Download Some aspects of imagery in Woyzeck

Some Aspects of Imagery in Büchner's Woyzeck.
Author(s): John A. Mccarthy
Source: MLN , Apr., 1976, Vol. 91, No. 3, German Issue (Apr., 1976), pp. 543-551
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2907182
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M
Some
L
N
543
Aspects
Although
the
of
views
Im
of
been
focused
on
the
pl
analogies
which
contrib
drama
have
been
hithe
nent
images
is,
one
sh
the
basic
tension
betwe
In
this
study
I
cite
the
scenes
does
greater
jus
relationship
to
the
und
The
opening
lines
in
who
is
admonishihg
hi
langsam;
eins
nach
dem
the
tone
and
tempo
for
activity.
The
very
first
man
with
no
hope
for
tence,
who
says
of
him
der
andern
Welt.
Ich
g
donnern
helfen"
(i,
114
The
image
of
frenzied
a
leitmotif
in
the
ensu
that
he
barely
greets
M
to
work,
darts
home,
b
crime;
he
races
feveris
precipitation
is
mirror
to
the
moon,
then
the
down
world
in
a
frui
change
of
scenes
and
t
unrest.
Yet
Woyzeck's
eluctable
urgency
of
h
1
Only
a
few
studies
hav
example,
G.
Bell,
"Window
47
(1972),
Woyzeck,"
und
'Idee'
95-108;
Modern
in
A.
P.
Drama
Bichners
W
senschaftliche
Buchgesel
2
G.
Buchner,
Werke
und
1965),
p.
113.
Hereafter
s
tions
from
the
play
refer
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544 JOHN A. MCCARTHY
ment; the purpose of his life consists only
to-mouth sustenance for his small family. T
activity is underscored by the progressive
physical health. In vain does the reader loo
higher state. Woyzeck's life runs its cours
which knows no higher purpose than its o
pears as the existential plight of a senseless
At first sight the cause of the protagonis
solely in his extreme social and economic e
ery offers us a second view and points tow
source, a sort of primum mobile. The som
quite so empty headed as is generally assumed,3 for the initial
"philosophic" interpretation in the play of the "horrifying sameness of
human nature" comes from him. It comes in the form of a symbol: the mill
wheel. But it bears no resemblance to the Romantic symbol of Taugenichts.
The mill wheel is a most significant symbol in the drama. Incorporated
in it are both the busyness of men ("Beschaftigung") designed to kill time
and the daily revolution of man's world on its own axis, headed nowhere
but in a circle ("Was 'n Zeitverschwendung!"). Gone the Romantic aura of
reassuring tranquility and optimism, gone the sense of security under the
watchful eye of Providence. The ceaseless, aimless turning of the mill
wheel now poignantly symbolizes the eternal sameness and the inconsequence of human existence which gives rise to a feeling of melancholy.4 We
are reminded of Buchner's letter to Wilhelmine Jaegle which is filled with
despair over man's impotence in the face of human nature, social relation-
ships, and the flow of history ("Schaum auf der Welle").5 "Wo soll das
3 The affinity which Buchner felt for the captain has not gone completely unnoticed. Wolfgang Martens, "Zur Karikatur in der Dichtung Buchners (Woyzecks
Hauptmann)," GRM, 39 (1958), 70-71, has delineated the several parallels between
Woyzeck and the officer. For example, both are gripped by giddiness at the sight of
man, both are experimental objects for the doctor, and neither can tolerate utter
quiet. Martens concludes that these traits lift the captain out of a purely satirical
role, reveal a " trans- and suprasocial ('ibergesellschaftliche') wretchedness of the
world order," and bring the captain to the brink of the tragic and comic. These
considerations of imagery should strengthen the view of the captain as a reflection
of Buchner's Weltschmerz and Woyzeck's disorientation.
4 B. von Wiese, Die deutsche Tragodie von Lessing bis Hebbel (Hamburg: Hoffman &
Campe, 1964), p. 520, points out that the monotonous return of the same thing day
in and day out leads to "Ermiidung am Leben" and to "Erniichterung durch die
Wirklichkeit." In a word, boredom. M. Hamburger, "Georg Buchner," Contraries
(New York, Dutton, 1970), p. 182, indicates that boredom is the "apathy that springs
from despair." The resultant melancholiness from which the captain suffers was
part of a wide-spread phenomenon in the early nineteenth century which was ex-
pressed as "damonische Zerrissenheit und sentimentaler Weltschmerz." See Fr.
