Ludwig Tieck's 'Eckbert The Fair'

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Eckbert the Fair The Romantic period began in Europe during the late 18th Century branching off of the Enlightenment’s focus on science for intellectual skepticism. The Romantic’s perspective is derived from Plato’s concept of the metaphysical and real. Ludwig Tieck’s fairy tale, Eckbert the Fair, written in 1797, differs significantly from a children’s fairy tale and comprises psychological as well as philosophical dimensions congruent with Romantic ideals. Tieck’s unique tale, even from the start, is severely different from a fairy tale I would read to a child. Near the beginning of the tale, Bertha speaks of how she ran away from her father who, in a cruel manner, physically and verbally abused her. (37) Throughout the story,…show more content…
Tieck cleverly uses a parrot that sings in a poetic form as a declaration of different character’s unconscious thoughts. A while after Bertha steals the bird from the elderly woman it sings, “Lone woodland…wrong.” (46) The parrots song raises her guilt back into her consciousness from it’s suppressed state. In a philosophical manner, the unconscious can also be linked through Kant to intuition and in turn the Romantic belief that fate is the ruler of life. This idea of fate is originally manifested from Bertha’s initial draw from her childhood home and again when she leaves the elderly woman’s home. This is explained by Bertha, “As day…cruelly.” (37) Kant’s concept of human’s distinguishing a priori explanations about the world, for example, space, time, cause and effect, is hardwired in the brain making it unconscious and innate. Therefore, fate in regard to human action is actually one’s a priori understanding of the world causing unconscious analysis to instigate an action. For example, a priori knowledge of cause and effect in Betha’s case, because of its inherent quality, could unconsciously determine that if Bertha were to stay with her family the abuse would continue because of her inability to perform at the level her father desired. This unconscious, a priori knowledge is an agent of fate that was bestowed upon humans to cause actions that promote personal

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