes! Nur an diese brauch ich zu denken,
und ich werde Mut haben, wie ein Mann."2"" Fortified by
this knowledge she is spared her greatest fear. If Holo-
fernes confronts her as nothing but a cowardly murderer,
she has to face him as nothing but an enemy. She is to ful-
fill God's will to free her people from his murderous hand.
Judith does not have to fear her unspoken desire which may
force her to present her own life to him. Indeed she will
have courage like a man, because she will not have to fear

the desire of a woman. When Judith comes face to face with

Holofernes and throughout the initial encounter retains her

90

composure and effects her role so successfully that even
Mirza is deceived by her, she dissolves in tears: "Freuden-
tranen darfiber, dass ich dich tauschte. Ich schaudere von
der Kraft der Luge in meinem Munde."245 Judith cries because
of the incomprehensible tension in her soul which she does
not understand?"6 She has deceived Holofernes, Mirza and
herself, but she is unable, even to herself, to explain the
true nature of this tension.
The events of the subsequent encounter further aid
Judith in her deception of herself. Holofernes lives up to
the vilest possible image one would have of him, on a moment's
notice, without any reason, he has beheaded a man. Judith
evokes God to remind herself of the purpose and meaning of
this encounter: "Mein Haar straubt sich, aber, doch dank ich
dir,Gott, dass du mir den Entsetzlichen auch in dieser
Gestalt zeigst.... Den Marder kann ich leichter morden."2"7
Hebbel writes in his diary, "In der Judith zeichne ich
die Tat eines Weibes, also den argsten Kontrast, dies Wollen
und Nichtkfinnen, dieSTun, was doch kein Handeln ist."248
Judith finds herself on a mission which renders her helpless
not only because of the polarity of wanting and being in-
capable of doing, but because she is not truly aware of what
it is that she wants. It is not lack of courage or deter-
mination that makes Judith cry, "0 warum bin ich ein Weib!,"249

after Holofernes has kissed her, not because his kiss stirs

a world in her which lies in the blackness of her subconscious.

91

No woman is capable of great action. How can she be, until
she comes to understand the complexity of her being.

The drama's very modern aspect lies in this fact that
the individual emerges as a multi-faceted entity. In
Judith merge hate and love; passion and innocence; awareness
and unawareness; greatness and pettiness. In Judith are in-
corporated the various possibilities which will not always mani-
fest themselves in a prescribed manner. A given set of cir-
cumstances may provoke assorted reactions and behavior. An
individual can not be contained in a mold and often his ac-
tions and reactions can not be predicted nor expected to
conform to a norm. Hebbel has suggested in Judith that even
though she is not aware of them, she is a vessel of infinite
possibilities. It is his awareness that these complexities
often remain incomprehensible and unreconciled in the indi-
vidual that gives a modern hue to Judith. She already
senses that there is an awareness which still eludes her,
but she can not proceed to her goal with determination
either, because she has already been lured. It is as though
her reactions are a composite of flickering impulses, which
are actually emitted by a source that man seems to respond
to, but does not yet understand.

When Holofernes finally makes his intent of immediate
seduction clear, Judith's reaction indicates the depth of
her torment: "Wie ist mir auf einmal so leicht. Nun darf

250
ich es tun." If she were on God's errand then there would

92

be no question of permission, hers is the deed, the respon-
sibility lies somewhere else. But Judith hesitates and ex-
pects Holofernes' actions to permit her to carry out her in-
tention. She is afraid to come too close to Holofernes'
being, lest she has to bare her inner self and discover in
herself a desire for Holofernes as a man and not a wish to
destroy him: "Gott meiner vater, schutze mich vor mich
selbst, dass ich nicht verehren muss, was ich verabscheue.
Er ist ein Mann....Ich muss ihn morden, wenn ich nicht von
ihm knien soll."251

Judith's tragedy lies in the fact that she is unable to
kill Holofernes and liberate her people irrelevant of her
desire for him. Her tragedy is not that she kills Holofernes
for the wrong motives, but that she kills him for no motive.
She is unable to recognize her wish to seduce Holofernes in—
to blind passion and prove herself a woman while giving way
to her own passion. "Lerne das Weib achten! Es steht vor

"252 This is

dir, um dich zu ermorden! Und es sagt dir das.
Judith's lastdesperate plea for help and greatest deception.
Her crass confession may terminate her predicament, but it

is much more that she wants. She demands that Holofernes

take notice of her in a manner which she must know is meaning-
less to him. The utter stupidity masks the depth of her un—
spoken, incomprehensible wish. Moreover, she herself does

not know what it is she wants. And even if she were able to

formulate her wish, her psychology, society and morality can

93

not accommodate this. If Holofernes would only see in her
a person and a being who sexually mesmerizes him, if he
only would take note and understand that this is what she
wants most. Were Judith able to recognize this in herself
and to communicate; were Holofernes able to understand, they
might attain a meaningful awareness together. Unable to do
this, Judith sinks from greatness to pettiness.
"Deine Wangen Gluhen, als wollte das Blut herausspringen.
Dein Auge blickt scheu.!"253 Her physical being betrays her
and provides her with a despicable reason for murder. Holo—
fernes does not value the gift which she so desperately has
tried to hide, as she points out to Mirza.
"Fur ein Madchen gibt es keinen grfisseren Moment, als
den, wo es aufhbrt, eins zu sein und jede Wallung des
Bluts, die es vorher bekampfte, jeder Seufzer, den es
erstrickte, erh6ht den Wert des Opfers, das es in
jeder Moment zu bringen hat. Es bringt sein alles--
ist es ein zu stolzes Verlangen,wenn es durch sein
Alles Entzficken und Seligkeit einfdssen. will."254
Yet, to Holofernes she is but, "ein Ding."255 This enables
her to kill "den ersten und letzten Mann der Erde."256 Her
passion degenerates into the morbid257 as she senses the
emptiness of her deed. Judith hides herself'in the stand—
ard overromanticized pseudo innocence so often assigned to
the woman. She attempts to regain herself by glorifying and
idealizing the woman's passion.. Judith has completed her
mission and liberated her people, but she has also degraded

and imprisoned herself; she recedes into a darkness which

she can never overcome.

94

Hebbel seems to make a plea for a society where an in-
telligent and tolerant attitude toward sex would prevail.
If at least this one of man's instincts could receive ra—
tional appraisal, the tension, the guilt and destruction in
the relationships between the male and the female could be
eased. This does, of course, suggest a kind of utopia,
since it presupposes great sensitivity and intelligence. It
is suggestive of the concept of New Morality to be found in
contemporary society.

The New Morality stands in opposition to orthodox
Christianity, but within its framework. The concept of New
Morality ranges from complete freedom and laissez-faire at-

258

titude in sexual relations to a rational and tolerant
outlook, which does not abide by the strict rules of the
Christian ethic.259 For the extremist of the New Morality,
sex would be regarded as one of man's instincts which has

to be completely liberated from any external rules of be-
havior. This would encompass pre-marital sex and sex outside
the marriage. The most obvious question that arises here,

of course, is-—is it possible that man possesses other
equally strong instincts which would violently clash with

an unleashed sex instinct. This is not the place to exhaust
this concept, but the pitfalls of the proposal seem innum-
erable. The more conservative and cautious wing of the

New Moralists would plead the same cause, but with certain

definite boundaries. This aspect of it is designated as

95

Situation ethics.26o

An individual's actions would be de-
termined by a given situation and personalism.261 In other
words, human welfare and devotion to persons, not things,
such as laws and principles, would prevail-~a love vs. a
law ethic.262 One's behavior, including sexual behavior
would be guided by evaluating whether this behavior might
possibly hurt someone else or not, determined by personalism
and the situation. The exponents of this aspect of New
Morality would stress that situation ethics is not hedonism,
one's behavior is determined by rules and not only by the
pursuit of pleasure. To quote J. Fletcher, "Immorality oc-
curs when things are loved and people are used."263

If taken at face value, the doctrine of New Morality
would be synonymous with sexual license. One may even sug-
gest that it may dissipate and subvert a given society.264
In regard to more tempered situation ethics, the obvious
question that arises is, does one relate only to an individual
of one's choosing or to society as a whole?

Hebbel's ideas do not correspond to the formalized ver-
sion of New Morality, since not only the individual and the
situation are important, but their relationship to society.
But this may only be a matter of emphasis, even though his
primary concern is the individual. He seems to grope for a
utopian version of morality. As in his life, and, for ex~
ample, in Judith, the woman can not act, because even to her-

self her motives are not clear and she becomes a tool of

96

circumstances and vents her anguish on the male. If woman
would understand herself better, she would be able to enter
into a relationship based on each individual's freedom.
This is a daring and idealistic and modern idea, a plea for
the liberated individual, the liberated woman.

In Judith, Hebbel exhibits a mastery of character and
situation and sees the drama as symbol of life. More im-
portantly, Hebbel has dared to explore man's greatest handi-
cap, his fear and his loneliness. In this "Geschlechtsdrama"
is embodied not only the tragedy of a relationship, but of
man as an individual. The path which leads through sensuali-
ty may be one avenue of approach to the tragic situation.
Judith senses an awareness in the world of her dreams which
remains alien to her, she can not find the key with which to
unlock the world. She dares not do so. Her soul searching
reflections are externally, not internally motivated.265
She deceives herself of her motives as she confronts Holo-
fernes. Unable to accommodate the demands of her sensuality,
she turns to God for a realm of consciousness she knows ex-
ists, but which she can never attain while she is blindly
introverted.

Judith's tragedy lies in her incompetence to break the
circle of isolation. She emerges as neither woman, nor
judge.266 She has compromised herself, she can no: longer

be God's tool and, yet, she can not step into a new and better

world. The chaos and pessimism of modern existence can not

97

be eased, until society learns to adjust its norms of morali—
ty to the natural determination of each being. Hebbel over-
comes his nihilistic tendencies in Judith's yearning for

God, a yearning for a higher level of consciousness. Her
efforts are stymied by her ineffective groping, which is
rooted in the demands of her morality, of Hebbel's morality,

instead of a new morality.

’B. Genoveva
The heroine of Genoveva is a passive Madonna to whom
Hebbel has brought all his guilt and his passion.. Genoveva
is the painful personification of his well-known utterance
"Durch Dulden Tun: Idee des Weibes." Genoveva is the suf-
fering victim who does not act. In relation to each other
the characters are blind and alienated, they remain passive
and unable to reach each other as their lives are being de-
stroyed. At the end one is left with nothing but a feeling
of resignation and sadness.267 In Genoveva Hebbel has re-
fined Elise's virtues, his own passion and guilt to exagger-
ation. Wolfgang Liepe sees it as a confession.
"Die Genoveva Tragfidie ist die dichterische Beichte
der Gewissensnfite, in die sich der Dichter durch die
aufflammende Leidenschaft zu Emma Schrfider verstickt
sah. Erst durch dieses persfinliche Erlebnis des
Schuldigwerdens an Elise wurde der ihm schon in
Munchen vertraute Stoff reif zur Gestaltung."268
Siegfried and Genoveva are man and wife, yet they are

strangers. Siegfried regards his wife as a beautiful, vir-

tuous,loving and asexual being. She loves her husband, but

98

this love is to be her secret, her pure devotion. Siegfried
has loved and admired Genoveva as a human being, but as a
holy and remote one. Genoveva has carried all her sorrows
and displeasures silently because she remembers the suffer—
ing of Christ and feels that:

Ich bin ein Weib. Ein Weib verhfillt den Schmerz,

Denn er ist hasslich und befleckt die Welt.

