Female Illness And Male Heroism: The Works Of Caroline Von Wolzogen

The heroines of Caroline von Wolzogen’s works frequently fall ill. Although not overtly critical of women’s subordinate position in society, Wolzogen suggests through these (mainly psychosomatic) illnesses the stresses endured by women as a result of their limited scope for action and of autocratic treatment by male characters. Wolzogen herself suffered from what she called a ‘Nervenkrankheit’, a psychosomatic condition that seems to have originated in her frustration as an intellectually gifted women confined in a marriage of convenience. The restric‐tedness of her heroines’ freedom is emphasised by her clear admiration for the heroic, a mode of action normally open only to men, in which mind and body can work in harmony; in her dramatic fragment Der leukadische Fels she experiments with a classical setting to open up heroic action to a female character. Her admir‐ation for her brother‐in‐law, Friedrich Schiller, is shown by her heroic portrayal of his struggle against illness in her biography Schillers Leben . Though she depicts Schiller’s world after his marriage as a harmonious community of like‐minded people in which contemporary ideals of femininity are fulfilled, her creative work offers insights into the unhappiness occasioned by women’s lack of liberty and status.