Franz Grillparzer

Franz Seraphicus Grillparzer (January 15, 1791 - January 21, 1872), Austrian dramatic poet, was born in Vienna.

Early Works up to Das goldene Vlies

In 1817 the first representation of his tragedy Die Ahnfrau made him famous, but before this he had written a long tragedy in iambics, Blanca von Castilien (1807-1809), which was obviously modelled on Schiller's Don Carlos; and even more promising were the dramatic fragments Spartacus and Alfred der Grosse (1809). Die Ahnfrau is a gruesome fate-tragedy in the trochaic measure of the Spanish drama, already made popular by Adolf Müllner in his Schuld; but Grillparzer's work is a play of real poetic beauties, and reveals an instinct for dramatic as opposed to merely theatrical effect, which distinguishes it from other fate-dramas of the day. Unfortunately, its success led to the poet being classed for the best part of his life with playwrights like Müllner and Houwald. Die Ahnfrau was followed by Sappho (1818), a drama of a very different type; in the classic spirit of Goethe's Tasso, Grillparzer unrolled the tragedy of poetic genius, the renunciation of earthly happiness imposed upon the poet by his higher mission. In 1821, Das goldene Vlies finally was finished, a trilogy which had been interrupted in 1819 by the death of the poet's mother, who, in a fit of depression, had taken her own life, and a subsequent visit to Italy. Opening with a powerful dramatic prelude in one act, Der Gastfreund, Grillparzer depicts in Die Argonauten Jason's adventures in his quest for the Fleece; while Medea, a tragedy of noble classic proportions, contains the culminating events of the story which had been so often dramatized before. The theme is similar to that of Sappho, but the scale on which it is represented is larger; it is again the tragedy of the hearts desire, the conflict of the simple happy life with that sinister power, be it genius or ambition, which upsets the equilibrium of life. The end is bitter disillusionment, the only consolation renunciation. Medea, her revenge stilled, her children dead, bears the fatal Fleece back to Delphi, while Jason is left to realize the nothingness of human striving and earthly happiness.

Related Topics:
1817 - Tragedy - Iambic - Schiller - Spartacus - ''Alfred der Grosse'' - Trochaic - Spanish drama - Adolf Müllner - Dramatic - Theatrical - Houwald - Goethe - 1821 - Das goldene Vlies - Depression - Italy - Prelude - Die Argonauten - Jason - Medea - Sappho

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