"Did you ever hear anyone say, 'That work had better be banned because I might read it and it might be very damaging to me'?" -- Joseph Henry Jackson

I decided to talk about a playwright this week. He is one of my favorite playwright’s because of one specific work that helped shape me into the person I am today. Frank Wedekind is that playwright. Wedekind was a German born playwright and his most famous work is Spring’s Awakening. Wedekind is associated with Expressionism because of his writing which criticized bourgeois attitudes, particularly geared towards sex. He is also credited as a major influence to Epic Theatre.

Wedekind’s first major work is Spring’s Awakening or Frühlings Erwachen in German. This play was written in 1891 but wasn’t performed until 1906. Spring’s Awakening is a play that is about material that some teenagers go through in their lives. This play has a subtitle that says, A Children’s Tragedy. That should already have you clued in by saying, “Wait a minute, tragedy? What?” Well, this play is very much a tragedy, but it carries a message with it.

The play is about a group of German students who are growing up in a sexually oppressed town. The focus is mainly on two of these children, Melchior and Wendla. They are about fourteen years old and they also become sexually involved, even though they know they shouldn’t be. The parents of these teenagers do nothing to tell them about sex or pregnancy or anything like that.

That is what Wedekind was trying to show. He was trying to show that it’s stupid to not inform your children of important things such a sex and pregnancy.

The other characters in the book also become involved in some type of sexual way. There are two boys, Hanschen and Ernst, who express their feelings toward each other, there are also Georg who had a romantic dream involving his mother, and poor Moritz is ‘plagued by horrid dreams’ as he puts it.

Moritz is another crucial character. He is the third main character and while the story mainly focuses on Melchior and Wendla, Moritz is a key character who shouldn’t be ignored. He struggles with fantasies that he doesn’t know how to deal with, he struggles in school and he struggles at home. He doesn’t know what to do and he ultimately ends up making the wrong decision.

This play deals with themes like sex, pregnancy, homosexuality, abortion and suicide. These themes weren’t very well thought of during the 1890’s and early 1900’s, which is why this play has been banned countless times. This play is crucial to my issue because, while during the time period it was written, it was very edgy and seeing as it was making fun of the German society of the time; it is so very relevant to my issue and to today in general.

I first read this play in 2006 after I had seen the musical Spring Awakening, which is based on this play. It is a rock musical that carries the same story, with a slightly different ending from the original play. I fell in love with this musical and with this play. I was sixteen when I read it and saw the musical and I have to say that it did have a profound effect on me. It was relevant to me when I read because I was sixteen and it is still relevant now. I think that every teenager should read it because, while at some points it can seem a tad melodramatic, it is very poignant and well written and has an excellent message.