Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Woyzeck's Marie: "Ein schlecht Mensch"? The Construction of Female Sexuality in Büchner's Woyzeck

1990; University of Toronto Press; Volume: 26; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3138/sem.v26.4.294

1911-026X

Kerry Dunne,

The sexual nature of Woyzeck' s motivation for killing Marie has often been demonstrated in performances of the play. During a performance of Woyzeck in Sydney, Australia, for example, Woyzeck (played by Michael O'Neill) rammed the knife up between Marie's legs, and a similar series of gestures is used by Klaus Kinski in Werner Herzog's film of Woyzeck. O'Neill said later that it had felt good for Woyzeck to kill Marie in this manner because he, Woyzeck, had been dependent on Marie' s sexuality for too long, 2 a remark which indicated a love/hate relationship to sexuality in O'Neill's reading of the character. When the murder is presented in such a disquieting way, as an attack not so much on an individual as on the sexuality of that individual, it becomes apparent that it is not merely Marie's actions that seal her fate, but that societal views on female sexuality are equally important. Given this, if Marie's sexual attractiveness, her desirability, is an important factor in determining her ultimate fate, then she is just as much a victim of circumstance as Woyzeck. To examine why it is that Woyzeck kills Marie rather than simply abandoning her and why he kills only her and not his sexual rival as well, it is necessary to consider the characterisation of Marie, the depiction of sexuality, especially Marie' s sexuality, and thus what it is about the discourse on these issues that ensures Marie's murder flows logically from the events of the play.