Going into the play, I did not expect much. I already knew a little background on what the play was about. However, I was utterly shocked by the plot of the play. After I finished reading the play, my first reaction was shock and horror. It was disheartening to read about so many tragedies that all happened in a single play. Even in Romeo and Juliet, the only tragedy that takes play is the death of Romeo and subsequently, the death of Juliet after she finds out Romeo died.  In this play there is the series of tragedies, starting with the beating of Wendla by Melchior, followed with the rape of Wendla and the suicide of Moritz.  Personally, I found that the amount of tragedies in this play was too much for me to handle, which made it a bit hard for me to get through the entire play.

However, after getting past all the shock and horror from the initial reading of the play, what remained was sorrow and pity. I pitied all the character and what they had to go through, I pitied their lack of knowledge and their ignorance. But more than anything, I am furious at the adults in this play.

In my opinion, I think that all the tragedies that occurred occurred because the adults in this play did not want to teach their children about sexual education and puberty or even acknowledge the problem that their children were facing. I understand that the topics of rape, abortion, homosexuality, and sex were taboo subjects and that it was uncommon for people to openly speak about these topics. However, I think that it was the parent’s responsibility to educate their children on these topics, because if they don’t, who will?

With regards to the play as a whole, I think that Wedekind did a fantastic job in shedding light on the various taboo subjects discussed in this play. Although Wedekind is probably not the reason why students are mandated to take a health course in high school now, I think he definitely played a part in it. Even today in the modern world, some people still aren’t open to talking about these topics, but there has been progress since the time of the play.

I definitely look forward to the actual performance of the play and see if any moderation were made from the actual play.