Judith (Hebbel)

Data
Original title:	Judith
Genus:	tragedy
Original language:	German
Author:	Friedrich Hebbel
Publishing year:	1841
Premiere:	July 6, 1840
Place of premiere:	Royal Court Theater in Berlin
people
	Judith; Holofernes; Captains of Holofernes; Chamberlain of Holofernes; Envoy from Libya; Envoys from Mesopotamia; Soldiers and satellites; Mirza, Judith's maid; Ephraim; The elders of Bethulien; Citizens in Bethulien, including:; Ammon; Hosea; Ben; Assad and his brother; Daniel, dumb and blind, enthusiastic about God; Samaja, Assad's friend; Joshua; Delia, wife of Samaja; Achior, the captain of the Moabites; Assyrian priests; Women, children; Samuel, an ancient man, and his grandson;

Judith is a tragedy in five acts by Friedrich Hebbel . Performed in 1840, it is Hebbel's first drama. Hebbel varies the story of the biblical Judith in his drama .

The beautiful widow Judith goes unarmed into the army camp of Holofernes , whom she beheaded while having sex with his own sword in order to save her people. The story takes place during the siege of the city of Bethulien by the forces of Nebuchadnezzar .

action

first act

The camp of Holofernes

A soldier complains to Holofernes about a captain. Holofernes has the captain killed together with the soldier. In two monological passages, Holofernes reveals himself as an unprincipled tyrant who places himself above God and the whole world. The recent order of his king Nebuchadnezzar to have all Baal statues destroyed and only to worship himself, arouses in Holofernes the greed to soon be enthroned above his own king. When ambassadors from Libya and Mesopotamia announced the surrender of their countries, only the Hebrews resisted Holofernes' army (Hebbel: Hebrews). Archior warns Holofernes of the invincible power of the Hebrew god and claims that the Bethulians can only be defeated on the condition that they have violated their god. Holofernes sees this warning as a provocation and proclaims: "Now to Bethulien!"

Second act

Judith's room

Judith tells her maid Mirza about a dream in which she stands on a mountain on the edge. She also confesses to her that men have disgusted her since her - now dead - husband stood in front of her with insane looks on the morning after her wedding night and said: "I can't." What exactly happened that night remains in the dark. When her husband was dying, he tried to solve the mystery of the wedding night, but his voice failed him. Mirza praises Judith's beauty and advises her to find a husband again. News arrives that Holofernes is at the gates. At the same moment Ephraim appears, who wants to kill himself because Judith spurns him. Judith promises to marry him if he kills Holofernes. Because he is unable to do so, she mocks not only him, but the entire male clan as cowards. She decides to fight Holofernes herself. Ephraim warns them with the words: "Holofernes kills women with kisses and hugs, like men with a spear and sword."

Third act

Judith's room

Judith decides to seduce Holofernes and allows Mirza to decorate her like a bride.

Public place in Bethulien

The citizens of Bethunia describe Holofernes' atrocities to one another. The mute Daniel can speak at once and demands that his brother Assad be stoned for wanting to open the city gates and surrender. Samaja, on the other hand, demands that Daniel kill himself because he wants to become a fratricide. Joshua suggests that the elders and priests negotiate with Holofernes to save Bethulia. The elder agrees and wants to sacrifice himself. Judith defies the plan and wants to go to Holofernes herself, but without revealing her intentions to her people. Achior points out to Judith that Holofernes “loves women no differently than eating and drinking”. Eventually one learns that Daniel killed Samaja, which is why he is attributed divine power.

Fourth act

Tent of Holofernes

In a nightmare, Holofernes picked up his dagger and almost stabbed his own ribs. When he wakes up, he mocks his guards who, in his eyes, have already hoped that he is no longer alive. Judith is admitted to him and kneels in front of him. Holofernes protests that he has never seen a more beautiful woman. Judith claims that her people are doomed because they sinned against God, who in turn chose Holofernes as his instrument to punish them. Half-skeptical, half-captured Holofernes begins to trust her and expects her to open one of the city gates for him at night. Judith asks five days to think about it and is given permission to retreat to the mountains to consult with her God. Mirza is horrified and thinks she is a traitor.

