Prince Friedrich of Homburg

Prince Friedrich von Homburg and the romantic dream

The classification of Kleist's political statement of independence in the romanticism is not "wrong", because romantic features can be found in it enough.

• The story begins with a daydream of the prince, in which, after stealing a laurel wreath, he becomes the elector's toy and is pushed to do so, whose niece makes a declaration of love.
• This dream entry is a typically romantic moment, as dreaming and hallucinating were given a priority over the course of the epoch. The dream as a manifestation of the purest subconscious and the night as a symbol for the night side of human existence were among two of the greatest fascinations during the first half of the 19th century. Century.
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• Kleist's manifestation of the zeitgeist is increased by introducing his Prince von Homburg as a sleepwalker. The boundaries between reality and dream become blurred in this way. The prince is on the verge of madness and finds himself in complete confusion the next day.
• The confrontation with one's own night side leads to a state of confusion and a lack of reality and senselessness. For the romantic, reason was always subordinate to feeling. Lack of understanding, unreality and confusion are therefore to be seen as typically romantic utopia.


Romantic era - interesting facts about the literary trend

The romantic epoch, also known as romanticism, was a style of art ...

• In his confusion, the prince makes a big mistake on the bad field. The elector then gives him the death penalty - his previous dream turns out to be a premonition. On the other hand, the previous dream also influences that the dreamed happens. Had the prince not dreamed, the dreamed would not have happened and had the dreamed not happened, the prince might not have had a predictive dream. Kleist allows dream world and reality to arise from each other.
• Intimidated by the death penalty, Prince von Homburg finally developed an irrepressible longing for life. Here, too, one can clearly feel the romantic zeitgeist, which emanates from longing as perhaps the artist's most important instrument.

Despite the above-mentioned similarities, Prince von Homburg, with his political references, the delays in action and the outcome, is not a typically romantic work. When doing an analysis, be sure to elaborate on this.

Romance is not enough! - Classical era

Have you ever heard of the classical literary era? Newer approaches in literary studies suggest, under certain conditions, the assignment of a work to the Classical period.

• To speak of Kleist's work as romantic does not fully do him justice. This is because the term romanticism covers a period of time in which the German literature has several completely opposite currents.
• If Hoffmann's "Sandmann" is typically romantic, how can it be Prince Friedrich von Homburg? According to critics, the umbrella term romanticism presses opposites into a form that completely ignores their peculiarities and even tries to harmonize them. The term "classical" - suggested for the entire time of Goethe - is intended to remedy this.
• For the Prince of Homburg this would mean a division between classic and romantic eras. When doing an analysis, you should of course focus on the time of origin and the romantic influences but also mention the time of Goethe and the connection between Kleist's classical work same.

This is the only way to do justice to the peculiarities and different nuances of the drama.