The Firebugs (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Max Frisch
- First Published: 1953
- Type of Work: Play
- Type of Plot: Absurdist
- Time of Work: The 1950’s, but timeless
- Setting: The house of Gottlieb Biedermann, in an unidentified city
- Genres: Drama, Absurdist literature, Farce, Tragicomedy
- Subjects: 1950’s, Crime or criminals, Guilt, Class consciousness, Reality, Truth, Ethics, Business or business people, Arson
- Locales: Earth
Characters Discussed
Gottlieb Biedermann, a solid citizen and the millionaire manufacturer of a dubious hair tonic. His name suggests a respectable, unimaginative bourgeois who adheres rigidly to the social and ethical standards of his class (bieder means upright, worthy, or gullible). He accordingly believes in hanging as the proper punishment for the arsonists who are at large in the city, according to the newspapers. When a suspicious looking stranger suddenly appears in his living room, Biedermann yields without a struggle to his thinly veiled threats, face-savingly...
[The entire page is 773 words long]
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