SOURCE: “The Case of Hauptmann's Fallen Priest,” in German Quarterly, Vol. 30, No. 3, May, 1957, pp. 167-83.

In the following essay, McClain considers Hauptmann's Der Ketzer von Soana as it displays a fallen priest's symbolic quest for meaning.

Few contemporary writers have expressed more eloquently than Gerhart Hauptmann the great spiritual quest of modern man for a meaning for his life and for values by which he can live creatively. Even Hauptmann's earliest heroes might be called souls in search in the sense that most of them experience a conflict between inner self and outer reality. Thiel, Loth, Crampton, Schilling, Kramer, Heinrich the bell-founder, Florian Geyer, Emanuel Quint, are all obsessed by an inward vision which they seek ardently to realize in face of an adverse reality. Unfortunately the striving of most of these characters ends in tragic failure. Personal failure, however, is far from being the most tragic aspect...