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Scene 18
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
Marie is in her room with her child and an “idiot.” The idiot mumbles to himself while Marie reads a passage from the Bible about an unfaithful woman to whom Jesus shows mercy, sending the woman away with the command that she not sin again. Marie despairs; just the sight of her child pains her. Woyzeck hasn’t been by in days.
Marie seems to relate to the unfaithful woman in the Bible passage, yet her despair suggests that she does not think she deserves the mercy that Jesus showed that woman. Marie’s despair recalls Woyzeck’s earlier joke about the poor being made to help with thunder in Heaven—Marie, like Woyzeck, has learned through experience that the poor are rarely shown mercy. This, by extension, leads her to believe that the poor do not deserve mercy.
Themes
