Why is Emilia Galotti a civil tragedy?

Civil tragedy: the main features

The bourgeois tragedy is the genre of the German Enlightenment and neither without the emancipation of the bourgeoisie in the 18th Century conceivable without Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781). Some important characteristics of the genus are summarized here in six points to be applied to "Emilia Galotti" below:

• According to the name, people from the bourgeoisie are typical of a bourgeois tragedy. In Lessing's time, this was a break with classical tragedy, as it was asserted by Johann Christoph Gottsched (1700-1766) in his theater reform. According to the class clause, only people of higher class were allowed to play there in order to be able to comprehensively represent the hero's fate and the dramatic height of the fall. So far, the citizen has only appeared in comedies.
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• Lessing not only relaxed the class clause and the strict dramatic structure of the tragedy, such as the three-unit doctrine, whereby the plot gained weight. Instead of Alexandrians, the tragedies are written in prose.
• The focus is no longer on class, but on moral values ​​such as virtue, morality and dignity. The focus is on the humanity-based views of citizens that shape their lives and values.
• No fate hitting the hero from outside, but the characters themselves, their actions and decisions in the community, motivate the course of the bourgeois tragedy, make it probable and understandable.


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Surely you have also been asked by your counterpart: "Well, what is she doing ...

• The people should appear realistic and offer opportunities for identification. In this way the reader and viewer can feel for them and have pity, precisely because they show themselves as human beings in their only humanity. Sensitivity replaces the rationalism that had prevailed until then.
• As a literary medium in which the bourgeoisie recognized themselves, a bourgeois tragedy includes not only family conflicts but also class conflicts and social criticism. The latter discharges primarily from the nobility. The genre itself is a means by which the bourgeoisie asserts itself against the nobility.

"Emilia Galotti" is an example of the genre

Lessing's bourgeois tragedy "Emilia Galotti", premiered in 1772 and based on the Virginia legend, is one of the most important of its genre. The analysis follows the six characteristics mentioned above point by point:

• At the center of the plot are Emilia Galotti and her father Odoardo Galotti. They represent the bourgeoisie and are directly opposed to the Prince of Guastalla as a representative of the aristocracy.
• "Emilia Galotti" is written in prose throughout and takes place in changing locations within a day, from a. in the house of the Galottis and the country seat of the prince - the unity of place and time is no longer given. The unity of the action, its probability, is only important.
• The main theme of the piece is Emilia's seduction by the prince. While, according to the standards of upbringing and moral standards of her father, she is utterly religious virtue, morality and innocence, but just as weak and vulnerable, the prince is the exact opposite of all of this: corrupt and ruthless, bon vivant and don Juan, who is not faced with abuse of power recoils.
• Arbitrarily, he lets the object of his desire kidnap, which drives the action. But in the end, Emilia's behavior, her concern about blaming herself, and her father's actions are the ones Sees family honor threatened by the prince, but hesitates to take action against him, essential motivators of the Plot.
• Emilia in particular is being put to a severe test by her close ties to her father's family and the urging of the prince. Her being torn between the prince's advances, to which she threatens to give in - "I have blood, [...] so youthful, as warm blood "- and the morals of her father that she internalized -" as my father wants me to be target"; their inability to make independent decisions, which makes them prefer death: all of this affects the reader the most and stimulates his pity.
• In the bourgeois tragedy, criticism is clearly directed at the prince and therefore at the nobility. He abuses his power freely according to his will and takes no responsibility for it. Instead, he pushes it to his chamberlain Marinelli: "[M] Do devils have to pretend their friend?" - but Odoardo could also be discussed critically. Emilia's lack of independence is rooted in his authority as head of the family, which out of love, demands obedience. Conversely, as a citizen, in contrast to Count Appiani, he himself remains stuck in his role of obedient subject. He does not actively defend himself against the class order and the corruption of the nobility. His bourgeois morals remain unquestioned and rigid and ultimately outweigh the life of his daughter.

Please note: The information given here can only provide a rough overview of why "Emilia Galotti" is a civil tragedy. In-depth questions, such as social criticism, can be discussed in detail in German lessons.