Sengle, Biedermeierzeit (Stuttgart: Metzler, 1971), I, 2.
5 G. Buchner, Sdmtliche Werke und Briefe, ed. Werner P. Lehmann (Hamburg: Chr.
Wegner, 1971), II, 425-426. Hereafter cited in text by volume and page number.
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M
L
N
545
hinaus?",
the
captain
waste
of
time.
As
soo
becomes
something
whether
seen
from
th
its
momentary
actuali
cal
framework.
The
p
point
of
view)
has
b
turning
of
the
mill
w
In
a
letter
written
a
the
mill
wheel.
Its
re
for
the
poet.
He
writ
so
groB
Gelisten
nach
und
Ruh
....
Heute
un
lese
nicht;
morgen
g
regelma3ig
und
orden
Uhr"
(II,
463;
italics
m
expansion
of
meaning
tence.
The
world,
o
caught
on
the
tread
imagery
seems
to
say
Schwarzwalder
Uhr)
a
lifeless
mechanism.6
eighteenth
centuries
Supreme
Engineer,
re
tion.
The
teleological,
torture,
kolonie."
a
dim
fores
The imagery of the mill wheel and the clock intensify the "entsetzliche
Gleichheit der Menschennatur" lamented by Bichner. Combined they
convey the picture of man and his world as part and parcel of an automated system which allows for no alteration of the predestined cycle of
vertiginous repetition. Man is a programmed robot. The mechanicalness
of human nature itself, connoted in the first scene, is subsequently de-
veloped into a major image in Woyzeck. The mechanical repetition of
human actions parallels the involuntary revolutions of the wheel of life.
The question of morality raised in this same scene serves as a springboard
for reflection on human nature itself. Of interest in this regard is not the
6 The clock motif in Biichner's writings is expanded even further in Leonce und
Lena to include the death aspect when Leonce is made to say: "Das Picken der
Totenuhr in unserer Brust is langsam, undjeder Tropfen Blut mil3t seine Zeit, und
unser Leben ist ein schleichend Fieber" (II, ii, 101). The remark can be seen as a
summation of Woyzeck's situation. The once vital function of the three sisters
Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, who spun the thread of life, assigned each man's
destiny, and severed the thread at death, has been replaced by a machine.
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546 JOHN A. MCCARTHY
captain's definition of morality, but rather
officer's reproof. As a well-disciplined sol
his superior, but simply states in justifica
und Blut" and further: ".. es kommt einem nur so die Natur" (i, 114).
The officer reiterates the phrase "Fleisch und Blut" and develops the
thought further in a manner which elucidates its sexual overtones. The
captain intends only to explain to Woyzeck that he knows what Woyzeck
means because he too has experienced the sensation; however, much more
is revealed for the mechanicalness of human love is poignantly expressed:
"Fleisch und Blut? Wenn ich am Fenster lieg, wenn's geregnet hat, und
den wei3en Strumpfen so nachseh, wie sie uber die Gassen springen-
verdammt, Woyzeck, da kommt mir die Liebe! Ich habe auch Fleisch und
Blut" (i, 114). The impression conveyed is not one of love, but one of
unadulterated lust, which is activated automatically when the appropriate
stimulus is present ("weiBe Striimpfe"). Woyzeck's reply, therefore, is an
implicit admission, that he has a child because he was unable to control his
sexual impulses. The captain's explanation thus serves to illustrate the
mechanical aspect of love, which ultimately obfuscates the original spiritual
quality of Woyzeck's specific love for Marie. Because the scene "Beim
Hauptmann" introduces the decisive images of the mill wheel and of man
as a sexual automaton there appears to be greater justification for placing
it at the beginning of the drama as Bergemann does.
