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Scene 20
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, Margret, and a grandmother are walking down the street. Margret sings a song about Candlemas day. The children with them ask Marie to sing a song, but she says she can’t. One child asks the grandmother to tell them a story. The grandma tells a story about an orphan who was the last soul on Earth. He wanted to go to Heaven, so he traveled to the Moon. But when he got there, he found that it was made of rotten wood. Then he went to the Sun, only to discover that it was made of dead sunflowers. The stars, too, were only made of golden gnats. The child returned to Earth, which turned out to be an upside-down chamber pot. Woyzeck approaches them then and tells Marie to come with him. She asks where they’re going, but Woyzeck says he doesn’t know.
In the Christian religion, Candlemas, which occurs roughly 40 days after Christmas, commemorates Jesus’s presentation at the Temple in Jerusalem. The grandmother’s story about the orphan boy cuts against the themes of redemption and mercy that Candlemas evokes. Instead, it portrays a world in which misery and suffering know no bounds. Woyzeck’s appearance at the conclusion of the grandmother’s story thus has grim implications, suggesting that Marie, like the orphan boy, will receive no mercy. Remember that Woyzeck has just purchased a knife, following the instructions of voices in his head to “stab the wolf.” Given this, it seems likely that Woyzeck is leading Marie away in order to kill her as punishment for her transgression.
Themes
