SOURCE: "Alpine Ambivalence in Schiller's Wilhelm Tell," in German Life and Letters, Vol. 37, No. 4, July, 1984, pp. 297-306.

In the following essay, Best suggests that Schiller presents an ambivalent picture of Tell. This ambivalent picture is seen in the contrast between the nobility of Tell's motives in killing Gessler and the celebration of freedom for Tell's family and the Swiss on the one hand, and the reduction of Tell from moral certainty to doubt and despair on the other hand.

Interpretations of Schiller's Wilhelm Tell differ most markedly in their assessment of Tell himself and the moral consequences, if any, of his murder of Gessler. Schiller's defence of his play, and especially the Parricida episode, against Iffland's theatrical predations has indeed been seen to justify and absolve Tell,¹ and yet the masterly ambivalence of Schiller's formulation and his attested preoccupation with the theme of guilt and moral freedom cannot...