Three plays.
By: Translated and with an introd. by Marion W. Sonnenfeld.
Contributors: Sonnenfeld, Marion, tr.
Publisher: Bucknell University Press
Published: 1974
Place of publication: Lewisburg [Pa.]
Language: eng; und
Number of pages: 271
Subjects: Hebbel, Friedrich, 1813-1863 -- Translations into English; Mariamne, consort of Herod I, King of Judea, ca. 57-ca. 29 B.C. -- Drama; Gyges, King of Lydia, d. ca. 648 B.C. -- Drama; Judith (Jewish heroine) -- Drama; Women in the Bible -- Drama
Description: Judith: Based on the deuterocanonical Book of Judith, Hebbel's adaptation presents a heroine who oversteps the boundaries of proper womanhood as defined by his 19th-century upbringing. Changing the political plot of the biblical story into a psychological investigation, he invests Judith with a sexuality and beauty that prove fatal to the men around her: she is left a virgin on her wedding night because her beauty (or so she believes) renders her husband Manasses impotent, and in Holofernes's tent, she subconsciously exercises her repressed sexual desire, leading Holofernes to rape her so that she can subsequently behead him. "Holofernes prefigures the misogynist ideology of the fin-de-siecle", and while Judith resists the traditional female role she is given, she cannot transcend its restrictions.

Herod and Mariamne: One of the most profound and moving tragedies of German literature.

Gyges and his ring: Probably his most mature and subtle work, shows Hebbel's predilection for involved psychological problems.
Table of contents: title: Judith.; title: Herod and Mariamne.; title: Gyges and his ring.