Petty-bourgeois drama - this is how the play of five acts by F. Schiller, written at the end of the 18th century, āCunning and Loveā is characterized. A summary will be discussed below.
Action one
Morning at the house of musician Miller. He and his wife are discussing the daughterās fascination with a noble young man and does not see anything good that could get out of this feeling. Miller with the inherent burghers of sanity believes that his lovely and beloved daughter will only be dishonored.
Thus begins the play "Cunning and Love," a brief summary of which we began to expound. The wife objects and dreams that if they unite, it will be a happy marriage. Louiseās father does not see the possibilities of such an alliance. To them comes the middle-aged mister Vurs, who had long since asked for the hands of a young beauty. Father openly does not like him, and Herr Miller reports that he does not intend to force his daughter to marry. It should be her free choice.
Wurs and inwardly (this will show the further development of events) the āink soulā, as Miller characterizes him, is outwardly scary: he has ugly red hair, mouse eyes run a little steeply, his compilation sticks ugly forward. A loving couple meets when an impatient Ferdinand arrives on a visit in the morning.
From their dialogue it is clear that they love dearly and purely, but Louise sees an obstacle to their union in the form of father Ferdinand, occupying a very high position, the young man himself is ready to turn the mountains and overcome everything that can separate him from Louise. He is leaving home. Vurs, Ferdinandās fatherās secretary, told his father about his sonās tender feelings. The President mockingly reacted to this and was ready to accept the bastard if the son frolics around with the girl, but marriage is another.
An unpleasant conversation occurs during which the father reports that he has found a bride for his son. This has already been announced to the whole city, and the matter is settled. Ferdinand can only make a formal proposal. Who is it? This is the duke's lover - Lady Milford. She doesnāt want a mistress, here before him is another impeccable beauty-bride - Countess von Ostheim. So choose, obstinate son. There are no other options and will not be.
Between lovers are class prejudices in the play "Cunning and Love." Summary The first action shows them to us immediately. Ferdinand is going to go to milady and tell her everything that he thinks.
Action two
Lady Milford, young, beautiful, showered with the blessings and gifts of the duke, is suffering greatly.
She, a duchess by birth, at the age of 14 fled with a nanny from England, where her father was executed. A rich and noble child was about to take his own life. At that moment the duke noticed her and took her to him. Now Lady Milford has everything except love and self-esteem. She has long loved Major Ferdinand, who enters her house and, having learned of her previous life, repents, stops insulting, but says that she loves and is loved. This is a continuation of the dramatic story "Cunning and Love." The summary will now take us to the house of musician Miller.
Ferdinand's father bursts in with the cops. He threatens that he will throw Miller himself in prison, and his mother and daughter will bite to the pillory: for the corrupt girl there is the place. So more and more intensely develops the action of Schiller. āCunning and love,ā the summary of the play that we set out, puts father and son on different sides.
He, being in Millerās house, threatened his father that he would tell everyone thanks to what dark affairs he received the presidency. Ferdinand leaves, father, forgetting about the Millers, rushes after his son. But this is not the end, but only the middle of the play that Schiller created, "Cunning and Love." Summary and action in the work itself is developing rapidly.
Action Three
Ferdinand invites Louise to run away with him. The girl refuses, and the major reproaches her with insufficient love for him. On this they part. Ferdinandās father imprisons Louiseās father, and his mother sends her to a workhouse. Only a girl can save them by writing a love note, from which it is clear that she does not like the major.
She agrees to everything in order to save her parents, and, under the dictation of Vurs, writes to the front lover, Hoffmarshal von Kalbu. Cunning dominates love, as Friedrich Schiller ("Cunning and Love") shows. The summary of the play that we are considering reveals to us the nobility of some natures and the vileness of others.
Action four
Ferdinand tossed up Louise's love note, and first he wants to kill the cowardly von Kalba in a duel. In the meantime, Lady Milford invited Louise to her house. She insults the girl, expressing a desire to make her her maid. Louise nobly and restrainedly refuses and with bitter dignity explains to milady that if a marriage is made between her and the major, she will take her own life. With these words, Louise leaves from the shocked lady Milford.
Love is one of the main driving forces of the tragedy that Schiller created. "Cunning and love," the content of the play that we continue to read, suggests that, giving the beloved, true love rises above self-love for the sake of the happiness of a dear person. After a conversation with Louise, a veil falls from the eyes of milady, and, having distributed her property, she leaves for England to wash away the shame of the bond with the duke in poverty.
Action five
Louise is driven to despair and wants to commit suicide. Ferdinand, exhausted by jealousy, appears.
He presents Louise with the ill-fated letter. She does not refuse that it was written by her. Ferdinand pours lemonade into the glasses, hesitating, sprinkles the poison, drinks it and gives it to Louise. Now they are both doomed: Ferdinand does not hide from Louise that they will both die.
The girl admits that she wrote the letter under dictation, and everything in it is a lie. Ferdinand's father arrives, his constant adviser Vurs, and both see the work of their hands: the lifeless Louise and the dying Ferdinand, who forgives his father before his death. The play āCunning and Loveā ends with two deaths, a brief summary of the chapters of which we have examined.
A brief analysis of the drama
On the example of the small duchy, it was shown how much dirt, intrigue, immorality and crime exist in the world. Two noble souls - Ferdinand and Louise, who love each other contrary to all conventions and wish to unite forever, are ruined. Their pure love ascended to heaven with them. Death is the inevitable companion of love in all Western European literature.
Reader's reviews of the play āCunning and Loveā by Schiller Friedrich
There are many of them, they are vast and correspond to modern views on love. It was not worth the main character so unconditionally believe in fake writing, but he had to figure it out. Nobody was counting on a happy ending, but the action captivated absolutely everyone.