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Scene 3
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
Inside the tent, a crowd watches as the showman leads in a horse, which the showman claims is highly intelligent and a professor at the nearby university. He asks the horse if there’s “an ass” among the crowd. The horse shakes its head no in response. The showman says the horse is a human being but also a “beast” at the same time. The horse “behaves indecently” in response. The showman urges the audience to be like the horse and express their true, animal nature because “it can be dangerous to keep it in.” The showman then asks if any of the men have a watch he can use to demonstrate how the horse can count. The sergeant dramatically removes his watch from his pocket and offers it to the showman. Marie wants to see, and the sergeant helps her up to the front bench.
The showman’s remarks about human nature almost read as a warning, perhaps foreshadowing events to come. More importantly, the showman’s advice gives voice to the play’s position on human nature and society, namely that society and all its rules about how humans ought to behave stifle—but do not eradicate—human nature. The showman suggests that stifling one’s human urges indefinitely “can be dangerous,” perhaps leading one to act on the animal, supposedly immoral urges social norms are designed to suppress.
Themes
