Kankurit : $b 5-näytöksinen näytelmä 1840-luvulta

by Gerhart Hauptmann

"Kankurit : 5-näytöksinen näytelmä 1840-luvulta" by Gerhart Hauptmann is a play written in the late 19th century. Set among Silesian weavers in the 1840s, it portrays crushing poverty, factory exploitation, and the mounting pressure toward collective defiance. The drama contrasts the hard-nosed mill owner Dreisziger and his agent Pfeifer with weavers like Baumert, Bäcker, Reimann, Heiber, and Ansorge, along with their families. The opening of the play unfolds in Dreisziger’s cloth-receiving room, where Pfeifer nitpicks faults, docks pay, and refuses advances as gaunt weavers wait in fear; Bäcker openly defies the boss, a starving child collapses, and Dreisziger delivers a self-justifying lecture before wages are cut further. At the start of the second act, in Ansorge’s squalid hut, the Baumert family weaves in exhaustion, a neighbor despairs of her nine children, and we learn they have even slaughtered their dog for food; ex-soldier Jäger arrives, drinks, and recites the fierce “Verituomio” verses that inflame their anger. The third act opens in a tavern, where townspeople argue over the weavers’ plight and the truth of official reports; Bäcker and Jäger enter with a crowd, bruised and singing the seditious song, and despite scoffing by others, the mood among the weavers hardens toward action.