Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749 - 1832)
Harold Bloom describes Goethe’s work as seeming “remote from us as to seem archaic” and ”to come from some other solar system than our own” (1). Bloom suggests that his work has been distanced from the English reader through its translation. What he wrote was poetry – even his plays were written like poetry – so it would be easy to understand why translation of his work is difficult.
I could spend a lot of time writing and researching Goethe’s poetry; however, I’m intending to focus on Goethe as a director. His interest in theatre began when he was very young:
”THE boy, Goethe, was a precocious youngster. At the early age of eight he had already acquired some knowledge of Greek, Latin, French and Italian. He had likewise acquired from his mother the knack of story telling; and from a toy puppet show in his nursery his first interest in the stage” (theatrehistory.com).
This interest in theatre grew even more as he studied law at the age of 16. Though he was sent to study law, “he apparently studied more life than law and put in his time expressing his reactions through some form of writing” (theatrehistory.com). Following that, still studying law (but also the arts), he wrote some of his best works and was successful.
In 1775, Goethe was invited to the court of Duke Karl August at Weimar. There he was made manager of the Court Theatre (theatrehistory.com) and was director there from 1791 to 1817 “and steered it from comparative insignificance to national importance” (Sharpe 116). Lesley Sharpe, in her article “Goethe and the Weimar theatre”, states that “Goethe’s major plays were not, on the whole, written with the stage in mind, nor did he take on the directorship of the theatre in order to put them on the stage, for they formed only a tiny part of his repertoire” (116). Though he was not well known in the theatre for his composition, as a director he had a commanding presence “for he had the final decision on every detail, whether of subject, scenery or acting, and in later years a large arm-chair was reserved for him in the middle of the pit, applause being hardly permitted until he gave the signal for it” (theatrehistory.com).
His concern for his actors “led Goethe to set up classes for young actors” (Sharpe 125). With these classes he began introducing new talent to the stage and made it possible for rehearsal times to be longer – “the actors were to remember that their playing should not imitate the real but express the ideal and that nothing ugly or unseemly should take place out of a mistaken sense of realism” (Sharpe 125). He was very particular about everything that happened on stage and his classes also reflected that. For example, actors were trained “never to speak to the back of the stage” and to always keep a good posture (Sharpe 126).
His intrest and involvement in the theatre began to drop as certain feuds with acting companies began to arise. He finally resigned after permission was given for “a performer from Vienna named Karsten to present a French melodrama entitled Aubri de Mont-Didier’s Dog or The Forest near Bondy, which featured a poodle in a leading role” (Sharpe 127). In short, Goethe’s own particular and demanding direction revolutionized the way we look at directing and theatre.
Okay, just for fun, here’s a painting that illustrates a scene from one of Goethe’s plays and another quote from Bloom.
A painting of Faust (right) and Mephistopheles (left) from Goethe’s Faust (based on the same legend as Christopher Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus)
“The great aesthetic puzzle of Goethe is not his lyric and narrative achievements, both of which are unquestionable, but Faust, the most grotesque and unassimilable of major Western poems in dramatic form” (Bloom 7).
This deserves some explanation. Goethe’s Faustis focused around a character, Faust, and his effort to explore the supernatural. It begins with a scene including God and the devil (or Mephistopheles). Mephistopheles bets God that Faust, one whom God believes to be a good person, can give in to temptation. God takes his bet and allows his apponent to do what he wants with Faust. The play continues with Faust and Mephistopheles as primary characters (I won’t go into detail and ruin it for those who want to read it).
Works Cited
Bloom, Harold. Bloom’s Modern Critical Views: Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe. Broomall, PA: Chelsea House Publishers. 2003. 1-7.
Sharpe, Lesley. “Goethe and the Weimar theatre.” The Cambridge Companion to Goethe. UK, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2002. 116-128.
Web Sources
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe http://www.theatrehistory.com/german/goethe013.html
Goethe as Theatre Director http://www.theatrehistory.com/german/goethe007.html
Picture of Goethe http://www.jena.de/fm/430/thumbnails/Goethe-klein.9664.jpg.9665.jpg
From Goethe’s Faust http://www.hberlioz.com/paintings/Faust2.jpg
