Across the lake one sees the green meadows, villages and farms lie in the bright sunshine. The lake makes a cove in the land, a hut is not far from the shore, fisherboy conveys himself in a boat. WALTER FURST and ARNOLD VON MELCHTAL enter simultaneously from different sides. The back side is finished, the front is being built even now, the scaffolding is still standing, on which the workmen are climbing up and down, upon the highest part of the roof hangs the slater. On an eminence in the hinterground one sees a fortress being constructed, which is already so far advanced, that the form of the whole is evident. WERNER STAUFFACHER, PFEIFER VAN LUCERNE enter in conversation. High rocky shore of the Vierwaldstattensee, opposite Schwyz.Ī linden tree in front of STAUFFACHER's house on the country road, near the bridge. It was dedicated, as the title indicates, as a New Year's Gift to the World.

The play was first performed in Weimar on March 17, 1804, a nd first put in print in October of that year, by Cotta at Tubingen.

Wilhelm Tell, Schiller's last and greatest republican drama, was written at the end of his life, from 1803-4, when Schiller was at the peak of his artistic genius. MANY COUNTRYMEN,MEN AND WOMEN FROM THE FOREST CANTONS MASTER STONEMASON< JOPURNEYMEN AND LABORERS However, Tell’s act of murder separates him from the other Swiss protagonists in Schiller’s attempt to outline a righteous revolution, different from the one in France.RUDOLPH der HARRAS, Gessler's Horsemaster The comparison between Schiller’s play and the contemporary German philosopher Johann Benjamin Erhard’s essay Über das Recht des Volks zu einer Revolution illustrates that Schiller’s social utopia develops in accordance with contemporary social visions. The comparison of the play with earlier versions of the Tell legend highlights the roles of peasants and nobles in the establishment of the Swiss Confederation and suggests that Schiller elaborated extensively on the idea of a ‘common ground’ among the Swiss from different classes. A further analysis, based on Brown’s and Levinson’s politeness theory confirms the development of a social utopia in the play, but also reveals that Wilhelm Tell plays a minor role in the social development described. An initial study of its dramatic structure suggests a change in the relationship between the Swiss peasants and nobles. This paper is an interdisciplinary analysis of Friedrich Schiller’s play Wilhelm Tell (1804).

Wilhelm Tell by Friedrich Schiller