Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind.
Title: Spring Awakening.
Author: Frank Wedekind.
Genre: Fiction, teen, play, sexuality, Bildungsroman.
Country: Germany.
Language: German.
Date written: 1890-1891.
First Performance Date: November 20, 1906.
Summary: Set in late-19th century Germany, the play tells the story of teenagers discovering the inner and outer tumult of teenage sexuality, exploring sexual awakening, abortion, suicide, and homosexuality.
My rating: 8/10.
♥ ERNST: --Sometimes I can already see myself as Reverend Röbel - an affectionate little housewife, an extensive library, rights and privileges in every circle of society. You get six days to think, and on the seventh day you open your mouth. When you go out for a walk, schoolboys and schoolgirls shake hands with you, and when you come home the coffee is steaming, the cake is on the table, and girls are bringing in apples through the garden gate. -- Can you imagine anything nicer?
HANSY: I imagine half-closed eyelashes, half-open lips, and Turkish draperies. -- I don't believe in grand emotions. Look, the reason our parents wear long faces is to cover up their stupid thoughts. When they're by themselves they call each other blockheads just like we do. I know they do. -- When I'm a millionaire, I'll build a monument to God. -- Think of the future as a bowl of fresh milk with sugar and cinnamon. One man spills it and cries, the other one churns it and sweats. Why not skim the cream off? -- Or don't you think we could learn how.
ERNST: --We'll skim the cream off!
HANSY: And let the chickens eat the rest. -- I've slipped out of plenty of nooses already...
ERNST: We'll skim the cream off, Hansy! -- Why are you laughing?
HANSY: Are you at it again already?
ERNST: One of us has to start.
HANSY: Maybe, when we look back on an afternoon like this thirty years from now, it will seem indescribably nice!
ERNST: And now it's happening without any effort at all.
HANSY: Why shouldn't it?
ERNST: If a person happened to be by himself -- he might even cry.
HANSY: Let's not be sad! -- (kisses him on the mouth)
ERNST: (kissing him) When I left the house I was thinking I'd only talk to you and then go right back.
HANSY: I was expecting you. -- Virtue's not a bad thing to wear, but it's cut for a big man.
ERNST: We're still tripping on the cuffs. -- I never would have calmed down if I hadn't run into you. -- I love you, Hansy, like I've never loved another soul...
HANSY: Let's not be sad! -- Maybe when we look back on an afternoon like this thirty years from now it will seem ridiculous! -- And now it's all so nice! The mountains are glowing; the grapes are hanging in our mouths, and the evening wind is stroking the cliffs like a little teasing kitten...
♥ MARTHA: I can’t help thinking that they do have their fun - even if they never talk about it. - When I have children, I’m going to let them grow up like the weeds in our flower garden. Nobody pays any attention to them, and they’re so tall, so thick - and meanwhile the roses on their stakes, in their planting boxes, get scrawnier every summer.
♥ MORITZ: We can do anything. Give me your hand! We can feel sorry for youth, the way it takes its timidness for idealism, and for old age, the way its heart breaks with stoic superiority. We see emperors trembling over popular songs, and street shysters shaking at the sound of the last trumpet. We ignore the comedian’s mask and see the poet putting his mask on in the dark. We behold the contented man in his impoverishment, and in the man who “labors and is heavy laden” we see the capitalist. We observe people in love and see them blush at each other, suspecting that they’re deceived deceivers. We see parents bringing children into the world in order to be able to say to them: how lucky you are to have parents like us! -- and see the children going out and doing the same thing. We can eavesdrop on innocence in its lonely extremities of love, and on the two-bit whore reading Schiller... We see God and the Devil making fools of each other, and we nurture in ourselves the absolutely unshakable conviction that both of them are drunk...
♥ THE MASKED MAN: The ghost has a point. One shouldn’t forget one’s dignity. -- Morals I understand to be the real product of two imaginary quantities. The imaginary quantities are Supposed To and Want To. The product is called Morals and its reality cannot be denied.