Staging Act 5 of Schiller's Wilhelm Tell

Authors

Timothy Richard Wutrich

Abstract

Wilhelm Tell, Schiller's best-known play, receives annual presentations that emphasize the festive aspects of the drama, Tell's killing of the tyrannical governor Gessler, and the successful Swiss rebellion against Austria. However, such productions unfortunately tend to cut the problematic scenes dealing with a second political assassination and an encounter between Tell and Johannes parricida. Schiller was concerned with philosophical and political problems in Tell, not just costume drama. In Tell Schiller highlights conflicts between reason and inclination. Reading Tell closely invites comparison with works by Kant, Locke, and Rousseau and suggests the necessity of staging Act Five in its entirety.

Recommended Citation

Wutrich, Timothy Richard (2006) "Staging Act 5 of Schiller's Wilhelm Tell," Comparative Drama: Vol. 40: Iss. 1, Article 3.
Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/compdr/vol40/iss1/3