The incorruptible

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Data
Title: The incorruptible
Genus: Comedy in five acts
Original language: German
Author: Hugo von Hofmannsthal
Publishing year: 1923
Premiere: March 16, 1923
Place of premiere: Raimundtheater , Vienna
Place and time of the action: on the baroness's estate in Lower Austria, 1912
people
  • The baroness
  • Jaromir , their son
  • Anna , his wife
  • Melanie Galattis
  • Maria am Rain
  • The general
  • Theodore , servant
  • Hermione , a young widow
  • Little Jaromir , four years old
  • The decision maker
  • The maid
  • The coachman
  • The gardener
  • The kitchen maid

The incorruptible is a comedy in five acts by Hugo von Hofmannsthal . The first performance took place on March 16, 1923 in the Raimund Theater in Vienna .

The drama tells of a financially well-off family (the baroness, the son Jaromir, his wife Anna, their two children and several servants) and some guests who come to visit their estate (among them Melanie Galattis, Marie am Rain and the General). The incorruptible servant Theodor is the main character in this play. On the one hand he is very intelligent and skilled, on the other hand he is very easily vulnerable.

action

At the beginning of the play everything revolves around the arrival of Jaromir's lovers Maria and Melanie and the house servant Theodor, who has quit for unknown reasons and is said to be sick in his room. When the baroness finds the opportunity to speak to him in private, it turns out that for a very specific reason he no longer wants to work. This reason is Jaromir, who has known Theodor for a long time, but (so he thinks) despises him and Anna and deliberately discriminates. Theodor also knows that Jaromir wants to play a game with the three women who are now in his house at the same time.
Since Theodor is indispensable for the smooth running of all work on the property, the baroness tries very hard to win her servant back over. Therefore she agrees when Theodore asks her to take the case of Jaromir in hand and to be allowed to take revenge on him.
Theodor waits for the opportunity to speak to Melanie alone and convinces her that it would be better to break away from her lover Jaromir. With just as much empathy, he gets Maria to leave the house. When Jaromir learns that the two women want to leave, he initially gets very angry and tries to dissuade them. But then he seems to rediscover his love for his wife Anna and gives up his love affairs.
In the end, Theodor stays in the service of the baroness, as promised, and everyone is happy.

output

literature

  • Ewald Rösch: Hofmannsthal's comedies . The development of their meaning structure from the theme of the stages of existence. 2., ext. Aufl. Marburg: Elwert 1968. (Marburg contributions to German studies. 1.) pp. 165–1999.
  • Norbert Altenhofen: ›The irony of things.‹ To the late Hofmannsthal. Edited by Leonhard M. Fiedler. Frankfurt a. M .: Lang 1995. (Analyzes and Documents. 30.) pp. 31-36. ISBN 3-631-47359-1

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