Papa Hamlet
Papa Hamlet is the name of a three-part volume of stories by Bjarne P. Holmsen (the common pseudonym of the authors Sleep and Wood), published in 1889 , consisting of the novellas "The First Day of School", "A Death" and "Papa Hamlet". In truth, the book is the result of the collaboration between the German writers Arno Holz and Johannes Schlaf , who presented a piece of naturalistic prose with the title story . The story is about the penniless, unemployed actor Niels Thienwiebel, who wistfully mourns his once greatest role " Hamlet " and whose megalomania and failure are given a bitingly ironic break by Niels' recurring quotations from Shakespeare's work.
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Chapter 1
In the introduction, the narrator uses ironic quotations from Shakespeare's "Hamlet" to express his astonishment at finding the famous actor Niels Thienwiebel in such a slum shelter. Immediately after the birth of little Fortinbras, his father Niels Thienwiebel, his wife Amalie and Mrs. Wachtel, the landlady, are in their kitchen, where Amalie Thienwiebel has just arrived. In the midst of the chaos after the birth of her son, Amalie appears exhausted and absent, while Niels plays euphorically and somewhat carelessly with the newborn and presents him to Ole Nissen, a roommate. This almost falls over the bathtub.
Chapter 2
The second chapter takes place some time later in the Thienwiebels' room, an attic. There are Niels Thienwiebel, his wife Amalie and their child Fortinbras. The chapter begins in the afternoon and ends on the night of the same day. Niels tries to recapitulate the monologue “To be or not to be”, but is constantly distracted by the baby's smelly diapers. In remembrance of Hamlet's decayed court jester Yorick, he laments his lost fame. His wife is disgusted with her neglected half-nakedness, his interlocutor Horatio, alias Ole Nissen, is not available. Having only one dressing gown as a piece of clothing (the rest is pawned), he feels bored and locked up. Meanwhile, Amalie feeds her child with a rubber tube. After a while, Thienwiebel starts a conversation with Amalie in which he complains about the isolation in her apartment. The topic of conversation is quickly dropped, however, because Amalie tries to steer the conversation towards the fact that the situation is conditioned by Niel's refusal to accept a less glorious job. After the two are silent for hours, the allegedly ill Amalie gives Fortinbras to his father to inhale sage. Thienwiebel accuses his wife that it would harm Fortinbras if she does not breastfeed him herself, but breastfeeds him with the bottle. Amalie justifies this with her illness, whereupon Niels accuses her of only faking her illness. In the course of the conversation, the question of guilt arises as to which of them was responsible for their poor situation. The argument is interrupted by the appearance of Ole Nissen. He earned money by portraying the sewer inspector's wife and is now celebrating this with the two Thienwiebels. After a while and several glasses of punch, with skat and cigars, Amalie is only compared to Hamlet's lover Ophelia. “Ophelia” and Ole exchange sexual caresses on the sofa. Niels tolerates this as he benefits from Ole's financial support. Fortinbras lies neglected in his basket during the adult celebration. While his mother falls into deep sleep towards the end of the room orgy, he screams because he urgently needs a diaper change. But Thienwiebel doesn't care about him, only complains about the smell of the full diapers.
Chapter 3
Niels struggles with his life situation. He has given up reciting Shakespeare and is contemplating suicide. In order to earn money, he works in the morning as a nude model for students at art school; his lunch consists of a simple potato soup. His wife does not wash, so that erotic excuses from misery are also eliminated. When Amalie realizes that Niels depression is dangerous, she suddenly pretends to want to work as a seamstress in the future. Thienwiebel is thereby torn from his thoughts and he contradicts her violently. Amalie is calmed down again. The landlords raisin quail brings milk for Fortinbras. In reality, she controls the family as she is afraid of the monthly rent. When she turns to the little baby, she realizes that he is completely neglected in his own excretions, but makes no move to change this, but disappears back into her kitchen. Niels then looks at his neglected appearance in the mirror and sinks again into self-pity. Suddenly he turns to his boy and tries to make it clear to him that he has to follow in the footsteps of his great father. He is briefly interrupted by Amalie, who again thinks of going to sew, which her husband strictly forbids her. While she is now calmly turning to her lard again, Niels talks to his son again and, madly, comes to the conclusion that he has a child prodigy who is talking to him. Enthusiastic about his son, Niels wants to kiss him. At that moment, however, Fortinbras fills his diaper again and olfactorily drives away his father.
