Month: October 2015 (Page 5 of 7)

The Awakening of Spring by Frank Wedekind Is a heart gripping, tragic play that depicts the struggles that adolescents face during puberty. The transition from childhood and adulthood is a period in which adolescents need guidance from friends and family. Wedekind shows this through the hardships that the three main characters, Wendla, Moritz, and Melchoir experience during this time of transition.

An especially important point that Wedekind brings up is that adolescents should be taught about their sexuality and changes that will be occurring. Without this knowledge there are conflicts and insecurities that arise. Moritz shows the insecurites that teens may be subject to go through. He is unsure of what is happening to him and his desire to fit in causes him to undergo an extreme amount of stress which eventually leads to his suicide. This is not far off from what occurs today. Despite the increase of acceptance and understanding adolescents still experience thoughts of suicide and lack of confidence.

Moritz is not the only one who takes a toll from the lack of knowledge. The story of Wendla is one that emphasizes the important of sexual knowledge. Being sheltered by her mother, she is unaware and hidden from the truth about the changes happening to her body and has a lack of sexual education. We as readers are shown that the desire to hide sexual education may cause problems in other areas. Wendla is unaware that she was raped due to her lack of knowledge. As a parent, her mothers desire to continue to cover up and hide the idea of sexuality from her daughter through abortion and eventually this leads to her death as well. Even today abortion is a widely controversial topic all around. I believe that what Wedekind was trying to convey is that whether one thinks abortion and sexuality is right or wrong, a person should have the right to make that decision for themselves. He stresses the important of teaching and conveying knowledge about the changes that occur during puberty and the help that teenagers need during this period of transition.

I found this play to be very close home. Even now, during a time of experiment and the fact that people are more open about sexuality and such, teenagers go through hardships and insecurities still. Having the knowledge does not guarantee that there will be no problems but, it does help with the transition into adulthood.

Just when I thought literature couldn’t possibly get any more depressing or darker, I got caught off guard. This extremely controversial work of art is titled Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind. First published in Germany in around the 1890’s, this play shocked many people and received criticism for all it’s controversial topics and was even banned in many places for a while.

This play touched many topics that seemed radical at the time; such as suicide, rape, sexuality, and censorship. I believe that Wedekind wrote this play to expose some major aspects of society that needed reform, but would never get it without exposure. At the time of this play it was considered very taboo to bring these issues up, so he was one of the few brave people to call for change.

It was very shocking to me to see just how blunt this play presents all the issues. From the begging of the play where Welda’s mother refuses to educate her on where children come from, to Mortiz’s horrific suicide when he is overwhelmed with school and his sexuality. The event that moved me the most was Welda’s tragic and unnecessary death due to her abortion pills. If only her mother hadn’t avoided her questions and left Welda ignorant of sex, this could have been easily avoided.

This play helps show why sex ed is such an important class to teach. It just doesn’t work to leave kids oblivious to their sexualities because they will figure it out on their own either way. Educating kids on these topics helps avoid tragedies that could potentially ruin many teenagers lives.

I can’t wait to see this play performed and to see if any parts are censored.

The Awakening of Spring by Frank Wedekind offers a very provocative view into the world of teenagers circa 1891, although the moral of the story may not be as archaic as the age of the play. It brings up several red flags like improper sexual education and ignorance over mental illness. With Wendla and Moritz being the targets of such behavior, it brings to mind that this is not uncommon in modern society; education on certain controversial topics fails to be properly translated to teenagers, which subsequently puts them in severe danger.

Frank Wedekind

Wendla’s story in particular surprised me based on the stupidity of her mother. Her mother practically refused to teach her daughter proper sexual education. Not only did she completely fail in that realm, but she completely denied her daughter the privilege of knowing about her own rape and pregnancy. If she had been more forward with Wendla about sexual intercourse, it may have very well saved her daughter’s life, but her unwillingness to deal with sensitive subjects ultimately led to her getting the short end of the stick. Although the play was written in the 19^th century, parallels can be drawn to modern society regarding horrendous gaps in education.

The play reminded me of an incident that happened in a California high school last December. Parents were outraged when Planned Parenthood was brought into Acalanes Union High School to educate the students about consent, sexuality, and gender identity because they thought the program was promoting their children to engage in sexual activity. Unfortunately, this is the root of the problem. If parents educated their children properly on the dangers of sex, then they should not have to worry about Planned Parenthood, the largest sexual education provider in the country, having a negative influence on them. I hope these parents among others who do not condone sexual education soon realize that informing teenagers about the dangers of sex is far more beneficial than no education at all.

