Gerhart Hauptmann Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Robin A. Clouser

Critical Essay by Robin A. Clouser

SOURCE: “The Pilgrim of Consciousness: Hauptmann's Syncretistic Fairy Tale,” in Hauptmann Research. New Directions, Peter Lang, 1986, pp. 303-22.

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 consciousness.

Der Märchenerzähler gewöhnt die Leute an das Ungewöhnliche, und daß dies geschehe, ist von großer Wichtigkeit, denn im Gewöhnlichen erstickt der Mensch.

Gerhart Hauptmann, Einsichten und Ausblicke(¹)

When a writer undertakes to speak of unfamiliar things, he runs a great risk of not being comprehended. Such was the early fate of Gerhart Hauptmann's “Das Märchen,” written in 1941 at age 79 after his decision not to join other German authors in self-exile from National Socialism. Early commentators were disappointed in the work, partly because they felt it was embarrassingly inferior to Goethe's “Märchen,” upon which the tale is initially patterned. The main...
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