Ich bin ein Mensch. Nicht jammern darf ein Mensch,

Seit am Kreuz der Heiland stumm verblich.269
This, too, is how she appears to Siegfried.

Hebbel himself wished to create a Madonna, like Genoveva,
of Elise and thus remove her from his life. Moreover, he
would have wished Elise to bear her sorrow in serenity and
not render his own life ugly by exposing it. Elise does re-
sign to her fate, but she can not suppress the resentment.
Siegfried, too, wants to see Genoveva as pure and holy.

Ein holdes Wunder schienst du mir zu sein.27o

The very fact that she shows emotion at his departure
is a new and strange experience to him which forces him to
recognize the fact how little he knows and understands her.
In his great desire to admit his guilt Hebbel also accuses
himself by inferring that he may never have understood Elise

and Siegfried says to Genoveva:

Das fehlt dem Mann, noch wenn ihm nichts mehr fehlt,
Das er das Weib nicht kennt, wie sie ist.27l

Not only are the two strangers to one another, but Genoveva
feels that she has betrayed herself and her husband by re-

vealing her emotion at his departure:

99

Ich aber ffihle mich so arm, so arm!
Als ein Geheimnis, kaum mir bekannt,
Durchs Leben tragen wollte ich mein Herz.

272

Here the devoted and holy Genoveva easily transforms a fault
into a virtue; her great love and longing for her husband
were to remain a life long secret to be presented to him as
a reward at the end of his lifetime. Siegfried's ultimate
mistrust of her seems to have a good cause, as when he is
informed of Genoveva's alleged infidelity, his reaction is
obvious:

Was einem Weibe m6glich ist, wer hat es erforscht.273
He is to have faith in her because she is a woman, a pure

and devoted woman, not because this person is part of his
very life and understanding.

The reader today can not really have sympathy with
Genoveva and accuse only her husband. It seems that Hebbel
did indeed wish to create an almost divine figure in rela-
tionship to whom the husband would emerge as the absolute
villain, because he is incapable of understanding such a fine
creature and consequently is the cause of her suffering.

This is how Hebbel would see himself in respect to the holy
Elise.

Golo who is entrusted with Genoveva as Siegfried leaves,
is quickly lost in a blind passion for her, which seems to
turn him into a monster.27" Against the holiness of Genoveva,

his passion is the evil counterpart. He is the personifica-

tion of the evil possibilities inherent in man. His passion

100

is one aspect of human nature. He quickly establishes his
character traits by maligning his master in order to endear
himself to Genoveva:

Ja wohl, als Ihr vor Schmerz 275
In Ohnmacht sankt, da eilt er schnell hinweg.

He has already disclosed his predisposition to vile deeds
as he describes his adventurous escapades:

Durch Fasten und durch Beten werd ich nie

Die Himmeltflr mir 6ffnen. Dazu fehlts

An Gaben mir. Ich schickte aber gern

Ffir jede Sfind, welch ich beging,

Zur Hdlle einen Mohren.276
Golo is evil almost beyond reason and belief, his passion
drives him to cruelty, suicidal inclination, deceit, murder
and generally irrational and incomprehensible behavior. There
is no trace of gentleness in his love, it is pure flaming
passion:

0 Liebe,ni€mal$~hab‘ich dich erkannt,

Doch jetzt erkenne ich dein heilig Recht!

Du bists, die diese kalte spr6de Welt
Durchflammen, schmelzen und verzehren $011.

277
G010 himself has to recognize that he is driven by a force
which he can not understand nor control:

Wer spricht aus mir?
Ich nicht! Schweig, baser Geist!

278
His passion is burning with an intensity which has rendered
everything meaningless and worthless. When Genoveva attempts
to escape his embrace, he lashes out at all that is holy!

Und ob der Heiland selbst

Sich stellen wollte zwischen dich und mich

Zu seiner sieben Wunden gab ich ihm
Die achte.279

101

In a vile maneuver to deceive Genoveva into his arms, Golo
murders Drago without the slightest hesitation, murder has
become negligible:

Ein Mord! Was ist ein Mord? Was ist ein Mensch?
Ein Nichts! So ist denn ein Mord ein Nichts!"280

Consequently, the destruction of Genoveva and himself are
logical results of the irrevocable tempo. After the murder
of Drago, the course of events has become quite clear.‘

Passion had driven Hebbel to Emma Schrader and thus in-
flicted a horrible blow to Elise. He, too, had committed a
kind of murder, he, too, had regarded another person, Elise,
as nothing by not being faithful to her and ignoring her
feelings. Passion had also driven Hebbel into the most
devastating experience of his life, his ten years with Elise,
and through Golo Hebbel almost seems to experience an orgy
of passion, he drives the irrational force to its limit.

Throughout the tumultuous events, Genoveva remains the
holy Madonna. She dutifully suffers the wounds inflicted
her by the cruel male, withdrawing into the shrine of the
self. As described by Tristan:

Ein echtes deutsches Weib! Vor jedem Blick

Aus eines Mannes Aug wird sie aufs neu 281

Zum Jungfrau, und verschliesst sich in sich selbst.
When forced by circumstances to contemplate wielding the
sword, even this she would do to defend the selfless, vio-
lated image, the image of her sex:

So weih ich denn als Weib,

Gedenkend meines eigenen Geschlechts,

Das schwach und waffenlos, in seinem Feind, 8
Zugleich den Freund und den Beschfitzer sieht.2 2

102

When Golo's schemes fail to deliver her into his arms and
Genoveva's stranger—husband is easily tricked into doubting
her, she turns the other cheek and goes to her death:

Wenn mein Gemahl zurfick kehrt, sagt ihm das,

Das ich, wie hart er auch mit mir verfuhr

Ihm alles doch, bevor ich starb, vergab.283

When Siegfried returns to find his wife slain, he is
overcome by a sense of resignation and futility. This beau-
tiful and strange woman now is slain and so much remains
that was never understood:

Ich strafe niemals einen Menschen mehr,
Seit ich ins Innere der Natur geschaut.
Auch sie, wenn sie noch lebte, sturbe nicht.28"

The significance of Genoveva lies in its confessional
aspect. The characteristicsoverlap but they are easily dis-
tinguishable. In Genoveva Hebbel has incorporated the most
idealistic characteristics of the woman. She is beautiful,
innocent and saintlike in her love. She is also the passive
victim who suffers at the hands of the man and thus also
embodies the moral question of the worth of the individual.
Genoveva is the idealized image of Elise and the glorifica-
tion of Hebbel's mother.285 Moreover, through the eyes of the
passionate Hebbel she becomes the beautiful, desirable woman
who arouses the lust of men as Hebbel experienced in his
desire for Emma Schrdder. In Hebbel's own words the charac-
terizations of Elise and Genoveva have much in common. They

do, but this is only one aspect of Elise. (As another could

be seen in "Maria Magdalena.") Hebbel writes of Elise:

103

"Nie, nie habe ich ihresgleichen gesehen. Sie hat

einen Adel des Herzens, der allen Adel des Geistes

fibertrrfftt. Auch keine Spur von Egoismus. Ach,

wenn ich sie oft qualte, sie satanisch im Tiefsten

verletzte--immer sprangen nur schdnere Funken auS'

ihrer Seele hervor, so dass ich mitten im liedenschaft-

lichen Frevel von ihrem Lacheln, ihren Tranen oft

pldtzlich erstarrte, als ob ich einen Engel gegeisselt

hatte, der sich nur dadurch rachen mag, dass er seine

herrliche Natur zeigt."286

Not being able to reconcile himself to the true rela-
tionship with Elise, Hebbel endows her with saintly qualities
and creates of her a being to be revered, not loved. This
very fact brings about the tragic alienation of the man and
the woman and places the man in a position of the violator
of an individual's dignity and places an awesome burden of
guilt on him. Genoveva is neither lovernor friend to Siegfried,
her saintliness forces him to admit his inability to under-
stand her and leaves him with nothing but empty resignation,
this is all that the passive "du" can offer. The idealiza-
tion demotes the man through its persistent goodness, and as
in the case of Hebbel, places him under a burden of guilt.
Genoveva is an attempt to rationalize the situation of Hebbel
vis—a-vis Elise, as Hebbel himself writes, it was this that
motivated him to write the drama.

"Ich hatte ohne sie die Genoveva nicht schreiben

kennen. Ich bin ihr alles, meinen fiussern und meinen

innern Menschen, meine Existenz in der Welt und in der

Kunst, schuldig geworden."287

The feeling of guilt has not only inspired a holy char-

acter like Genoveva, but causes Hebbel to make statements

such as this one, which in relation to his other utterances

104

is an exaggeration. It may, in a sense, embody what really
was true. His art was indeed germinated by his relation-
ship with Elise.

The very nature of Hebbel demanded more than a saintly
uncommunicative person, he recognized the passion in himself
and saw it as a manifestation of the base instincts of man
when placed in relation to a figure like Genoveva. The
demonic passion of man is seen as the chaotic force devastating
the pure innocent person of Genoveva, just as he saw himself
in relation to Elise:

"0, es ist oft eine solghe Verwirrung in meiner Natur,

dass mein besseres Ich angstlich und schfichtern

zwischen diesen chaotischen Str8men von Blut und

Liedenschaft, die durcheinanderstfirzen, umherirrt,

der Mund ist dann im Solde der damonischen Gewalten,

die sich zum Herrn fiber mich gemacht haben, und ganz 288

bis ins Innerste zurrflckgedrangt, sitzt meine Seele."

The drama ends with the disillusioned Siegfried witnes-
sing the destruction of his wife and G010. The attempt to

mellow the outcome by means of the "Nachspiel" only succeeds

in intensifying the feeling of sadness and failure.

‘C. Maria Magdalena

As Judith represents the quest of the individual to ex-
pand his consciousness in order to perceive its rightful
part in the greater whole, so does the drama Maria Magdalena
deal with the whole instead of the individual. The hypothesis
seems to be that the idea of Morality may lead to a new

plateau of awareness and not vice versa. The woman assumes

105

the role of the pathfinder who through her patient suffering
may force man to refine his Idea of Morality. She is not

on her way to individualistic refinement through which the
whole may benefit, she is consumed by and becomes subservient
to the Idea. She is Hebbel's idea: "Durch Dulden Tun: Idee
des Weibes. Klara dramatisch."289

Klara's mother serves to supplement the image of the
suffering female which is completed by Klara. The mother
has literally given her life for her husband and children in
accordance with the law of man and God and this is how she
sees herself:

"Ich bin mir eben nichts Boses bewusst, ich bin auf

Gottes Wegen gegangen, ich habe dich und deinem Bruder

in der Furcht des Herrn aufgezogen und den sauern

Schweiss eures Vaters zusammengehalten."290
To Klara's mother this represents the sum total of her life,
she has served well a whole lifetime. This she conceives to
be her purpose and she doggedly persists in her task. Her own
desires and individuality are non-existent. She is a non-
person. She is the exponent of the absolute and dogmatic pre-
requisites of God and morality. This woman is impassive and
sanguine in her role, a role which itself is invalidated by
the fallaciousness of the morality which it serves.

