SOURCE: ‘“Wer die Wahl hat, hat die Qual”: Philosophy and Poetry in Schiller's Wallenstein”, in Publications of the English Goethe Society Vol. 65, 1995, pp. 136-60.

In the following essay, Harrison explores the central theme of Wallenstein, “the agony of choice between the demands of the senses and those of reason,” which he notes is central to Schiller's vision of life.

Popular proverbs express in a concise and memorable form a commonplace fact of experience. ‘Wer die Wahl hat, hat die Qual’ is a fine example. With its alliteration and assonance it pleases the ear, and it describes an experience so widespread that it needs no illustration. But it states a truth which can be applied not just to a wide range of particular situations in life, but also to life as a whole. It is the pain of being simultaneously drawn in opposite directions that Goethe's Faust expresses in...