Chapter 4
The sewer inspector, the wife of Ole Nissen's patron, has died. Ole seems to be a bad painter, because he finds neither old nor new customers, is now broke and regrets that he can no longer buy cigars and endure prostitutes. His landlady seizes his pants so that he has to lie half-naked in bed all day and the Thienwiebel family overhears in horror. The misery of the Thienwiebels is described from the perspective of the housekeeper. She condemns Amalie and Niels as lazy, stupid and listless. However, Amalie has actually carried out her threat to work and is now sewing. Meanwhile, Niels visits Ole next door and forces him on Shakespeare quotes and conversations marked by madness. Niels plays the madman who had to give up his job to prevent Frau Wachtel from demanding rent from him. Niels also gives his son acting lessons, but the expected interest remains. He then complains to his sick wife, who does not take him very seriously. Only when Niels is about to beat his son for punishment does she take notice and try to prevent this. Contrary to her reasonable attempt to keep him from doing so, he still beats his young son and then receives a slap on the ear from his wife.
Chapter 5
Ole Nissen's situation has improved enormously, as his new job as a company sign painter has made him some money again and can afford prostitutes again. As a result, Ms. Wachtel also feels a great deal of relief, as Ole pays his rent again. Thienwiebel, on the other hand, refused to work for a touring stage because he did not find it to be of high quality for the "great Thienwiebel". The entire family situation is correspondingly bad. Since her husband only punishes her with contempt because of the slap, Amalie has become dull and depressed, she doesn't care about anything, especially how her son is doing. Fortinbras, now three years old, is seriously ill, has teeth and has lice and fleas. He is sedated with sweets and flea powder, because another binge is to take place, to which Mrs. Wachtel and Ole's new maitresse are invited. Niels indulges in quotes from Shakespeare in a nostalgic mood, Amalie is apathetic, Frau Wachtel a bit nervous and Ole is only concerned with Pussies. Nobody cares about Fortinbras at first until Mieze becomes aware of his screaming, brings him to the table and feeds and caresses him. While Fortinbras is enjoying the unusual attention that is being paid to him, Mrs. Wachtel, moved to tears, tells of her deceased foster daughter. Later Ms. Wachtel retreat to her apartment and Amalie in front of her inhalation oven, the rest of them play skat and are very drunk by now. After a while, Fortinbras screams again, causing his father a fit of anger. He beats the child and presses a pillow in his face to completely calm him down. Mieze notices this and insults Niels, whereupon Thienwiebel throws her and Ole out of the apartment and throws the pillow in Amalie's face, who has not reacted to any of the events.
Chapter 6
Mrs. Wachtel curses Ole, who left her like her second husband and left nothing behind except pictures and dirty wallpaper. Angrily, she vented her anger on the Thienwiebel family and demanded their rent, giving the family a week. Niels then left the apartment for the first time and made his way to the port district to look for work. Instead, he plays the artist to the dock workers. As a result, he buzzes his way through and drinks into the morning hours. Amalie stays in the apartment. She sews as dull as a machine. Little Fortinbras is sick and lies neglected in his basket.
Chapter 7
On New Year's Eve, Amalie tries to fall asleep on her mattress, completely frozen and scared, the evening before she is thrown out. She listens to the noises of the night. A thief is being pursued, and early risers shout blessings to each other. When her completely drunk husband comes home and insults her and the screaming Fortinbras, she begins to cry desperately. Niels also realizes the hopeless situation, but then only becomes more aggressive. Amalie is twice forced to have sex by her coarse and brutal husband. The second time, Fortinbras' crying interrupts the process. In senseless rage, Niels then strangles the child. Eight days later, the baker's boy Tille Topperholt discovers Niels, who has frozen to death on the street while drunk. Amalie is completely depressed.