Her relationship to the male is pathetically shallow,
since it conforms to an absolute norm and does not allow for
personal deviation. She implores her daughter to love her
future husband, but the advice is impersonal and stereotyped:

"So liebe ihn, wie er Gott liebt, nicht mehr, nicht weniger."291

106

The legacy of love and life that she leaves her daughter is

a blindly pursued norm which completely precludes the de-

mands of the individual being. The placid and servile

being of the mother is able to generate little spiritual
stimulation and as she herself states demands little from

her husband. "Aufrichtigkeit ist die Tugend der Ehemanner."292
It is quite irrelevant that the male may be a shallow, pompous
fool as long as steady respectability is the most obvious
characteristic; he is considered a prime husband.

Life is drab and suffering becomes a mask of distinc-
tion, external suffering, which attests to incessant toil,
which in turn presupposes respectability. It almost becomes
a woman's duty to look Worn and drab at the end of her life,
lest her appearance betray a frivolous existence. "Posses-
sions and efficiency are chief virtues" of the times.293
To her, it is mandatory that she look old at fifty: "Wars
anders, so musst ich mich ja fur dich und mich schémen!"29"
A woman is to have toiled well at her husband's side and raised
compliant, respectable children, not to have given him
pleasure through her body and spirit. This woman bears
children, but is a barren creature. She serves her husband
and God equally well; her life has been dictated by her hus-
band and having fulfilled her duty to him she passively dis-
engaged from exuberant living and expects God to beckon to

her, so that she can complete her final task. With a morbid

obedience she yearns for the grave.

107

When her son confronts her with an alleged transgression
of all the inviolable norms which he is to have adhered to,
"295

the mother responds with an intrepid "Jesus and dies.

This is the woman who provides the background for the
more complex character of Klara. The mother is an ineffective,
inconsequential human servant of a waning and faulty morali-
ty. She reflects the mate who even more blatantly flaunts
his empty banner of an invalidated moral code. This woman's
contribution to life has been petty and insignificant and
its insignificance is further intensified by her blind ad-
herence to a prescribed code. She has never allowed her
sights to turn inward in order to examine the depth of her
being which may clarify her vision toward the whole. The
imposed darkness has put out the last spark of inner light.

This woman, more so than her daughter, can not be under-
stood and regarded as an individual, she is but a type. She
represents the wife and mother that Hebbel saw as a child
and grew up with in Dithmarschen. She is the suffering,
sensual and resigned lower class woman of Hebbel's childhood
and youth.

Klara exists in a similarly stifling circle of aware-
ness. The boundaries are not as rigid and well defined as
those in the case of the mother. There is an incomprehensible
force within Klara which thwarts her intentions and opens

vistas before her, which she can not cope with. Klara does

not consciously yearn to explore these unknown regions, she

108

is dragged along at a dizzying speed that defies resis-
tance. This characteristic is reminiscent of Elise Lensing
who was unable to curtail events of predictably devastating
consequences.

Dreams and events merge to create a nightmare—like
world, which is not of her own making, but permeates her un-
til the cause becomes irrelevant: "...o die boshaften Traume,
sie kleiden sich in unsere Furcht, um unsre Hoffnung zu
erschrecken."296 It is interesting to note that to Klara
dreams represent a negative experience. It is not a thril-
ling state which allows her to explore unknown regions of
consciousness or conjure up ecstatic visions. It is rather
a state which bares her fears and reveals a foreboding dark-
ness which interferes with the more conventional and rational
hopes fashioned by the light of day. Bad surely follows the
good and the dream is an unwelcome messenger. Klara exhibits
a much greater depth insofar that she senses much more than
her mother could, but is still paralyzed in her actions.

What she senses remains a vague, not forceful awareness. This
is her great tragedy and her destruction. Psychological pre-
dilection and the stagnating demands of her milieu combine

to destroy the sparks in Klara and drive her into a malestrom
of chaotic reactions which ultimately overwhelm her. She is
unable to liberate her inner being which remains enslaved

just as her social being is. This is her great guilt, she

can not be true to herself?97

109

This inability leads her to the events which become the
tools of her destruction. Through the demands of her par-
ents and personal pride, she has committed her life to a man
who corresponds to the moral norms of her world, but is repul—
sive' to her person. Klara is caught in the unintentional
betrayal of her natural inclination towards the man that
she desires. This feeling is strong and genuine, but she be-
trays it by petty, transparent lies in order to retain what
she considers her respectable alliance. She rather capitu-
lates to the false and vain accusations of one man than to
her desire for another. It is easier for Klara to violate
the rules of a familiar and rigid morality, than to follow
the deep and unfamiliar desire of her own being. She chooses
to compromise herself to appease the accusing eye of an un-

ll

worthy man: ...du standest vor'mir, wie einer, der eine

"298

Schuld einfordert, ich-—ach Cott. The inner tumult

boils under the surface, but finds no rational outlet: ".
aber Trénen und Schluchzen erstickten die Worte."299 So in-
tricate is the web that binds Klara that she can not even
find her own responsibility for her predicament. The aware-
ness is so dim that she becomes nothing, but a passive ob-
ject to be thrust about. She recognizes the lowly character
of Leonhard, but can not recognize that her own actions or
lack of them have bound her to this man. She submits with

a passive cry: "0 mein Gott, an diesem Menschen bin ich

OO
gekettet."3

110

The cold cruelty of Klara's world is quite evident in
the character of the father. Klara accepts this world with
a blind obedience and attempts to forge no avenues of escape.
The father is a psychological sadist, who not only doggedly
hangs on to his exhausted morality, but taunts his daughter
into submissiveness by cruel allusions. He is cleverly test-
ing his daughter when he refers to her as "mein unschuldiges
Kind."301 Her guilt or innocence is only an incidental
matter as in the case of Klara's brother, the question is
only relevant to his own well being in the eyes of his nar-
row world. As long as this world is not offended, his chil-
dren could choke on their innocence and the father would
emerge unscathed, because: "Ich kanns in einer Welt nicht
aushalten, wo die Ieute mitleidig sein mfissen, wenn sie
nicht vor mir ausspucken sollen."302 Her death belongs to
a world which he can not understand.303 Even when he
places his own improbable suicide at her feet, does Klara
remain incapable of the slightest tendencies of rebellion.

It is her inability to see, that drags her down like a foul
and massive rock.

Hebbel's own father is the most likely model for Klara's
father. He, too, felt that his children were a burden, his

' who made life even more difficult. Displeasure

"wolves,'
and resentment characterize both.
The Sekretar intrudes into Klara's life with his pleas

to listen to her heart and live according to her own wishes:

111

"Was man alles schwatzt, wenn man etwas auf dem Herzen hat

und es nicht herausbringen weiss."3O"

He implores her to
rejoice in living and confess her love for him. But she
still sinks in the murk of self deception: "Um ihm, um mir
selbst zu beweisen, dass es nicht so sei, oder ums zu
erstricken, wenns so ware, tat ich, was ich jetzt...."305
Klara has completely abdicated any self assertion and asks
absolutely nothing for herself. Her only remaining wish is
to salvage the crumbling facade of offended morality: "Ich
bettle ja nicht um ein Gluck,ich bettle um mein Elend, um
mein tiefstes Elend--mein Elend wirst du mir geben!."306
Leonhard represents everything that her heart rejects, but
through marriage to him she can escape the wrath of her
father and society. She makes her last empty, desperate
offer to Leonhard, promising a devotion which seems adequate
as measured against the man and the norms which he repre-
sents: "Ich will dir dienen, ich will fur dich arbeiten."307
Klara is also pleading for the child that she carries, pure
instinct drives her to clutch at the last straw of preser-
vation for herself and her child. But in her desperate pleas
she betrays the utter confusion which has paralyzed her into
a state of unconsciousness: "wars um mich allein-~ich wollts
ja tragen, ich wollte gedulding hinnehmen, als verdiente

Strafe fur, ich weiss nicht was."308

Klara is being punished
by a world which she herself subscribes to and attempts to

understand its rules and, yet, she is guilty of a transgression

112

which lies outside the domain of this morality. She cannot
understand her punishment, because she cannot understand

her crime. It is as though she senses that a wnong has

been done society, but a greater wrong has been perpetrated
against a genuine and subconscious desire. The framework

of existence does not allow for this and Klara is unable to
cope with the consequences. It is ironic when Leonhard con-
soles her with: "Tausende haben das vor dir durchgemacht."309
He is the one who least of all understands Klara's situation.
For him the world revolves around the Burgermeister--"mit
dem Bfirgermeister ist nicht zu spassen9310. Confronted with
Klara's formidable problem, the structure of his world re-
mains quite clear and stagnant.

Hebbel, like Leonhard, had been impressed by appearances
and one's station in life. He did not hesitate to refer to
Elise as von Lensing and thus promote her in social status.
The words that Leonhard here utters could very well have
been those Hebbel said to Elise.

Klara's salvation does not lie in marriage to this man,
but in the hope that there will be no other man like him.

Not only does Klara have to face a bankrupt morality,
clutching more desperately than ever at its power, she feels
herself losing the security of its hold and slipping into

the frightening "Unbewussten." Leonhard can still escape
what Klara no longer can: "Eine Rebellion im Kopf wo man Wurm

nach Wurm nach Wurm gebiert, und einer den andern frisst oder

113

in den Schwanz beisst, ist die Schlimmste von allen."311

Klara's final plunge into death is not an attempt to
escape an intolerable world, beyond which man can hope for a
better one. Klara does not recognize the clash of individual-
istic inclination and the common morality. She goes to her
death like a Sleepwalker who is afraid that the awakening
may be worse than the nightmare. Klara is the woman who
has suffered throughout her lifetime and was driven to jump.
Her desperate escape is a plea for greater awareness of
society vis-a-vis its own morality. Man has to escape into
a more refined, individualistic morality as long as society
can not assimilate divergent forms of expression into its
code. Through her blind deed, Klara serves as a catalyst
to man's motivation to reevaluate the codes that he lives
by. It was Hebbel's belief that: "Sittlich ist jede Tat,
die den Menschen fiber sich selbst erhebt."312

Hebbel's Maria Magdalena is not forgiven her sins, she
is punished by a cruel and dogmatic society. She is the ex-
ponent of a new morality, who escapes from an immoral one.
As Judith shatters on internal chaos which invalidates her
actions in respect to the greater whole, Klara succumbs be-
fore she even senses an inner conflict. Klara is the ex-
ponent of blind suffering which leads to death and promises
a better world, a higher order of morality which may allow
for the expansion of individual awareness. Klara provides

the only hopeful glimmer in this bourgeois world.313

114

Klara remains servile and unaware, she can recognize her
transgression against the world, but not against herself. She
can not be true to herself, she is not a personality, she is
a tool, a tool in Hebbel's own battle with the morality of
his time. It is remarkable that Hebbel deals with sex more
frankly in this drama than in any other of his dramas. Klara
is neither beautiful nor clever, but she, like Elise Lensing,
is obviously a sensual woman.

