Copenhagen Literary Elements

Drama

English

The conversation between the three characters takes place in the afterlife and so the time and space are not something which can be pinpointed with accuracy.

Because this is a play, there is no narrator and no point of view.

The tone and mood are both inquisitive and follow the atmosphere set in the beginning of the play when one of the characters asks a question which becomes one of the motifs in the play.

The protagonists are Bohr and Margrethe and the antagonist is Heisenberg.

The major conflict is between the countries under German occupation and the Nazi party that oppresses the people.

There is no real climax in the play, as is presented as a constant conversation between the three characters in the play.

The constant shift between Bohr’s opinion about Heisenberg is foreshadowed from the beginning of the play when Bohr is not able to decide if he wants or not Heisenberg near him and if he wants to listen to what he has to say.

In the beginning of the play, Margrethe claims she never trusted Heisenberg, not even before the war started and not even then when Bohr and Heisenberg were working together. Bohr reminds Margrethe this is not true, and reminds her how the three of them used to spend their holidays together, thus making Margrethe’s initial statement as being an understatement.

When Heisenberg and Bohr meet in Copenhagen in 1941, Margrethe makes reference to an event which took place four years before in which Heisenberg was involved. It is not mentioned what it way but it is implied that the characters make reference to the time when Heisenberg was taken in for interrogation by the Nazi secret services. Heisenberg goes then to say ‘’this things happen’’, alluding thus that it was not an isolated incident and that it is possible that other people had to go through it as well.

From the conversations between Bohr and Heisenberg, it is transmitted that Bohr and Heisenberg and Bohr were extremely competitive people. When the two recall about some of the experiences they had before the war, they come across as extremely competitive, turning everything into a contest or maybe a game.

In one scene, Heisenberg suggests that Bohr and his wife go to one of his cabins in the mountains to ski. In that moment, Bohr reminds him that it would be hard for him to do it, especially when considering his nationality. This scene is presented as a paradox, because Heisenberg, despite being allowed to travel and thus being exposed to the way the Nazi regime treated the occupied countries, does not fully understand how the lives of the people have been influenced by it as a result.

A parallel is drawn between Bohr and Heisenberg in order to show just how much the war affected the everyday life of the people. The roles of the two change drastically, Bohr being in the same situation as Heisenberg was at the end of the First World War. This parallel is used to show just how much both Bohr and Heisenberg had to suffer and how war can affect the lives of the people.

No personification can be found in the play.

There are almost no dramatic devices used in this play, save for a few stage directions. The vast majority of the background information and outside details are given by Margrethe, who in many ways acts as a stage director, presenting the events from the perspective of a viewer. In this sense, it appears as she is almost just another person watching the play and giving her personal commentary about it.