page_title: Danton's Death
section_title: Georges Danton
hierarchical_section_title: Danton's Death / Characters / Georges Danton
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait photograph of Martin Gabel as Danton in the Mercury Theatre production of Danton's Death Français&#160;: Portrait photographique de l'acteur Martin Gabel jouant le rôle de Danton dans la pièce La mort de Danton au Mercury Theatre.
context_page_description: Danton's Death was the first play written by Georg Büchner, set during the French Revolution.
context_section_description: He is portrayed as a man, at his ease, with innate hedonism, with respect for the recent successes of the Revolution but doubts as to its other objectives. The atmosphere around Danton is marked by wine, gaming and easy women. This is contrary to the realities of the revolution, characterised by poverty, begging, drunkenness and prostitution (1.5). Danton was once poor and owes his current wealth to a gift from the Duke of Orleans, who tried to bribe his way to the French throne and gave Danton a gift as part of this attempt (S. 74, Z. 1–13).
  Danton is also portrayed as a hero who stands up against Robespierre's unnecessary killings (Einfach Deutsch; S. 73, Z. 9–12): You want bread and he throws out heads. You thirst and he leads you to the guillotine to lick up the blood. He even takes his premature death as inevitable, with a death wish: Life is evidently a burden to me, please take it away from me, I long to be there to take it off (S. 60, Z. 13–14). Danton has a strong bond of love to his wife Julie, without whom he will not die.
caption: Martin Gabel as Danton in the Mercury Theatre's Broadway production of Danton's Death (1938)
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