Lena: The Tragic and Romantic Female Protagonist - Essay Example

Lena: The Tragic and Romantic Female Protagonist In the play Leonce and Lena, the tragic and romantic character of the princess Lena from the Kingdomof Pipi is highlighted by the story through her dialogues with her governess and then later on with Leonce. Lena is depicted as a woman who is extremely anxious of her standpoint in life. Her heart is such a difficult thing to understand both for her and for the people around her. However, Lena’s bitterness will then later on wilt like a flower because of a detested wedding bond that eventually became favorable for her. The gloomy temperament of Lena will eventually change due to her deep thoughts which will soon unite with those of her arranged better half, Leonce. The dialogues in the play itself demonstrated a gradual transformation of Lena’s stance towards life from the moment she learned of the arranged marriage to the time she had discovered that the man she met at the Italian inn is the man that is destined by the heavens to be at her side for eternity. Leonce, the Prince of the Kingdom Popo, was arranged to be married with Lena which established the foundation of the entire plot of the story. Lena is engaged to Leonce in a matter of day. The tragic thing about the arranged wedding is the fact that they are strangers to each other. This new engagement for Leonce should have offered him a way out of boredom yet he was deeply troubled by the fresh development occurring right before his eyes. Likewise, Lena felt a quite disturbing anxiety regarding the future that awaits her with a man that she doesn’t love. Lena’s tragic disposition in life is given emphasis before the wedding day through her statement in scene IV, “Time seemed so unimportant. It seemed to pass so lightly, and then one day, suddenly, it rose up in front of me… and that was today” (88). Lena, just like Leonce, viewed life as a dull commitment because even time appears to be enemy. For Lena, a love that is empty in its innermost part is only a waste of time because it is a pointless effort to engage in. Lena’s negative outlook towards life is then intensified by the incident of the arranged marriage that left her helpless and insecure by the prospect of her destiny with an unknown guy. In the garden of the inn in Italy at moonlight, Lena expressed her deep sorrow to the unfair marriage arrangement by using the surface of the water as a symbol of her imprisonment as a princess. She sees herself as the unresponsive surface of the water that merely stares back at the face who cast their reflections on her. The metaphor explains Lena’s belief that she is a lifeless object that creates her own identity through the expectations of other people. She disliked the arranged marriage so much, because it is a clear proof that her life is a weak in which external forces are the dictators of her future hence in order to escape from her miserable reality, she runs off to Italy. This part of the story is tragic because Lena resorted to running away from her hometown. This very act implies the extreme depression that the princess is feeling. In Italy, Leonce and Lena fell in love with each other without knowing who they are. Their love developed in an encounter in the garden at moonlight wherein Leonce kissed Lena while they were contemplating on their fates. Lena’s grave outlook towards her reality is highlighted by her statement during her first encounter with Leonce, “death is the most blessed dream” (95). Nonetheless, she is persuaded by Leonce’s sweet assurances and magical kiss. In that moment, Lena discovered that her heart could still love despite her pessimism. Lena’s tragic bearing is shown to concede the instant Leonce persuades her to give him a chance to prove his faithful and clean motive. She then finally surrendered her headstrong rejection of the delightful concept of love by learning to adore Leonce. Since the prince possess fine qualities such as the ability to motivate compassionate feelings, particularly to women, Lena did not have a hard time falling in love with the prince. Lena, after all is said and done, remains romantic despite her insistence of the negative value of life hence making Lena simultaneously tragic and romantic. Valerio: A Melting Pot of Contemporary Irony and Wit Resembling the character of Lena but in a lighter note is one of the most amusing characters in the story who is Leonce’s drinking buddy named Valerio. He has a personality that emanates a lot of irony but witty justification of his current circumstances. In the postmodern period, Valerio could have been the epitome of a tragic but shrewd male protagonist. He had a similar stance towards life as that of Leonce which is rather unconstructive. Yet, Valerio approaches boredom through exercising the habit of observing the pleasant realities of life such as nature and love. In Valerio’s words in Scene I, “I have an uncommon accomplishment in the art of doing nothing; I possess a colossal perseverance in slothfulness” (78) it illustrates that even though Valerio’s life is ruled by monotony and idleness, he still sees it as an opportunity to gain happiness and contentment through appreciating the commonly accepted silliness of life, which is idleness. This method of Valerio in moving towards his fate can be compared to the contemporary approach of some people who are experiencing extreme poverty, in alleviating the concerns that contribute more to their impoverished situation. The people who follow this principle in life commonly resort to pleasure-seeking activities such as drinking, petty gambling, and other foolishness in life. Some people use this argument to justify their laziness and tardiness. Some even uphold a principle which is quite similar with Valerio’s confessed accomplishment, which is only those that do nothing are the only people who will not commit mistakes; so rather than make error, some people opt to stay put and remain lazy. Valerio views life as ambiguous because of the attitude possessed by Leonce that he has observed while in their journey away from the suffocating limitations of the Kingdom. Leonce, is a foolhardy and a reckless individual