The Bottomless Pit Woyzeck

A detailed Summary of The Bottomless Pit Woyzeck

Topic# 1: A commentator has remarked, " Clearly Buchner considered that while social revolution might help the Woyzeck's of the world, it could hardly save them". Is Buchner's vision of the world of Woyzeck essentially fatalistic, a dystopia from which there is no escape?

Georg Buchner's classic play "Woyzeck", unfinished, yet ahead of its time, has only this past century achieved notoriety for its visionary script and modernity. Buchner, a young radical of his time, intended this work to act as a social protest against the oppression and conditions of the impoverished. The work shows its audience the extreme tragedies that befall those trapped in poverty, those who have lost all hope, and therefore become acquiescent to their environment, which in turn furthers their hardship. Despite the main characters' pleas for aid, and or spiritual intervention, they are trapped in their situations. Buchner offers no hope to them of any kind for redemption or salvation.

Poverty is presented as a vicious cycle, one that destroys everything in its path. The obvious apocalyptic language and visions that Buchner employs in the play all stress the pessimism surrounding the characters, and the fatalistic and dystopic environment in which th

Here one sees that Woyzeck believes that even if he made it to the eternal paradise of heaven, his suffering would still continue, as he would be made to work on the thunder along with the rest of the poor. Woyzeck perceives no glimpse of a better life or future for his family, and accepts his fate to live as a slave to others. He allows the Doctor to perform weird and degrading experiments on him, such as placing him on a strict diet of only peas for three months, and he allows himself to be berated for relieving himself in the street. Woyzeck does all this just so he can earn a few measly dollars to support Marie and their child.

Woyzeck: "Oh, self-control. I'm not very strong on that, sir. You see, the likes of us just don't have any self-control. I mean, we obey nature's call. But if I were a gentleman and had a hat and a watch and a topcoat and could talk proper, then I'd have self-control all right. Must be a fine thing, self-control. But I'm a poor man."

Buchner was a young man at the time of his death, only twenty-three, yet he managed to leave a legacy behind him, on that has been highly acclaimed in modern times. Woyzeck was to be a "working - class tragedy", a slice out of real life. His protagonist, Woyzeck, is a man doomed to a pitiful existence, constantly plagued with questions that will never be answered. He has a psychosis in which he hallucinates, and this furthers his urge to murder his wife. Woyzeck is forced to deal with daily humiliation. This play is a tragedy, as there is no hope for Woyzeck. The murder of Marie forever breaks his lifeline; he is lost in the abyss around himself. He falls deeper and deeper into madness. He is a murderer, but he is also a victim of his society, as with his wife. The very construction of the play's elements, the folk songs, the religious and secular language, all play a part in the overall dark motif that the play projects onto the viewer. Buchner wanted to portray real life, with very human characters, and his view is that society is to blame for all evils, that the world is essentially going to the dogs for these people, in a never-ending cycle of torment and affliction. Buchner also allows the reader no hope to fix this situation, as unfortunately the play was never finished and one shall never know, or feel, the complete conclusion and resolution of" Woyzeck".

Marie's prayer does her no good, as soon after this passage Woyzeck brutally murders her and leaves her body by the pond outside town. Here again, Buchner offers nothing but a dystopic and brutal end for this woman, a victim of her own birth into poverty and the society that broke her spirit. There is no freedom from her suffering, there is no way out.

Doctor: Your pulse Woyzeck. Your pulse. Short, violent, skipping, and irregular.

"Once upon a time there was a poor little boy who had no father or mother. Everything was dead, and there was nobody left in the whole wide world. Everything was dead, and he went away and searched day and night. And because there was nobody left he thought he'd go up to heaven. And the moon looked at him so kindly! But when he

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Approximate Word count = 2095
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English