The dirty hands
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| Title: | The dirty hands |
| Original title: | Les mains sales |
| Genus: | Political theater |
| Original language: | French |
| Author: | Jean-Paul Sartre |
| Publishing year: | 1948 |
| Premiere: | April 2, 1948 |
| Place of premiere: | Théâtre Antoine in Paris |
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The dirty hands ( fr.Les mains sales ) is a drama by the French writer and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre from 1948 .
action
The play is divided into seven acts. Acts 2 to 6 are a flashback and take place at the time of the Second World War , the first and the last act take place shortly before the end of the war. The whole piece takes place in the fictional country of Illyria , which is located in Eastern Europe.
Summary
Les mains sales takes place during the Second World War in a country called Illyria in the milieu of a communist-socialist unity party, the party of the proletariat. The figures Hoederer, Olga and Louis belong to the leadership of the party. On the other side is Hugo, a young anarchist, intellectual and bourgeois.
Hugo is released from prison after two years of imprisonment for murder. He goes straight to the apartment of his party friend Olga and wants to ensure that his party has the backing there. He had doubts about this during his detention. Olga hides him from members of the party who are already trying to persecute and kill him. Without understanding why he is considered a traitor, he has to tell the skeptical Olga what happened in order to convince her of his loyalty to the party. He begins to tell the story of the murder.
Hugo, then 21 years old, who has separated from his bourgeois family and origins, wants to belong to the party, and not just as a clerk in the party newspaper, for which he is initially used. He wants to commit a real deed, such as murder, and tackle the fight like normal party members. He received the order from the communist arm of the party to murder Hoederer because he was looking for a coalition with the fascist movement and the liberal-nationalist forces of the Pentagon, a party of the peasants and the bourgeoisie, without the consent of the party. With this policy, Hoederer wants to prevent hundreds of thousands from falling in the fight against the invading Red Army, that the party of the proletariat is seen as a party at the mercy of Moscow, but also that the party alone must take responsibility for the difficult measures to be taken at the end of the war and thus deprived of the chance to establish their power in the long term.
Hugo, who has accepted a job as a secretary at Hoederer in order to get to him more easily, hesitates with the murder. For the party, Hugo is soon a traitor. He finds himself under pressure and, in conversations with Louis, seeks the obedience that the party demands of him. Louis, who are suspicious of people who talk about discipline as much as Hugo, cannot help him to leave his brooding behind. Hugo turns to his wife Jessica, who advises him to confess the party's murder order to Hoederer, understand his motives and then work with him. The conversation with Hoederer is initially delayed by a failed attempt on both of them.
When Hugo finally speaks to Hoederer, still undecided, he already suspects that he is to be murdered and explains to him that Hugo, as an intellectual, was not made for murder. In the conversation the differences between the two become evident: Hugo puts the theory that the revolutionary party seizes power by force of arms and not through political horse-trading over political feasibility. For Hoederer, however, all means are right if they are effective. For him, purity is an idea for fakirs and monks. For Hoederer, politics means dipping your hands in dirt and blood, i.e. getting your hands dirty. In the course of the conversation, which lasts for one evening and the following morning, Hugo sees that Hoederer is right and accepts his offer of cooperation. Only when Hugo Hoederer is caught kissing his wife Jessica a little later does he kill him in an affect.
Olga listens to this story and now wants to persuade the party not to kill Hugo because he is still of use politically. However, the condition is that Hugo drop his old alias "Raskolnikoff" and assume a new identity. In the meantime there has been a change of direction in the party and all of Hoederer's political plans are being implemented, she explains. For Hugo, who actually liked Hoederer and ultimately, as he says, murdered him by accident, this is out of the question. He sees this as a betrayal of the party against the memory of Hoederer and refuses to deny his act and the murder order. But then he is no longer usable for the party - he is shot.
literature
- Brigitta Coenen-Mennemeier: The theater as a moral institution: Jean-Paul Sartre, "Les Mains Sales" (1948) and Albert Camus , Les Justes (1949). In: Konrad Schoell (Ed.): French literature. 20th century. Theater (= Stauffenburg interpretation ). Stauffenburg-Verlag, Tübingen 2006, ISBN 3-86057-911-8 , pp. 151-200.
- Edgar Neis: Explanations to Jean Paul Sartre, The flies, With closed doors, The dirty hands, The honorable whore, The Troerinnen des Euripides (= King's explanations and materials . Vol. 302/303). C. Bange, Hollfeld 1976, ISBN 3-8044-0183-X (various editions: Klaus Bahners: Explanations on Jean-Paul Sartre, "With closed doors, The dirty hands" (= King's Explanations and Materials. Vol. 302). C. Bange, Hollfeld 1999, ISBN 3-8044-1651-9 ).
- Wolfgang Hierse: Jean-Paul Sartre, the dramatic work (= analyzes and reflections. Vol. 63, interpretation ). Volume 2. Joachim Beyer, Hollfeld 1988, ISBN 3-88805-040-5 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jean Paul Sartre, The Dirty Hands. First picture, 1st scene
- ↑ only "closed company" under the aforementioned other title "... doors" and "hands"
- ↑ Also about: The honorable whore; The devil and the good Lord ; The trapped (from Altona) = Les séquestrés d'Altona; The game is over ; In the gear train.