Ibsen and Hauptman 9 



" Wie alles eitel, ganz nur eitel ist, 

 und wie geschieht, was schon geschah, getan wird, 

 was schon getan ist : saen, pflanzen, ernten ! 

 Palaste bauen und zerstoren ! Lander 

 bevolkern und zur Wiiste machen ! . . . Schatze finden, sie 

 verlieren und suchen, wiederfinden dann ! " 



He feels that he stands in the shadow of approaching death, 

 but he still craves an aspect of life that he has never known, a 

 something subtle and beautiful that he cannot define. He is, in 

 reality, struggling with the same problem that perplexed Julian. 

 But he does not set about solving it through abstract speculation. 

 In the person of the Saxon " Geisel," Gersuind, he finds himself 

 confronted with the living, palpitating soul of paganism itself. 

 The drama at once resolves itself into the clash of these two per- 

 sonalities and to a certain extent into a struggle between Chris- 

 tianity, as represented by Karl, and paganism, as represented by 

 Gersuind. 



The technique of Hauptmann's presentation of Gersuind is 

 very interesting. He gives us no less than seven distinct and dif- 

 ferent conceptions of her character. We see her as reflected in 

 the minds of her uncle, of Rorico, of Ercambald, of Karl, of the 

 Oberin, of Alcuin and of the people, and yet remain not a little 

 puzzled as to what the real Gersuind really is. 



At Gersuind's first appearance we see, and are influenced by, 

 her uncle's conception of her. He is indignant at her confine- 

 ment in the cloister and calls her a captive bird, pining in a narrow 

 cage and longing to return to its old free life. To him she is the 

 innocent victim of an unjust fate. 



In sharp contrast to this is the conception held by Ercambald, 

 Karl's chancellor and chief church official. In his eyes she is of 

 the very essence of the stubborn and heathen Saxon folk, who 

 persist in returning to their ancestral deities " wo nicht Stock und 

 Rute und Faust dawider ganze Arbeit tun." 



Ercambald himself is the very embodiment of the convention- 

 alizing, desiccating influence of the phase of Christianity he pro- 

 mulgates. Gersuind's fate is to him a mere passing incident ; with 

 Karl's decision to return her to the convent school the incident 



251 



