Reviews

Frühlings Erwachen by Frank Wedekind

Only show reviews with written explanations

aina21's review against another edition

3.0

I read this book for school. I don't think there would have been any other reason why I would have picked up this book. To top it all off, I don't even like plays.

This play is Expressionist Theater (Here is the link to the crash course video if you would like to know more about Expressionist Theater: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B99H6Ygnzgw). This means that the play is written in scenes that have no correlation, and is more focused on themes and messages than plot. The themes it covers are the loss of childhood innocence and sexuality. It uses this as an opportunity to reflect on what morals are, what they mean, and their consequences. It also explores concepts of power and knowledge.

The story focuses on three children, Melchior, Wendla & Moritz, and how they have their "Spring awakening". Whiles Wendla is one of the main characters, she serves mostly as a plot device to show Melchior's struggles with morality and teen sex and his character development.

I huge theme in this book, that connects strongly with morals is the idea of religion. I believe that the characters are catholic, due to consistent references to the Saint and the Virgin (though due to the fact that it is set in Germany it is hard to tell). Religion is seen throughout as an imposer of right and wrong, though when the book later deals with the dead it does not portray the afterlife in the way it is traditionally portrayed in Christianity, yet it makes reference to God and the Devil (in a demeaning way). Religion is consistent but not the central force imposing the constraints and limitations on the children, instead, society and adults play that oppressive role.

There are also consistent references to nature, as can be seen in the title of the book. To look further into nature and its' symbolism especially flowers check out this link: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-language-of-flowers-an-alphabet-of-floral-emblems-1857

I struggle with rating this book as I disliked it greatly, but understand its value and importance. I do feel that it has a critical reflection of its society, and delves into important topics, but at the same time, it is sexist and overall just horrible and I did not enjoy reading. I think I will give it three stars not because I enjoyed it but because I do not think it is objectively bad, and it has left me with a lot of content to analyze, yet I did not enjoy reading it.

sofietintenhertz's review

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5.0

Med sine temaer om seksualitet og skolesystemets svikt, er stykket meget forut sin tid med tanke på at det ble skrevet 1891.
Skrivestil som er lett og lese, men også til tider veldig poetisk og fin

sparklybluebooks's review

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2.0

???

kurpjukaste's review against another edition

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4.0

kontroversiāls darbs ne tikai tam laikam, bet pat šodienai.

ashkitty93's review against another edition

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4.0

The only thing I found shocking about this was how completely the adults were willing to leave their children in ignorance because of how it would offend their own delicate sensibilities. Then again, I'm reading this in 2018 rather than 1918. In other news, I've never read a Franzen book (he comes off as pretentious to me) but I found his take on the musical adaptation of Spring Awakening in the introduction to be amusing.