Themes
Suppression of the Curious Mind
Fear of Adolescent Sexuality
Teenage Alienation
Adolescence/The Awakening
Sources:
Ekstrom, Melody. Spring Awakening at Ball State University: Dramaturgical Book. Melody Ekstrom. Web. 25 June 2014.
Isherwood, Charles. "Sex and Rock? What Would the Kaiser Think?" The New York Times: Theatre Reviews. 10 Dec. 2006. Web. 25 Jun 2014.
- Children were considered “weak creatures who had to shielded from adult sinfulness, whose moral weakness had to be overcome through schooling” (Ekstrom).
- Where is the line drawn between protecting children from harm/harmful knowledge and restricting a child's mind/world view?
- Many adults in today's world are doing precisely what the adult characters are doing in the play: they are not allowing children to learn, think, or act.
- How does the extreme authoritarianism affect the teenagers? Do they create their own paths in life or merely follow the plans laid out for them?
Fear of Adolescent Sexuality
- How does the adult fear of adolescent sexuality affect the teen's views on sexuality?
- How does the lack of sexual knowledge available to the teens affect their discovery of sexuality?
- What is similar/dissimilar to sex ed today?
Teenage Alienation
- What affect does keeping the genders separated have on the characters?
- Who can the teens turn to when their parents will not have open and honest conversations with them?
Adolescence/The Awakening
- "Spring Awakening lingers almost painfully on those passages in youth when the discovery of sex temporarily disorders everything: relationships to family, friends, and the piano teacher; the feel of your body; even the fabric of the world itself, which seems to shimmer before you like a mirage, alive with danger and promise” (Isherwood, “Sex and Rock?”).
- Jared's thoughts: Spring Awakening is about growing as an individual, discovering yourself, and learning how to live in a world that seems to be constantly changing. Everyone experiences the teen years differently, some people excel during this time while others feel lost and alone. All teenagers go through puberty and develop their sexuality with changing bodies and feelings. Every person in history has gone through this time, whether it was good or awful, he or she got through it.
- Alyssa's thoughts: The people you encounter in your life and the lessons that you learn from them stay with you always. Life continues, and spring will come again to those strong enough to weather the struggles of winter.
- What does adolescence mean to you?
- How has adolescence and views on adolescence changed from nineteenth-century Germany? Any similarities or not?
- "I am consistently interested in the conflict between how other people identify you and the complex way in which you know yourself." --Diana Son
Sources:
Ekstrom, Melody. Spring Awakening at Ball State University: Dramaturgical Book. Melody Ekstrom. Web. 25 June 2014.
Isherwood, Charles. "Sex and Rock? What Would the Kaiser Think?" The New York Times: Theatre Reviews. 10 Dec. 2006. Web. 25 Jun 2014.