Maria Magdalena does not offer new avenues toward a more

 

enlightened morality, it merely criticizes the old. In con-

H

fining himself to a "bfirgerliches Drama, Hebbel remained too

close to personal reality. As pointed out by Kurtlflay,

"Meister Anton und Klara sind Fleisch vom Fleisch und Blut
von Blut ihres Schdpfers."314 The characters become types
based on traits exhibited by personalities Hebbel knew and

lived with. Beppi's family serves as a model for Anton,315

316 Klara and her

as does the good Elise serve for Klara.
mother remain types exhumed from a world which Hebbel him-
self was attempting to cope with.

The woman may point the way through her suffering, so
that man may forge a better world. The "Humanitatsideal"
Of the Weimar poets had never been realized317 and the search
for'the "allgemein Menschliche" still permeates the litera-
ture of Hebbel's time and vacillates somewhere between the

1.318

Strongly individualistic and the provincia This drama,

t00, is Hebbel's protest and search, lead by a woman who is

115

blind to her goal. The woman is not an individual who par-
ticipates in the process through her awareness and under-
standing of her suffering and man's faltering strides toward

the Ideal of Morality.

D. Herodes und Mariamne

 

The insecurity of man and his search for a meaningful

commitment permeate the drama Herodes und Mariamne. The

 

worth of the individual and man's guilt toward the woman are
also to be found in this, as in other dramas.

The mightly king Herodes finds himself in a world of
intrigue and murder. Political expediency has brought about
the murder of his wife's brother and his own power and life
depend on intricate plots and power structures. In his pre-
carious situation he finds himself preoccupied with one refer-
ence point of absolute security. The world around him is
a chaotic, treacherous place and it is in Mariamne that he
hopes to find the only and absolute security. The attempt,
however, is destined to failure, because he demands and, more-
over, he demands from a position of weakness, not of strength.

When he thinks of his wife he already casts doubt upon
her willingness to give him ultimate proof of her love. He
instinctively suspects their relationship and proposes to
test her love. As he hears of a woman who perished in the
flames with the body of her husband, he intends to relate
this to his wife:

116

Das will ich Mariamne doch erzahlen
Und ihr dabei ins Auge schauen--

sié'war vielleicht der Frauen K6nigin.319
He himself is ready to offer the ultimate sacrifice, were
Mariamne to die, and he must have the same assurance from
her:

Du musst es ja empfinden, dass ich jetzt

Nicht ffir mich kampfen kann, wenn du mir nicht_ 320

Versicherst, dass dein Herz noch ffir mich schlagt.

Herodes is the blind fool who does not see that what he
demands is already his, and by his desperate plea he destroys
what he wants.

From this point on the alienation between husband and
wife is complete, each becomes egotistical in his demands
and love for each becomes secondary. Herodes tells of a
wife who dies with her husband. Mariamne perceives the di-
dactic aspect of the incident of the woman and gives a nega—
tive response:

Sie liess ja nicht sich zum Opfertier machen,

Sie hat sich selbst geopfert, das beweist,

Dass ihr der Tod mehr war, als die Welt.32l
She, too, would do the same of free will:

Ich sterbe, wenn er stirbt.322
Mariamne, however, is not given this option, Herodes' fear
of having someone else possess her and his fear that she may
not even love him with all her life, forces him to utter the

desperate words:

Mir schwurst du nichts, dir will ich etwas schwbren:
Ich stell dich unters Schwert.323

117

Mariamne knows that Herodes loves her, but she recoils
at his demeaning approach. By his demand for her oath he
has expressed lack of faith in her and failed to recognize
her worth as an individual. When he orders her to be killed
in case of his death, Mariamne sees this as final proof of
his low esteem of her love and her person:

Ich war ihm nur ein Ding und weiter nichts.32"
Herodes has now proven that he has no respect for her, no
faith in her, he has left Mariamne with nothing:

Du hastin mir die Menschheit geschendet.325
Herodes has demeaned Mariamne in the cruelest way possible;
he has doubted the love of a woman who has given him no rea-
son to do so. He has demanded tangible proof for something
for which there is no proof, only trust and understanding.
This is precisely what Herodes and Mariamne lack due to their
exaggerated individuality. Herodes has dealt his wife the
cruelest blow by his mistrust of her, but Mariamne pursues
the same path. She twice hopes that Herodes will sense her
great love for him and allow her to take a voluntary oath of
love. She, however, is not willing to take one step from
her assumed pose, she will not expose her inner feelings:

Die Probe ist keine wenn er
ahnt was dich bewegt.326

When Herodes fails to perceive the depth of her emotion she
takes the path to demonic vengeance. She is notlmoved,

by her love for Herodes but by his apparent lack of love for

 

118

her and her mad desire to avenge the plunder of her exces-
sive individuality:

Ich hatte nichts, ich habe nichts, ich werde327
Nichts haben! War denn je ein Mensch so arm!
In the name of love, each has destroyed the other:

Zwei Menschen, die sich lieben, wie sie sollen,
K6nnen einander gar nicht fiberleben,

Allein die Menschen lieben sich nicht 80.328
The general insecurity of existence underlies the fabric
of the'drama.329 Herodes demands that Mariamne be loyal to
him because no one else is. He fails to see that in his de-
mand he questions her loyalty and undermines their relation-
ship by regarding her unworthy of his trust. Hebbel's con-
flict with Elise is reflected here in the man's disregard
for the person of the woman. Possibly also Hebbel's jealousy
of Christine and her past embellish the character of Herodes.
The ideal, the idealized Elise, too, suffers a demise. She
is justly tormented by the man's disregard for her indi-
viduality, but responds with nothing but cruel vengeance.
She has failed to understand that the man, as well, may have
acted out of the deepest fear and suffering. She fails to
understand that the man pleads for love and security, for
belonging and understanding. Her introspective vision is
oblivious of this fact, and it is she in her blindness who
gives the man nothing. Mariamne is not just the woman mis-

understood, but the woman who does not understand.

It is as though in their alienation Herodes and Mariamne

119

expect a solution from external circumstances which never
comes. They can not reconcile themselves to one another, nor
to the world. They are the absolute antinomy of reality and
that which is essential and basic to their beings.330 Yet,
in spite of the fact that Mariamne never overcomes the schism
between herself and her husband, she feels a need to confess
her true devotion to Titus before her death, it is her
triumph, her justification to herself, but also her plea for
communication. For in Hebbel there is pessimism, not nihilism.
Man always remains the focal point and source of any possible
progress and perfection.331

Hebbel and Elise, also, could not reconcile themselves
to one another or to the world, but in spite of this fact
Hebbel continues with this relationship as if hoping that
either some external circumstance or inner reconciliation
would render it an acceptable one. In spite of the fact that
his friendship with Amalie Schoppe was less than satisfactory
and his affairs with Elise, Emma and Beppi were less than
idyllic, he does, at a mature age, enter into a marriage full
of hope for love and contentment which he, indeed, is able
to find with his wife. The cruelest fate is to be alone and
misunderstood, but, in his private life, Hebbel would say
that it could be otherwise.

Hebbel had to clarify his outlook on marriage in his

personal life and this is clearly reflected in dramas like

Herodes and Mariamne. Man's life becomes a series of possi-

 

120

bilities and marriage is one of them. The delimited world
332

vs. infinite possibilities, is a concept also to be
found in the contemporary author Max Frisch, who often ex-

plores marriage in his works. In his play Santa Cruz Pele-

 

grin returns to visit Elvira and her husband. Elvira and
Pelegrin had been lovers and they have not seen each other
for seventeen years. His return forces a reappraisal of the
marriage and stirs old memories.

Frisch depicts marriage as a state of imprisonment and
boredom with which Hebbel has upon occasion concurred, as
expressed in his diaries when he theorizes over a possible
marriage to Elise.

As Herodes and Mariamne and Genoveva and Siegfried,
Elvira and her husband live together but do not know each
other. They have shared their living habits, but have lied
to each other about their dreams and longings. Pelegrin has
been honest with himself and understood himself sufficiently
to give up something for a life that he wants. Frisch is
more insistent that marriage is synonymous with a coffin
than Hebbel, but both are cognizant of the need for the part-
ners to know themselves and each other and to communicate. The
women are more guilty than the men, because they can not ad-
mit and recognize their true longings, they would rather

hide in a status quo security.

121

E. Agnes Bernauer

 

In Agnes Bernauer, Hebbel has created one of his most

 

beautiful and attractive women. Agnes is not a cold and
chiseled beauty, petrified by an innate code as is Rhodoppe,
nor is she cursed by her beauty as is Judith. Agnes is
beautiful, likeable, reluctantly willing to be loved and ad-
mired. She is the naive flower born to charm and to love.

In her one finds Hebbel's best and freeest expression of

love in all of his dramas.333 Agnes is a truly naive being
in the finest sense of the word, she is not ignorant of her
charm or desire of love, but she is free from anything which
may cloud or obstruct her love for a man. There is an ap-
parent obsession in Hebbel with women who are physically
beautiful; possibly born of the plainness of Elise. Agnes

is all he and any man could wish for. He clearly establishes
this and her innocence early in the drama. Theobald, her
faithful admirer, has brought her roses, and with his words
Hebbel has characterized Agnes and won our sympathy for her:
"Um die schbnen Rosen wars schande, die sind unschuldig."334
Agnes is an innocent and beautiful rose, but because she is
unique she is destined not to walk a common path. She quick-
1y senses that her youthful friends resent her beauty because
she outshines them all and she feels the resentment in their
remarks: "Nonne und doch keine Heilige, aber noch nicht im
Himmel!"335 This is all yet an innocent prelude of her fate

and Agnes responds with a very ordinary and girlish pout,

122

she shall not attend the tournament in order not to arouse
more resentment. She is neither driven by haughty aloofness
nor does she consider her beauty a curse. Her beauty has

a naive charm which does not overwhelm.

Agnes attends the fateful tournament, where after one
look at Albrecht her fate is sealed. She has been chosen
by the finest man and her being knows but one response.

