The Social Ideas in Hauptmann's Plays uI Sarah Josephine Battle v CP— THE SOCIAL IDEAS IN HAUPTLIANK'S PLAYS by Sarah Josephine 3attle A Thesis submitted for the Degree of MASTER OB1 ARTS in the Department of MODERN LANGUAGES THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA April, 1925. INTRODUCTION To understand the conditions in the last decade of the nineteenth century in Germany which gave rise to the social drama of the naturalistic school, one must go back and trace the epoch-making changes which had been effected in Europe throughout the century. The old world order was becoming practically revolutionized by inventions and scientific discoveries. In the wake of the inventions and improvements of machinery, came business on a large scale, resulting in the influx of thousands of laborers into the cities which sprang up around the centres of industry. At first there was no supervision of the workers in the factories, and labor was ruthlessly exploited. The living conditions of the proletariat were deplorable, and the problem of the over-crowded disease- breeding slums was accordingly accentaated. The exploita­ tion of labor, however, was not confined to the cities. In the country there were many instances of sweated labor, and the misery of the Silesian weavers was particularly acute. A new class consciousness came into being with the great contrast between large fortunes, and the poverty of the underpaid workers, through whose toil this wealth had been amassed. The doctrines of Karl Llarx and the other socialistic writers of the period were an evidence of an ever growing social sympathy. 2. On the scientific side exhaustive research and microscopic analysis had brought about a great improvement in scientific methods. in 1859 appeared Darwin's revolutionary work, "The Origin of Species." "Tith the conception of men as a product of his inherited tendencies, and the circumstances in which he found himself, science definitely broke with the tradition­ al religious and ethical beliefs. In place of moral responsibility and moral guilt, the theories of environment and heredity were substituted. Mail was no longer a free agent, but the unfortunate victim of a social system. As a result of the purely materialistic interpreta­ tion of evolution, men began to doubt the doctrine of the existence of tne soul. Man was merely a superior animal with certain highly developed nerve connections. This view fostered a materialistic conception of life, which was intensified by the luxuries made possible through increasing material prosperity. The study of man as a biological and as a social organism threw emphasis on the physical, one phase of which was a greater interest in sex. The application of scientific research and - lalytical methods to literature was first effected by Zole . i,s man was merely the product of his environment, it wai necessary to describe that environment in the greatest detail, omitting nothixag, however depressing or revolting. This reaction from over-idealization swung too far. i'he naturalists, to 3. use Matthew Arnold's famous phrase. "Mid not see life steadily, nor see it whole." The "truth" which they were so eager to depict, was not the whole truth. While insisting on the "Sohattenseiten" of life, they forgot that the good and the beautiful have a place in the scheme of things. This new literary movement, which Zola called Naturalism, was not confined to France, however. Phases of it were evident also in the great writers of Russia and Scandinavia, who, together with Zola, exerted a Rreat in­ fluence on the young generation of that time in Germany. After the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, the first effort of a united German people was to become a cultured nation. In the eighties a new spirit in philosophy crept in. Many thinkers reverted to the doctrines of Kant, and the pessimism of Schopenhauer lost its grip. This change in philosophical thought was due principally to the great in­ fluence whioh Friedrich Nietzsche exerted over his contem­ poraries. Mr. J. G. Robertson, in his "Literature of Germany," says, "Nietzsche renounced pessimism and what was still harder for him, broke with his most intimate friend Richard Wagner; and in the place of the old order of things, he set a vigorous optimism which has acted on contemporary Germany like a tonic." 1- It was, however, a barren time for literature. As if in revenge for the German victory upon the field of battle, the 1. J. G. Robertson, literature of Germany," p.p.235-236. 