Hauptmann, Gerhart

Gerhart Hauptmann gained fame as one of the founders of German Naturalism. Hauptmann's first play, Before Surnrise, was acknowledged as the beginning of an important new literary movement in Germany. Hauptmann's dramatic genius is incontestable, but he has never seemed able to settle on any one form as best suited to express his dramatic intentions. "The Weavers" for example, a play that caused considerable stir when it was first presented, is most unusual in that it was concerned with a whole community and has neither hero nor heroine, while "The Sunken Bell," was centered around one man's st...