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Human Nature
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.
Toward the beginning of Woyzeck, Franz Woyzeck discovers Marie, the mother of his child, wearing an unfamiliar pair of gold earrings. When he confronts her about where she got them, she nervously claims to have found the earrings on the ground, when in fact the earrings are likely a gift from the haughty and handsome drum major with whom she is having an affair. Unconvinced by Marie’s explanation, Woyzeck grows more suspicious of her over the course of the play, especially after he spies her dancing with the drum major at a local inn. Woyzeck’s paranoia becomes so intense that it consumes his dreams, and he even starts to hear voices that order him to stab Marie in revenge. Importantly, Woyzeck’s torment isn’t the result of his knowing that Marie is being unfaithful. Indeed, even the audience can’t be sure that Marie has consummated her relationship with the drum major—Büchner cleverly hints at a sexual relationship between the couple without showing it play out. Instead, it is Woyzeck’s suspicions about Marie that cause him such angst, propelling him deeper into madness until he ultimately stabs Marie as punishment for wrongs he suspects—but cannot prove—that she has committed against him. Ultimately, it is Marie’s secrecy and Woyzeck’s paranoia that drive the couple apart. Their respective tragic fates emphasize a person’s limited ability to know the people in their life, even those to whom they are closest.
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Secrecy, Paranoia, and Betrayal ThemeTracker
The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Secrecy, Paranoia, and Betrayal appears in each scene of Woyzeck. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis.
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Secrecy, Paranoia, and Betrayal Quotes in Woyzeck
Below you will find the important quotes in Woyzeck related to the theme of Secrecy, Paranoia, and Betrayal.
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 5
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Our kind have only this one corner in the whole world and a little bit of broken mirror, and yet my lips are as red as any madam’s with her mirrors from floor to ceiling and fine gentlemen to kiss her hand. And I’m just a poor girl.
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 8
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Woman! No, there has to be something about you. Everyone is an abyss. You get dizzy when you look down. Maybe. She walks like innocence. Well, Innocence, you have a mark on you. Do I know? Do I know? Who knows?
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 16
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One thing after another.
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.