Characteristics
Niels Thienwiebel
Niels Thienwiebel is an unemployed actor from Trondhjem. Years ago he was successful as a Hamlet actor in a permanent position and achieved a certain fame. But after he has outgrown the Hamlet role and his vanity prevents him from developing new roles, he has lost his commitment and lives with his wife and son in a rented attic. He has had to mortgage all of his possessions, including his street clothes, so all he has is a battered robe and top hat. The formerly handsome and well-groomed man has now become a depraved proletarian. He refuses a request from a traveling theater and after a short time gives up a job as a nude model in an art academy. The confinement of the apartment and the boredom of being locked up hit his mind. He unsuccessfully memorizes his star role and tries to make all the characters around him into co-actors. If this doesn't work, he falls into depression or aggressive behavior. In order not to be held responsible for his behavior, he plays the madman, but understands his glorious fate in clear moments when he recognizes himself in the figure of Yorick. In his egoism, which is in love with himself, he cannot respond to the needs of other people, so that they turn away from him. When Frau Wachtel, the landlady, tries to throw him out, he makes one last attempt to find work. But he ends up in the harbor bars of Tronhjem, where he plays to the dock workers from "Hamlet" and is endured by them. Completely drunk, he shows his real self, which is brutal and instinctual. This is symbolized by his name: In Middle High German "dien" or "tien" means "suck / suck", a "wîbeler" is a "man who has become effeminate through intimate dealings with women". In Low German the "Tienerbude" is a shed, a barrack. The "Weibel" or "Webel" is a non-commissioned officer who grinds his soldiers. Thus the name would have to be translated as “barrack despot”. In the end, he comes home drunk after the drinking tour, insults his wife and son, forces Amalie to be married several times and in a rage kills Fortinbras, who has infuriated his father by crying at the most inopportune moment. Niel's death is inglorious: he is discovered as a schnapps corpse by a baker's boy who tripped over him in the snow.
Amalie Thienwiebel
The character of Amalie Thienwiebel or Ophelia, as she is preferred by Niels Thienwiebel, is the wife of the protagonist Niels and, like him, a former actress. “It doesn't matter, one way or the other”. This quote, which is mentioned again and again in connection with Amalie, characterizes her well. Although Amalie is not an old woman, she seems to have lost all zest for life. She has completely neglected her appearance. She is thin and unkempt, looks sick, and has thin, clay-colored hair. The character of Amalie goes through a barely noticeable but decisive development in the course of the story. This is mainly reflected in Amalie's behavior towards her son Fortinbras. In the scene immediately after the birth, she is described as “a little drawn out” and “tired”, which does not seem unusual for a woman immediately after the first delivery. Their “no matter what” attitude first emerged when the Thienwiebels' apartment and living conditions were described. Niels, Amalie and their son are very neglected and live in the dirt: "The five little yellow rags" are badly washed diapers, and both the "dirty child's shirt" and the stubborn night jacket speak for themselves. Amalie has no interest in her living conditions, let alone in those of her newborn son and she recognizes her own melancholy at the beginning. A decisive characteristic of Amalie is also a completely lacking sense of responsibility and a strong egoism. She protects herself from Niel's instincts out of boredom by simulating a lung disease and constantly inhaling sage. She behaves callously and pitilessly towards her newborn. She refuses to breastfeed her child for fear that it could harm her supposedly weakened body. But that doesn't stop her from smoking Havanas, getting intimate with Ole Nissen and eating lard bread with an appetite. This survivable Amalie shows up one last time when she stops Niels from beating Fortinbras by slapping him on the face. By saving her son from arbitrary punishment by Niels, Amalie shows that at least at this point she is still human. In her sinking into stupidity and depression, this event represents a turning point in the course of the story: If there was at least some hope of a good or at least not catastrophic end, one notices in the following chapters that Amalie with life has already completed. She becomes more and more phlegmatic and lazy, lets herself down more and more, only regrets herself and cares less and less about her son; in the end the narrator even describes it as a “pure machine”. Her influence on Niels is also less than ever, because although she has recognized the hopelessness of the family situation, she can neither get Niels to work nor stop him from drinking. Since Niels has not spoken to her since the slap, she falls into a completely apathetic depression. In the end, she even condones her rape and the murder of her son. Amalie and Niels represent a part of society that lacks the strength to defend itself against falling into misery. Because if they had recognized early enough that the time in which they could secure their livelihood through acting, through art, is over, their fate could have been turned around. In conclusion, one must say that the tragic thing about Amalie and her fate is not just the catastrophe itself, but rather Amalie's attitude towards her. For this “it doesn't matter” attitude towards life, the story “Papa Hamlet” can actually only give a single answer in the sense of poetic justice (and thus reveals the state of knowledge at the end of the 19th century): Amalie has does not deserve life! And that's why she (very likely) dies in the end too.