The mechanical characteristics of sexual love become more pronounced
in the liaison between the drum major and Marie. In the terminology used
to describe the incipient affair the many references to animals or animal
husbandry are designed to underscore the further dehumanization (i.e.,
despiritualization) of love. At their first encounter Marie remarks with
admiration that "he walks like a lion" (iii, 115) and begins immediately to
make eyes at him. Later Marie compares his chest to that of a steer and his
beard to a lion's (vii, 121). She calls him simply "Mann" (vii, 121), because
for her, to put it colloquially, he is just a good lay. For his part, the drum
major treats Marie like a sex object, "ein Weibsbild ... zur Zucht von
Tambourmajors" (iv, 117). He admires her carriage and her coloration as
if he were examining a fine horse. In the "seduction" scene Marie and the
drum major encounter one another like prime specimens of the two sexes,
more animal than human in their attitude.7 When the drum major attempts to take his "wild Tier" (vii, 121), Marie half-heartedly resists but
7 von Wiese, p. 531, calls them "instinktsicher." Mautner, p. 513, notes the
"korperlich-animalische" overtones of Marie's language. Hermann Pongs, Das Bild
in der Dichtung (Marburg: Elvertsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1969), III, 632, compares the actions of the drum major and the non-commissioned officer in the
market scene with the horse's "verniinftigen Viehigkeit."
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M
L
N
547
immediately
yields
re
Her
comment
suggest
tite
is
too
powerful
to
nature
as
Woyzeck
i
another
vital
part
of
relentless
gyration
of
spondently
laments:
"
intimates
here
a
kind
and
Kathe
after
Woy
The
unthinking
besti
four
("Buden.
Lichte
Bude"),
and
seven
("B
and
man
to
an
animal
("Staub,
Sand,
Dreck"
they
are
presented
vo
However,
the
animal
when
it
is
clothed
and
(albeit
"viehische")
"
trasts
with
the
"dehu
ment
the
poet
once
m
there
faire
betes."9
was
no
l'amour
basic
en
dif
tout
Two scenes later we learn that Woyzeck has "pissed" on the street like a
dog (vii, 119). Buchner establishes an obvious parallel to the horse's behavior when it relieved itself during the performance in order to contradict the doctor's theory of free will. In answering the question why he
did it, Woyzeck uses the same explanation cited earlier to explain his illegitimate child: "Aber, Herr Doktor, wenn einem die Natur kommt" (vii,
119). By association Buchner seems to imply that "love" is as mechanical
and automatic as the renal function. Man is thus nothing but a marionette.
Aesthetically, it is striking that Buchner has so effectively intertwined the
nascent love affair between Marie and the drum major with the develop-
ment of the animal and puppet motifs, so that they are seen as complementary movements. In the final analysis Marie and the drum major
8 The phrase "unideale Natur" in this context (v, 118) is reminiscent of the author's use of it in rejecting idealism in literature and science. See the letter to his
family dated July 28, 1835 (II, 444); also Lenz, I, 87 and "Uber Schadelnerven," II,
292.
9 Cited by Wolfgang Martens, "Zum Menschenbild Georg Bichners Woyzeck und
die Marionszene in Dantons Tod," Wege der Forschung, 53 (Darmstadt: Wis-
senschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1965), p. 379, n. 11.
