Abstract: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's 1809 novel Die Wahlverwandtschaften depicts two tableaux vivants scenes featuring contrasting female characters: Luciane and Ottilie. As the relationship of these scenes to the rest of the novel has proved enigmatic, I read them in conjunction with Goethe's Regeln für Schauspieler (Rules for Actors) as well as the aesthetic categories of absorption and theatricality from Michael Fried's work of the same name. Since tableaux vivants present a unique theatrical mode that maintains absolute stillness, I claim that it is the theme of movement that attests to their significance. Luciane's tableaux vivants scene is revealed to be an augmented form of actor discipline to restrain her disorderly and unpredictable personality. For Ottilie, the tableaux vivants scene demonstrates how restraining movement is implicated in the established societal norms for behavior.

Keywords: tableaux vivant, movement, Goethe, Michael Fried, theatricality, Elective Affinities

Introduction

IN GOETHE's DIE Wahlverwandtschaften (Elective Affinities), unforeseen and unpropitious movements have the tendency to occasion disorientation, wonder, or even tragedy. Charlotte's attempts to reposition the gravestones in the churchyard are met with opposition by the family members of the deceased, who assert that they would lose the ties to their ancestors if the burial plots were not marked properly. Movement can appear miraculous, as when Ottilie's mere presence sets suspended metals into motion as if acted upon by some arcane force. A single, unexpected movement can also result in near disaster, as seen in the collapse of the bridge at Ottilie's birthday party that causes a young boy to almost drown.

The threat of disturbance produced by an inopportune movement, however, does not always manifest so conspicuously as in these instances. The tableaux vivants scenes in Die Wahlverwandtschaften reveal an aesthetic variation on the significance of unplanned motion. As an artistic medium predicated on absolute stillness, tableaux vivants demand performers’ complete corporeal obedience to produce a motionless work of art. These scenes juxtapose the expectation of aesthetic motionlessness with forces of potential movement in two of the performers: Luciane and Ottilie. Given how the narrator goes to great lengths to accentuate her volatility and relentless movement, Luciane appears to be a poor candidate to engage in a kind of performance that demands virtually uninterrupted corporeal paralysis on the stage. Yet when the time comes to perform, the seemingly inevitable conflict between Luciane and the tableaux vivants fails to manifest, confounding the reader's expectations.