Friedrich Hebbel on Life Art History and Tradition
... In his play “Gyges und sein Ring” (1858), Friedrich Hebbel explores and presents various themes that that he needed to address as an artist living life in this world. The purpose of this short paper is to present Hebbel’s views on art and life, history, and tradition drawing from “Gyges und sein Ring” as well as other works. In “My Word Concerning the Drama” (1843), Hebbel draws a clear picture of his view on art and life. ... “Art has to do with life, both internal and external” and art draws its genres and subject matter from the “diversity of elements” which are present in life, Hebbel argues. Art does not apart from life, but is rather “life within life”, which is what art is supposed to become. Hebbel adds that the task is most perfectly fulfilled when it maintains the proper balance between the life’s two forms of being and becoming. “Drama represents the process of life itself”, whereby man’s nature and fate remain constant no matter how much the environment and circumstances may change. Thus the emphasis in Hebbel’s dramas is not so much about the plot, but the characters themselves. Hebbel believes that drama is dead when characters “appear to be completely formed, merely acting throughout the set of circumstances.” For drama to be the aforementioned “life within life”, it must clearly show how the individual develops through conflict and clarifying the nature of human action. After discussing Hebbel’s ideas on art and life, does Hebbel reach his own standards for the drama in “Gyges und sein Ring”? ... It may be helpful to briefly discuss the beginning of Book Two of Plato’s “Republic” and the influence it had on Hebbel’s work.