This is one of Hebbel's purest and most idealized love epi-
sodes. In the midst of a chaotic crowd two people have
chosen each other as the most desirable being each has en-
countered. From that moment on, cognizant as they may be of
reality and the consequences, they know but one goal.
Albrecht, in the characteristic manner of a lover, promises
more than he can hope to give: "Dir schwindelt! Halt dich

an mich! Und ob die Welt sich dreht, du wirst fest stehen."336

Agnes, too, is willing to give all: "Und mfisst ichs mit dem
Tode bezahlen--das tate nichts."337

Agnes for herself knows that it is this love with
Albrecht that now is her life, and she has no qualms or re-
grets. She loves the man without any conditions and is aware
that external events may terminate their love. But for her
there is nothing else, nor does she ask for more. She is
very much in possession of herself and her words warn Al-
brecht that it is he who should be wary of his duty and his

"338

father: "Und wenn er das Schwert zieht. She is aware

that Albrecht's father has to rule his land and can not

123

exchange that responsibility for her beauty.

The marriage takes place and is, as is Agnes, an ideal
image, it is the epitome of what a marriage could be. As
Hebbel has frequently and sometimes unjustly pontificated
against the institution, here marriage is all that it could
possibly be. The two partners remain passionate lovers,
filled with admiration and friendship for each other. Agnes
has given herself completely and freely while remaining
aware of the world around them: "Und kame jetzt der Tod,
ich dfirfte nicht mehr sagen: Du kommst zu frfih."339

And the external world quickly enforces its will. Al-
brecht is destined to rule his father's land, lest chaos and
bloodshed are to take over. Neither divorce or convent can
provide an escape for two forces so great—~the love of Agnes
and the conviction of Ernst. Like Agnes, he has no other
way: "...ich tu, was ich muss, der Ausgang ist Gottes."3"O

There is no chance that Agnes may betray her honor and
renounce herself or her love, nothing in this world has any
power over her or any meaning for her. To renounce Albrecht,
she can no longer be Agnes. She, too, has no other way:

"Sind wir nicht unzertrennbar, eins durch Geben undNehmen,

wie Leib und Seele?"3"l To deny her life is quite conceiv-
able to Agnes, but to deny her love for Albrecht is not. Thus
she accepts Ernst's command for her death, but not a plot to
renounce herself or Albrecht. She can give her life, but no

more: "Wie mild is Herzog Ernst! Der will doch nur mein

124

Leben!"3"2

Agnes Bernauer is, of course, a drama of the unique

 

individual who disturbs the world order. But it is much more
than that. It is, as though, Hebbel has poured into Agnes
all that he wished to find in a woman. Agnes has beauty
and charm and is made to love and be loved. She is naive
and innocent, yet aware of herself and her destiny, her wish
to be a woman. The love of Agnes is not idyllic, nor is it
common, it is characterized by passion and devotion. She
brings this quality to her marriage and in her awareness is
the ultimate "du." Her greatest gift to Albrecht is not
her death, but her life. She has no honor to betray, there
is no clash within herself, the clash is an external one.
Throughout his life Hebbel struggled with the idea of
emancipation of the woman. Agnes, in areal sense, repre-
sents the synthesis and reconciliation of these assorted
ideas. Agnes is the emancipated woman, she knows that she
loves Albrecht and her emotions toward him are quite clear
to her and because of this she can accept and understand the
consequences of her commitment to the man. She is free,
but she is not an equal to him so that she may still repre-
sent the ideal to Albrecht, she embodies beauty and passion
and virtue. She is the free and ideal woman. Society has
not yet emancipated her, but according to Hebbel, society was
not supposed to be the instrument of emancipation. Agnes

is an emancipated woman insofar that she understands herself,

125

but she is no way the "new" woman who has been emancipated

by society, as is Anna Mohr in Hauptmann's Einsame Menschen.

 

A reconciliation in regard to the question of the
liberated woman has been achieved, but it suffers from over-
simplification. Agnes is perfection, as no woman in Hebbel's
life was, or as he may have occasionally regarded his wife;
Albrecht is free of the slightest guilt, as Hebbel never
was; and society is imperfect.

The external struggle around Agnes leads one to another
question of values. The circumstances which lead to her

death are representative of an ideology. As in Maria Magda-

 

;gng, where an undesirable order brings the downfall of an
individual, here it is an order which Hebbel seems to con-
done. He has created a woman who has his sympathy and the
reader's, but he also has recognized the reality of his
ethics. He wishes for an ideal, but it has to correspond

to a reality. Hebbel writes of his Agnes Bernauer:

 

"Nie habe ich das Verhaltnis, worin das Individuum
zum Staat steht, so deutlich erkannt wie jetzt, und
das ist doch ein grosser Gewinn.... Die Ultrademo-
kraten werden mich freilich steinigen, doch mit
Leuten, die Eigentuum und Familie nicht respektieren,
die also gar keine Gesellschaft wollen, ja die
konsequenterweise auch nicht den Menschen, das Tier,
den Baum usw. wollen kannen, weil das doch auch
Kerker feier Krafte, namlich der Elemente, sind, habe
ich nichts zu schaffen."343

Thus, Agnes dies and the state prevails. However, here
we come to the ultimate clash of values and find a modern

element in Hebbel's Agnes Bernauer. We witness the drive

 

for life and love versus a blind and possibly faulty order.

126

Even though Hebbel is committed to the order, the very
existence of Agnes questions the order. The ideas of
state are not stable as in the case of Hegel, the ideolo-

344

gy becomes nebulous. In an attempt to stabilize his
world and attain some security, man will instinctively
exaggerate the importance and value of an ideology, as if

in an effort to stabilize that which is stable no longer.
There seems to be a parallel between the need to question
and negate old values and an even stronger need to exalt
some other ideology which will provide security. Modern man
seems to experience his bleakest hour when he triumphs as
the iconoclast and sets himself free from all guidelines.
The tragedy of Agnes is not that she, the innocent, dies at
the hands of the state, she has resolved her problem and for
her there is but one law. For Hebbel, she dies for an es-

sential yet questionable ideology. Which law is man to obey?

It is this question which gives Agnes Bernauer contemporary

 

importance.

F. Gyges und sein Ring

 

A more intricate imprisonment of the woman is evident

in Gyges und sein Ring. Rhodope is indeed bound to the

 

narrowest possible circle, but her confinement is self im-
posed. Her individuality and her pride do not even allow
her to confess her love for a man?"5 Rhodope can only love
Kandaules if he will abide by her conditions for this union.

She can not give pleasure to her husband on his terms, she

 

127

is unwilling to yield to his pride in her and his desire to exhibit
to others what he possesses. His wishes are irrelevant to
her existence, she is bound to a tradition and her own
pride, much more than she is to her husband. Her personali-
ty and tradition are holy and she refuses everything new:

Bei uns ist das nicht Sitte, und mir wars,

Als ob ich essen sollte ohne Hunger

Und trinken ohne Durst.346

To Rhodope the man is the violator of all that is holy. He

may only possess a fraction of her being and he dare not

transgress her norms:

Ei nein! Dir sangs die Amme nimmer vor,
Dass Mannes Angesicht der Tod ffir dich.347

The man understands nothing of what Rhodope's inner being
demands of her and she completely isolates herself within
the walls of what to her is the essence of her person. She,
too, understands nothing of the needs of the man and only
sees him as the violator who tramples her most sacred image.
When she discovers that her husband has allowed Gyges to
see her, she is blind to everything:

Ich bin befleckt, wie niemals noch ein Weib.348

She offers nothing to Kandaules but her demands and

becomes his judge and condemns him for his guilt. She de-
mands reverence, because

Als Kbnigstochter trat ich in dies Haus.3"9
She even has the audacity to accuse Kandaules:

Es sea mehr Stolz auf den Besitz, als Liebe;
In der Empfindung, die dich an mich fesselt.350

128

Her self centered pride has reduced her to a figure of cold
marble. She can not give herself in love to a man and, as
she tells Gyges, she believes herself to be the most deli-
cate and vulnerable creature.

Je mehr sonst ganz nur Weib, nur scheues Weib
Je mehr vom Manne wird sie da verletzt.351

Unflinchingly Rhodoppe pursues her course to its gruesome
end, destroying herself and the man.

In Rhodope Hebbel has swung full circle from his image
of the woman as an insignificant, suffering being to the
woman who has elevated the worth of her person until she
resembles a beautiful and cold statue, which the man has to
worship and be destroyed lest he pay homage to her. It is
as though here he attempts to expurgate his guilt; his ego-
tistical individualism has subjugated and reduced the woman
to a non-being and if there is no woman who can relate to
the man on a new and enlightened plane, then let that woman
become a remote deity which the man has to worship and pay
for his transgressions against her. In this form at least
she provides the man with a thing of beauty to revere, if
thegwoman is to understand nothing of the man's needs and
can in no way communicate with him, let her have a dignity
and serenity of her own which makes the man responsible for
his actions to her, but not for her. Rhodope is the coldest
and cruelest of Hebbel's women. She is not a woman, she is

an idea gone mad. Rhodope resides in the narrowest circle,

129

within herself. The man does not understand her but she
understands neither herself nor the man. With Rhodope the
man does not have to look down upon her and pity her and
himself, he has forever lost any hope of easing his isola-
tion, but his suffering is his own and not caused by her de-
pendence upon him.

Hebbel's path to reality leads him through the ideal and
it is only as such that Rhodope can be regarded. By complete
isolation she has attained inner freedom and lives within
the realms of her conscience. Hers is a lofty circle, but
still a narrow one. Her alienation from the world is so com-
plete that it is difficult to comprehend her torment. Hebbel
himself recognized that, "freilich wird die Motivierung der
Kenigin schwer sein."352 Rhodope is an intellectual abstrac-
tion representing the opposite pole of the narrow woman as
seen in Hebbel's reality.

She is too far removed to be convincing and moving. In
this drama one also becomes aware of how much Hebbel's suc-
cessful dramas and most vivid characters are both a reflec-
tion of his intellect and experience. The exaggeration of

Rhodope has removed her too far from reality.

Chapter V

THE IMAGE OF THE WOMAN

Thus far we have been concerned with the woman in the
life and works of Friedrich Hebbel. The emphasis has been
on identifying and defining her properties and ascertaining
the reason for her prominence in the works of the author.
Hebbel's true concern was with the self and with the female
figure. She is the product of experience and an intrinsic
polarity which makes itself felt throughout the lifetime of
the author.353 In the works of Hebbel one has to deal with
persons who are the products of his problematic nature. He
attempts to reconcile his intellectual concepts to his emo—
tional inclinations.35"

The ambivalences pertinent to the woman are numerous--
sensuality versus spiritual love; morality versus freedom;
ideal versus the real; conservatism versus new and daring
concepts, which all seem to stem from one basic polarity in
Hebbel--the spiritual versus the physical. He wishes for
liberation in experience, to experience what his intellect
conceives and to reconcile his intellect to the experience.
The inability to harness the onslaught of emotions and in—
tellect hurls him into a sea of ambiguities. Self expression
almost comes to resemble a religious trance,355 in which he
tries to perceive a semblance of totality. His art is

"356

"Ausdruck seines Ringens und Werdens. The women in his

130

131

art are intellectual concepts filtered through the turmoil
of his emotions. They do not exist as complete entities in
themselves because Hebbel could never perceive the woman as
she really was; she is divested of her own reality and re-
incarnated in the image of assorted ambiguities. Hebbel
never saw the woman as a whole, he saw her through his "I"
predisposed vision. Her identity is further obscured by
Hebbel's inability to allow for individual assertion in man
and even less in the woman.357 She can never be an indi-
vidual to Hebbel, she is the reflection of the self.