Fifth act

Tent of Holofernes

The captain of Holofernes reports that the Hebrews have fallen into a mood of death and are almost starving because of the persistent drought. When Holofernes hears that the same captain tried to approach Judith, he knocks him down. Judith returns and lets Holofernes kiss her. Suddenly Ephraim appears who tries to kill Holofernes with the sword. Holofernes lets him go and is amazed at his own mercy. Holofernes orders Judith to worship him. She refuses. She withdraws with him to his tent. Mirza is horrified again. Judith cuts off Holofernes' head while having sex.

Public place in Bethulien

Judith and Mirza find their people desperate. When they present the bloody head of the dead Holofernes, cheers break out. The men set out to butcher the headless Assyrian army. Judith asks the priests to kill her if she is pregnant and prays to God that she will be sterile.

Statements of the poet

"Woman must strive for dominion over man because she feels that nature has determined her to be subservient to him." (Diaries 4: 5648)

“I can't use the Judith of the Bible. Judith is a widow there who lures Holofernes into the net with her cunning and cunning; she is happy when she has his head in the sack and sings and cheers for three moons in front of and with all Israel. That's mean; such a nature is not at all worthy of its success [...]. My Judith is paralyzed by her deed; she freezes before the possibility of giving birth to a son of Holofernes; it becomes clear to her that she has gone beyond the limits, that she has at least done what is right for unjust reasons. "(Diaries 2: 1872)

"In Judith I draw the deed of a woman, that is, the worst contrast, this wanting and not being able to, this doing, which is not acting." (Diaries 1: 1802)

"The deity itself, when it acts directly on an individual in order to achieve great ends and thereby allows itself an arbitrary intervention [...] in the world gears, can its tool from being crushed by the same wheel that it stopped or steered for a moment, not protect. "(Diaries 1: 1011)

“Yesterday my Judith [...] went to the Hofburgtheather. [...] By its nature it instilled respect in the audience, but won no love from them. ”(Diaries 3: 4526)

Statements about the poet

“His [Hebbels] nature is bitterly revolutionary, full of bitter criticism. Little can be felt of the scheme that if the hero has fought for a justified idea, the hero may succumb, but the idea must triumph, or at least the poet must promise it victory. In murder he is a true Shakespeare, he is most at ease when someone is ruined by the consistency of passion; all his heroes are defiant heads who beat each other's heads down, he always portrays his passions so deeply that the poet feels them It is worth the effort to shed light on them and perhaps, if you understand Hebbel correctly, to excuse them. Judith is very beautiful, a sexual problem, an overly strong woman defies an overpowering man and takes revenge on him for the inferiority that sex has given her. I would particularly like to recommend Judith to you, the old appraiser of Penthesileia. "

Interpretations

Hebbel's Judith compared to the biblical Judit

Hebbel makes some changes to the biblical story and gives his Judith a different character. As in the biblical figure, Judith is an outsider, a sex symbol and the personified fear of castration , but with Hebbel she is not only a perpetrator, but also a victim. This victim role is partly self-staged. Other changes Hebbel makes affect Judith's dark side, which may emerge on her wedding night and which leads to (another difference) that she is still a virgin. Moreover, Judith is not merely - and perhaps not even primarily - God-fearing here, and God plays a rather subordinate role. Judith has an inalienable sex drive , which appears again and again through her desire to have children.

Edits

The piece was parodied as the model for Johann Nestroy's travesty Judith and Holofernes from 1849 with music by Michael Hebenstreit .

Text output

Judith. A tragedy in five acts. Afterword by Helmut Bachmaier (= Reclams Universal Library . No. 3161). Reclam, Stuttgart 1984 [u. ö.], ISBN 978-3-15-003161-2 .
Complete Works. Historical-critical edition. Published by Richard Maria Werner . 2nd department. Diaries. Vol. I and Vol. II. Herbert Lang, Bern 1970.

