“Ich bin für nichts gut” Assessing the Functionality of Paradigmatic Behavior Models for Women in Emilia Galotti

Bernadette D Hyner

doi:10.15173/sj.v1i1.102

Abstract

Lessing’s 1771 play has fueled scholarly debates for centuries. Over all, conventional interpretations of Emilia Galotti fall into three basic categories: traditionally, scholars associate the bourgeois tragedy with the much older Roman legend of Virginia (Woesler, McInnes), some read it as a father’s dilemma in protecting his daughter’s innocence (Schenkel, Witte, Prutti), whereas still other scholars view the play as a testimony to the bourgeois struggle for emancipation (Janson, Wittowski, Bollacher). However, reexamining the drama in the context of women’s socialization, while bearing in mind the manner in which eighteenth-century women of the middle class were conditioned to negotiate interior and exterior spaces unveils further exciting narrative perspectives

Highlights

To be sure, an analysis of the play must be firmly rooted in the understanding that characters such as Emilia and Orsina are “Kopfgeburten,” and as such they signify “Wunsch- und Erinnerungsbilder eines anderen, besseren Lebens, [...] der gemeinsam geträumte Traum von Männern, die, [...] einem Ideal nachjagen” (Stephan 4)
In an effort to contribute to discussions on ideological implications of eighteenth-century gender production centering on the bourgeois subject’s quest for political and economic autonomy, this paper directs attention back to the character Emilia Galotti after which G
I contend that Emilia Galotti reads as a negotiation of two paradigms, the image of the moralistically constrained petitbourgeois subject portrayed in the character of Emilia and its enlightened opposite, the shrewd and assertive character of Countess Orsina

Summary

Introduction

An analysis of the play must be firmly rooted in the understanding that characters such as Emilia and Orsina are “Kopfgeburten,” and as such they signify “Wunsch- und Erinnerungsbilder eines anderen, besseren Lebens, [...] der gemeinsam geträumte Traum von Männern, die, [...] einem Ideal nachjagen” (Stephan 4). Emilia Galotti directs specific attention to Odoardo’s intolerance and exaggerated self-reference during encounters with Orsina, and as I will demonstrate, this juxtaposition further questions the humanity in the patriarch’s fixation on petite-bourgeois (kleinbürgerlich) moral rigors that define his domain and that of Emilia’s future husband (Appiani).[9] A critique of Odoardo’s restricted worldview emanates by extension from the naive heroine.

Results

Conclusion