Schillers Tell — Eine Revolutionäre Idylle oder eine Idyllische Revolution?

AbstractSchiller's aesthetic revolution challenges Salomon Gesner's 'Arcadian idyll' with a utopian Elysium, the precondition for his own 'sentimental' modernity. In applying his theory to the Tell drama, Schiller's pastoral opening gives way to a violent reality, illustrated by various murderous episodes, executed by and on father figures. The 'apple-scene' brings together the play's two strands, Rutli oath and Tell plot, thus merging public and private spheres. A new republic replaces the corrupt patriarchal order and Tell himself, who lends the new idyll its individual flavour, transforms his superhuman heroism into a new humanism. Tell's assassination of the imperial governor finds its essential correspondence in his encounter with the parricide: by becoming a true citizen, Tell has justified the drama's revolutionary action.