Victory of the Losers - According to Heinrich von Kleist

Dramatic Performance

What happened before

A captain who has risen from the dead asks for the Marquise of O.'s hand in marriage with dubious urgency. Julietta finds herself equally in dubious circumstances. She is pregnant and doesn't understand how this could have happened. This is not yet official at the moment of events. The scandal is still a long time coming.

Speaking aside: The captain acts as the supposed savior of Julietta's honor.

This is how it continues

The head of the house fulfills his obligations as father of the bride. He informs the suitor about his daughter's widow's vow. After this vow, Julietta never wants to commit to a man again. Nevertheless, the insipid colonel doesn't want to finally say njet over Julietta's head.

Count F... vehemently insists on an undisturbed one-on-one conversation with Julietta. He speaks with frightening urgency. He behaves in such a way that you have to think he's crazy. As Julietta's rescuer, he deserves the most noble consideration. But with the best will in the world, the matter cannot be rushed.

The commander, who has sunk to the level of an honest man and compromised in front of the whole world, is confounded by his guest's violence. Herr von G... bucks his way through the registers of stalling and evasiveness.

The applicant crunches in his distress like a battered tin soldier. What frustrates the flamboyant man of war on his transit stop? That he was unable to "get a yes word from a lady he didn't know at all in a five-minute conversation". According to the laws of the era, any father of the bride who gave away his daughter so carelessly would be well served with "fortress arrest". The court of cassation would destroy the contract anyway.

Finally the count moves away; looking back from a peak of dissatisfaction to those at a loss. But he only goes as far as the servants' wing. At the domestic table he writes letters and seals packages, while the nobles suspect him to be back in his carriage and on the slopes. The family, still sympathetic to the supposed protector of Julietta's honor, hopes that he will come to his senses and steer the boat of his intentions in sensible waters to safe harbor.

"Everyone agrees that his behavior is very strange and that he seems to be used to conquering women's hearts like fortresses."

Suddenly the commander notices the count's harnessed car in front of his door.