is aged, not ugly. What is it that forces Kunigunde into the role of
monster?
That the last line of the play "du Giftmischerin" is directed at
Kunigunde emphasizes her importance, and a divide within the play. My
argument is this: first, I will argue that the play operates on multiple
levels: it is actually two plays. The Grafs declaration of Kunigunde as a
"Giftmischerin" exposes a division within the play. While the title Das
Kdthchen von Heilbronn establishes the centrality of Kathchen, the
closing line functions in the same manner. The ostensible play focuses
on Kathchen, whereas the submerged play concentrates on Kunigunde, a
woman who acts contrary to what was considered appropriate female
behavior. Unlike Kathchen and Lessing's Emilia, who lack autonomy and
remain within the domain of the subject, Kunigunde presents an
instance of female autonomy.
Second, the dissection of Kunigunde's body that is intended to
unmask her ugliness in fact positions her within the discourse of the
female body during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This
chapter will examine how feminine beauty is discussed both in
philosophy and in literature and how any disruption of the continuity of
the female body represents a violation of this idealized construction.
In Laokoon, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing discusses how beauty and
conversely ugliness is created: beauty is described through creating a
whole out of fragments, an idea that finds its beautiful example in his
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