Fortinbras
Fortinbras Thienwiebel is the son of Niels and Amalie Thienwiebel. The novella begins with the birth of Fortinbra and ends with the murder of the three-year-old by his father Niels. First of all, Fortinbras is a normal child who shows natural needs. However, he is financially and morally innocent for the Thienwiebel family. The social case of his family hits him the most. In the course of his short life he suffers more and more diseases, parasites and neglect. In addition, he has no interpersonal relationships, not even with his parents, who only leave him in his basket in the corner of the room. As a result, he remains underdeveloped, which can be seen, for example, in the fact that he does not learn to speak. It is ironic that Fortinbras means the end of their bohemian existence for the couple, but according to Niels the son should do everything better than himself. A mother-child relationship is prevented by the lung disease that Amalie fakes because she is him therefore not breastfeeding, but feeding with a rubber tube. In the confines of the attic, Niels finds his son annoying and disgusting because of the nappy smell. He either refers to his son with negative animal names or wants to treat him like an adult. Since Fortinbras cannot serve him as an obedient dialogue partner, he just wants to get rid of him. He mistreated his son several times by beating or throwing at him. In the end, he suffocates him in hot anger, drunk. Mrs. Wachtel, who gave birth to him as a midwife, recognizes his desolate situation, but her hard-heartedness prevents her from improving his situation. Fortinbras only experiences real affection from Mieze, a prostitute Ole Nissen, who caresses him and protects him from Niels. The name Fortinbras is therefore bitter irony, since the prince in Shakespeare's "Hamlet" is initially defeated by Hamlet, but in the end he inherits.
Ole Nissen
The painter Ole Nissen lives, like the Thienwiebels, in a small room for rent from Frau Wachtel. He lives in these poor circumstances, as his payment depends on the orders as a painter. Since he apparently does not master his craft well enough, also builds unauthorized relationships with his customers and wastes his money on intoxicants and prostitutes, it even goes so far that he can no longer pay his rent and Frau Wachtel pawns his pants. With a job in Helsingör as an advertising sign painter, he then earns enough again. At this point his attitude towards life becomes clear. He celebrates with the other residents of the house until it turns into a binge. In addition, he immediately pays a prostitute ("kitty") with the money. Ole Nissen is constantly looking for contact with women and is no exception even with Amalie. Niels tacitly tolerates this because he needs Ole's money gifts. It is noticeable that Ole calls all of his lovers "Kitty" or "Kitty" in order to avoid embarrassing confusion of names. Throughout the course of the story, Ole is referred to as "the little Ole". In connection with his person, diminutives (e.g. "mustache") are used again and again. In contrast to this is the "large Thienwiebel". This is also reflected in the parodic Hamlet theater scenes in which Thienwiebel plays the leading role and Ole represents various secondary characters, mostly Horatio, the best friend and only survivor of the final massacre. However, Ole always remains in the shadow of the former Hamlet actor until he finally disappears from his life, after the latter no longer takes on the revealing and entertaining role of the bohemian artist, but slips into the callous and raw. Ironically, in this regard, Ole lives up to the horato scroll in his art of survival.
