The Role of Mellefont in Lessing's Miss Sara Sampson

It is hardly necessary to-day to begin an article on Miss Sara Sampson with an apologia for treating the work as interesting in its own right, not merely as the first influential biirgerliches Trauerspiel in Germany.' Since 1949, when Otto Mann recognized in the play a mature work, rather than part of Lessing's dramatic apprenticeship,2 critics have concerned themselves with defining its moral viewpoint, linking this to the conception of the tragic which emerges, and finding an overall interpretation which might take into account the various strands of inner and outer action.3

Art · German Literature and Culture Studies · History