SOURCE: “The Early Tragedies (1816-23),” in Franz Grillparzer, Twayne Publishers, 1981, pp. 27-54.

In the following essay, Thompson offers a thematic and stylistic overview of Grillparzer's early dramas.

The Early Tragedies (1816-23)

I Die Ahnfrau

For several reasons Die Ahnfrau [The Ancestress] represents, both in subject-matter and style, an unusual choice for Grillparzer to have made to mark his debut on the Viennese stage. For example, it bears little resemblance to Blanka von Kastilien, the tragedy of his youth which had been rejected by the Burgtheater, and which most commentators and editors have relegated to his juvenilia. Blanka was written in imitation of Schiller's early verse tragedy Don Carlos, the influence of which can be readily perceived in its elevated and occasionally verbose style, in its historical courtly setting, and in its universal theme of the conflict between duty and love. During the six years that passed after the...