Intrigue and Love

Schiller makes use of an elevated style, pathos and hyperboles in order to describe the cynical and cold world of the court. The integrated French passages serve the uncovering of the court with its empty conversations and inclination for glamorous appearances. The President's speech is polished, calculated and imperatively arrogant. Secretary Wurm can be understood as a smaller copy of him. Kalb's speech can be seen as parallel to Mrs. Miller's speech. Kalb talks stupidly, unnatural and affected, often using the wrong expression.

Schiller contrasts the unnatural speech of the court with the direct and often rough speech of the married couple Miller. Miller is characterized through his speech as the simple man. He emphasizes his opinions with common sayings. Mrs. Miller's speech is also associated with the middle class. Her wrong usage of foreign words, sayings and dialect reveals her middle-class origin.

The speech of the lovers Lady Milford, Luise and Ferdinand takes on a special position. Their use of language usually does not display their social standings.

The composition of the play follows a strict system which can be described with terms such as "symmetry" and "dialectic principle". Similarity and asimilarity characterize content and style of the play. This becomes especially clear in the sequence of the scenes which switches regularly between the world of the middle class and the absolutist court. The "small" world is contrasted with the "big world" dialectically and a symmetry in the sequence of scenes is attained. The composition of the plot is also regarded as principle of symmetry. Examples for this are the three scenes between Ferdinand and Luise at the beginning, the middle and the end. The first one shows the secret opposition of the two lovers, the second one makes it an urgent matter in the turning point, and the third one seals it in death.

There are two opposing social groups in the play: the middle class and the nobility.

Miller is a respectable, genuine musician who is deeply religious and has a fixed position in the guild order of the city: on the one hand, confident, fearless and honest, on the other hand, restricted by close limits and not free from the sovereignty. Miller strictly believes in corporative thinking and thus rejects the marriage of his middle-class-daughter with the noble Ferdinand. However, he gives Luise the freedom to choose a husband within corporative order because he regards the custom of the father to choose his daughter's husband as outdated. Towards his wife, he behaves as the commanding patriarch, while he shared a tender love with his daughter. His middle-class confidence is reflected clearly in his argument with the President: Despite his big respect, he contradicts the President and insists on his householder's rights. He makes it perfectly clear that in his eyes, the corrupt world of nobility is morally beneath the middle-class world. At the same time, he is not immune to the temptation of wealth. When Ferdinand offers him money for the "three months long happy dream of his daughter", Miller is overwhelmed by the opportunities this wealth offers and behaves very affable and friendly towards him.

Mrs. Miller holds hopes of social ascendency regarding Luise's relationship to Ferdinand and secretly encourages their love affair. Moreover, she feels flattered by the association of a noble man with her house. That is why she rejects Wurm in a conversation as son-in-law. Nevertheless, owing to her talkativeness and naivety, she passes information about the relationship of Ferdinand and Luise to him, which he knows how to use for his schemes. She can hardly hold her ground against her husband. She also takes on a timid and submissive attitude towards the President and embodies the typical servile spirit.

Luise, Mr. Miller's 16-year-old daughter, is introduced as the "most beautiful example of a blonde", who "would cut a fine figure next to the first beauty of court". She is deeply rooted in her family and shares an especially close relationship with her father. This relationship between father and daughter could be strengthened by the fact that she is an only child. Luise grew up protected and was brought up Christianly. Her thoughts and actions are shaped by her faith; the immoral life at court repels her. The encounter with Ferdiand creates a conflict between her love for Ferdinand and the expectations of her father, the social limits willed by God and her religious conviction. This way, the Immanuel Kant's opposition between duty and inclination becomes clear. Luise is very conscious of reality.

Wurm is the secretary and confidante of the President. Dramaturgically seen, he is a spineless schemer who would do anything for wealth and prestige. He is the source of the intrigue of which he also expects a marriage to his desired Luise. He climbed the social ladder through his unscrupulousness and steps down and grovels up. Another kind of interpretation would be that only his love for Luise and his desire to marry her compel him to carry on this intrigue.

