Overview
Leonce und Lena was written by Georg Büchner in 1836, and was originally intended to be submitted as an entry in a competition. Because Büchner missed the deadline, the play wasn't published until many years after his death. Although Büchner's work was written long ago, his writing style was ahead of its time, and his biting commentary on the wealthy and on the ruling class is still relevant today.
Apart from providing commentary on the wealthy and powerful in society, Büchner addresses some more philosophical issues. Major motifs within the play are puppets and automatons, and Büchner invokes these images to ask questions about free will and the power of fate.
Plot Summary
Leonce, the prince of the kingdom of Popo, cherishes laziness and boredom above all else. He wastes away his days by arguing with his friend Valerio and dawdling with the lovely Rosetta. One day, the king tells the prince that he must marry a princess, and that he has been engaged to the princess from the neighboring kingdom of Pipi. But Leonce is loathe to marry anyone, and he takes his friend Valerio to flee to Italy.
Meanwhile, princess Lena from the kingdom of Pipi has just learned she must marry a strange prince. She despairs at the idea of marrying someone she doesn't love, and takes her Gouvernante with her on her escape to Italy.
During their escapes, the two engaged royals happen to meet, and, neither realizing who the other one is, fall in love. Leonce asks Valerio to arrange a way for him and Lena to be wed, since he knows it would not be allowed normally for him to marry anyone other than the woman to whom he was betrothed.
Valerio's logical response is to have the two royals wear masks, so that he can pass the two off as automatons, and stage a "fake" wedding before the king as entertainment. Only after the two were wed would he reveal that they were actually the prince and his beloved, at which point it would be too late to undo their marriage.
By a twist of fate or coincidence, the two betrothed royals have been married against their initial wishes. We are left to wonder whether the two acted under their own free will, or if they, like the automatons they were pretending to be, were simply acting under some programming that required them to fall in love and be married.
Content by Marilyn Moelhman