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Ondine the Play
The play Ondine, produced in 1939, is a witty piece in which Giraudoux contrasts a water nymph’s sparkling innocence and magic with the stiff, structured and self-conscious world of a foolish royal court. Knight errant, Hans, while on an obligatory quest through the forests comes across a family of fisherman with custody of Ondine. In the form of an immortal 15-year-old, she is a magical free-spirited water creature. Ondine instantly falls for Hans and wraps herself about him, enchanting him, to the dismay of her simple stepparents. But the knight is already betrothed to the king’s ward, Bertha...
The charm of Giraudoux’s story is the absolute innocence and enthusiasm of Ondine throughout the story. She is all impulse, unable to lie even for politeness’ sake, stormy in emotion but quick to forgive and to reconcile. In Freudian terms, Ondine is the Id, or the “I,” volatile and forever untamed. Many of the laughs come from her attempts to deal with the rigid manners and customs of the court. As in Freudian psychology, the Id is opposed by the mechanisms of the Superego – never in this case internalized, but rather represented by the rule-sayers in court (the chamberlain, the master of spectacles, advisors, stepfather August, the King of the Sea, and even, reluctantly, Hans). In the end, Hans, the ordinary man, dies, but Ondine as the essence of enchantment and femininity, lives on.
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