4. trench "3oulevardstuck'' ruled the German stage. There were very few plays which were not French translations or imita­ tions after the model of Dumas, fils. These pieces had good technique, wit, and were apparently free from the "bourgeois morale," At the same time they were devoid of any real thought, and they were entirely frivolous. As a reaction against this insipid form of drama, a little coterie was formed in Berlin under the guidance of Holz and Schlaf. To this group came the young idealist and dreamer, Gerhart Hauptmann, who was destined to become the recognized leader of the naturalistic movement in Germany. Hauptmann was born in Silesia in 1862. He sprang from the people. His father was an hotel-keeper in Obersalz- brunn, and his grandfather had been a common wearer in the forties when the Silesian weavers, groaui ag noddy their hideous grievances, revolted against their masters. At an early age Gerhart heard the stories of the down-trodden weavers from his father. His youthful imagination was kindl­ ed in sympathy with the oppressed workers whose sufferings he afterwards made immortal in "Die Weber." The family of Hauptmann's mother, the Straehlers, had been for generations hard-working, God-fearing peasants. His mother was very religious and she reared the young Gerhart in the pietistic faith. In these teachings lie the root; of Hauptmann's sympathy and innate goodness, which permeate all his plays. Hauptmann was always a very poor student. He 5. struggled through the village school at Salzbrunn, and the Gymnasium at Breslau. The only subjects in which he showed promise were drawing and composition. At sixteen he was sent to his uncle Schubert to learn farming; but he had no taste for the soil. He decided that he would be a sculptor, and accordingly, in 1880, he became an art student in Breslau. At the art school Hauptmann remained only two years. He came to realize that sculptur­ ing would not be his life's work. He was always reaching out for a wider horizon, and groping for a more complete means of self-expression. Yet we cannot say that his time was wasted during these two years. AS an art student he learned the value of exact observation. When later on he came to write his dramas, this training stood him in good stead. 3y means of his quickened powers of observation, he was able to create living breathing flesh-and-blood people, not merely puppets to prate his ideas in dramatic form. From Breslau Hauptrnann went to the University of Jena, where his brother Carl was studying. Here he followed a course in the history of the Blench Revolution, and one in natural science under Haeckel. AS a result of these lectures he began to consider the great social questions of his age, particularly in the light of the new scientific ideas. These studies, and the experience he had gained from the art school, together with his natural sympathy and quick imagination, gave him an understanding and an insight into the suffering of people outside his own limited circle of 6. experience. At the University of Jena, Hauptmann "became a member of a certain socialistic society called "Gesellschaft Ikarien. The members of this organization had extreme Utopian ideas, and they even went so far as to found a socialistic colony in America. This venture ended in disaster. The society came under police surveillance, and was speedily brought to an end. One of their members, Heinrich Lux, was sent to prison for a year, as a warning to the rest. in 1883 Hauptmann started out to see something of the world. The story of his adventures is set down in the collec­ tion of poems which he called "Promentidenlos ." This was his first work to be published. The "Hauptmotiv" of the poem is Hauptmann's compassion for the suffering humanity which he saw in Italy and in Spain, in contrast to the beauties of the scenery, the misery and wretchedness of the proletariat seemed intensified. The secondary thought in ,TPromentidenlosrT is the struggle going on in Hauptmann the man - the struggle between the sculptor and the poet for the ascendency. In spite of the obvious faults of "Promentidenlos," the sincere moral earnestness, and the social sympathy which find expression here, more than make up for the halting verse, and the labored metre. As a revelation of the poet himself, it ranks among the most interesting first works of any modern author. But the conflict between sculptor and poet was not yet at an end. Gerhart took a studio in Rome and continued 7. his artistic studies. The Roman climate did not agree with him, however, and after a siege of fever, he was forced to return to Germany. In 1885, at the age of twenty-two, he married Marie Thienemann, the daughter of a rich merchant. The young couple settled in Berlin and now Hauptmann, for the first time, devoted himself to literature. Freed from the pressure of economic necessity by his wife's fortune, he was able to choose the medium and the subjects which most appealed to him; and so he appeared under the banner of naturalism, espousing the cause of humanity's oppressed and unfortunate.