Murderer, the Hope of Women

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Murderer, the Hope of Women" is a play written by Oskar Kokoschka. Focusing more on the actions and appearances of the characters than their words, it is characterized as an expressionist play[1]. Its performance was received with much criticism, as it was a break from classical drama and part of the modern movement in German history.

Contents

[edit] Summary

"Murderer, the Hope of Women" is set in the past, at night in front of a large tower. Action is focused on the characters of “The Man,” with his band of Warriors, and “The Woman,” with her group of Maidens.

The play begins with The Man riding to the Woman’s tower. The Maidens and Woman see him approaching. The Woman and Man both question each other as to who looked at the other, while the Maidens and Warriors compare the Man to a conqueror and the Woman to a dangerous beast. The Woman feels consumed by the Man’s gaze and says she is devoured by his light. The Man then orders that the Woman be burnt with his mark. He brands her and in response, the Woman stabs the Man. The Warriors deny any knowledge of the Man, run off with the Maidens, locking the Man in the tower’s door. While the Man makes faint movements, the Woman demands to see him again. As the Man slowly recovers, the Woman reciprocally loses her strength. The Woman demands in desperation to be set free of the Man’s chains. The Man rises, tears open the door, and kills the Woman with a touch. He kills the Warriors and Maidens similarly, and then exits through a passage of fire[1].

[edit] Biographical Context

"Murderer, the Hope of Women" has often been called the first expressionist drama due to its symbolic use of colors, innovative lighting, and the movements of the actors. It was first performed at the Kunstschau theatre in Vienna in 1909 and caused much controversy upon its release. The night of its performance, soldiers from a nearby barracks watched the play from the edge of the garden, and, upon the Man’s branding of the Woman, rushed through the barrier. Things quickly escalated between the crowd and the soldiers and a riot soon broke out, requiring the police to be sent for. However, through a connection between the chief of police and Kokoschka’s friends and fellow writers Adolf Loos and Karl Kraus, Kokoschka got off with only a warning rather than being arrested for disturbing the peace[2]. Such strong emotional reaction is characteristic of such work as Kokoschka’s[3].

The play is characteristic of the internal and external struggle consistent with the artistic and literary works of Vienna at this time, as is evident through the plot. Many of this period’s artistic works pertained to the shortcoming of language in expressing emotion. In his biography, Kokoschka expresses his own battle to come to terms with the “existential malaise” that gripped the world and the disbelief of the “possibility of individual action or the control of one’s own future”[4]. Ultimately he found solace in the instinct of self-preservation and avoided such crises suffered by many. Still, Kokoschka claimed that an inner-voice tormented him with imaginings of the female sex and said that it was the secret to Murderer.

[edit] Critical Response

Many interpret the play as an effective theatrical portrayal of Otto Weininger’s idea of gender relations as a battle between man and woman. According to Weininger, Sexuality was a conflict between superior male spirituality and debased female bestiality. Such criticism views the defeat of the Woman as the ultimate victory of the spirit over lust[5]. Regardless of the many varying critiques on its stylistic methods, the play may be loosely read as a clash between aesthetic modernity and masculinity[6].

When Kokoschka’s play was first performed in 1909, it was met with considerable criticism and controversy. Its extreme visual aspects, with its dramatic and disturbing costumes and violent imagery, made it the first expressionist drama for many critics. The playwright Paul Kornfeld praised the revolutionary drama as a breakthrough art form, calling it a “verbally supported pantomime”[7]. Similarly, drama critic Walter Sokel admired the work’s departure from traditional realism and its exploration into the surrealism underlying its biblical and mythical allusions[8].

Many contemporary critics found “Murderer, the Hope of Women” to be highly disturbing and altogether ineffective. In the 1917 edition of the Frankfurter Zeitung, Bernhard Diebold condemned the play as nothing but a collection of “screaming images” arnd a “pretentious Decoration Drama”[9]. It was utterly devoid of any character development, language, and purpose. Though disagreeing with Diebold on the uselessness of the play’s aesthetic ornament, the critic Robert Breuer also complained about the lack of importance of language: “the words, which were simultaneously spoken, are remembered only as the subtitles under the extremely powerful images”[10].

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Murderer, the Hope of Women," Oskar Kokoschka, 1909.
  2. ^ Schurer, Ernst. German Expressionist Plays. New York: Continuum, 1997.
  3. ^ Kokoschka, Oskar. My Life. New York: Macmillan, 1971
  4. ^ Kokoschka, Oskar. My Life. New York: Macmillan, 1971. pg.26.
  5. ^ Schvey, Henry I. Oskar Kokoscka. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1982. pg.35.
  6. ^ Spreizer, Christa. “The Spirit of Expressionism: Ex Machina”, A Companion to the Literature of German Expressionism. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2005. pg.60.
  7. ^ Schvey, Henry I. Oskar Kokoscka. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1982. pg.36.
  8. ^ Spreizer, Christa. “The Spirit of Expressionism: Ex Machina”, A Companion to the Literature of German Expressionism. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2005. pg.260.
  9. ^ Schvey, Henry I. Oskar Kokoscka. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1982. pg.35.
  10. ^ Schvey, Henry I. Oskar Kokoscka. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1982. pg.36.