Frank Wedekind really took some risks when writing this play in such a conservative age. I’m not surprised in the least that it took him over a decade to stage a single performance. While I give him credit for that, I give him far more credit to be daring enough to bring out such controversial topics that still need to be discussed today. If parents don’t have serious talks with their children, the end result will not be a spring awakening, it’ll be a rude awakening.

Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind, 1891, weaves through the interconnected lives of three adolescents as they face their own struggles with growing up in a world of condemnation. The main characters, Melchior, Wendla, and Moritz each have distinct personalities that lead them to their particular fates at the end of the play. Through Wedekind’s writing we are able to understand the importance of education and self understanding during such a vulnerable time in a child’s life. In fact, it was only the one individual, Melchior, who was most knowledged on his emotional/physical state and transition period in life, that ended up surviving. Although a gruesome close, Wedekind used such extreme measures to make this distinction clear.

Before going into the content, one thing I noticed about the structure of the play was that it lacked stage direction and imagery, and oftentimes parts of a scene that may be clear when acted out in person were not obvious in writing alone. One scene where this stuck out to me was the rape scene. Although it was implied through Wendla’s cries, Melchior’s crime was only hinted through the script. There were many scenes where I felt this was a struggle and had such direction of action been included in the text, it may have made the play a little easier to comprehend.

Wendla, a young woman on the brink of maturing, had just begun to play with the idea of emotional and sexual desire when we were introduced to her story. A product of her mother’s conservative mind and overprotective parenting, Wendla did not know exactly what these supposedly devilish feelings meant when she started to experience them. Her innocence, instead of keeping her out of trouble, is what instead could not save her from it. Worst of it all, her mother, because she is unable to accept her daughter’s actions, took drastic measures to undo the mistake Wendla had made and it was the abortion that she ordered for her that ended up killing her. Had Wendla been more aware of how to handle her situation with her pregnancy or with Melchior, she may have been able to change her own fate.

Moritz, Melchior’s more timid best friend, was also suffering with confusion and guilt over the feelings he had started to experience as he had begun to go through puberty. Inexperienced with sex and with becoming an ‘adult’, he ended up committing suicide because he could not handle the pressure of it. He was left with two regrets: not having been in an intimate relationship, and not making it into the higher class at school. Had he known how to cope with his emotions and known that it was okay to feel a bit lost, it may have be enough to save him.
The single one of the three individuals who survived the entirety of the play was Melchior. Although he also had his own bit of teenage disaster in his encounters with Wendla and his sexual conflictions, he was obviously more knowledgeable than his two friends. Even though he was capable of being at the top of his class, he played a bit of a rebel in school because that is what he wanted, and unlike Moritz, he did not put so much worry into his grades. Also, even though he ended up going to a Reformatory for his ‘explicit’ sex essay, he escapes and is able to recognize his wrongdoings and the final few paragraphs of the play describe his remorse and desire to correct himself. Rather than allowing his actions to lead to his demise as they did with the other two main characters of the play, Melchior learns and grows from his mistakes and leaves with some hope for his future.

Had Moritz and Wendla not been so sheltered or undereducated about their transition into becoming adults, the story may have had a different ending. As Wedekind shows through the struggles of the youth, knowledge is the key to success. The parental figures failed in educating their children about their bodies and the troubles they were going to face in the future and it ended up just hindering their development.

Spring Awakening, written by Frank Wedekind, is a German expressionist play depicting the role of taboo subject matter within a conservative society.

After reading the play, my initial reaction was a state of shocked, pensive silence. The play begins with a very subtle, indirect introduction of possible “scandalous” topics, such as women’s attire and the experience of “Manhood’s emotions” (an allusion to the male erection and sexual compulsions). However, as the play progresses, the plot evolves into startling circumstances involving rape, suicide, and discussions with the dead. Although almost all of the events seemed to form a connection with each others, the progression of the plot was extremely choppy and ambiguous. The difference between one scene and the next was stark and each circumstance seemed to pile into completely havoc with minimal to no transition until the final scene of the play. I think the effect of the structure of the play helped Wedekind cover a plethora of tabooed topics, and I feel as though it conveyed a purpose as to why he wrote the play. The impression that I was left with after reading was that beyond creative expression, Wedekind wrote the play in order to shed light on subject matter that society must be able to discuss, when it doesn’t. Without discussion, the youth of said society is left in darkness, battling sensations and emotions that are too novelty to understand; and with this conjecture I agree.

