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Scene 14
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Woyzeck, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Human Nature
Secrecy, Paranoia, and Betrayal
Poverty and Suffering
Character vs. Circumstance
Summary
Analysis
The doctor stands at his window. Woyzeck and some students are in the courtyard below. The doctor addresses his students, explaining that he feels like David watching Bathsheba bathe on the roof. Now, he will demonstrate the relationship between subject and object: if he throws this cat out the window, how will the creature use its instincts to “maintain its centre of gravity?” The doctor shouts down to Woyzeck and then throws the cat. Woyzeck catches it and then calls back to the doctor that the cat has bitten him. The doctor laughs at how gingerly Woyzeck holds the cat.
The doctor’s ambiguous phrasing—how will the creature “maintain its centre of gravity”—could either refer to the cat (who must rely on instinct to contort its body to ensure a safe and aerodynamic fall) or to Woyzeck (who must keep his balance so as not to fall as he catches the falling cat). In this way, the doctor continues to humiliate and dehumanize Woyzeck in the name of so-called research.
Themes
The doctor heads downstairs. Woyzeck tells him he feels shaky. The doctor excitedly invites his students to observe Woyzeck’s irregular pulse and eyes, both the result of his eating nothing but peas for the past three months. As the students feel for Woyzeck’s pulse, the doctor orders Woyzeck to wiggle his ears. When Woyzeck protests, the doctor scolds him and notes his thinning hair.
It's clear from Woyzeck’s irregular pulse and eyes that the pea experiment is destroying his physical health, yet the doctor regards these adverse effects with great excitement, once more using Woyzeck’s low status to degrade and devalue him. It adds insult to injury when the doctor remarks on Woyzeck’s thinning hair; he seems to imply that Woyzeck should be embarrassed about his baldness, when in fact the insufficient diet the doctor has prescribed Woyzeck is likely to blame.
Themes
