Mignon (figure)

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Mignon with the features of the actress Constanze Le Gaye , painting by Wilhelm von Schadow , 1828

Mignon [ miɲɔ̃ ] is a character from Goethe's novel Wilhelm Meister's apprenticeship from 1795/1796, she became the epitome of the boyish, erotically attractive girl. The figure already appears in the first version of the novel, Wilhelm Meister's theatrical broadcast , which Goethe wrote between 1777 and 1785 and which was first published in 1911. The name "Mignon" is French and means "little heart", "darling".

The figure

Mignon initially appears in the novel as a member of a group of traveling tightrope walkers, jumpers and jugglers. Wilhelm, the hero of the novel, estimates it to be twelve to thirteen years; she speaks broken German, with bits of Italian and French. At first he can only find out about her origins that her brother, who also belonged to the circus people and was called "the great devil" because of his skill, died.

When Mignon is beaten by the leader of the troop, Wilhelm buys her free. From then on she is his servant, a position that she fills in an idiosyncratic way, but with devotion and empathy. In the course of the plot, Wilhelm and Mignon increasingly take on the role of father and child; Mignon developed a passionate bond with Wilhelm. After a successful Hamlet performance under Wilhelm's direction, she wants to sneak into his bed, but has to acknowledge that a stranger has gotten ahead of her.

Mignon dances and sings. Mostly she appears in connection with the enigmatic, mentally confused harper, a petty singer . Her main feat is the acrobatic egg dance. She sings the song together with the harper. Only those who know longing know what I suffer . The longing for Italy takes shape in Mignon's figure , Goethe puts the song Do you know the land where the lemons bloom? in the mouth.

Mignon has boyish features. When Wilhelm sees her for the first time, he is not sure about her gender. Your name has a masculine form ("Mignon" instead of "Mignonne"); at her request, Wilhelm buys her boys' clothes. In the first version of the novel, Mignon is referred to partly with the male and partly with the female personal pronoun.

As the plot progresses, Mignon's background is revealed. She comes from Italy and is the child of the harper and his sister Sperata; the two had married without knowing that they were related. When the incestuous nature of the union came to light, they were separated; Sperata went mad and died, the harper wandered the world desperate and lonely. Mignon was then robbed and abused by a circus troupe.

After Mignon was separated from Wilhelm, she fell ill with a heart condition based on her longing for Italy and Wilhelm. It is cared for by Natalie, a person who appeared to Wilhelm as a mysterious “Amazon” and whom, as suggested at the end of the novel, he will marry.

First, however, Wilhelm becomes engaged to Therese, and this before Mignon's eyes. She dies on the spot of a broken heart, the celebration of her funeral is detailed in the novel.

history

In the Renaissance , a mignon is a person chosen by the monarch as a favorite. In other words, the mignon acts as a substitute for a friend whom the sovereign - under the contemporary premise that friendship is based on equality - by definition must forego. According to Richard Friedenthal , Mignon was also understood to be a “ homosexual darling” in Goethe's time . Mignon later became the epitome of a "lovely feminine being" and an erotically charming girl. It is usually depicted barefoot, with a bundle and musical instrument as attributes. Sigmund Freud intended to write a paper on the knowledge that hysterical and neurotic phenomena, as he described them, very often underlie abuse of children. This should have the title What has been done to you, oh poor child? The Mignon songs reflect the history of the Mignon as a kind of psychoanalysis, told in dreams, in images, thoughts and encrypted messages.

Settings

Parts of Goethe's novel that refer to the character of Mignon, especially the Mignon poems, have been repeatedly set to music by well-known and less well-known composers.

  • Ludwig van Beethoven set it to music in 1809 as the first title of the Sechs Gesänge op.75 .
  • Johann Friedrich Reichardt composed a. a. the music for "Only Who Knows Longing".
  • Carl Friedrich Zelter : His Goethe settings only contain those who know longing and don't tell me .
  • Franz Schubert composed the song An Mignon ( op. 19/2, D 161 ) and Mignon ( D 321 ) in 1815 .
  • In 1842 (revised in 1856 and 1860) Franz Liszt processed the text in Mignons Lied ( Searle 275 ) for voice and piano.
  • In 1849 Robert Schumann wrote the Requiem for Mignon for solo voices, choir and orchestra (op. 98b) and the Lied Mignon for piano and voice (op. 79, No. 28 - songs for the young).
  • The opera Mignon (1866) by Ambroise Thomas (1811–1896) only uses individual scenes and motifs from the novel. The plot differs especially in the end: Wilhelm and Mignon become a couple. In a different final variant, Mignon is attacked by a heart attack and dies in Wilhelm's arms.
  • In the last of his Six Romances, Op. 6 (1869), Peter Tchaikovsky used a translation into Russian of the Mignon poem Nur Wer die Sehnsucht .
  • In 1888, Hugo Wolf addressed the figure of Mignon in songs number five, six, eight and nine of his Goethe songs .
  • In New Music , Goethe's material found its way into the full-length melodrama You are called me Mignon ... (1999) by Jörg-Peter Mittmann . Created as a psychogram, the composition combines text recitation with Hugo Wolf's four Mignon songs and avant-garde chamber music for six players (flute, oboe, harp, string trio).

literature

reception

In the film Wrong Movement , a free adaptation of the novel Wilhelm Meister Lehrjahre directed by Wim Wenders based on the script by Peter Handke , Nastassja Kinski plays Mignon.

Web links

Commons : Mignon  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ See Laurie J. Shannon: Monarchs, Minions, and "Soveraigne" Friendship. In: The South Atlantic Quarterly 97.1: "Friendship" (Winter 1998), pp. 91-112.
  2. ^ Brockhaus' Konversationslexikon from 1877 and Meyers Konversationslexikon from 1902.
  3. ↑ http://www.imzentrumlied.de/uploads/1340454910.pdf Ingo Dorfmüller: Mignon on the Freud'schen Couch , 2010
  4. ↑ JWGoethe poems • From Wilhelm Meister .
  5. ↑ Works by opus number ( Memento of the original from December 20, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.raptusassociation.org
  6. ^ Peter Gülke: Franz Schubert and his time , Laaber-Verlag, 2nd edition of the original edition from 1996, 2002, p. 17; Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau: Schubert and his songs , Verlag Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1996, p. 67.
  7. ↑ Jörg-Peter Mittmann on www.ensemblehorizonte.de .