Gerhart Hauptmann Summary

Biography EssayGerhart Hauptmann first attempted to express himself artistically as a sculptor. But once he had discovered his literary talents he explored, after a somewhat epigonic beginning, all po... Read more

Gerhart Hauptmann's artistic range encompasses all literary genres: the drama, the novel, the novella and shorter prose fiction, the verse epic and poetry, and the essay, as well as aphoristic and the... Read more

In the following review, Trueblood favorably assesses Hauptmann's novella The Heretic of Soana. Hauptmann—the Ibsenist, the Zolaist, the psychologist-lover of man—is also a Nie... Read more

In the following essay, Maurer explores the models and sources of Bahnwärter Thiel, discussing its relation to the German Novelle and analyzing its symbolism. Flagman Thiel In Hauptmann�... Read more

In the following essay, McClain considers Hauptmann's Der Ketzer von Soana as it displays a fallen priest's symbolic quest for meaning. Few contemporary writers have expressed more el... Read more

In the following essay, Hodge interprets Bahnwärter Thiel as “a prose drama, patterned on classical Greek tragedy and influenced by a demonic, Dionysian concept of tragedy similar to tha... Read more

In the following essay, Clouser examines the conflict between spiritual and physical natures in Bahnwärter Thiel, equating Thiel with a failed Hercules. Largely neglected until the middle of... Read more

In the following essay, Clouser analyzes the syncretistic symbolism of Hauptmann's “Das Märchen,” seeing that tale as one of a journey after death in the realm of another c... Read more