Vigorous Leaps and Tragic Falls: Bodies in Distress in Kleist and Schiller

Abstract

Comparing Schiller and Kleist, this article deals with a new pattern of movement that dynamizes dramatic action at the end of the eighteenth century. In Schiller’s tragedies, stage directions call for physical performances that both accelerate and interrupt the tragic course. More specifically, they unfold the tension between leaping and falling and explore the relationship between the concept of life and tragic downfall. Drawn to their tragic fates, Schiller’s heroes at the same time “jump up” and show a resiliency and elasticity that at least potentially escapes the tragic script. In Kleist, too, falling and leaping shape human destiny. But while in Schiller leaps and falls are opposed to each other, Kleist blends them into a single downward movement onto the stage of life, a movement that precedes dramatic action and defines our being in the world right from the start. Only in Penthesilea do leaping and jumping resist tragic forces and show that in the face of tragedy, creation continues.