Lessing the Dramatist

Abstract

Lessing's three most predominant characteristics are: critical acumen; creative power; and an intense interest in the life of his day. It is this latter characteristic, his intense interest in life that made of him the reformer that he was, and the fighter for high ideals-ideals which went beyond the field of literature. All three of these qualities, the critical, the creative, and the practical, let us call it, are always present in varying degrees in all of his work. In his critical work he was creative; in his literary creations he was critical; and in all he was always the reformer. The literary form in which he excelled was the drama, both the comedy and the tragedy. In his dramas, as in all his other works, the three qualities just mentioned are also present. Lessing never wrote poetry merely for poetry's sake. Lessing the fighter always had a reformative purpose. This purpose was either to reform art, the stage, the drama, or to reform the life-the religious and political life-of his day. Let us consider briefly in the short time at our disposal this latter aspect of his activity (I mean the reformative purpose) as it expresses itself in his dramas. We find in Lessing's collected works a total of twelve completed dramas and many dramatic fragments. Of the twelve finished dramas four are important because of their influence on German literature. The other eight are interesting to the student of Lessing's growth and development. Of the eight youthful dramas we shall single out for brief mention only the three which present ideas typical of Lessing the reformer-and of the practical rather than the theoretic reformer.