William Tell is considered by most critics to be Schiller’s dramatic masterpiece. It was an immediate success after its premiere at the Weimar Hoftheater on March 17, 1804. Schiller directed the production. It is his most widely translated drama and the one play likeliest to be associated with Schiller outside of Germany. Schiller’s most popular play is also one of his shortest and the only one to have a happy ending.
Most people are acquainted with the William Tell legend without Schiller or his play. The exploits of the legendary Swiss hero who fought against tyranny and shot the apple off his son’s head have now passed into folklore. Tell, as seen through Schiller’s eyes, is depicted as a great hero, a man who exemplified the best in the Swiss people.
William Tell is a powerful blend of Swiss history and popular legend. Schiller rearranges recorded history, as usual, and eliminates or telescopes important events. Since he framed his play around a fictional character, however, the dramatic alterations are less emphatic than those in Mary Stuart or The Maid of Orleans. The focus of the play is on the Swiss people’s oppression by Albert I, a Hapsburg emperor, who reduced Switzerland to an Austrian dominion. Ruling for him in Switzerland is the sadistic Vogt Hermann Gessler, who overstepped his authority and trampled on the people’s rights.
The play opens with great impact. A man is fleeing for his life from imperial troops. Tell steps in and rescues him. Soon, the peaceful Tell is embroiled in his country’s fight for freedom, which reaches a high point during the apple shoot in act 3, culminating one act later when he slays Gessler with an arrow. In act 5, there is a joyous festival, the arrival of the imperial assassin seeking refuge, and the celebration of Tell as a national hero and liberator.
William Tell is a fairy-tale play about a folk hero who triumphs over tyranny. As in any good fairy tale, the hero must do battle and defeat an evil figure, in this play Gessler, to free his people. Schiller uses the mythic legend, however, to advance his concept of political liberation. He takes the exciting conflict between good and evil, the commanding appearance of a likable hero, and a dozen spectacular outdoor settings and fuses them together with a people’s struggle to overthrow a dictator. The heady mix makes for a compelling and visually exciting drama.
