Georg Büchner's 'Dantons Tod' : A Reappraisal

Abstract

Büchner's turbulent drama Dantons Tod presents problems of characterisation on a different order of magnitude from those of the works which followed, not least because it was Büchner's first play, and a very ambitious one. He poured into it a welter of youthful ideas and emotions, amd there is no such integration of character, mood, idea, and setting as one finds later in the more limited and unified work. James's study approaches Dantons Tod through a study of how Büchner chose to motivate his characters. This book, originally published in paperback in 1982 under the ISBN 978-0-900547-77-5, was made Open Access in 2024 as part of the MHRA Revivals programme.