Three Plays: The Weavers / Hannele / The Beaver Coat by Gerhart Hauptmann


Three Plays: The Weavers / Hannele / The Beaver Coat
Title : Three Plays: The Weavers / Hannele / The Beaver Coat
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 0881335401
ISBN-10 : 9780881335408
Language : English
Format Type : Paperback
Number of Pages : 218
Publication : First published January 1, 1977

Three Plays representative of an important period in twentieth- century drama! A good part of modern drama owes its techniques and its intense awareness of social and psychological problems to the German playwright who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1912. Hauptmann's achievements had great influence on many outstanding writers, among them Eugene O'Neill, who felt a special indebtedness to the European master. These three plays are superb examples of Hauptmann's wide range and offer readers an opportunity to become acquainted with the work of a supremely accomplished writer. The Weavers, perhaps his most famous play, reveals the bitter lives of the wretched handweavers of the 1840s and their abortive rebellion. Hennele centers on an abused, motherless child, abandoned to a poorhouse, who creates her own fantasy world of dreams and legends. The Beaver Coat is a delightful satire about a washerwoman who quickly learns that she cannot advance very far through honest labor alone, and proceeds accordingly. Titles of related interest from Waveland Goethe, Gotz von A Play (ISBN 9780881335415); Novalis, Henry von A Novel (ISBN 9780881335743); and Plenzdorf, The New Sufferings of Young W. (ISBN 9780881338911).

Three Plays: The Weavers / Hannele / The Beaver Coat Reviews

  • Rykia

    Out of these three, I read The Weavers. In the introduction to the book as a whole, "The Weavers" is described as lacking a fully developed plot given how episodic the action is, but that is the plot. It's episodic because Hauptmann is a naturalist playwright who was trying to tell a story over a span of classes and tie their stories together cohesively which he does quite nicely. This particular translation of the play is easy to read, follow, and understand. The story in the play is about the tragedy associated with the class of weavers in Germany during the 1840s and Hauptmann manages to write it in such a way that he condemns neither the poor nor the bourgeoise but simply leaves it to the audience to choose their own sides.

  • Scott Cox

    I found “The Weavers” to be the most poignant play in this collection by 1912 Nobel laureate Gerhart Hauptmann. It is a story which tells of the plight and poverty of workers (weavers) in the Silesia section of Germany; the area where Hauptmann was born in 1864. The Weavers is a revolutionary play, one wherein the wealthy are seen as predators, and the church is seen as impotent in dealing with the social inequality described in this play. The play is perhaps a warning, a prelude to a much greater revolution which would soon rock northern Europe.

  • Ray Schram

    The Weavers is a fine price of Naturalism. Characters forced by their misery into blind rage. Hannele is one of the most sensitively written works of art I have ever read. Innocence crushed in a savagely petty world with delicate beauty as just a sweet hallucination. I didn’t like the Beaver Coat. The jokes just didn’t land for me, but the characterization is strong.

  • Joe

    Lyrical but entirely christian and dated. These plays need to be adapted for modern times, as the structures, ideas and symbols are striking, at least as far as Hannele goes.