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548 JOHN A. MCCARTHY
are mere puppets on the wheel of life a
Schwarzwdlder Uhr with the passing of time
Besides the images of the mill wheel and t
bild of the play is accentuated by the danc
the scene in the inn where Marie and the
moment is not an isolated instance but rather the culmination of the ver-
tiginous motion which underlies the entire play, and which has been prefigured in the mill wheel's circular path, in Woyzeck's gyrating haste, and in
ths characters' relentless animalism. Once again it is the opening scene in
Bergemann's arrangement which first prepares us for the dance image,
albeit in an indirect manner with respect to a sense of vertigo. There the
captain urges Woyzeck: "Langsam, Woyzeck, langsam .... Er macht mir
ganz schwindlig" (i, 113). The dizziness caused by the protagonist's sense
of urgency in the first scene is later associated with the dizzying plunge into
the depths of despair upon learning of Marie's infidelity. Horrified,
Woyzeck bolts from the captain presumably to seek out Marie. The officer
follows his flight with his eyes and remarks: "Mir wird ganz schwindlig
vor den Menschen. Wie schnell!" (ix, 123). At this point it is unclear
whether the captain's vertigo is caused merely by a sense of Woyzeck's
alacrity or also by a sense of his despair. However, this additional source of
giddiness is blatantly expressed in the confrontation between Woyzeck and
Marie. Her infidelity rends the last thread of meaning which had still
imparted a purpose to Woyzeck's crazed existence; her faithlessness means
for him that man is nothing but a mindless animal, indistinguishable from
the bete. Woyzeck stands on the brink of the human void and peers into the
abyss called man. The intuitive recognition of man's powerlessness makes
him reel with anguish as he calls out in terms reminiscent of the captain's
sense of vertigo: "Jeder Mensch ist ein Abgrund; es schwindelt einem,
wenn man hinabsieht" (x, 123). Thereafter giddiness becomes an openly
major motif in the drama and is closely linked with the revelation of man as
a volitientless machine; from that moment on Woyzeck is unable to rid
himself of a feeling of a downward, swirling motion. From his barracks he
hears the dance music and can have no peace. Tortured he cries out: "Es
dreht sich mir vor den Augen. Tanz, Tanz!" (xi, 124). Giddiness, implying
10 The puppet-like aspects of human nature play a prominent role in Leonce und
Lena as well. For example, Valerio says of the princely pair: "Sehen Sie hier, meine
Herren und Damen, zwei Personen beiderlei Geschlechts, ein Mannchen und ein
Weibchen, einen Herrn und eine Dame! Nichts als Kunst und Mechanismus, nichts
als Pappendeckel und Uhrfedern! Jede hat eine feine, feine Feder von Rubin unter
dem Nagel der kleinen Zehe am rechten Fu3, man druckt ein klein wenig, und die
Mechanik lauft voile fiinfzig Jahre" (III, iii, 108). Furthermore, Valiero refers to
"der Mechanismus der Liebe" (ibid.) which has been set in motion. In keeping with
the aristocratic backgrounds of Leonce und Lena, however, the mechanical expression of love is befittingly more sophisticated.
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M
L
N
549
the
maelstrom
of
the
The
vertigo
motif
th
The
dizzying
sensatio
the
passionate
giddin
unrestrainable
raving
ed
in
the
words
"imm
sexual
connotations
o
mer
zu,
immer
zu!
Dr
Sonn aus, daB alles in Unzucht sich ibereinander wilzt, Mann und Weib,
Mensch und Vieh?! Tut's am hellen Tag, tut's einem auf den Handen wie
die Miicken!-Weib! Das Weib ist heiB, heil3-Immer zu, immer zu" (xii,
125). All the images discussed thus far are joined in this passage: the
revolutions of the mill wheel return in the "Dreht euch!" and are coupled
with the rampant sexuality of the dance motif: "Walzt euch!". The unthinking animality of human relationships is forcefully expressed by the
word groupings, "Mann und Weib, Mensch und Vieh," as well as by the
mental image of men copulating like gnats. Finally, the rhythmic recurrence of the phrase "immer zu" calls to mind the horrible sameness of
nature and embraces Woyzeck's vertiginous terror at the mechanicalness
of love and the resultant meaninglessness of life. He collapses in a dizzying
swoon (xii, 125).
In his extreme mental state Marie's "immer zu, immer zu" seems to
Woyzeck to be reiterated by those mysterious, subterranean voices which
have haunted him from the beginning. The voices seem to repeat the
words as a command to kill Marie. From the original "immer zu" a new
phrase gradually evolves: "stich tot, tot" (xiii, 125). It is a helpless lashing
out at an incomprehensible fate.
The phases of development leading up to the stabbing are transparent:
from the ineluctable turning of the mill wheel and Woyzeck's nervous
agitation arises the passionate frenzy of the dance; from the sexual dance
rite comes the murderous rage. The originally circular motion evolves into
a frantic perpendicular movement: "auf und nieder, immer wieder" (as
the obscene ditty goes).11 After the bloody deed Woyzeck returns to the inn
and dances with Kathe, upon whom his sexual attention is now centered.