Invisible but still prominent in the background is the Prince as an absolutist ruler who does not care about his subjects' well-being. He does not appear personally, but his wedding plans, his life in court, and his governance influence the lives of all characters.

President von Walter, Ferdinand's father, obtained his position by murdering his predecessor. His whole behavior is adjusted in order to stabilize his position in court – and possibly to extend it – and to secure the duke's favor. He places this calculus of power above other people, values and feelings; he sees love as a foolish rave: a marriage should serve dynastic or political goals alone. Not until the dying Ferdinand forgives him does he recognize his mistakes as such. He realizes that people cannot be moved like chessmen, but follow feelings and values that are not simply subordinate to utilitarian considerations or the pursuit of power. Feeling remorse, he delivers himself up to justice, thus quitting his career.

Ferdinand is a typical representative of Sturm und Drang, as passionate, with a temper, unrealistic and self-absorbed. Usually, the middle-class Luise would be considered as an unsuitable bride for the President's son. However, Ferdinand cares less about social classes and more about personal qualities of people. In accordance with the tradition of the Enlightenment, he despises the schemes of the courtly world. He complains about injustice, inhumanity and immorality of the absolutist order. He tries to burst the order, and he appeals to "nature" and "God". His possessive mentality and his absolute love to Luise (rather self-absorbed), connected with his emotional actions, are distinctive of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's contemporary doctrines and lead, already early in the play, to his unfounded jealousy of Luise. Obsessed by the idea of absolute love, he takes on the role of the avenger and kills an innocent.

Lady Milford, 1859 engraving after Arthur von Ramberg

Lady Milford, aka Johanna von Norfolk, the Prince's mistress, takes on the middle position between courtly and middle-class value systems. An orphan who fled from England to German exile, she returns the Prince's love out of necessity and becomes his mistress. This position enables her to be a part of society and satisfies her ambition. She is also able to alleviate the injustices in the Principality and influence the Prince. The wedding plans with Ferdinand were also contrived by her, not the President. Lady Milford longs for true love; she wants to leave the country with Ferdinand and start a new chapter in life. When Ferdinand rejects her love, she tries to force him into marriage by all available means, knowing that she cannot win over his heart. Lady Milford fears possible humiliation and is not willed to revoke the publicly announced connection. Threatening and making promises, she tries to make Luise give up Ferdinand, but her pretentious mask shatters; struck by Luise's higher virtues, she quits her affair with the Prince and leaves the country. Overall, she appears as a woman who wanted good but got drawn into the wasteful and scheming goings-on of the court. The pursuit of honor and power throws a shadow on her humanity that shows in her behavior towards the people and her servants. In the end, she makes a clear decision, leaves the country and breaks away from the entanglement.

There is also the coward and chatty Hofmarschall von Kalb; dependent on President von Walter, he is a court cringer who personifies the court's lifestyle that is directed at outer appearance. He knows that, as a person without particular qualities, he has no option but to make himself a tool – wittingly or unwittingly.

The first English translation was released in 1795, and a French version followed in 1799. Modern English translations include Love and Politics by Christopher Webber (London, Riverside Studios, 1989), Intrigue/Love by Daniel Millar and Mark Leipacher (London, Southwark Playhouse, 2010) and Luise Miller by Mike Poulton (London, Donmar Warehouse, 8 June to 30 July 2011[1])

Giuseppe Verdi's opera based on the play was entitled Luisa Miller. The librettist was Salvadore Cammarano, and the premiere took place in Naples on 8 December 1849.[2][3] Another opera, Gottfried von Einem's Opus 44, used Schiller's original title Kabale und Liebe was set to a libretto by Boris Blacher and Lotte Ingrisch and premiered on 17 December 1976.[4]