'… den Prometheus schildern und weiter nichts': Grillparzer and the Drama of Ideas

Abstract

Grillparzer on several occasions expressed hostility to the notion of drama expressing ideas or abstractions, but he is by no means consistent in this respect. Moreover, of his own plays, Das goldene Vließ was stated by him to be 'die Ausführung [eines] Satzes', and König Ottokars Glück und Ende to be reducible to the tritely proverbial 'Hochmut kommt zu Fall'. The titles of most of his later dramas similarly indicate general rather than narrowly personal concerns. Finally, a putative source is suggested for the 'idea' or symbolic significance of the Golden Fleece in the trilogy of that name.