The Sunken Bell | The Sunken Bell

At a glance:

Author: Gerhart Hauptmann
First Published: 1896
Type of Work: Play
Type of Plot: Fantasy
Time of Work: Indefinite, timeless
Setting: A mountain, a valley, and the paths between
Genres: Drama, Folklore, Fantasy
Subjects: Folkloric or magical people, Love or romance, Supernatural, Barbershops or barbers, Legends, Witches or witchcraft, Tragedy, Elves, Bells

Characters Discussed

Heinrich (HIN-rihkh), (A Study in Scarlet)a bell-founder who symbolizes the artist against the world. Trying to carry a bell to a mountain church, he is injured by the spirits of wood and water, and his bell is pushed into a lake. He is saved by the mountain sprite Rautendelein, and they fall in love. A rescue party carries him home, but he returns to Rautendelein. His efforts to make a superlative bell are frustrated by the dwarfs. His wife dies, and her dead hand rings the sunken bell. Dying, and renounced by Rautendelein, he tries to reach a flaming cathedral-castle. Wittikin gives him the wines of life and of the questing spirit; Rautendelein, the wine of aspiration. Embraced by Rautendelein, he dies, hearing the chimes of the sun.

Rautendelein (row-TEHN-deh- lin), a mountain sprite. She is intended as the bride of the Nickelmann but falls in love with Heinrich. When he is taken home dying, she revives him. Renounced by Heinrich, she marries the Nickelmann but returns to Heinrich as he dies.

Bibliography:

Garten, Hugh F. Gerhart Hauptmann. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1954. A useful general introduction to the writer and his work.

McInnes, E. O. H. “The ‘Active’ Hero in Gerhart Hauptmann’s Dramas.” In Hauptmann: Centenary Lectures, edited by K. G. Knight and F. Norman. London: University of London’s Institute of Germanic Studies, 1964. A relevant essay in a collection that mostly deals with later works.

Maurer, Warren R. Gerhart Hauptmann. Boston: Twayne, 1982. A study with emphasis on the works; The Sunken Bell is discussed in chapter 6, “Folklore and Symbolism.”

Maurer, Warren R. “Hauptmann’s ‘Die versunkene Glocke’ and Ibsen’s ‘Auf den Höhen.’” Monatshefte 52 (1960): 189-193. A comparison of the two works.

Reichart, Walter A. “Gerhart Hauptmann’s Dramas on the American Stage.” Maske und Kothurn 8 (1962): 223-232. About the staging of Hauptmann’s plays in the United States.