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Themes and Colors
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Woyzeck, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
One of the central concerns of Woyzeck is the conflict between human nature and social norms. While a society might successfully use threats of punishment or social ostracization to discourage people from acting on their baser instincts, this doesn’t eliminate those instincts altogether: it merely conceals them. And as Woyzeck’s final brutal act—his murder of Marie, the mother of his child, over suspicions of her infidelity—seems to indicate, a human can only suppress their nature for so long. Eventually, a person’s suppressed urges will build to the point that they break through the surface, leading to behavior that goes against accepted social norms and, in extreme cases, can even result in violence and tragedy.
While Woyzeck’s murder of Marie is indefensible, the play also suggests that society is at least partly to blame for his crime, highlighting several external factors that contribute to his unhinged act of violence. His poverty, for instance, compels him to take on extra work with the doctor, subjecting him to experiments that wear down his body and erode his mental state. Had Woyzeck been in his right state of mind—he has been experiencing auditory hallucinations and apocalyptic visions for quite some time prior to the murder—it's possible his rage would not have grown to the point of murder.
If people were freer to act on their basic human instincts in smaller ways on a regular basis, the play seems to suggest, then perhaps suppressed human instincts would less often build to the point of violence. The play thus paints human instinct in a neutral light. While some human instincts are indeed base and have the potential to lead to violence, ultimately a person cannot help their nature, and therefore some socially unacceptable behavior is inevitable. Social norms, on the other hand, are not inevitable: they are invented codes of conduct designed to condemn and suppress human nature. And in forcing people to suppress their baser instincts, Woyzeck suggests, social norms in fact encourage and exacerbate the very behaviors they wish to prevent.
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Human Nature ThemeTracker
The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Human Nature appears in each scene of Woyzeck. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis.
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Human Nature Quotes in Woyzeck
Below you will find the important quotes in Woyzeck related to the theme of Human Nature .
Scene 1
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Yes, Andres, the place is cursed.
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Scene 2
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What a man. He’s possessed. He didn’t even look at his child. He’ll go mad with thinking.
Scene 3
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When the fools talk sense then they fool us all.
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Gentlemen! Gentlemen! Observe this creature God has created. A nothing, a mere nothing at all. But see what he has achieved; he walks upright, has a coat and trousers, carries a sword. The monkey is a soldier. Though that’s not saying much, the lowest form of humanity.
DRUM MAJOR. Hold it. Did you see her? What a woman.
SERGEANT. By the devil, you could foal a cavalry regiment out of her.
DRUM MAJOR. And breed Drum Majors.
Scene 4
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That’s it. Put society to shame. You see, the animal is still in a state of nature, unidealised nature. Take a lesson from the animal, ask the doctor, it can be dangerous to keep it in. Man be natural, he says. You are created of dust, sand and filth. Do you want to be more than dust, sand and filth? See what reasoning!
Scene 5
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Aren’t I a bad girl? I could stab myself. What a world. We’re all going to Hell, man and woman.
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Scene 6
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Slowly, Woyzeck, slowly, one thing at a time. You’re making me dizzy. What am I going to do with the extra ten minutes you save? Imagine, Woyzeck, you’ve got a good thirty years yet to live, thirty years! That’s 360 months. And days, hours, minutes. What are you going to do with all that time? Pace yourself, Woyzeck.
We poor folk – you see, Captain, it’s money, money, when you’ve got none. You can’t set a fellow like me in the world on just morals, a man is flesh and blood as well. The likes of us are unblessed in this world and in the next. I expect when we get to Heaven we’ll have to help out with the thunder.
Scene 9
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No, Woyzeck, I’m not getting angry. Angry is unhealthy. It’s unscientific. I’m calm, quite calm. My pulse is its usual 60 and I tell you with the utmost coolness . . . God forbid that we should get angry over a mere human being, a human being.
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Scene 10
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He runs through the world like an open razor, you could cut yourself on him.
Scene 13
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Eh? What do you say? Louder, louder! Stab? Stab the she wolf dead. Stab, stab the she wolf dead. Shall I? Must I? Do I hear it up there too? Is the wind saying it? I can hear it on and on, on and on. Stab her dead, dead!
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Scene 19
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Everything is dead. Saviour, saviour! If only I could anoint your feet!
Scene 23
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What the Hell do you want? What’s it got to do with you? Out of my way! Or I’ll . . . You think I’ve killed someone. Am I a murderer, eh? What are you staring at? Stare at yourselves. Out of the way!
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Scene 24
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WOYZECK. The knife, where’s the knife? I put it down somewhere. It will betray me. Closer and closer. What kind of a place is this? What’s that? Something moved. Quiet. Somewhere just here. Marie. Ha. Marie. Still, completely still. Why are you so pale, Marie? Why have you got a red ribbon round your neck? Who have you earned that from with your sins? You were black with sin, black. Was it me made you so pale? What’s your hair so wild for? Haven’t you got it in plaits today? . . . The knife, the knife. Have I got it? Here!
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He wades further out.