Each theme that is spurred within the play, I feel, is a topic of discussion amongst adolescent and adults that needs to be said. Spring Awakening referred to subject matter such as pornography, rape, suicide, depression and mental health, and homosexuality. And I feel that Wedekind evoked through his play feelings of either concern or acceptance for those who are involved in these subjects, as well as criticism for those who ignored them and their assailants. Those who are victims of or involved in such acts were, and at times still are, depicted as shameful or frightening by society. However, Wedekind combats this with the events that occur in Spring Awakening. For example, two male students called Hanschen and Ernst reveal themselves to be homosexual after kissing each other. The scene where this occurs is carried in a way were feelings of joy and relief are evoked from the audience. The setting is rather calm, the two of them enjoying grapes at the edge of a vineyard, and they discuss their desire to live life by reaping as much pleasure as they can from the time that they’re allotted. Through this, Wedekind associated homosexuality with simple human pleasure, that should be enjoyed and not shamed if the tendency occurs. Although conservative values categorize homosexual men and women as unwanted, Wedekind’s depiction of homosexuality is calm, joyful, and accepting. Such a scene supports the idea that Wedekind used Spring Awakening as a way to show sympathy and tolerance for those that are unjustly expelled from society.

The play Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind, first published in Germany in 1891, explored many different controversial and radical ideals for the time period, including sexuality, rape, and suicide. Even controversial in today’s society, Wedekind’s characters experience many life-altering events

at very young ages. This play depicts the loss of their innocence throughout their teenage lives, and how their parents attempt to shelter their children in order to keep them in a state that is as young and childlike as possible.

The themes in this play explore certain issues at hand that people in that time period didn’t generally discuss in their day-to-day lives. The most prominent of these is sexuality. The direct introduction to sexuality and experimentation begins in the second scene of the play and is noted and expanded upon throughout the piece. The sexual aspect of the play immediately makes the work as a whole an extremely radical work. This in turn led to decades of censorship and omission of scenes and lines throughout the play. However, I don’t think that Wedekind used the idea of sexuality to shock his audience. Rather, I believe that he meant for the play to evoke thought and questioning. One of the most controversial aspects of this topic is Wedekind’s inclusion of homosexuality. This idea was frowned upon in society, and in Germany, you could be jailed for it. Fortunately, the acceptance of homosexuality in society has dramatically increased since that time period, and, though not embraced in totality by all, sexuality is now something that people are quite comfortable discussing regularly.

Another theme that really stuck out to me while I was reading this play was the difference between parents and their children. In Spring Awakening, relationships between parents and children are somewhat unsuccessful. All the parents in the play attempt to bring up their children to live as they did, yet almost all of their efforts seem futile. Moritz commits suicide, Wendla dies, Martha’s parents abuse her consistently, almost to a point where she seems to want to murder them, and Ilse’s parents are entirely absent. For parents that want to shelter their kids from the outside world and prevent them from growing up and learning too fast, they don’t do a great job. Many of the children end up having their own ideas about how they will form their families and raise their children-and they seem to be entirely different from their parents’ ideas.

Overall, the play touched on many different aspects of life that seemed too radical to think about in the 19th century. However, it is interesting to note that, while most of these ideals have been accepted in our modern day society, we still have some trouble discussing other ideals, even ones that are less controversial, such as race. It is noteworthy to mention that the ideas that a society finds controversial reflects on the time period as a whole, which I found very interesting while reading this play.

Based on the discussion we had in class on Wednesday last week, where we talked about the censorship and the history of that time period etc, I had a certain expectation for the play. I thought that by including certain taboo subjects in the play, Wedekind was trying to maybe not normalize, but perhaps publicize and expose certain issues that our world faces today. I thought that he would accomplish this my making all the characters be overly-accepting of such taboo topics like rape, suicide, and abortion, to name of few. But while reading the play I found that the parents took on the more “reserved” and “traditional” ways of thought. I felt that Wedekind created a discord between the parental figures and the child figures. The parents approach these controversial (at the time) topics by “putting them under the rug” or avoiding the conversation altogether, while the children are inquisitive and speak openly about those same topics.