Previous
Scene 22
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
Woyzeck is at the inn. He urges everyone to dance, then he sings a song about a woman who goes off with a soldier. He tells a woman, Käthe, that he’s hot, then he removes his jacket. Käthe cries out when she spots blood on his hands. A crowd assembles around them. Woyzeck grumbles at everyone for bothering him—do they think he’s killed someone? He tells them to mind their business, then he rushes out.
Woyzeck continues to behave erratically and unpredictably, further indicating his deteriorated mental state. His urgent pleas for the inn’s patrons to sing and dance with him read as an effort to distract himself from thoughts of the horrendous crime he has just committed, which might suggest that he feels remorse for what he has done. But Käthe spots the blood on his hands, nonetheless, and so it seems like only a matter of time before his crime comes to light.
Themes
