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Scene 4
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 sits in her room, her child in her lap and a mirror in her hand. Woyzeck was given orders and had to leave. Marie admires her reflection in the mirror and wonders if the earrings “he” gave her are gold. Marie might be poor, she notes, but she’s as beautiful as any rich woman. Marie urges her child to sleep, warning him that the sandman will come and blind him if he doesn’t close his eyes.
It's unclear how much time has passed between this scene and the previous scene at the fair, but readers may guess that Marie’s golden earrings—which the soldier Woyzeck almost certainly cannot afford—are a gift from a wealthier suitor, perhaps the drum major or the sergeant. Marie’s observation about being as beautiful as any rich woman might indicate her vanity, but it also points to the arbitrary nature of wealth and status. That one woman can be rich while a physically identical woman lives in poverty suggests that a person’s status is the result of random chance, not a person’s inherent character.
Themes
Suddenly, Woyzeck appears behind Marie. She hurriedly covers her ears with her hands, but Woyzeck sees the gold shining through her fingers. Marie claims she found the earrings on the ground. Woyzeck notes Marie’s luck at finding two earrings at once when he’s never found anything. Then he observes their sleeping child, noting the sweat on his brow. Poor people like them, he notes, “sweat even in [their] sleep.” Woyzeck gives Marie his pay from the captain, then he says he has to leave again.
Marie’s frantic effort to hide the earrings from Woyzeck effectively confirms that she received the earrings from a secret suitor. Though she tries to make an excuse, Woyzeck appears unconvinced, and the reader may predict that tensions will only continue to rise in his and Marie’s relationship. Meanwhile, Woyzeck’s despairing observation that the poor “sweat even in [their] sleep” reinforces the play’s sympathetic portrayal of poverty. Woyzeck is suggesting that the poor get no rest from their suffering—they suffer and sweat even as they sleep.
Themes
After Woyzeck leaves, Marie berates herself for being so awful. “I could stab myself,” she notes, claiming that everyone, “man and woman,” is going to hell.
Marie’s use of the phrase “man and woman” may be read multiple ways. While it may refer to “humankind,” it may also refer to one specific man and one specific woman: Marie and her mystery lover. Her declaration that everyone is going to hell further develops the theme of human nature. Marie suggests that all humans have base, animalistic urges that society deems sinful—that is, punishable by damnation. Lastly, her frank remark, “I could stab myself,” seems like a glaring moment of foreshadowing.
Themes
