Drayman Henschel

Drayman Henschel, also known as Carter Henschel, is an 1898 five-act naturalistic play by the German playwright Gerhart Hauptmann. Unlike his 1892 play The Weavers, Hauptmann focuses on the story's psychological rather than social dimensions. As with his 1902 play Rose Bernd, the play charts the demise of an ordinary man who falls victim to circumstances beyond his control. As with many of Hauptmann's dramas, it ends with the main character's suicide. Plot Malchen Henschel is feeling sickly and feels she may die. She bandies words with Hanne, a gruff servant. Her husband enters, discussing his business as a drayman, carting goods from one place to another. Mrs. Henschel is jealous when she learns that her husband was kind enough to get Hanne's apron for her. If she dies, what would happen to Gustel, her baby daughter? Says Malchen: "One thing I tell you now- If I dies, Gustel dies along with me! I'll take her with me! I'll strangle her before I'd leave her to a damned wench like that!" and has Wilhelm promise not to marry Hanne after her death. Since the death of Mrs Henschel, Hanne is worried about what people say of her relations with the widower. Henschel reflects on Hanne: "The girl's a good girl. She's a bit young for an old fellow like me, but she c'n work enough for four men. An' she's taken very kindly to Gustel; no mother could do more'n she. An' the girl's got a head on her, that's sure, better'n mine." Siebenhaar, proprietor of a hotel, encourages him to forget his vow to the dead wife. Now married to Henschel, Hanne is stunned on learning that he has brought with him her daughter, born out of wedlock, from the grips of her irresponsible and drunken father, though she denies that the girl is hers. The death of Gustel may be compensated by the arrival of Berthel. In the tap room of Wermelskirch's public house, several men grumble about the changes in Henschel's character since his second marriage, blaming Hanne. Says Walther, the horse-dealer: "Very well, I s'pose you're noticin' it all yourself. Formerly, you had nothin' but friends. Nowadays nobody comes to you no more; an' even if they did want to come they stay away on account o' your wife." Hauffe, turned out of his job because of her, suggests that Gustel may have been poisoned by Hanne.