The women in his early life had taught him that women
are submissive, servile beings who can be depended upon for
minimal sustenance, but little else. His mother, his teacher
and his benefactors had never initiated action.

The most devastating encounter with the female in Heb-
bel's life occurs in his relationship with Elise Lensing.
For a decade of his life Hebbel perpetuates this demanding
relationship which he claims is not based on love. Yet, the
bond is evidently so deep that it is hard to call it anything
else.358 The devotion of Elise was admirable, but she
further defines the image of the woman in the life of Hebbel
as "Beschranktheit der menschliChen Individualitéfit."3

Hebbel could not, at the time of the encounter with
Elise, adjust to the fact that the basic tie between them
was sensual and was diametrically opposed to his concept of

morality. He believed that "Unschuld ist erwachene

 

132

"360 A woman

Sinnlichkeit, die sich selbst nicht versteht.
that one loved and married had to have a sexual identity
and incorporate the qualities of the ideal and for Hebbel
361

love was the incarnation of the ideal. As Schunert states,

"Dass ffir ihn reine, von aller niedrigen Sinnlichkeit

freie Liebe der Geschlechter der Ausdruck hbchster

Sittlichkeit und ein Symbol des idealischen Zustandes

ist."362

The decade of torment with Elise, motivates him to pos-
tulate on the possible variations on the theme of man's re—
lation to the woman. The greatest difficulty in this process
to define the "du" is his guilt. He ventures a very daring
step by alluding to the possibility of a sensuality which
would exist for itself irrelevant of all other norms. The
insurmountable difficulty lies in the fact that this kind of
freedom demands an awareness and responsibility of the indi-
vidual which certainly did not exist in the society of Heb-
bel's time, nor has yet been realized. Until the woman is
such, she has to succumb to the total unawareness. Hebbel's
works are attempts to incorporate this remote ideal of the
truly aware woman into the more conventional ideal, the moral
woman who is both sensual and "pure."

The women as seen in the works of Hebbel reflect his
intellect. They are not ordinary women, they are his ideas
of the female sex.3 3 His concept is not based on under-

standing her, his own personality transforms her into his

image. To quote Oskar Walzel:

133

"Vielmehr lag es von vornherein in Hebbels Natur,

verschlossene Charactere zu zeichnen, deren Inneleben,

seis bewusst, sei's unbewusst, der umgebenden Welt

gegenfiber versteckt spielt."364
The women are not figures to be found in everyday existence,
espeCially his dramatic heroines. According to Lublinski,
they are"...ausserorderntliche Menschengestalten, die
gleichzeitig krankhaft problematisch und sehr gewaltige
Kolossalnaturen waren."365

The demise of Hebbel's women is intricate. The hybris
of the individual no longer clashes with the absolute of the
idea, the individual has been liberated to forge his own
concept of the idea and until he is able to do so, his very
individuality becomes his downfall and his guilt, it is the
guilt of the unaware society. Hebbel's vision is a wild
and elusive dream, it vacillates between nihilism and the

" conceived. His women can not be

purest "Humanitatsideal
"real." They are part of his own unawareness and inability
to relate this concept to reality and part of the total un-

366 Man has lost his ab-

awareness of contemporary humanity.
solute adherence to the idea, a norm, an ideal. The inabili-
ty of the woman to emerge into a new state of clarity points
the way to a possible nothingness, to nihilism. It is only
Hebbel's personal and unshakable adherence to morality as

an even greater ideal than individual freedom which saves

him from nihilism. To quote Wolfgang Liepe,

"In allen Stadien seiner dichterischen Entwicklung hat
die Idee des Daseins als sittlicher Aufgabechnm :"

 

134
Werk Hebbels davon bewahrt, in die Tragédie des
Nihilismus abzugleiten."367
Judith and Agnes Bernauer most clearly reflect Hebbel's
ideas in regard to the woman. Judith is his passionate re-
bellion against the beautiful and sensual woman who is

wasted by her own inability to reconcile her desires to '

‘3 y.
9‘— -
' l
..

reality. In Judith, one also sees the most complex female

character, she is the woman who most clearly senses the in-

 

finite possibilities that she carries within herself and is t
totally confounded by this awareness. In Agnes these ideas

have mellowed. Agnes is not torn by conflict, she is quite

aware of what she wants to be and what she is. Agnes is the

emancipated ideal, she is the answer Hebbel has chosen to

his problem.

Genoveva and Mariamne are direct reflections of Hebbel's
experience. Genoveva, as Judith, is born of his involvement
with Elise, but Genoveva is a pale and passive figure who
is deified by Hebbel's desire to confess his guilt over the
unfortunate decade of his life with Elise. Mariamne is writ-
ten by the happy husband as a plea for communication, under-
standing and security. Probably motivated by jealousy over
Christine's past, he sees the devastating consequences of
the inability to communicate with one another.

Maria Magdalena reflects the milieu of Hebbel's early

 

life and the woman as he saw her. Maria Magdalena is in no
way equipped to resolve the conflict she is faced with, the

conflict of morality and sex. She has no deep awareness of

135

herself, but she is the woman in whom Hebbel recognizes sex
as one of the motivating forces and questions the society
to which she has to relate.

Rhodope, as opposed to other female figures which are
closely related to the events of Hebbel's life, is a woman
born of the intellect. It is as though the author no longer
believes in the ideal that he has created.

The battle between the sexes as portrayed in the works
of Hebbel is a battle for the articulate awareness of the
woman, an awareness which would lead to a new humanity. It

368 which Hebbel

is not an absolute Iphigenie-like humanity
yearns for through his female figures. It is a humanity based
on the sensual needs of man, his need for security and com-
panionship, on his need to incorporate these in his intellec-

tual and spiritual world, on his need to become an aware and

functioning component of an aware society.

CONCLUSION

Friedrich Hebbel's personality was so acutely under-
nourished during his childhood and youth in Dithmarschen
that he never quite overcomes this deficiency. The unsatis-
factory relationships with his father, teacher and benefac-
tor itensify the introverted man's sensitivity and egotism.
Intent on cultivating his talent, Hebbel leaves his homeland
and subsequently embarks on a relationship with a woman,
which, like his childhood, motivates and dominates his art.

The image of the woman too rigidly reflects the author's
personal struggles to have permanent universality. The woman
of his life had been a bland, passive, inferior and sensual
person, subjugated by the male and her sex. This in turn
imposed a burden of guilt upon the man and Hebbel desperate-
ly struggles to escape, since his morality does not allow
him to dismiss his own guilt. His art directly reflects
this struggle and his heroines range from rationalized fac-
similes of reality to a being too idealized and theoretical.
In fact, the woman is not an ideal and the whole process is
set in motion to atone for his personal guilt feelings.

There are aspects of the woman in his art which do
merit recognition. The pessimistic, dour and self centered
author takes himself and his art too seriously and always

remains confined by insecurity and convention. Yet, he does

' 136

137

have his moments of daring and insight and his women have
a dimension which is of interest today.

Hebbel recognizes the immeasurable and varied possi-
bilities inherent in man. He is aware that not only he him-
self needs a new perspective of the great process, but the
woman herself has to be recreated in a new image. She needs
to recognize and become aware of sex as a motivating force
which thrusts her in a critical relationship to man and
society as a whole. In this respect, Hebbel's greatest con-
tribution lies in the fact that sex, to him, is not yet just
a good thing, but he does recognize its force and chaotic
aspect in the personality of the woman. Rigid morality can
in no way clarify his. It is she herself who has to learn
to be free and aware and only then can its relationship to
the man and society become more clarified. At his best
moments, Hebbel's heroines embody the awesome complexity of
living, for which the author declines to give a formula for
solution.

Through some aspects of his female figures, motivated
by the polarity in his own existence, Hebbel is cognizant
that sex, marriage and their role in society have not yet
been mastered by man. He does not condemn, nor is he able
to liberate his women, but he allows his heroines to grope

for a better world, which in itself is a "modern".approach.

 

NOTES

1. Agnes Rosenbusch, "Die Tagebficher Friedrich Hebbels,"
Forschungen zur neueren Literaturgeschichte, ed. Walther
Brecht, LXVIIIIWeimar, 1935), p. 68.

 

2. Friedrich Hebbel, Werke, ed. Gerhard Fricke et a1
(Mfinchen, 1967 , Tagebficher no. 2701. (From here on
Tagebficher=Tb.

 

"Die Tragik zwischen den Geschlechten
Zeitschrift ffir deutsche Bildung, Heft

3. Elise Dosenheimer
in Drama Hebbels,

9, 1928, p. 526.

A

 

4. Thomas Moody Campbell, The Life and Works of Friedrich
Hebbel (Boston, 1919), p. 176,

 

5. Elise Dosenheimer, Das Zentrale Problem in der Tragédie
Friedrich Hebbels (Halle, 1925), p. 20.

 

 

6. Ernst Alker, Die duetsche Literatur im 19. Jahrhundert
(Stuttgart, 1961), p. 559.

 

7. Hugo Tlustek, Hunger und Liebe in ihrem Einfluss aus
Friedrich Hebbels dichterische EntwicklungfIScholz, 1913),

p. 9.

8. John Firman Coar, Studies in German Literature in the 19th
Century (New York, 1903), p. 250.

 

 

 

9. Fritz Martini, "Deutsche Literatur im bfirgerlichen
Realismus," Epochen der deutschen Literatur, ll (Stutt-
gart, 1962), p. 134.

 

10. Campbell, p. 209.

ll. Dosenheimer, Das Problem, p. 3.

 

12. Dosenheimer, Das Problem, p. 9.

 

13. Hebbel, Tb, no. 5653.

14. Dosenheimer, Das Problem, p. 7.

 

15. Margarete Fingerling, Der realistische Frauentypus in
der deutschen Literatur des 19. Jahrhunderts (Baden, 1935),
p. 15.

 

 

138

 

 

16.
17.

18.

19.
20.

21.
22.
23.
24.

25.

26.

27.

28.

29.

139

Dosenheimer, Das Problem, p. l.

 

Rosa Mayreder, A Survey of the Woman Problem (London,
1913), p. 172. ("Never before have the ordinary con-
ceptions of femininity, of the imaginary "ideal woman,"
been so imbecile as in the 19th century.")

 

Freedom of understanding, not promiscuity.
Fingerling, p. 33.

Oskar Walzel, Friedrich Hebbel und seine Dramen; ein

 

Versuch (Berlin, 1918), p. 34.

Walzel, p. 29.
Tlustek, p. 25.
Walzel, p. 39.

At hand is one standard work in English, The Life and
Work of Friedrich Hebbel by Edna Purdie and the anti-
quated and sprawling work of Richard Maria Werner,
Hebbel; ein Lebenbild. The third important work is the
rather subjective biography by Emil Kuh, Biographie
Friedrich Hebbels.