in the mirror of Valerio. These approaches to life exercised by Leonce are in great contradiction with the luxury that the prince has. Valerio is perplexed by Leonce’s tragic romanticism which conjures a wrecked soul in the face of adoration and worship. Valerio established a lasting friendship with an individual who has bountiful physical blessings yet deficient in emotional strength to evaluate his own posture against the terrifying games of the natural world. Valerio, even though he has a similar dissatisfaction with human life as of Leonce and Lena he still has the keenness to envision the realities beyond the fabricated truth that the society and tradition filled up for them. In the last paragraph of the play, Valerio proclaimed his mental picture of the kingdom the moment he becomes the Minister of the State. He satirically expressed his loathing to hard work even though he himself is a son of human toil. Valerio’s last statement which says that, “that anyone who works calluses on his hands will be placed in custody of a guardian; that anyone who works himself sick will be criminally persecuted…. And then we shall lie in the shade and ask the Lord God for macaroni, melons and figs…” (105) conclusively affirms Valerio’s awareness of a worker’s condition and the difficulties they constantly confront and the knowledge that this suffering could be alleviated by one’s overwhelming optimism towards life. In Valerio’s view, the world is set as a stage of diversity in psychological aspects. However, his frame of reference was narrowed down by the constructed realities of the Kingdom of Popo which is similar to a mental society and to a vacuum that fabricates the channel for individuals who are in their search of their true identity. The controlling mechanisms put forth by the kingdoms of Pipi and Popo are mostly directed to the mental processes of its member thereby producing a population that is weak in the face of harmful forces and dependent on outside impressions to strengthen their self-identity. Leonce and Lena are perfect examples of the product of over-restricting traditions and customs. By operating outside the sentiments of Leonce, Valerio was able to portray the best tragedy of human existence, the simple pacification of the truth but devoid of self-realized significance. Leonce and King Peter: Similar Poles but Worlds Apart On the other hand, one of the main characters in the story is the father of Leonce and the King of the kingdom of Popo, Peter. Unlike the other primary cast of the story, King Peter received minimal mention in the story. His whereabouts are only mentioned in the first part where he is dressed by his valet and in the last part where he purposefully took part in the unusual wedding of his son Leonce. However, the scant details of King Peter’s personality are sufficient to formulate a generalization that he is a character strikingly different from his son Leonce. King Peter and Leonce, even though linked by blood relations, are two very different individuals. In the first half of the play, Leonce is expressing his deep dissatisfaction with the nature of his existence. He even made humorous statements in order to lift the mind-numbing situation of his. His friend Valerio is one of the people who serve as the provider of enthusiasm in a rather constricted and lackluster life. Leonce, even though unhappy with the ways things are happening for him, has a broad knowledge of the destiny he has. Being a son of a king and the person next in line to the throne, Leonce is aware of the disparity between his present and his future responsibilities as a king. Moreover, he is conscious of the traditions of the society he belongs to which limits his actions at the present and these same traditions will further oppress him the moment he becomes the king. The primary reason of Leonce’s pessimistic standpoint in life is rooted from his inherited circumstances. In Act I Scene I, Leonce communicated his stance to life by making use of the realities in his environment. The passage is as follows, “That the clouds… the clouds have been drifting from west to east now for fully three weeks. It has made me terribly melancholy” (76). The environment is developed by Leonce as a scapegoat in order to deny himself and the other people around him that the sorrow he feels emanates from the internal realities of his life. Even though there is recognition within Leonce about the larger importance of his life or for the public good rather than his self-advancement, he still give much attempt in purifying his life of the impurities such as the relevance of his existence on the welfare of his soon-to-be kingdom. Conclusively, Leonce is a chaotic both at the personal and the public level. Yet, there is an effort from him to lift his situation from extreme situation. On the contrary, Leonce’s father King Peter is an organized but egotistical character of the play. King Peter uses his high position in controlling the destiny of his subjects and most importantly his son. Unlike his son who has a feeble perception of his natural inner strength, King Peter has self-confidence that springs from the credence bestowed upon him by his people. Furthermore, distinct from Leonce, King Peter has already undergone rigorous training which secured his personal growth and development. King Peter is certainly done with the stage of identity crisis which Leonce is currently having. At present, King Peter is concerned with the welfare of his kingdom and his people. However, King Peter’s form of administration is quite harsh because he doesn’t take into consideration the free will of his people and even of this own son. In Act I Scene II, King Peters showed his way of rule and his overflowing self-confidence by stating that, “Man was made to think and still I must think for my subjects; because they cannot think for themselves, cannot think for themselves” (78). The primary difference between King Peter and Leonce is brought about by their large social distance such as their social status, family position and their generation gap. Work Cited Mueller, Carl Richard. Georg Buchner Complete Plays and Prose. New York: Hill and Wang, 1998. Read More