literature

Birgit Fenner: Judith's unconditional game. The struggle for recognition and self-discovery of women at Hebbel . In: Hilmar Grundmann (Ed.): Friedrich Hebbel. New studies on work and effect (= Steinburger studies. Volume 3). Boyens, Heide 1982, ISBN 3-8042-0272-1 , pp. 31-44.
U. Henry Gerlach: “… the outcome is God's…” On the motif of God's judgment in Hebbel's dramas. In: Günter Häntzschel (Ed.): "All life is robbery". Aspects of violence in Friedrich Hebbel (= Cursus. Volume 3). Iudicium-Verlag, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-89129-453-0 , pp. 107-119.
Mary Jacobus, Elfriede Löchel: Judith, Holofernes and the phallic woman. In: Barbara Vinken (Ed.): Deconstructive Feminism. Literary studies in America (= Edition Suhrkamp. Volume 1678 = NF 678). Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1992, ISBN 3-518-11678-9 , pp. 62-95.
Claire Kahane: The Woman with a Knife and the Chicken without a Head. Fantasms of Rage and Emptiness. In: Peter L. Rudnytsky (Ed.): Psychoanalyses, Feminisms (= SUNY series in feminist criticism and theory , SUNY series in psychoanalysis and culture. ) State University of New York Press, Albany NY 2000, ISBN 0-7914-4377- 9 , pp. 179-191.
Marion Kobelt-Groch (Ed.): "I am Judith". Texts and images for the reception of a mythical material. Leipziger Universitäts-Verlag, Leipzig 2003, ISBN 3-936522-31-6 .
Michael Masanetz: “It was red, as if it could bleed”. Lust for violence as a signifier of the text world of Friedrich Hebbel. In: Günter Häntzschel (Ed.): "All life is robbery". Aspects of violence in Friedrich Hebbel (= course 3). Iudicium-Verlag, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-89129-453-0 , pp. 91-106.
Reiner Niehoff: “Judith? She lives out in the mountains ”. Friedrich Hebbel's tragedy Judith and Johann Nestroy's travesty Judith and Holofernes in comparison with a few concluding remarks on the farce “The Talisman”. In: Yearbook of the Charles Sealsfield Society . 14, 2002, ISSN 1613-6942 , pp. 225-259.
Ernst Osterkamp : Judith. The fate of a strong woman from the Baroque period during the Biedermeier period. In: Steffen Martus , Andrea Polaschegg (Ed.): The book of books - read. Readings of the Bible in science and the arts (= publications for the journal for German studies . NF Volume 13). Lang, Bern et al. 2006, ISBN 3-03-910839-5 , pp. 171-195.
Hans Stolte: "Judith", the birth of modern tragedy. In: Ida Koller-Andorf (Ed.): Hebbel. Man and poet at work. With symposium presentations and personal testimonies (= Friedrich Hebbel Society - Vienna Series 1) VWGÖ, Vienna 1985, ISBN 3-900623-01-5 , pp. 25–38.

Gabrijela Mecky Zaragoza: Subverting the Pantragic Heroine. Nestroy against Hebbel. In: Murat Aydemir (Ed.): Migratory settings (= Thamyris, intersecting. Volume 19). Rodopi, Amsterdam et al. 2008, ISBN 978-90-420-2425-0 , pp. 169-185.

Web links

Individual evidence

^ Sigmund Freud : Youth letters to Eduard Silberstein 1871-1881. Edited by Walter Boehlich . Insel, Frankfurt am Main 1989,978-3-10-022806-2, p. 121f.
↑ Birgit Fenner: Judith's Unconditional Game. The struggle for recognition and self-discovery of women at Hebbel . In: Hilmar Grundmann (Ed.): Friedrich Hebbel. New studies on work and effect (= Steinburger studies. Volume 3). Boyens, Heide 1982, ISBN 3-8042-0272-1 , pp. 31-44.

[1] Sigmund Freud : Youth letters to Eduard Silberstein 1871-1881. Edited by Walter Boehlich . Insel, Frankfurt am Main 1989,978-3-10-022806-2, p. 121f.

[2] Birgit Fenner: Judith's Unconditional Game. The struggle for recognition and self-discovery of women at Hebbel . In: Hilmar Grundmann (Ed.): Friedrich Hebbel. New studies on work and effect (= Steinburger studies. Volume 3). Boyens, Heide 1982, ISBN 3-8042-0272-1 , pp. 31-44.