THE MOTIVE OF “ANTAGONISTIC Brothers” IN THE DRAMA OF F. KLINGER AND F. SCHILLER

Abstract

Both German playwrights F. Klinger and F. Schiller, who started in the art paradigm of “Sturm und Drang”, twice addressed the motive of “antagonistic brothers”, typical for the literature trend. Using four dramas as examples, the article traces a gradual weakening of the initial impulse of “Sturm und Drang”, a constant revision of aesthetical and worldview dominant ideas. Being younger, Schiller immediately modifies extreme subjectivity of early Klinger and later they both reassess their philosophical and aesthetical judgments. It turns out that the conflict between the brothers in Klinger’s “The twins” appears as a biological opposition of strength and weakness, in Schiller’s “The Robbers” as an ideological opposition of good and evil, idealism and realism, in Klinger’s “The False Players” as a domestic quarrel of two criminals and in Schiller’s “The Bride of Messina” as the determined by fate, equally idealized two forces of nature inspired by “Weimar classicism”.