In Italy, Leonce and Lena fell in love with each other without knowing who they are. Their love developed in an encounter in the garden at moonlight wherein Leonce kissed Lena while they were contemplating on their fates. Lena’s grave outlook towards her reality is highlighted by her statement during her first encounter with Leonce, “death is the most blessed dream” (95). Nonetheless, she is persuaded by Leonce’s sweet assurances and magical kiss. In that moment, Lena discovered that her heart could still love despite her pessimism.

Lena’s tragic bearing is shown to concede the instant Leonce persuades her to give him a chance to prove his faithful and clean motive. She then finally surrendered her headstrong rejection of the delightful concept of love by learning to adore Leonce. Since the prince possess fine qualities such as the ability to motivate compassionate feelings, particularly to women, Lena did not have a hard time falling in love with the prince. Lena, after all is said and done, remains romantic despite her insistence of the negative value of life hence making Lena simultaneously tragic and romantic.

Valerio: A Melting Pot of Contemporary Irony and Wit Resembling the character of Lena but in a lighter note is one of the most amusing characters in the story who is Leonce’s drinking buddy named Valerio. He has a personality that emanates a lot of irony but witty justification of his current circumstances. In the postmodern period, Valerio could have been the epitome of a tragic but shrewd male protagonist. He had a similar stance towards life as that of Leonce which is rather unconstructive.

Yet, Valerio approaches boredom through exercising the habit of observing the pleasant realities of life such as nature and love. In Valerio’s words in Scene I, “I have an uncommon accomplishment in the art of doing nothing; I possess a colossal perseverance in slothfulness” (78) it illustrates that even though Valerio’s life is ruled by monotony and idleness, he still sees it as an opportunity to gain happiness and contentment through appreciating the commonly accepted silliness of life, which is idleness.

This method of Valerio in moving towards his fate can be compared to the contemporary approach of some people who are experiencing extreme poverty, in alleviating the concerns that contribute more to their impoverished situation. The people who follow this principle in life commonly resort to pleasure-seeking activities such as drinking, petty gambling, and other foolishness in life. Some people use this argument to justify their laziness and tardiness. Some even uphold a principle which is quite similar with Valerio’s confessed accomplishment, which is only those that do nothing are the only people who will not commit mistakes; so rather than make error, some people opt to stay put and remain lazy.

Valerio views life as ambiguous because of the attitude possessed by Leonce that he has observed while in their journey away from the suffocating limitations of the Kingdom. Leonce, is a foolhardy and a reckless individual in the mirror of Valerio. These approaches to life exercised by Leonce are in great contradiction with the luxury that the prince has. Valerio is perplexed by Leonce’s tragic romanticism which conjures a wrecked soul in the face of adoration and worship. Valerio established a lasting friendship with an individual who has bountiful physical blessings yet deficient in emotional strength to evaluate his own posture against the terrifying games of the natural world.

Valerio, even though he has a similar dissatisfaction with human life as of Leonce and Lena he still has the keenness to envision the realities beyond the fabricated truth that the society and tradition filled up for them. In the last paragraph of the play, Valerio proclaimed his mental picture of the kingdom the moment he becomes the Minister of the State. He satirically expressed his loathing to hard work even though he himself is a son of human toil.

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