The dream of a life
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| Title: | The dream of a life |
| Genus: | drama |
| Original language: | German |
| Author: | Franz Grillparzer |
| Publishing year: | 1840 |
| Premiere: | October 4, 1834 |
| Place of premiere: | Burgtheater , Vienna |
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The dream of a life is a drama or "dramatic fairy tale" by Franz Grillparzer , which waspremieredin the Burgtheater in1834and thus belongs to the Biedermeier era .
Emergence
Grillparzer let himself be influenced by Pedro Calderón de la Barca's baroque epoch of the Spanish drama Life is a dream , among other things with regard to the title, the meter and the fairytale content.
shape
The drama The dream of a life is divided into four acts (in contrast to the typical structure of the classical drama in five acts) and written in bound language, namely in Spanish trochäus , a four-part trochäus, z. For example: "One thing is happiness down here." (V. 2650)
content
main characters
- Rustan: an easily influenced, average hunter, characterized by megalomania, thirst for power and the urge to adventure.
- Zanga: a black slave of Rustan who urges his master to adventure and does not shy away from immoral acts.
- Massud: a wealthy farmer who lives secluded in his elegant estate with his daughter Mirza and his "nephew" Rustan. He is strict and controlled.
- Mirza: Rustan's fiancée and Massud's daughter, who loves Rustan and does everything for him.
- The King of Samarkand: a naive and kind king and father of Gülnare, who in Rustan's dream becomes his fiancée.
action
On her estate, Mirza worries about her fiancé Rustan, who has not yet returned from the hunt. When he finally returns home late, he asks Massud, Mirza's father, to let him go on an adventure in search of happiness and fame. However, he lets himself be persuaded to stay one more night at Massud's estate. That night, Rustan has the following dream about his upcoming adventure:
On their journey, Rustan and his slave Zanga see the king of Samarkand, who is attacked by a snake. Rustan misses the snake with his spear, while a "man from the rock" who immediately disappears, kills the animal. Persuaded by Zanga to do so, Rustan pretends to be the king's savior, whereupon he, in gratitude, promises him the hand of his daughter and gives him his dagger.
When the king has left, the "man from the rock" appears and wants to be rewarded for his deed. In an emergency, Rustan kills the stranger with the dagger and pushes him off a bridge. Rustan then goes to Samarkand, where his wish for fame and fortune is fulfilled.
The mute old caleb, however, finds the king's dagger in the washed up corpse of the "man from the rock". Suspicion falls on the king, who in turn accuses Rustan and becomes suspicious of him because he remembers fragments of his real savior.
Shortly afterwards, the king dies of a poisoned potion without Rustan, who knew about the poison, preventing it. The silent caleb, who is now the only one who knows of Rustan's guilt, suddenly begins to speak in order to betray Rustan, who in turn throws himself from the bridge on which he committed the murder, while Zanga turns into the devil.
Rustan wakes up and at first cannot distinguish between dream and reality. He decides to marry Mirza, to give Zanga the freedom and to send her away and to stay with Masoud, because through the dream he has come to the realization that he prefers a quieter life to an adventurous one.
interpretation
A "dramatic fairy tale" - many fairy tale motifs
The choice of person is typical for a fairy tale: a king, a princess, a witch ("old woman"). Time and place are indefinite. The happy ending and the open ending are typical of a fairy tale.
The psychological level of the nightmare
There is a general plot in this drama: The contrast between dream and reality, between “this world” and “hereafter” is emphasized. There are many hallmarks of the nightmare within drama:
- Through the nightmare, Rustan processes reality, that is, his desire to experience adventure and become a hero. Dream and reality blur.
- As if in a nightmare, the action in the drama begins slowly and appears realistic. In the third act, however, the events get faster and more unreal until they overturn at the end and the reader no longer knows exactly what is happening. The Spanish trochee fits this well because it is more unusual, more pronounced and less harmonious.
- The nightmare is an exaggerated reality in which a series of unlikely events are strung together.
- The connection between dream and reality is also expressed in the figure constellation: All figures occurring in reality are in the dream with reinforced, v. a. bad properties present. Zanga is only portrayed as a greedy, immoral instigator of evil, Gülnare portrays Mirza with more self-confidence and power, the king is more benevolent and naive than Massud, Rustan is more megalomaniac and more immoral.
The main symbols
- The snake: the deception, the temptation (it is the beginning of Rustan's lies).
- The dagger: the king's trust in Rustan, which he abuses (murder of the man).
- The bridge: a transition between dream and reality, between truth and lies.
- The cloak: the lie, the veiled truth.
- The stage directions to symbolize the transition into the dream world: “[There] two boys appear. The one, dressed in bright colors, with an extinguished torch (THE DREAM), the second in a brown robe with a burning one (THE REALITY). [...] The one of the brightly clad ignites, the dark one extinguishes his against the earth. ”= A very pictorial representation.
The Biedermeier ideal
In the end, through his dream, Rustan learned to prefer a quieter, humble, withdrawn life to an adventurous life. “Only one thing is happiness down here” (v. 2650) shows that happiness does not mean outward fame and splendor, but inner joy and peace. This corresponds to the Biedermeier ideal, which tends to harmonize and balance.
The idea that contemplation and reflection is more important than action ("Shadows are life's goods, / shadows of its joys, / shadows words, wishes, deeds, / only thoughts are true." V.630), because of Human being instantly guilty of selfish acts is also present.
Dubbing
Walter Braunfels composed the opera Der Traum ein Leben (Op. 51) between 1934 and 1937 . The premiere planned for the Vienna State Opera did not take place after Austria was annexed to Nazi Germany. The opera was premiered in Regensburg in 2001.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Walter Braunfels The dream of a life . Retrieved January 31, 2016