Ethics of the Hero in the Novellas of Heinrich von Kleist (Evolution of the Meanings)

Abstract

The key role of the ethics in the H. v. Kleist’s novellas comes from the providential character of the life’s unfolding. Having guessed it, the characters face the moral сhoice which needs to be implemented. The paradoxical uncovering of the providence as fate triggers the moral and behavioral “relay race” of characters, realizing the stages of this implementation. The historicism of the providence makes it to the dialectic of the world’s transformation with the help of the character, who had intuitively guessed this dialectics. Meanwhile, history as the social movement of the people makes moral / behavioral “relay race” of characters the stages of this movement.