Mrs. Quail
Ms. Rosine Wachtel is the landlady of the house in which the Thienwiebel family of actors and the painter Ole Nissen live. At the beginning of the story, she takes on the role of midwife in Fortinbras' birth. She was married twice in her life, but both times her husband left her. Her foster daughter Malchen died at an early age, so that Ms. Wachtel no longer has a family and is left to fend for herself. Accordingly, she is dependent on regular rent payments from her roommates. Due to the bohemian existence that the socially relegated artists lead, paying the rent for Thienwiebels becomes more and more difficult in the course of "Papa Hamlet". Therefore, towards the end of the story, Mrs. Wachtel feels compelled to put the family on the street in order not to slip into the proletariat herself. Her loneliness is reflected in her character traits: she is curious, self-pitying and sometimes inconsiderate in dealing with others, although of course she also has to think about her own situation. In general, Mrs. Wachtel in “Papa Hamlet” has the role of portraying the petty-bourgeois class. Their thought patterns caricature the ideology of the petty bourgeoisie, through which, among other things, their self-related worldview can be explained. As an abandoned woman, Ms. Wachtel is cut from "decent society". For them, the bohemian society in their attic is a family substitute and a substitute for a lack of social ties. With her exotic lifestyle, she also tries to stand out from the petty bourgeois philistinism that surrounds her and to provoke her.
Hamlet covers
Since Goethe's Shakespeare speech, Shakespeare has been regarded as the archetype of genius . In this way, Goethe decisively shaped the artist's image of the bourgeoisie. Shakespeare's drama “The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark” is one of the most frequently performed theater pieces in world literature in the late 19th century. Hamlet's monologue "To be or not to be ..." is one of the ten icons of modern Western literature. In particular, the fate of Ophelia, Hamlet's mad lover who ends up as a body of water, has shaped all symbolism up to expressionism and to numerous representations in art (e.g. John Everett Millais , Alfred Kubin , Edvard Munch ) and literature ( Arthur Rimbaud , Georg Heym ). Wood and sleep turn the work of art into a foil for your own narrative. The title “Papa Hamlet” is to be understood as irony in several ways: On the one hand, Hamlet is the epitome of the youthful hero. The word "Papa" contrasts this cliché with the idea of a cozy, loving, lovable family father. The reader's expectation contained therein is disappointed several times. The comedy suggested in the title oxymoron does not appear, father Thienwiebel does not take on any of the father's duties, in the end he even strangles his son, who is just a nuisance to him. In addition, Niels is an anti-Hamlet because he does not reflect morally and thus arrives at moral deed. His madness does not serve to expose evil, but to fraud against rent. The final slaughter does not create justice, but the low point of selfish inhumanity. The Hamlet motif is an integrating narrative in "Papa Hamlet" in the form of reflection and contrast. Since Niels' comedic extroversion no longer finds an audience, he transforms his poor rental accommodation into a replacement stage. Since he only wants to exist in his own fiction, he must also make his surroundings a fiction. His wife becomes his lovely Ophelia, his roommate Ole Nissen becomes his best friend Horatio, his son takes on the role of the brave Prince Fortinbras, he himself takes on the role of Hamlet, who, surrounded by his opponents, proceeds to tragic deed. But the ugly reality keeps driving him out of his imaginations. In his eyes Niel's wife is a neglected, dull slut; his prince is a sickly and screaming brat, stinking and screaming in the confines of his living quarters, who withers in his cradle. Ole Nissen holds out Niel's family against Amalie's sexual services and disappears without a sound when he has found something better. Niels sees himself more and more in the role of poor Yorick. At Ophelia's funeral, two sarcastic gravedigger dig up the decayed skull of Hamlet's father's former court jester. Desperate about his unsuccessful life, Niels dies in the end, frozen to death. Nobody will announce his fame to posterity. In the dozens of Hamlet quotes, Niels parodies himself. Shakespeare's pathos exposes his own miserability and reflects it in the grotesque . At the same time, the quotations serve as a kind of inner monologue. Since wood and sleep consistently want to tell their story from the outside using the "phonographic method", they can remain true to their principle. On another level, with "Papa Hamlet" Shakespeare - or better said: the Shakespeare reception of the 19th century - parodies. The pathetic, poetic, highly linguistic style of classical tragedy