Vuoristokansaa: 1-näytöksinen murhenäytelmä

Om denne boken

Vuoristokansaa by Karl Schönherr is a one-act stage tragedy written in the early 20th century. Set in a poor mountain village, it portrays the crushing weight of poverty and pride as illness, debt, and human frailty converge on a struggling family.

The drama unfolds in the home of woodcarver Friedl Sonnleitner, whose infected hand after a workshop accident requires urgent amputation. His steadfast wife Anna tends him while their friend, the gentle carver Gebhart Perathoner, works and fends off predatory traders and creditors. Doctor Walder arrives with a medical student and insists the hand must be removed immediately to save Friedl’s life; Anna’s courage steadies her husband, and preparations for the hospital sleigh begin. In a searing episode, the shoemaker’s wife refuses to leave their little girl’s long-promised slippers without cash; Gebhart, desperate to spare the child, forces money from his own miserly father to pay. The old man then jeers that Gebhart acts from secret love for Anna. In a moment of raw gratitude Anna embraces Gebhart, and Friedl, seeing and understanding, is crushed. Believing himself replaced, he refuses the life-saving operation; the doctor departs, and Friedl quietly yields to despair, while Gebhart breaks down and Anna clings to her husband—leaving the family facing tragedy born from compassion, humiliation, and jealousy.