47 pages • 1 hour read
Spring Awakening: A Children’s Tragedy
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Essay Topics
How do you square the message of personal responsibility for one’s actions and future in the final scene with the outsize harm the parents cause their children with their prudishness?
Wedekind toys with ideas of fate and prophecy. How much power do people have in determining their fates? Is a self-fulfilling prophecy the same as fate?
Examine Wedekind’s use of satire. How does he use it to support or to undermine his messages?
Do you think the problems Wedekind identifies with the sexually repressive culture of fin-de-siècle provincial Germany exist today? Explain, referencing the text.
Melchior indicts the hypocrisy of Christian morality. Does he find a suitable replacement?
Of all the teenagers in the play, Melchior and Ilse are the only ones who know anything about sex. Compare and contrast the ways in which this knowledge liberates or harms each of them.
Analyze Wedekind’s use of literary allusion. How does he use it in characterization or to enrich themes?
How does Wedekind use diction in characterization? Pick two or three characters to focus on.
Do you agree that the Masked Man is the personification of Melchior’s better judgment? Or does he represent something else, such as fate?
The final scene departs from the realism of the rest of the play. How should readers interpret this odd scene?
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