is contrasted with the rough rumble of the depraved Niels. In the III. Section Niels declaims the Hamlet monologue to break off with the words “Ae, nonsense!” This is the turning point of his existence. The break with the cultural values of the bourgeoisie is total. Even in the form of bohemian as a negation of the bourgeois Philistine, bourgeois moral and order views determine one's own value. Now Niels has broken with this form of life, his proletarianization and even more his complete dehumanization into the purely instinctual is accomplished. The Shakespeare text ends up in a still life in which it is placed on an equal footing with a "spirit cooker, a brown earthen milk pot without a handle, an old sooty towel, a gas lamp and a photograph of the large onion in a Mora frame". When Niels brutally coaxes his wife several times on the night he is thrown out, it is sarcastically caricatured as a “Midsummer Night's Dream”. The narrator can weave his evaluation into the text without having to comment authorially. Genius and morality, basic achievements of bourgeois ideology, are thus exposed as junk in the sell-off of morality. One can hardly criticize imperialism more sharply. In scene II of the third act of "Hamlet", Hamlet develops a naturalistic drama concept in his directing instructions to the actors, which dispenses with wild gesticulation, loud declamation and any kind of exaggeration, with the aim of faithfully imitating humanity. Niels Thienwiebel, who considers everyone but himself to be “stupid” (bungler or failure), reveals himself in this word as the counterpart to this idea. He must have been a bramar-based dope comedian who - as it is called in "Hamlet" - "overrun the tyrant". “Papa Hamlet” becomes the programmatic title of its own art theory, which wants exactly the same thing as Hamlet in Shakespeare's drama. In the final monologue of the second act, art should hit the guilty in such a way that they immediately admit their misdeeds. "The spectacle is the noose in which the king puts his conscience." Wood and sleep thus prepare the end of bourgeois society, which is shaped by Wilhelminism . You are no longer pure naturalists, but mentally anticipate Brecht and Benn .
Double authorship
In 1887 Arno Holz met Johannes Schlaf. Both were young writers looking for new forms. In Niederschönhausen near Berlin, they founded a literary flat-sharing community under poor conditions. Sleep rather provided the basic idea, both developed the plot further, Holz took care of the new formal design according to his theoretical formula "Art = Nature - x". Since the reproductive conditions and their handling were hidden behind the variable "x", writing in a collective was an opportunity to expand and examine one's own experiences, talents and interpretation patterns in discussions with colleagues. As a result, the two hoped for an objectification of what is represented and thus a higher degree of validity. Your narrator is almost only an observer of the situation. The greatest possible renunciation of psychological insights of the characters, of their own authorial evaluation, of taste trends of the time and of whitewashing led to the "phonographic method", which give "Papa Hamlet" a radio play-like character and expressionistic montage techniques, in some close-ups and slow-motion even the film anticipate.
Stylistic elements
The style is determined by differentiated nuances in the suggestive descriptions (symbolic objects in close-up, background noises, depiction of the silence), as well as the “seconds style”, which leads to a congruence of narrative time and narrated time (especially in the murder scene). The figurative speech is not presented in a high-linguistic purified form, but concretized by facial expressions, gestures and prosodic. Everyday language, jargon, sociolect and dialect including meaningless interjections ("Ae"), parallel sentence patterns, anacoluthe (breaking off sentences), including the punctuation that emphasizes the speech rhythm are the new means of representation. The (bourgeois, well-to-do) reader is drawn into the plot and made a social voyeur. This has a cathartic effect .
Impact history
The book was not only published in 1889 under the pseudonym Bjarne P. Holmsen, but also presented itself as a translation by the fictitious translator Dr. Bruno Franzius out. A first anonymous reviewer fell for the mystification and wrote in the magazine Nord und Süd :
“Even if we have to grant these little genre pictures an undeniable originality, they are still too immature works of a struggling, albeit gifted, poet to justify translation. The energy of his presentation style, which does not shrink from any consequence, which the translator emphasizes, all too often degenerates into unsightly diffusion and tastelessness. The keen power of observation misses the worthy object, the humor that flashes here and there is stifled by the excessive expression. "