SOURCE: Graham, Paul G. “The Principle of Necessity in Hebbel's Theory of Tragedy.” Germanic Review 15, no. 4 (December 1940): 258-62.

In the following essay, Graham regards the principle of necessity as an integral aspect of Hebbel's dramatic theory.

In Hebel's theory of tragedy no single aspect is of greater fundamental significance than the principle of necessity. Hebbel scholars such as Scheunert, Walzel, Schnyder, Frenkel, Seidmann, Purdie, and Rees refer to the importance of the principle of necessity without giving a clear and satisfying account of it. Hebbel employs the terms “notwending” and “Notwendigkeit” for at least three kinds of necessity. First: necessity in the popular sense of compulsion as applied to those acts, conditions and relations of everyday life which are unavoidable. Second, and of greater importance than the first, although also not of immediate concern here, is the application of the term to logical motivation, as illustrated by his...