Schiller the Killer: Wilhelm Tell and the Decriminalization of Murder

Summary

WHEN CONFRONTED WITH the rich variety of Wilhelm Tell, with its cast of hundreds and more than fifty speaking roles, one might reasonably ask, what is this piece about? The long thematic arm of Schiller's late play embraces a collection of issues, beginning with the struggle to parse authority and remain loyal to the Holy Roman Empire, while resisting the Emperor's representatives, and abhorring the Hapsburgs. It is also about the opposition of good and evil, good being personified in the numerous “wackere” and “biedere” native Swiss and evil in the undifferentiated bad guys from elsewhere who govern the cantons for the Emperor. It is about nature, the mountains, lakes, and valleys that constitute the Swiss “Boden,” the natural and political ground that the men will make a stand for. It is about the porous membrane that separates public and private spheres, the political and the personal—the major political violations that occur being intrusions into the private life of the family, beginning with Wolfenschiessen's assault on Baumgarten's wife, continuing with the blinding of Melchtal's father, and culminating in Geßler's forcing Tell to aim an arrow at his own son's head.

The play is also about romance. Though Rudenz and Berta seem curiously superfluous to Schiller's busy plot program, they do love, struggle and unite amid the din. It covers the later stages of romance, namely postmarital, as we look in on the domestic matters of Tell's family and Stauffacher and his wife.