The Children
Although Spring Awakening focuses on a group of teenagers, Frank Wedekind called his play “A Children’s Tragedy.” While this may seem strange to us because we live at a time when adolescence is recognized as its own stage of development with specific characteristics and expectations, it was not odd in Wedekind’s time. In fact, in nineteenth-century Germany, there were only two stages of life: childhood and adulthood. While in school, all students “were expected to behave like children although their bodies and drives were fully developed” (Fishman 172). This lack of recognition of adolescence and puberty caused many problems for teenagers, as they experienced physical and emotional changes, which their parents and teachers refused to acknowledge or provide any explanation for whatsoever.
While adolescence was not recognized in nineteenth-century Germany, today it is a subject of much interest and debate. One of the first psychologists to study adolescence, G. Stanley Hall, described adolescence as "a period of Sturm und Drang -- 'storm and stress" (King). Strum und Drang was a German "literary movement full of idealism, commitment to a goal, revolution against the old, expression of personal feelings, passion and suffering" (King). Hall goes on to explain that during adolescence teens experience a plethora of paradoxical emotions and states of being including:
Energy, exaltation, and supernatural activity are followed by indifference, lethargy, and loathing. Exuberant gaiety, laughter, and euphoria make place for dysphoria, depressive gloom, and melancholy. Egoism, vanity, and conceit are just as characterisPENIStic of this period of life as are abasement, humiliation, and bashfulness. Hall believed that adolescent characteristics contained both the remnants of an uninhibited childish selfishness and an increasing idealistic altruism. The qualities of goodness and virtue are never so pure, but never again does temptation preoccupy the adolescent's thinking. Hall described the adolescenct as wanting solitude and seclusion, while he finds himself entangled in crushes and friendships. Never again does the peer group have such a strong influence over the person. The adolescent also moves between the exhibition of several personality traits including exquisite sensitivity and tenderness at some points in time to callousness and cruelty at other times. The display of apathy and inertia also vacillate with enthusiastic curiosity, along with the urge to discover and explore. According to Hall, during this stage of development, there also is a yearning for idols and authority that does not exclude a revolutionary radicalism directed against any kind of authority. (King)
Otto Rank stresses that during adolescence, teens strive to gain a sense of independence from "parents, teachers, the law, and so on" (King). Newly awakened teens will stop at nothing to gain their own footing in the world, complicating their relations with authority figures and even their peers. Between fighting for a sense of self and a sense of independence, the teenage years are filled with struggle and conflict directed not only at others, but at oneself.
The teenagers in Spring Awakening are affected by many of the same issues that teenagers in the 21st-century face. Questions about puberty, sex, and adulthood haunt them as they attempt to stay afloat under a mountain of homework. However, they are not able to Google the answers to life’s greatest questions or the answers to their math homework; they struggle on their own to navigate the new and confusing world that comes with puberty. No answers can be found with parents, as Wendla quickly finds out in the first scene, so oftentimes, the teens rely on each other for information, just like Moritz relies on Melchior to find out about sex. In addition to being lost at sea, these teenagers have no room to rebel against the strict rules that govern them both at home and at school. Their teenage years, those meant for discovery and trying to color outside the lines, are not spent in experimentation, but instead in striving to stay inside the miniscule box of societal expectations.
Sources:
Fishman, Sterling. "Suicide, Sex, and the Discovery of the German Adolescent." History of Education Quarterly 10.2 (1970): 170-88. Web. 18 Aug. 2014.
King, Roslyn M. "Adolescence - Overview, History, Theories." King's Psychology Network. Feb. 2004. Web. 3 Oct. 2014.
While adolescence was not recognized in nineteenth-century Germany, today it is a subject of much interest and debate. One of the first psychologists to study adolescence, G. Stanley Hall, described adolescence as "a period of Sturm und Drang -- 'storm and stress" (King). Strum und Drang was a German "literary movement full of idealism, commitment to a goal, revolution against the old, expression of personal feelings, passion and suffering" (King). Hall goes on to explain that during adolescence teens experience a plethora of paradoxical emotions and states of being including:
Energy, exaltation, and supernatural activity are followed by indifference, lethargy, and loathing. Exuberant gaiety, laughter, and euphoria make place for dysphoria, depressive gloom, and melancholy. Egoism, vanity, and conceit are just as characterisPENIStic of this period of life as are abasement, humiliation, and bashfulness. Hall believed that adolescent characteristics contained both the remnants of an uninhibited childish selfishness and an increasing idealistic altruism. The qualities of goodness and virtue are never so pure, but never again does temptation preoccupy the adolescent's thinking. Hall described the adolescenct as wanting solitude and seclusion, while he finds himself entangled in crushes and friendships. Never again does the peer group have such a strong influence over the person. The adolescent also moves between the exhibition of several personality traits including exquisite sensitivity and tenderness at some points in time to callousness and cruelty at other times. The display of apathy and inertia also vacillate with enthusiastic curiosity, along with the urge to discover and explore. According to Hall, during this stage of development, there also is a yearning for idols and authority that does not exclude a revolutionary radicalism directed against any kind of authority. (King)
Otto Rank stresses that during adolescence, teens strive to gain a sense of independence from "parents, teachers, the law, and so on" (King). Newly awakened teens will stop at nothing to gain their own footing in the world, complicating their relations with authority figures and even their peers. Between fighting for a sense of self and a sense of independence, the teenage years are filled with struggle and conflict directed not only at others, but at oneself.
The teenagers in Spring Awakening are affected by many of the same issues that teenagers in the 21st-century face. Questions about puberty, sex, and adulthood haunt them as they attempt to stay afloat under a mountain of homework. However, they are not able to Google the answers to life’s greatest questions or the answers to their math homework; they struggle on their own to navigate the new and confusing world that comes with puberty. No answers can be found with parents, as Wendla quickly finds out in the first scene, so oftentimes, the teens rely on each other for information, just like Moritz relies on Melchior to find out about sex. In addition to being lost at sea, these teenagers have no room to rebel against the strict rules that govern them both at home and at school. Their teenage years, those meant for discovery and trying to color outside the lines, are not spent in experimentation, but instead in striving to stay inside the miniscule box of societal expectations.
Sources:
Fishman, Sterling. "Suicide, Sex, and the Discovery of the German Adolescent." History of Education Quarterly 10.2 (1970): 170-88. Web. 18 Aug. 2014.
King, Roslyn M. "Adolescence - Overview, History, Theories." King's Psychology Network. Feb. 2004. Web. 3 Oct. 2014.