The good women

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Goethe

The good women is a prose dialogue that Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote for Cotta from June 22 to 27, 1800 . The small text appeared in the pocket book for women for the year 1801 under the title “The good women as counter-images of the bad women, on the coppers of this year's ladies' almanac”.

background

Goethe was supposed to write something for Cotta's calendar about the vices of women, as Franz Ludwig Catel had caricatured on twelve copper engravings. Cotta had an "explanation" in mind. Although this was not available from Goethe, the contractor withdrew from the affair with a fictitious protocol of conversations that were not to be taken very seriously, the "mostly educated, at least moderate and tolerable" ladies and gentlemen of a "summer club" in view of the twelve stitches to have.

content

In that club, the ladies Amalie and Eulalie face the gentlemen Sinklair, Arbon, Armidoro and Seyton.

Sinklair, who is a friend of the editor of the women's calendar , incites the rest of the gentlemen. Goethe withholds the name Cotta. In any case, Sinklair pulls the "pictures of bad women" out of his pocket and ignites a discussion about God and the world. When it finally comes to the desired document - what is meant is the explanation of the "grimacing pictures" - the women present in the club, who are somewhat talented as a writer, refuse to edit the notes that one of the gentlemen cobbled together in all secrecy in an annex of the club during the talks Has. It is up to the gentlemen to hand over the paper.

In the “Controversy for and against caricature”, Sinklair says: “A caricature without inscriptions, without explanation is to a certain extent mute; it only becomes something through language. "The" thinking artist "Arbon has to agree with him:" ... every witty work is ... not understood by everyone ... "

Amalie can only shake her beautiful head: "A dozen ... ugly, hateful women!" The editor of the women's calendar will be ruined. Which husband will give the woman such a gift?

Armidoro has an idea. In the text accompanying the engravings, counter-images should be created: "... the description of good women!"

Eulalie specifies what to say about the good woman, must come from the mouth of the enthusiastic man. When it comes to the fact that women like to rule, Eulalie makes it clear that this is quite natural, because: "... what does rule mean ... other than to be active in your own way unhindered ... and what you achieve, you claim more persistently than that, what one inherited. ”Seyton agrees. The pioneer Goethe uses Seyton as a mouthpiece for his postulate on equality for women .

Quote

  • Sinklair: "A lot can be made of the ugly, nothing of the beautiful."

reception

  • Momme Mommsen : The 'rogue' in the “Guten Weibern” and “Faust” . Yearbook of the Goethe Society , Vol. 14/15, pp. 171–202. Weimar 1953
  • Helmut Praschek: Frantz Ludwig Catel - not Johann Heinrich Ramberg. New sources on the origin of the coppers for Goethe's story "The good women". Yearbook of the Goethe Society, Vol. 30, pp. 313-318. 4 illustrations. Weimar 1968
  • Klaus-Peter Hinze: Goethe's dialogue story “The good women”. A failed narrative experiment . Journal Neophilologus , Vol. 56, No. 1, pp. 67-71, Groningen 1972
more recent statements:
  • According to Wilpert, literary studies mainly pay attention to significant works - so this less so. Wilpert mentions B. Seuffert (1894).
  • The scientifically interested Goethe considered polarities in this world, for example that of good and bad.
  • Boyle accuses Goethe of the inhomogeneous variety of topics in the text, which only deals with the interdependence of ugliness and beauty. In addition, instead of doing Cotta's job, Goethe wrote a text about his inability to complete the job.

literature

expenditure
  • The good women In: Goethes Werke, XV, Vol. 1, pp. 269-296. Cotta, Stuttgart 1828: Digitized from the BSB
  • Bernhard Seuffert (Ed.): Goethe: The good women. With replicas of the original copper. In: German literature monuments of the 18th and 19th centuries . Published by the Henninger brothers, Heilbronn 1885
  • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: works. Sophienausgabe Department 1. Vol. 18: The excited. The girl from Oberkirch. Conversations with German emigrants . The good women. Novella . The house ball. Journey of the Sons Megaprazonshttp :. Weimar, Böhlau, Weimar 1895. 503 pages
  • Johann Wolfgang Goethe: The good women as counterparts to the bad women. With copper engravings by Johann Heinrich Ramberg . From: Pocket book for women to 1801. Edited by Huber , Lafontaine , Pfeffel and others . Insel, Frankfurt am Main 1986, 59 pages, ISBN 978-3-458-32625-0
Used edition
  • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Poetic Works, Volume 6 . Pp. 411-430. Phaidon Verlag Essen 1999, ISBN 3-89350-448-6 .
Secondary literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wilpert, p. 434, 8. Zvo
  2. ↑ Wilpert, p. 193, 4th Zvu
  3. ↑ Digitized version : announced in the table of contents with "The good women as counter images of the bad women of Göthe"
  4. ↑ Wilpert, p. 172, 2nd entry
  5. ↑ Edition used, p. 414, 24. Zvo
  6. ↑ Edition used, p. 419, 9. Zvo
  7. ↑ Edition used, p. 420, 15. Zvu
  8. ↑ Edition used, p. 421, 3rd Zvo
  9. ↑ Edition used, p. 421, 22nd Zvu
  10. ↑ Edition used, p. 426, 18. Zvu and 21. Zvu
  11. ↑ Edition used, p. 414, 16. Zvo
  12. ↑ Wilpert, p. 434, 24. Zvo
  13. ↑ Wilpert, p. 434, 18. Zvu
  14. ↑ Conrady, p. 803, 13. Zvo
  15. ↑ Boyle, p. 848 above
  16. ↑ Boyle, p. 808, 12. Zvo
  17. ↑ 1793: The excited in the Gutenberg-DE project
  18. ↑ Tragedy fragment 1795/96
  19. ↑ The house ball with Jürgen Kühnle
  20. ↑ Journey of the Sons Megaprazons with Jürgen Kühnle