Magda: A Play in Four Acts

Chapter 75: FOOTNOTE:

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About This Book

The play follows a once-independent woman who returns to her conservative provincial household and, over the course of a single day, sets in motion confrontations that expose family pride, social hypocrisy, and bitter generational clashes. Her outspoken defiance unsettles her stern father and provokes gossip among neighbors, while a thoughtful clergyman tries to mediate between duty and compassion. Scenes move through parlor and domestic settings, building to a rapid, tragic climax that forces characters to confront competing claims of honor, freedom, and moral responsibility. Themes include the friction between modern individualism and entrenched tradition, the cost of reputation, and the mercy or rigidity of communal judgment.

MARIE.

[Sinking down by Magda.] Papa, give her your blessing, dear papa! [A smile transfigures his face. The pistol escapes from his hand. He raises his hand slowly to place it on Marie's head. In the midst of this motion a spasm goes through his body. His arm falls back, his head sinks.]

MRS. SCHWARTZE.

[Crying out.] Leopold!

HEFFTERDINGT.

[Taking her hand.] He has gone home. [He folds his hands. Silent prayer, broken by the sobbing of the women.]

MAGDA.

[Springing up and spreading out her arms in agony.] Oh, if I had only never come! [Heffterdingt makes a motion to beg her silence. She misunderstands.] Are you going to drive me away? His life was the cost of my coming. May I not stay now?

HEFFTERDINGT.

[Simply and peacefully. ] No one will hinder you from praying upon his grave.

[Curtain falls slowly.]

THE END.

FOOTNOTE:

Footnote 1: Without which officers in the German army may not marry.