Hannele: 2-Näytöksinen Unirunoelma

A two-act dream play written in the late 19th century. It centers on Hannele, a mistreated village girl rescued after a desperate act, whose fevered visions mingle harsh reality with mystical visitations. Around her gather a compassionate schoolmaster, a nursing sister, townsfolk, and the menacing shadow of her stepfather, while angels and the figure of Death suggest themes of innocence, suffering, and redemption. The opening of the play unfolds in a storm-tossed poorhouse where beggars squabble until the teacher Gottvald and the woodcutter Seidel carry in the half-frozen Hannele, saved from an ice-hole. The district chief and a doctor are summoned, Sister Martha tends her, and Hannele—terrified of her brutal stepfather Mattern—speaks in religious fragments. Fever-dreams bloom: her dead mother brings a “heavenly key,” three angels sing, and a black angel of Death appears before a radiant sister-figure clothes Hannele as a bride and shields her. Gottvald returns with schoolchildren to sing farewell, villagers crowd in, marvel at her transformed beauty, whisper about a glass coffin, and blame Mattern. A drunken Mattern bursts in, only to be met by a gentle Stranger whose healing words address him as the scene breaks off.