Wolfgang Borcherts play The Man Outside captures the self-hatred and angst of the German post-war zeitgeist. Surreal, filled with magical realism as much as German expressionism, The Man Outside symbolizes the difficulty in articulating the tremendous psychological struggles endured by Germans immediately after the Nazi crisis. In the play, Borchert does not moralize as much as he stimulates dialogue on the importance of facing the truth, even when the truth is too shameful and painful to face.
Suicide plays a major role in The Man Outside, the title of which captures Beckmanns total isolation from his countrymen and kin. Beckmann at times seems the only character in the play willing to feel the pain and sorrow, the guilt and horror felt after fighting on behalf of the Nazis consciously and willingly. One of the key moments of The Man Outside is when Beckmann is able to face is former commanding officer, the Colonel. In conversation with the Colonel and able to reflect on his service and speak his truth, Beckmann claims he came to give back the responsibility of killing eleven men (Borchert, p. vii). Beckman has been living with the burden of killing those men, and while he still does take responsibility for obeying his orders, he also wants to show the Colonel that the war atrocities are shared by all participants. Im bringing you back the responsibility. Have you completely...
…He is the one who says Yes. The one who answers, leading audience to believe that the Other is the part of the self that is the enabler, the one that justifies all actions including those that are morally repugnant or which lead to death and destruction (Borchert, p. vii). Yet the Other is not the false self or the Ego. The Other is Who drives you on when youre tired, the slave driver, the secret, disturbing one, (Borchert, p. vii). The other serves both good and bad functions in the human psyche. Through both Beckmann and The Other, Borchert injects moral ambiguity into The Man Outside, which is why the play retains its timeless and universal…
Works Cited
Borchert, Wolfgang. The Man Outside. New Directions, 1949.
However, according to Johnson, Christie, and Yawkey, (1999), "play is an extremely difficult concept to define -- there are 116 distinct definitions listed in the Oxford English Dictionary!" Some adults think play is trivial while others believe play makes vital contributions to all aspects of child development. While we cannot define play, there are telltale signs of play that are recognizable. Some examples of play involved students freely choosing to
The freakish nature of the modern world seems to have infected even the way the young woman sees herself -- she calls herself 'dead' because the old woman refers to her as 'dead' even though she is clearly alive. She passively submits to the idea that she will be eaten, unflinchingly asking how she will be cooked, and what will be served with her 'feast.' In the context of the
It awakened her imagination and excited her about the theater, and it also instructed her, forming the basis for her future art. Another contributor, Beth Henley, has a very different memory: of being greatly disappointed at the ordinariness of a princess in a production, and her dissatisfaction with the actress' performance. Casting is everything. Henley learned at an early age. Many of the authors detail unconventional encounters with theater that
Warren's business partner and has in fact invested 40,000 pounds in the venture. In his own words, "The fact is, it's not what would be considered exactly a high-class business in my set -- the county set, you know.... Not that there is any mystery about it: don't think that. Of course you know by your mother's being in it that it's perfectly straight and honest. I've known her
Play Susan Glaspell's play Trifles is filled with moral questions and ethical ambiguity. Throughout the one-act play, each character makes moral and ethical choices that affect the outcome of the investigation. Their moral choices also reveal key things about their characters, their worldview, and their ethical codes. At the center of the play is Minnie Wright and her dead husband John. Death is often a moral matter. If John had committed
The last part of the show, Ms. Fisher, now at age 54, has her old and well-known Princess Leia "Cinnamon Bun Hairstyle" telling her audience how much she hated her character's hairdo since she felt it made her face look even rounder while taking two hours every day to style. Ms. Fisher shows a somnambulistic safety of using words like play-dough manipulating them cleverly and utmost witty. On the subject
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now