Historical and Cultural Context of 'Spring Awakening' - Book Report/Review Example

Spring Awakening Introduction The 1891 play Spring Awakening by German Frank Wedekind remains a unique piece in the history of performing arts, having broken the norms in the fraternity of the arts. Although it was Frank’s first play, it was also unique to the world in that its content was entirely different from what the world was used to in that it was considered highly provocative at that instant in time. The play had to wait for fifteen years before it could be staged owing to its controversial nature. Frank had plotted the play with subjects touching on sexuality and had vivid erotic fantasy content which until that time had never been incorporated in performing arts. This discussion text will discuss the historical and cultural context of the Spring Awakening as was received after its production and the controversies it created in addition to why about a century after its production, it still remains one of the most censored plays on the planet. During the play’s writing, Germany was experiencing the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 to 1871, whose climax marked the onset of the viral Industrial revolution that saw Germany make big strands towards technology and innovation. These conditions supported the development of art as many events were coming up, and as the commentary nature of art demands, it had much to feed on. Controversial topics began emerging in literature. For instance the God is Dead published by Friederich Nietzcheshe1. In this era, Germany was facing revolutions in parenting, schooling, religion, politics and various other social aspects, key among them being sex. It might be for this reason that Wedekind derived his inspiration to write the play, which is attributed by scholars as addressing the contexts of teenage sex, early pregnancy, parent-child relationships and parental responsibility. The play rotates around a young teenage girl, Wendla, as she undergoes his transition into adolescence. There is also a teenage boy, Melchior, also facing the same stage of life which entails much curiosity towards sex life. A walk in the woods between the two teenagers results in a sexual encounter upon which Wendla gets pregnant and her mother forces her to undergo an abortion, from which she dies. Their fellow age mate, Moritz commits suicide after a girl (Illsa) asks him to walk her home, but he shies off, making him hate himself. He was earlier depressed after his head teacher failed him in exams, he had previously passed and his father scolds him. Illsa had been sent away from home by her parents after she revealed of her father’s sexual abuse. Near the end of the play, Melchior, too laden by the confusing adolescent life contemplates suicide while at Wendla’s grave. “Spring Awakening Dramaturgy”2 reveals that in the period of the play’s writing, sex was still a touchy topic in the German state, and that a public discussion of it would attract much fear, shame, conflict and ignorance. For instance, and considering that 16 years was the consent age at the time, advocates from the Catholic party were advocating for the age to be raised to 18 years, claiming that this would protect minors from sexual humiliation and prostitution. In addition to this, Christians of the Evangelic fragment pushed for the establishment of the “Sittlichkeit” which were collective sets of rules meant to minimize by regulating immorality in the public mainstream, with sex being the main concern. The rules were advocating against prostitution, cohabiting as a preference for marriage, and premarital sex intercourse. It is possible that such rules led to the banning of the play’s showing in the United States, New York to be precise when some moments before its first show, the staging was halted by New York’s Commissioner of Licenses on claims of it being overly oppressive as it was “pornographic in nature”. However, it was later staged after the Supreme Court nullified the commissioner’s claims. This was however to be its only showing in New York as it never got to air again after that3. Away from sex, the Spring Awakening was subjected to criticism for its role in directing scorning the society and publicizing sensitive matters. As Sandler4 explains, one of the reasons the play was so criticized is because it “oppressed and disfigured authoritative figures” such as parents. This, Sandler expounds is because the topics that children (adolescents) in the play engaged in with topics, the arguments they created by adults, and overall miscommunication between them was a portrayal of a society with a repressive attitude for children. It is possible that society in those days did not believe in such level of engagement between parents and children, and it might have been perceived as advocating for moral breach. This is further supported by the fact that parents would not share “extreme” matters like Wendla’s mother declining to tell her where babies came from. The World War 1’s end coincided with the beginning of the end of the play’s censorship and banning since the world was not longer perceiving of its subjects as too strict taboos. Berlin was the first to raise the banns which saw the play go into uninterrupted production in 1929, much of it being done by Peter Lorre. England followed closely when the play was performed in 199 at the Sunday Theatre Club, free of interruption and censoring. However, the take off was delayed some more in Germany because the producers were overly cautious in dealing with the controversial production fearing that they would offend the Nazi rule. This was, however an unnecessary fear since the Nazis had nothing against either the play or Wedekind, but it also went viral after the war5. The popularity, controversy and acceptance of the play rages on today, with the most recent case manifesting itself in the adoption of the Spring Awakening into a musical Broadway around the year 2006, inspiring music and musical plays. According to Cooper6, the issues addressed by the play might have been taboo in the ancient age, reason being that society was too innocent to publicly share them but today, the situation has changed. Through the performing arts, Cooper believes that reaching out and educating the younger generations on sexuality is much easier and more effective than just letting nature take its course, because that means they have to find it out by themselves, and there are risks involved in that. “Were Scared to show us more vulnerable sides in… sexuality… it’s safer to make it superficial”. He supports the superficial mode because that passes on the message without the actors getting any attachments to each other. Conclusion Performing arts are, and have always been the biggest broadcaster of knowledge and entertainment. With their vastness in categories such as songs, drama, and so on, these arts are effective in reaching almost everyone in society; young or old. The above discussion text highlights how a play as part of performing arts executes the said task. As is in the above case, Wedekind’s unique drive saw him take the risk of critiquing society for its shortfalls, which as was expected, created tantamount controversy in a usually “mute” societal context. Although his move seemed misplaced, it worked to sensitize the world on issues such as the demand for support required by adolescents, the need for proper adult-child communication, the struggles of adolescence, and proper parenting. This discovery works to highlight the long journey that performing arts has traversed to get to this point in time where it enjoys much freedom of expression, thus its effectiveness in broadcasting positivity through criticism or acknowledgement, thanks to Wedekind’s Spring Awakening. Bibliography BERE, CAROL., “Spring Awakening: Sex, Repression, and Rock ‘N’ Roll”, The Ted Hughes Society Journal, 2 (2009). POCKROSS, ADAM., Spring Awakening: The Study Guide. (Department of English: St. Andrew’s College, 2010). SANDLER, JUDITH., “Edgy Adolescent Themes Drive 1891 Drama.” Boston University, n.d. < http://www.bu.edu/bridge/archive/2000/02-18/arts.html>, Accessed 20 March, 2014. “Spring Awakening Dramaturgy.,” Jmu Spring Awakening, 20 Mar. 2014.< http://jmuspringawakening.wordpress.com/historial-context/ >, Accessed 20 March, 2014. THOMAS, COLIN., “Spring Awakening, the Musical offers up Sex, History, and Rock ‘N’ Roll”. Straight.com, < http://www.straight.com/arts/347241/spring-awakening-musical-offers-sex-history-and-rock-n-roll >, Accessed 20 Mar. 2014. Read More