 

 

 

 

 

Detlef colln, Friedrich Hebbel (Heide in Holstein, 1928);
Kurt Kfihler, Friedrich Hebbel, sein Leben und sein Werk

(Jena, 1910); Karl Strecker, Friedrich Hebbel Sein Wille,
Weg, Werk (Hamburg, 1925).

 

 

 

 

Oskar Walzel, Friedrich Hebbel und seine Dramen.

 

Hans Wfitsche, Friedrich Hebbel Bibliographic (Berlin,
1910).

 

Anni Meetz, Friedrich Hebbel (Stuttgart, 1962.) This is
a very compressed life sketch which includes the works

of Hebbel and is laced with impressive bibliography and
evaluation of scholarship.

 

Peter Michelsen, "Hebbel Bibliography," Hebbel Jahrbuch,
1954. Walter Vontier, "Neue Hebbel Literatur,"I Germanische-
Romanische Monatschrift, XLV/2, 1964. This is a very

good bibliography with comments. Helmut Kreuzer, "Zum
Stand der Hebbel Forschung," Der Deutschunterricht, 1963-
64, vol. XViz.

 

 

 

 

30.

31.

32.

33.

34.

35.
36.

37.

38.
39-

40.

41.
42.

43.

44.
45.

140

Klara Price NeWport, Woman in the Thought and Work of
Friedrich Hebbel, 1912. Frau Carry Brachvogel, Hebbel
und die moderne Frau, 1912. Frau Hilde Engel Mitscher-
1ich, Hebbel als Dichter der Frau, 1909. Albrecht
Janssen, Die Frauen rings um Hebbel, 1919. Friede Knecht,
Die Frauen im Leben undin der DichtunggHebbels, 1919.
Elise Dosenheimer, Das Zentrale Problem in der Tragadie
Hebbels, 1925.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meetz, p. 97.

Heinrich Spiero, Geschichte der deutschen Frauendichtung
seit 1800 (Leipzig, 1913). It deals with the problem,

 

 

but not just with one author.

Elise Dosenheimer, Das Zentrale Problem. This work does
not deal just with the woman in Hebbel's works.

 

Hilde Engel Mitscherlich, Hebbel als Dichter der Frau
(Dresden, 1909). This work is a passionate song of
praise for Hebbel, punctuated with, "wie weiblich, und
echt Hebbel.

 

Hebbel, gp, no. 2516.

Johannes Paulsen, Schleswig-Holsteinische Dichter (Rends-
burs. 1957). p. 36.

Albgecht Janssen, Die Frauen rings um Hebbel (Wien, 1912),
p. .

 

 

Janssen, p. 3.

Adolph Bartels, Hebbels Herkunft und andere Hebbel Fragen
(Berlin, 1921), p. 38.

 

Clara Newport, Women in the Thought and Work of Friedrich

 

Hebbel (diss. Madison, 1912), p. 19.

Janssen, p. 7.

Hebbel, "Aufzeichnungen aus meinem Leben,"

729-30.

Paul Bornstein, ed. Friedrich Hebbels Personlichkeit,
Gesprache Urteile Erinnerungen, I (Berlin, 1924), p. 4.

Werke, III,

 

 

Bornstein, I, p. 7.

Janssen, p. 3.

46.

47.
48.
49.
5o.

51.

52.

53.
54.
55.
56.

57.
58.
59-
60.
61.
62.
63.
64.
65.
66.
67.

68.

141

Hermann Stressau, Deutsche Tragiker (Berlin, 1939),
p. 211.

 

Hebbel, Tb, no. 2646.
Bornstein, I, p. 6.
Paulsen, p. 27.
Bornstein, I, p. 35.

Edna Purdie, Friedrich Hebbel, a Study of his Life and
Work (London, 1932), p. 17.

 

Emil Kuh, Biographie Friedrich Hebbels, I (Wien, 1912),
p. 158. Also, Kuh, II, p. 183 and Hebbel,T§, no. 1385.

 

Kuh, I, p. 203.

Karl Gutzkow, Dionysius Longinus (Stuttgart, 1878), p. 31.

 

Bartels, p. 18.

Friedrich Wilhelm Kaufmann, German Dramatists of the 19th
Century (Los Angeles, 1940), p. 112.

 

Campbell, p. 11.
Kuh, I, p. 128.
Hebbel, Tb, no. 1385.
Kuh, I, p. 122.
Kuh, I, p. 205.

Isodor Sadger, Friedrich Hebbel (Wknl, 1910), p. 97.

 

Hebbel, 2p, no. 363—8.
Sadger, p. 37.
Purdie, p. 29.
Hebbel, Tb, no. 2124.

Ernst Lahnstein, Das Problem der Tragik in Hebbels

 

Frfihzeit (Stuttgart, 1901), p. 101.

Dosenheimer, Das Problem, p. 3.

 

 

69.
7o.
71.
72.
73.
74.
75:
76.
77.
78.

79-
80.
81.
82.
83.
84.

85.
86.
87.
88.
89.
90.

91.
92.

142

Lahnstein, p. 9.
Lahnstein, p. 27.
Bornstein, I, p. 100.
Bornstein, I, p. 106.
Knecht, p. 13.
Bornstein, I, p. 89.
Janssen, p, 24,
Janssen, p. 41.
Gutzkow, p. 34-

Wilhglm Rutz, Hebbel und Elise Lensing (Mfinchen, 1922),
P. 3 .

 

Rutz, p. 31.
Janssen, p. 59.
Rutz, p. 26.
Purdie, p. 33.
Janssen, p. 54-

Frieda Knecht, Die Frauen im Leben und in der Dichtung

 

Hebbels (Zurich, 1919), p. 80.

Rutz, p. 67.
Knecht, p. 78.
Rutz, p. 102.
Rutz, p. 301
Knecht, p. 80.

Ernst Beutler, "Beppi," Essays um Goethe, I (Wiesbaden,
1947), p. 446.

Rutz, p. 98.

 

Rutz, p. 81.

93.
94.

95.
96.
97.
98.
99.
100.

101.
102.
103.
104.
105.
106.
107.
108.

109.
110.
111.
112.

113.
114.
115.
116.

143

Rutz, p. 127.

Robert Walmfiller-Duboc, "Friedrich Hebbels Jugendliebe,"
Gegenwart, 58 (1900), p. 156.

 

Janssen, p. 67.
Newport, p. 18.
Rutz, p. 120.
Knecht, p. 105.
Rutz, p. 301.

Richard Maria Werner, Hebbel,gein Lebenbild (Berlin,
1905), p. 204.

 

Hebbel, Tb, no. 2805.
Rutz, p. 193.

Hebbel, Tb, no. 805.
Hebbel, Tb, no. 3425.
Kaufmann, p. 113.
Kaufmann, p. 112.
Walzel, p. 23.

Rudolph Kardel, ed. Briefe an Friedrich und Christine

 

Hebbel by Elise Lensing (Berlin, 1928, letter, no. 37.

Lensing, letter, no. 17.
Lensing, letter, no. 95.
Hebbel, Tb, no. 3170.

Eugen Wolff, "Christine Hebbel-Enghausen," Die Scene,
5 (Charlottenburg, 1926), p. 137.

 

Wolff, p. 138.
Werner, p. 253.
Kuh, II, p. 169.

Knecht, p. 27.

144

117. Dosenheimer, Das Problem, p. 17.

 

118. Rutz, p. 88.

119. Fingerling, p. 65.
120. Hebbel, Tb, no. 3874.
121. Kaufmann, p. 129.
122. Sadger, p. 106.

123. Carry Brachvogel, Hebbel und die moderne Frau (Mfinchen,
1912), p. 31.

 

124. Dosenheimer, Das Problem, p. 12.

 

125. Knecht, p. 76.

126. Anni Meetz, "Friedrich und Christine Hebbel," Hebbel
Jahrbuch (1960), p. 158.

 

127. Philip Witkop, Frauen im Leben deutscher Dichter (Leip-
zig, 1922), p. 122.

 

128. Wolff, p. 138.

129. Eduard Kulke, Erinnerungen an Friedrich Hebbel (Wien,
1878), p. 40.

 

130. Kuh, II, p. 471.

131. Kuh, I, p. 130.

132. Hebbel, Tb, no. 3812.

133. Hebbel, Tb, no. 3841.

134. Kuh, II, p. 471.

135. Edna Purdie, "Two 19th Century Diaries and their Writers,"

Publications of the English Goethe Society, XV (1946),
p. 4.

 

136. Purdie, "Diaries," p. 13.
137. Walzel, p. 18.
138. Hebbel, Tb, no. 3475.

139. Hebbel, Tb, no. 4706.

140.
141.
142.
143.

144.
145.
146.
147.
148.
149.
150.
151.
152.
153.
154.
155.
156.
157.
158.
159.
160.
161.
162.
163.
164.

Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,

Hebbel,

Tb, no. 48.

Tb, no. 2101.
Tb, no. 4609.

Letter to Elise Lensing, February 5, 1845,

Werke, V, p. 609.

Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,

Hebbel,

Tb, no. 562.

It.
IA,
111,

Tb,

Tb,

It.

Tb,

Tb,

Tb,

Tb,

1p.-

no.

no.

no.

I10.

no.

no.

no.

no.

no.

no.

no.

no.

no.

no.

no.

no.

no.

no.

no.

no.

2772.

509.

1478.
3609.
3834.
2052.

366.

2309.
2927.
1945.
2980.
3104.
4303.
3411.
3873.
1516.

627.

3441.

583.

5648.

From a letter to Elise.

Letter to Gravenhorst.

145

165.
166.
167.
168.
169.
170.
171.
172.
173.
174.
175.
176.
177.
178.
179.
180.
181.
182.
183.

184.
185.
186.
187.

188.

146

Hebbel, Tb, no. 628.

Fingerling, p. 57.

Knecht, p. 46.

Hebbel, 33353, III, p. 62.

Hebbel, Tbbbb, III, p. 147.
Hebbel, T3353, III, p. 45.

Hebbel, T3333, III, p. 46.

Hebbel, E2252: III, p. 43.

Subtitle, "Eine holsteinische Junge Schauspielerin."

Hebbel, Werke,

Hebbel, Werke,

III, p. 150.
III, p. 112.

Hebbe1,Werke, III, p. 111.

Hebbel, Werke,

Hebbel, Werke,

Hebbel, Werke,

Hebbel, Werke,
Written

Hebbel, Werke,

III, p. 49.
III, p. 82.
III, p. 106.

III, p. 106.

in l846, after marriage.

III, p. 106.

on September 20, 1837, Hebbel writes to Elise: "Einen
kleinen Fingerzeig will ich dir gehen: keins meiner
Gedichte spricht etwas Allgemeines aus."

Dosenheimer, Das Problem, p. 13.

 

Martini, p. 254.
Modeled on Hebbel's friend Emilie Voss.

In some aspects similar to Galomir in Grillparzer's
Weh dem, der Lugtl

 

Hebbel, Werke, III, p. 259.

