The Robbers - Dramatis Personae

Dramatis Personae

  • Maximilian, Count von Moor (also called "Old Moor") is the beloved father of Karl and Franz. He is a good person at heart, but also weak, and has failed to raise his two sons properly. He bears responsibility for the perversion of the Moor family, which has caused the family's values to become invalidated. The Moor family acts as an analogy of state, a typical political criticism of Schiller's. The prince as a father of the nation is particularly condemned.
  • Karl (Charles) Moor, his older son, is a self-confident idealist. He is good-looking and well liked by all. He holds feelings of deep love for Amalia. After his father, misled by brother Franz, curses Karl and banishes him from his home, Karl becomes a disgraceful criminal and murderous arsonist. While he maintains a general spirit of melancholy about the promising life he has left behind for a life of lawlessness, together with his gang of robbers he fights against the unfairness and corruption of the feudal authorities. This despair leads to the urge to express and discover new goals and directions, and to realize his ideals and dreams of heroism. He breaks the law, for as he says, "the end justifies the means." He develops a close connection with his robbers, especially to Roller and Schweizer, but recognizes the unscrupulousness and dishonor of Spiegelberg and his other associates. Amalia creates a deep internal twist in the plot and in Karl's persona. He swore allegiance to the robbers after Schweizer and Roller died for his sake, and he promised that he would never separate from his men, so cannot return to Amalia. In deep desperation due to the death of his father, he eventually kills his true love and decides to turn himself in to the law.
  • Franz Moor, his younger son, is an egoistic rationalist and materialist. He is cold-hearted and callous. He is rather ugly and unpopular, as opposed to his brother Karl, but quite intelligent and cunning. However, since his father loved only his brother and not him, he developed a lack of feeling, which made the "sinful world" intolerable for his passions, and he consequently fixed himself to a rationalistic way of thinking. In the character of Franz, Schiller demonstrates what could happen if the moral way of thinking was replaced by the pure rationalization. Franz strives for power in order to be able to implement his interests.
  • Amalia von Edelreich, his niece is Karl's love and is a faithful and reliable person (to learn more of their relationship see "Hektorlied" (de)).
  • Spiegelberg acts as an opponent of Karl Moor and is driven by crime. Additionally, he self-nominated himself to be captain in Karl's robber band, yet was passed up in favor of Karl. Spiegelberg tries to portray Karl negatively among the robbers in order to become the captain, but does not succeed.
  • Schweizer
  • Grimm
  • Razmann
  • Schufterle
  • Roller
  • Kosinsky
  • Schwarz
  • Herrmann, the illegitimate son of a Nobleman
  • Daniel, an old servant of Count von Moor
  • Pastor Moser
  • Pater
  • A Monk
  • Band of robbers, servants, etc.

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