Adolescence is the most awkward and confusing time in an individual’s lifespan. He departs from the innocence and ignorance of childhood and yet doesn’t acquire the full maturity and enlightenment of adulthood. He is caught in limbo. Puberty perverts his body and thoughts and the world he once knew is suddenly turned upside-down. Frank Wedekind’s Spring Awakening, explores the difficulty of this period, amplified by the conservative ideals of the 19th century.
Wedekind explores this conflict from the teenage perspective. We are meant to sympathize with the younger characters as they hurt one-another and make mistakes. While it is easy to blame the characters for the errors they make, Wedekind redirects the blame towards the adults in the play. By trying to shelter, cultivate, and protect their children, they ultimate create the means for their children’s demise. The effect of this effort by the parents is magnified by the microcosmic setting of the play, with the entire play taking place within a single town and the forest surrounding it. In this environment, the pressures placed upon the children and their effects become very apparent.
Each child becomes a caricature of the different pressures and new emotions placed upon and experienced by adolescents as they embark on their transition into adulthood. Wendla’s story is based around abstinence, Moritz’s is based around academic achievement, Ernst’s is based around sexuality, and Melchior’s is based around sexual exploration. These caricatures are juxtaposed by Martha who is forced into submission by her abusive parents and by Ilse who escaped from the pressures of that society by going on to live a bohemian and promiscuous lifestyle.
The tragic outcomes of most of the stories reveal the impact of these harsh confines on the developing child. They amplify the anxiety and confusion already faced because of development. They draw Moritz to kill himself, Wendla to be unaware of her rape, and Melchior to abandon his society in search of a better alternative. While promoting virtuous christian values, the adults in this play ultimately trigger the tragedy that unfolds. The devil’s controversial appearance at the end of the play furthers this point as Melchior follows him into the uncertainty of secular individualism.
Overall, the Spring Awakening shocks the audience through its departure from common convention, harsh critique of society, and controversial subject matter. When I finished the play I was amazed at the topics the play provoked, some of which are controversial even today. Anti-homosexual sentiment is still prevalent in western society, abortion is still heavily argued, and rape is just as rejected as ever. While society informs its adolescents more of sex and puberty, the problems discussed by this play still exist and make the audience uncomfortable. One could only imagine how someone watching this play a hundred years ago would have felt.
To get a better understanding of the avant-garde movement, I recommend listening to Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, as it is just as jarring and provocative musically as the Spring Awakening was in theatre:
Indeed, Chris your take on the play was similar to mine in that it was the adults who are truly at fault. If they had educated their children as a more responsible stance then they could have evaded such devastating outcomes. The play showed many controversial topics such as homosexuality and rape, but those were not the main concerns for the playwright at hand. It was a play to suggest that we as a society should change our values.