The cow (Hebbel)

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The cow is a novella by Friedrich Hebbel that appeared on January 27, 1849 in the Viennese newspaper Die Presse .

content

The story is about the farmer Andreas, who lives in poor conditions. In order to pay for the first cow he bought, who are already on their way home with his wife and the farmhand, he counts his money. After lighting his pipe with a piece of paper, leaving the house and later reentering it, he notices his little son who - fascinated by the fire - burns all the banknotes. In his anger he grabs the child and throws it by the hair against the wall, where it remains motionless. When Andreas comes to his senses again and notices what he has done, he hangs himself on the hayloft with the rope intended for the cow.

When his wife and the farmhand arrive, the former falls unconscious in front of the dead child, while the farmhand searches for the farmer. On entering the hayloft, he was startled at the sight of the hanged man, fell down the stairs and broke his neck. The candle that the farmhand dropped here sets the entire yard on fire, causing the farmer's wife and the cow to die in the fire.

reception

As early as 1843, Hebbel took templates for his novella from the reports at the time, which he then revised in 1849 based on Heinrich von Kleist's example . The novella is a preliminary stage of the dramatic work.

"Cause and effect here without a retarding or accelerating interposition of human considerations or freedom of choice are chained without way out and lead to a grim fate, to senseless destruction."

- Kindlers literature lexicon : Friedrich Hebbel - The cow

expenditure

Friedrich Hebbel: master stories . Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-423-14193-2 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Heinz Ludwig Arnold: Kindlers Literature Lexicon . 3rd edition, 18 vols. Metzler, Stuttgart, 2009. ISBN 978-3-476-04000-8 , p. 220.