On the Dictates of Logic in Lessing's Emilia Galotti

Abstract

Lessing's Emilia Galotti has proved to be one of the great enigmas of the German theater.' It is paradoxical that a play which is famous for being logical-indeed, perhaps too logical-in its structure should have given rise to so many divergent and speculative interpretations. The present essay is an attempt to follow the play's logic to its natural conclusions, without the assumption of any authorial intentions beyond those manifest in the text itself and a few relevant letters.