His advances close the circle; he is still caught in the same cycle of life,
trotting along the same vertiginous path, the victim of uncontrollable
forces. "Tanzt alle, immer zu! schwitzt und stinkt!" (xxiii, 131) he urges his
fellow man, because that is all they have. The "tanzt alle" expresses the
whirling motion again, the "immer zu" recalls the headlong passion, the
"schwitzt und stinkt" implies man's animality.
The images of the mill wheel, the man-animal, and the whirling dance
" Mautner, p. 520, has pointed out the psychoanalytic connection here between
sexuality and brutality.
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550 JOHN A. MCCARTHY
convey a disconsolate Menschenbild. Man is powe
laws; he is "mere foam on the crest of the wav
images and metaphors tend to support the antim
the play. For example, the ground upon which
115), the romantic mood is only "a piece of rott
merely a "wilted sunflower," the earth an "overt
child who "sits abandoned and cries its heart ou
imagery has little bearing on the social and econ
the drama. The purpose in citing them has been
least as much, if not more, importance is to be
symbols, as to the economic and social indictme
work. Woyzeck's suffering and ineptitude woul
the mechanicalness of the condition humaine, th
the condition sociale. It will be remembered that Biuchner referred to both
conditions in his oft-quoted letter to his fiancee: "Ich finde in der
Menschennatur eine entsetzliche Gleichheit, in den menschlichen Ver-
hiltnissen eine unabwendbare Gewalt. Allen und Keinen verliehen" (II,
425).
In the same letter the poet wrote: "Der Ausspruch: es mul3ja ArgerniB
kommen, aber wehe dem, durch den es kommt-ist schauderhaft. Was ist
das, was in uns ligt, mordet, stiehlt?" (II, 426). Buchner did not want to
pursue the thought. But as a scientist he felt obligated to think the thought
to its apparent conclusion, for in his Zurich Probevorlesung almost three
years later, the promising researcher claimed: "Alles, was ist, ist um seiner
selbst Willen da. Das Gesetz dieses Seins zu suchen, ist das Ziel der, der
teleologischen gegeniiberstehenden Ansicht, die ich die philosophische nennen will" (II, 292). Woyzeck, which was written at the same time, might be
looked upon as a literary answer to the question. The solution would
appear to be: man lies, steals, and murders because he is a mere man, not
divine.12 As "unideale Natur" he is compelled to obey the commands of his
inner nature and his outer world.13 There is no telos behind these laws;
12 von Wiese, p. 524, draws the following conclusion about the statement "es muB
ja ArgerniB kommen" and its implied guilt: "Aber diese Schuld hat mit Freiheit und
sittlicher Selbstbestimmung eigentlich nichts mehr zu tun, sondern zeigt die Kreatur
nur in ihrer Abhangigkeit von einer als Qual erlebten und dennoch notwendigen
Existenz. Der Abfall Gottes von sich selbst, als er in die Welt einging, bedeutet fur
den Menschen eine als Schmerz und Schuld erlebte Endlichkeit, die bereits im
Ursprung unfrei ist und unter dem Fluch des MuB steht" (italics mine).
13 This view of man is remarkably similar to one expressed by Fyodor Dosteyevsky
twenty-eight years later in the story "Notes from Underground": ... [man] is something like a piano key or an organ stop; . .there are natural laws in the universe, and
whatever happens to him happens outside his will, as it were, by itself, in accordance
with the laws of nature." Notes from Underground, White Nights, The Dream of a Ridicu-
lous Man, trans. A. R. MacAndrew (New York: Signet, 1961), p. 109. The deter-
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M
LN
551
nature
the
is
aimless.
O
end
life
is
sen
society
an
extension
of
bygone
idealism
The
Weltund
Men
relentless,
unprodu
his
course.
The
deat
to
a
halt;
the
whee
disturbing
picture
play's
dominant
im
language
of
Woyzec
which
tend
to
enha
imagery
is
used
"no
whole
play
with
a
h
the
language
of
me
University
of
Pennsylv
JOHN
A
ministic
conception
o
Another
major
simila
doubt
in
the
"Philoso
14
Hamburger,
p.
197
ment
holds
true
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for
W