SOURCE: “An Off-Stage Decision: An Examination of an Incident in Grillparzer's Ein Bruderzwist in Habsburg,” in Forum for Modern Language Studies, Vol. 12, No. 2, April, 1976, pp. 137-48.

In the following essay, Thompson considers the lack of dramatic action in Ein Bruderzwist in Habsburg, contending that there is a significant dramatic moment in Act IV.

The title of Grillparzer's Ein Bruderzwist in Habsburg suggests a political conflict on a grand scale, involving, as had been the case in his previous Habsburg drama König Ottokars Glück und Ende, possible battle scenes or at least dramatic confrontations of the two principal adversaries, culminating in the triumph of one over the other. In the Bruderzwist, however, the conflict between the two brothers is not exploited dramatically, for they meet only once, and then only briefly, during which time Rudolf hardly speaks. Thereafter Rudolf learns of Mathias' movements only by report and...