WORLD LITERATURE

THE WEAVERS BY

GERHART HAUPTMANN

Author: Gerhart Hauptmann was born in Obsersalzbrunn, a small

town of Silesia, now known as Szczawno-Zdrój and a part of Poland.

He was the son of a hotel-keeper. he passed to the Realschule in

Breslau, and was then sent to learn agriculture on his uncle's farm at Jauer.

however, no taste for country life, he soon returned to Breslau and entered the art school, intending to become a sculptor.

In May 1885, Hauptmann married and settled in Berlin.

devoting himself entirely to literary work

attained a great reputation as one of the chief representatives of the modern drama.

Hauptmann's first drama, Vor Sonnenaufgang (1889) inaugurated the naturalistic movement in modern German literature.

followed by Das Friedensfest (1890), Einsame Menschen (1891) and The Weavers (1892), a powerful drama depicting the rising of the Silesian weavers in 1844

Hauptmann's marital life was difficult, and in 1904 he divorced his wife.

The same year he married the actress Margaret Marschalk, who had borne him a son four years previously.

The next year, his second marriage was interrupted by an affair with the 17-year-old Austrian actress Ida Orloff

Hauptmann was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, "primarily in recognition of his fruitful, varied and outstanding production in the realm of dramatic art."

Hauptmann died at the age of 83 at his home in Agnetendorf (now Jagniątków, Poland) in 1946.

his body was transported in an old cattle wagon to occupied Germany more than a month after his death.

He was buried near his cottage on Hiddensee.

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN

o The English word "Germany" derives from Latin name Germania. The name "Germania" came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it from a Gallic term for the peoples east of the Rhine that probably meant "neighbor"

the third-largest number of international migrants worldwide.

Germany is a federal parliamentary republic of sixteen states (Länder).

The capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany is a member of the United

Nations, NATO, G8, G20 and the OECD.

It is a major power with the world's fourth largest economy by nominal GDP

the fifth largest in purchasing power parity.

It is the largest exporter and second largest importer of goods.

its military expenditure ranked sixth.

THE WEAWERS a play in four acts by Gerhart

Hauptmann is highly significant. Instead of a hero,

he has created a mob; this mob is therefore the protagonist -- or chief character -- and if individuals emerge from the rank and file they are not thrust into the foreground to stay long.

It is the weavers as a class that are ever before us, and the unity of the play is in them and in them alone; they are only parts of a larger picture which will take shape as the story advances, and are not intended to be taken as important individuals.

the play is not a close-knit entity

the first act is casual, and might open at almost any point; and since it starts with a picture, or part of a picture, there is hardly anything to be known of the past.

that no exposition is needed. it does not lend its attention and interest

to a story or the beginning of a plot or intrigue.

This first act merely establishes the relation between the weavers and the manufacturers.

Act two, this time that of the homes of the weavers; the effect produced is one of blackest misery and unrelieved poverty.

Two points should be noticed: = first, the dramatist develops some

characters, like Mother Baumert and Ansorge, but only to a certain extent, for fear of their overshadowing the chief business of the play, which is the presentation in concrete form of the oppression and struggles of the weavers. second, the plot -- such as it is -- is started by Jaeger.

= second, the plot -- such as it is -- is started by Jaeger.

= the plot and characters have an equal claim upon our attention.

= This act does look forward; it throws out tentacles of interest, for when Ansorge says, "We'll stand it no longer! We'll stand it no longer! Come what man," the audience knows that trouble is ahead, and wants to see its result.

the third act carries the plot forward, and gives a

further picture of the life of the weavers, this time a little less sordid than in the foregoing acts.

The change of scene is made primarily in order to give variety to the whole picture, and also to furnish a likely gathering place for the instigators of the rebellion.

The end of the act brings the plot to a higher degree of development, and increases the suspense; Hornig's words, "It'll not surprise me if this ends badly," are clearly prophetic, and prepare for the next act.

the third and fourth acts the rebellion has come to a head,

and the weavers start on their warpath of depredation.

The contrast in setting is again good; this time we are in the luxuriously furnished home of the capitalist

the presence of the wild crowd outside, and know that the revolt is making quick headway.

The entrance of Jaeger as a prisoner, his subsequent release by the mob, the evacuation of the house by its owners, the entrance of the weavers, the despoiling of the rich furnishings, all supply excellent dramatic action.

By the end of the act, the weavers are like wild animals, whom nothing can curb. Here, then, is the culmination of the action: the climax.

The last act must terminate the rebellion, but the

mere ending, in the defeat of the strikers, is not sufficient to fill an entire act; there must be something further.

The "reactionary" weaver is accidentally shot. The purpose of this is doubtless to drive home the irony of fate, in this case the uselessness of the revolt.

This bit of action is very skillfully interwoven, and leaves us with a keen appreciation of the wrongs of the weavers, by reason of its vividness -- also because it is the last incident of the play.