86 Babel Volume XXI
Poetic Rebellion: Divine Imagery and Social Justice in Schiller's The Robbers Maggie Fyfe
Schiller's drama The Robbers, published in 1781, chronicles a conflict between two brothers, Karl and Franz. The drama emphasizes the dissent against authoritarian power structures characteristic of Germany's Sturm und Drang period. These oppressive powers manifest themselves in many ways, such as the structure of a patriarchal family, the church, and a tyrannical government. Karl's band of robbers and Karl's fiancé Amalia grapple in particular with these institutional power structures, and consider how they inform the moral lens through which they view their world. The moral ambiguity of Schiller’s drama brought about by the subversion of oppressive power structures is framed by a sense of divine judgement represented by paradisal and infernal language. The juxtaposition between Schiller's imagery of heaven and hell illustrates two parallel and paradoxical narrative tensions within the play. Whereas Karl's band of robbers justify their devilish deeds as an attempt to achieve paradisal liberation from authoritarian power structures, Amalia submits herself to her angelic perception of Karl, confined by a hellish, violent passion imposed by the institution of marriage. The band of robbers speak in images of hell as they measure the perceived evil of their thievery against the corrupt nature of their world. At the same time, they strive for a kind of Paradise that exists outside of the societal expectations of institutional au-
