In the following essay, Wells discusses the problem of how we are to understand the guilt and villainy of the heroes and antagonists in Wallenstein and Maria Stuart, and notes that Schiller places less and less emphasis on villainy as a source of tragic catastrophe in his later works.

In the following essay, Sharpe presents a critical overview of the historical dramas Don Carlos and Mary Stuart, and maintains that the hope evident in Don Carlos disappears in the later play and is replaced by a bleaker vision of human integrity in the world of action.