Die Familie Schroffenstein

Familie Schroffenstein, Die, a blank-verse tragedy in five acts by H. von Kleist. The original title was Die Familie Ghonorez, and this grew out of a scenario entitled Die Familie Thierrez. The setting was at first in Spain, but Kleist transposed it to Swabia for the anonymous publication of the play in 1803. Relentless family strife between Counts Rupert and Sylvester of Schroffenstein ends in the death of their children Ottokar and Agnes, who have fallen in love with each other. Distrust and hatred, instigated by Rupert, who blindly makes Sylvester responsible for the death of his son Peter, cause the fathers to kill the lovers, each aiming at the other's child while in fact killing his own, unrecognized because of disguise; for Ottokar has exchanged clothes with Agnes in an attempt to save her. The blind grandfather, Sylvius, discovers the true identity of the bodies. This, Kleist's first tragedy, owes much to Shakespeare, Lessing, and Schiller, though it establishes in many respects the pattern of Kleist's own conception of tragedy.