The Weavers Exam (Staging History)

In act, one of the weavers, weavers wait in a large, gray walled room in the home of _______, a fustian (cloth) manufacturer

In act, one of the weavers, weavers wait in a large, gray walled room in the home of _______, a fustian (cloth) manufacturer

Dreissiger

In act one of the weavers, the setting is the town of _______

Peterswaldau

In act one, their manager, _______, judges their wares and then they are paid by Neumann, the cashier

Pfeifer

In act one, the most outspoken and defiant Weaver is _______, who dares tell the manager in the presence of the manufacturer: "oh, you penny-counter— just shut your trap. When your mother was riding round on her broomstick one moonless night she must've fallen for lucifers; that's how you turned out to be such a devil."

Bäcker

The setting for act two of the weavers is a small room in the home of _______ in the village of Kaschbach, near the Eulen Mountains

Wilhelm Ansorge

In act two, _______, the son of mother Baumert and old Baumert, is described in the following manner: "her son... a 20- year- old idiot with a small body and long, spider, like lambs, sits on a footstool; he, too, is spooling yarn."

August Baumert

In act two, mother Baumert is visited by her nephew, _______, who is described in the following manner: "he is of medium height, red cheeked, a strapping reservist; he wears his Hussar's cap at a jaunty angle, a clean shirt with a collar, and clothes, and shoes that are neither torn nor mended."

Moritz Jäger

In act two, Old Baumert states: "if we could at least have a little roast like this, on the holy days; as it is, we ain't even getting to look at a piece of meat for months and months; just have to wait until another little doggy runs into the house like this one did four weeks ago, and that don't happen so often in one lifetime." This means that the meal he offers to share with his visiting nephew is actually _______

Ami

In act three, the innkeeper, _______, is joined there by his wife and his 17 year old daughter

Welzel

In act three, _______ is taunted by the salesman, who Badgers, her about marriage, despite the fact that she clearly reject the idea of marriage

Anna Welzel

In act three, _______ says, "We're like an apple; everybody comes and takes a bite."

Old Baumert

In act three a band of Young weavers led by _______ arrives at the tavern with fresh, tattoos to show their devotion to their growing anger and call for revolution

Moritz Jäger

In act four, the action takes place in the living room of the _______ home, the manufacturer in Peterswaldau

Dreissiger

In act four, _______ shouts on his way out of Dreissiger's home, " and no matter how proud her highness Frau [Mrs.] Dreissiger thinks she is, she still no better than us [the weavers]. She's served. My father is three pfennigs' worth of booze, hundreds of times..."

Moritz Jäger

In act four, the revolutionary fervor of the weavers explodes into violence with the attack up on the police and the escape of _______

Moritz Jäger

In act four, the weavers break into the Dreissiger's home looking for him. When the crowd cannot find Dreissiger himself, who escaped with his family in a carriage, they start calling for _______.

Pfeifer

In act five, the action takes place in the small living room of _______ in Langenbielau.

Old Hilse

In act five, _______ reports about the weavers revolt, their carnage, and that the weavers are headed here next

Hornig

In act five, _______ lectures Old Hilse about how life right now is not good enough. She has seen her children starve to death and will not sit silently anymore

Luise Hilse

In act five, the play ends with the death of _______, shot dead by a bullet during the fierce battle between the rebel Weavers and the army

Old Hilse

Dreissiger

Cloth manufacturer

Pfeifer

Manager under Dreissiger. Pfeifer means whister, hes very shrill and picky

Peterswaldau

Rich city, higher class, where Dreissiger lives

Gerhart Hauptmann

Playwright

Gottlieb Hilse

Son of Old Hilse, husband of Luise Hilse, does not join revolt until he realizes he must go out to protect his rebelling wife

Old Hilse

A weaver, disgusted by the revolt, dies on/in his work

Old Baumert

Old weaver, joins the revolt

Welzel

The innkeeper

Hornig

A ragpicker, used often as a messanger

Heinrich Heine

Poet, writer, literary critic. Wrote "The Silesian Weaver" in 1844, poem with the "we weave, we weave" lines

Old Wittig

The blacksmith, joins revolt

Frau Dreissiger

Dreissiger's wife

Kutsche

A policeman

Kaschbach near the Eulen Mountains

Poorer, small village, home to Baumert/Ansorge

Kaiser Wilhelm II

King during the time, statements on "true art", Wilhelm's "Middle Ground": 1. German Nationalism 2. Technological innovation 3. Distrust enemies of the state such as socialist and modernists

Luise Hilse (wife of Gottlieb)

Joins revolt because they’re sick of the way things are as a parent, hates Old Hilse

Mother Hilse

Half-deaf and blind, dependent on Old Hilse

Mother Baumert

Baumert's wife, old and terrified

Frau Welzel

Innkeeper's wife

Wiegand

A cabinet maker, in Act 2

George Ludwig Weerth

Close friend of Marx and Engels, first proletariat Poet of Germany, wrote Das Hungerlied (poem about eating the king)

Pastor Kittlehaus

Friend of Dreissiger, thinks he has the power to persuade the weavers into relaxing, he definitely doesn't

Weinhold

Tutor to Dreissiger's sons

Heidi

Police Superintendent

Neumann

The cashier

Langenbielau

Home of Old Hilse, village

"True Art" Speech

Made by Wilhelm II, art should be realism as seen in nature and classical forms of beauty and harmony. Should assist in educating the public (about nationslism). Classist towards the lower class, "these ideals demand that we give the working, toiling classes, the chance to identify themselves through beauty, and they are by alleviate themselves above every day." Portraying misery is a sin against the German people

Mielchen Hilse

The little girl

Wilhelm Ansorge

A weaver, lends a room to the Baumerts

August Baumert

Baumert's son, spiderlike

Anna Welzel

17 year old daughter of the innkeepers

Ami

The friendly dog

The Silesian Weavers Revolt of 1844

Frau Kittlehaus

Pastor's wife