Vegetational Fatherhood and Science 4/7

It is interesting what the role of science plays in the tale Vegetational Fatherhood. While the beginning of the tale is decidedly unscientific with a personified rose and the girl who turns into a rosebush each night after reaching puberty, the end of the story relies heavily on the idea of scientific evidence. Dr. Rosenberger and the girl's mother are deemed insane because they claim an event that is beyond the realm of scientific understanding. Dr. Rosenberger is described as a 'learned man of science' and astonishes all by supporting the mother's claims that the girl transformed into a rosebush each night. It is only after an autopsy, a scientific procedure, is performed that something strange is considered. However, it is not magic but horrific experiments by Dr. Rosenberger, the anatomist, that are thought possible by the general public.

Science both conceals and explains the events of the story. Science hides the actual event of animal-plant transformation that occurred from the public by making it seem impossible. Science, in turn, reveals that something strange was going on but too late to help Dr. Rosenberger or the girl's mother, and the evidence is misinterpreted anyway. Science in the story seems to become a hindrance to the truth not the enlightening quest for knowledge that it is usually thought to be.

Wackenroder 3/31

I feel that in Wackenroder's tale, language, in the form of lyrics in the lovers' song, merely points to the magic of the music. The music seemed to affect the saint more than the actual words. The saint is also called the "genius of love and music" not music and language. The fact that Wackenroder used language to describe the magic of music shows that language is a tool to describe the power of music not the actual magic holder in Wackenroder's story.

The story contains many fairy tale elements. The existence of a wild man that transforms into something greater is a common element in fairy tales like "Iron Hans." The setting of a remote cave by water uses nature as a character in much the same way that forests and rivers act as almost sentient beings transforming characters in other fairy tales. The more specific kunstmarchen elements are the specification of the Orient locale, which brings exoticism and Romanticism into the story, and the ambiguous ending. While the lovers are united, the saint is transformed into a spiritual being that has unspecified powers. The ending is not unhappy but it is not altogether joyous either. This is a divergence from fairy tales in the oral tradition that usually had clearly defined happy conclusions.
Audra Crosby