189.
190.
191.
192.
193.
194.
195.
196.
197.
198.
199.
200.
201.
202.
203.
204.
205.
206.
207.
208.
209.
210.
211.
212.
213.

Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,
Hebbel,

Hebbel,

122122.
1122122.
1122122,
112222.

Werke,

Werke,

Werke,

Werke,

Werke,

Werke,

Werke,
Werke,

Werke,

Werke,

Werke,
Werke,

Werke,

Werke,

Werke,

Werke,
Werke,
Werke,

Werke,

Werke,

111,
III,
111,
111,
111,
111,
111,
111,
111,
111,
III,
III,
III,
111,
III,
111,
111,
III,
III,
111,
III,
III,
III,

p.
p.
p.

p.

260.
261.
267.
266.

276.

p.

p.

p.
p.

p.

p.
p.
p.
p.
p.
p.
p.

p.

475.

. 477.

477.
478 .
479.
488.
354.
354.
354.
355.
243.
343.
344.
344.
345.
346.
347.
342.

I, p. 73.
_Tb, no. 1854.

147

214.

215.
216.
217.
218.
219.

220.

221.

222.
223.
224.
225.
226.
227.
228.
229.
230.
231.
232.
233.
234.

235.
236.

148

Benno von Wiese, Die deutsche Tragédie von Lessing bis
Hebbel (Hamburg, 1952), p. 584.

 

Martini, p. 589.

Hebbel, T3353, I, p. 19.
Hebbel, T3353, I, p. 19.
Hebbel, T3353, 1, p. 19.

Wilhelm Emrich, Geist und Widergeist, Wahrheit und Lfige
der Literatur (Frankfurt, 1965), p. 154.

 

 

Hebbel, Tb, no. 1872.

Card Kleinschmidt, Die Person im frfiheren Dramen Hebbels

 

(Lahr-Schwarzwald, 1965), p. 28.
Hebbel, 33353, I, p. 20.
Hebbel, 53353, I, p. 21.
Hebbel, 53353, I, p. 22.
Hebbel, T3353, I, p. 23.
Hebbel, 53353, I, p. 23.
Hebbel, T3353, I, p. 24.
Hebbel, T3353, I, p. 24.
Hebbel, 53353, I, p. 25.
Hebbel, T3353, I, p. 27.
Hebbel, T3353, I, p. 30.
Mitscherlich, p. 20.

Klaus Vfilker, Frank Wedekind (Hannover, 1965), p. 20.

 

Henry Hatfield, Modern German Literature (New York,
1967), p. 62.

 

Frank Wedekind, Erdgeist (Goldman, 803), p. 23.

William F. Oechler, Motivation in the Dramas of
Friedrich Hebbel (Glencoe, Illinois, 1948), p. 23.

 

 

237.
238.
239.
240.
241.
242.
243.
244.
245.
246.
247.
248.
249.
250.
251.
252.
253.
254.
255.
256.
257.
258.

259.

260.

149

Kleinschmidt, p. 29.
Oechler, p. 18.

Hebbel, Tb, no. 1958.
Hebbel, T3353, 1, p. 29.
Hebbel, T3353, I, p. 29. .
Hebbel, T3353, I, p. 29.
Mitscherlich, p. 24.
Hebbel, T3353, I, p. 43.
Hebbel, T3353, I, p. 54.
Kleinschmidt, p. 33.
Hebbel, T3353, I, p. 57.
Hebbel, Tb, no. 1802.
Hebbel, T3353, 1, p. 58.
Hebbel, T3353, I, p. 59.
Hebbel, T3353, I, p. 60.
Hebbel, T3353, I, p. 62.
Hebbel, T3353, I, p. 64.
Hebbel, T3353, 1, p. 65.
Hebbel, T3353, I, p. 67.
Hebbel, T3353, I, p. 73.
Newport, p. 60.

This point of view expressed in a series of lectures

published as a pamphlet. Alexander Comfort, Barbarism
and sexual Freedom (London, 1948), pp. 3-63.

 

 

Joseph Fletcher; H. McCabe, "New Morality," Commonweal,
1966, vol. 83, p. 428.

 

Fletcher, p. 428.

261.
262.
263.
264.

265.
266.
267.

268.

269.
270.
271.
272.
273.
274.

275.
276.
277.
278.
279.
280.
281.
282.
283.
284.

Fletcher, p. 429.
Fletcher, p. 429.
Fletcher, p. 429.

Arnolg Lunn and Garthlean, New Morality (London, 1946),
p. 19 .

 

Kleinschmidt, p. 29.
Emrich, p. 154.

Herbert Kraft, "Zwischen Tat und Begebenheit," Hebbel

Jahrbuch, 1966, p. 151.

Wolfgang Liepe, Beitrége zur Literatur- und Geistes-
,geschichte (Neumfinster, 1963), p. 239.

 

 

Hebbel, Werke, I, p.

Hebbel, Werke, I, p.

Hebbel, Werke,

I, p.
Hebbel, Werke, I, p.

Hebbel, Werke, I, p. 160.

Heinz Stolte, "Moderne Weltdeutung im dichterischen
Werk Friedrich Hebbels," Hebbel Jahrbuch, 1965, p. 16.

91.
82.
. 89.
92.
129.

 

Hebbel, Werke,

Hebbel, Werke,

Hebbel, Werke,

Hebbel, Werke,

Hebbel,

Hebbel, . 147.

I
I
I

22212. 1,
1122122. I
I

Hebbel, Werke, 120.

, P-

Hebbel, Werke, I, p. 104.

Hebbel, Werke, 202.

I, p.

Hebbel, Werke, 202.

I, p.

285.
286.
287.
288.
289.
290.
291.
292.
293.

294.
295.
296.
297.
298.
299.
300.
301.
302.
303.

304.
305.
306.
307.
308.

151

Kaufmann, p. 116.

Hebbel, Tb, no. 2098.

Hebbel, Tb, no. 2402.

Hebbel, Tb, no. 2099.

Hebbel, Tb, no. 1516 and 1517.
Hebbel, T3353, 1, p. 352.
Hebbel, T3353, I, p. 335.
Hebbel, T3353, I, p. 348.

Ernst Kohn Bramsted, Aristocracy and the Middle-class in
Germany (Chicago, 1964), p. 110.

 

Hebbel, T3353, I, p. 348.
Hebbel, T3353, I, p. 351.
Hebbel, T3353, I, p. 335.
Martini, p. 159.

Hebbel, T3353, I, p. 337.
Hebbel, 33353, I, p. 339.
Hebbel, T3353, I, p. 351.
Hebbel, T3353, I, p. 351.
Hebbel, T3353, I, p. 355.

Kurt May, "Hebbels Maria Magdalena, Form und Beutung,
Interpretation deutscher Dichtung des 18} und 19. Jahr-
hunderts(8tuttgart, 1957), p. 280.

 

 

Hebbel, 33333, I, p. 362.
Hebbel, T3353, I, p. 362.
Hebbel, T3353, 1, p. 367.
Hebbel, T3353, I, p. 369.

Hebbel, Werke, I, p. 369.

309.
310.
311.
312.
313.
314.
315.
316.
317.
318.

319.
320.
321.
322.
323.
324.
325.
326.
327.
328.
329.

330.

331.
332.

152

Hebbel, 33333, I, p. 369.
Hebbel, T3353, 1, p. 371.
Hebbel, T3353, 1, p. 373.
Hebbel, Tb, no. 384.

von Wiese, p. 606.

May, p. 287.

Beutler, p. 114.

Kuh, II, p. 76.

D. M. von Abbe, Imag3 of a People (London, 1967), p. 33.

J.

 

Gyorgy Lukacs, Deutsche Realisten des 19. Jahrhunderts
(Berlin, 1952), p. 6.

 

Hebbel, Werke, I, p. 488.
Hebbel, Werke, I, p. 499.
Hebbel, Werke, I, p. 500.

Hebbel, Werke, I, p. 520.

Hebbel, T3353, 1, p. 502.
Hebbel, 33333, I, p. 230.
Hebbel, T3353, I, p. 540.
Hebbel, Werke, I, p. 545.

Hebbel, Werke, I, p. 555.
Hebbel, Werke, I, p. 570.

Heinz Stolte, "Herodes und Mariamne als Bekenntnis-
dichtung," Hebbel Jahrbuch, 1961, p. 95.

 

Klaus Ziegler, Mensch und Welt in der Tragédie Friedrich

 

Hebbels (Darmstadt, 1966), p. 100.

Stolte, "Moderne Weltdeutung," p. 19.

Monika Wintsch-Spiess, Zum Problem der Identitét in
Werk Max Frischs (Zurich, 1965), p. 11.

 

 

333.
334.
335.
336.
337.
338.
339.
340.
341.
342.
343 .
344.
345.

346.
347.
348.
349.
350.
351.
352 .
353.
354.

Oechler, p. 113.
Hebbel, T3353, I, p.
Hebbel, T3353, I, p.
Hebbel, T3353, 1, p.
Hebbel, T3353, I, p.
Hebbel, T3353, 1, p.
Hebbel, T3353, 1, p.
Hebbel, T3353, I, p.
Hebbel, T3353, I, p.
Hebbel, T3353, 1, p.
Hebbel, Tb, no. 4982.

Stolte, p. 12.

681.
686.
698.
710.
711.
724.
738.
751.
752.

153

Karl Pfeffer, Die Psychologie der Charactere in Hebbels

 

Trag6die (Leipzig, 1907), p. 56.

Hebbel, T3353, 11, p.
Hebbel, T3353, II, p.
Hebbel, T3353, 11, p.
Hebbel, T3353, 11, p.
Hebbel, T3353, II, p.
Hebbel, T3353, II, p.
Hebbel, Tb, no. 5213.
Fingerling, p. 15.
Stressau, p. 220.
Stressau, p. 219.
Rosenbusch, p. 15.

Fingerling, p. 30.

19.
22.
38.
46.
44.

53.

 

154

358. Heinz Stolte, "Elise Lensing als Briefschreiberin-
Bildnis eines Bildlosen," Hebbel Jahrbuch, 1966, p. 9.

 

359. Stolte, "Elise Lensing," p. 18.
360. Hebbel, Tb, no. 1091.

361. Arno Scheunert, "Der Junge Hebbel," Beitrége zur
Aesthetik (Hamburg, 1908), no. 1091.

 

362. Scheunert, p. 87.
363. Fingerling, p. 69.

364. Oskar Walzel, Hebbel Probleme: Studien (Leipzig, 1909),
p. 79.

365. Samuel Lublinski, Literatur und Gesellschaft im 19.
Jahrhundert (Berlin, 1900), p. 110.

 

 

 

366. Emrich, p. 154.
367. Liepe, p. 381.
368. Emrich, p. 147.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Sources

 

Hebbel, Friedrich. Werke, ed. Gerhard Fricke et a1.
5 vols. MUnchen, 1967.

Lensing, Elise. Briefe an Friedrich und Christine Hebbel,
ed. Rudolph Kardel. Berlin, 1928.

 

Secondary Sources

 

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