Freedom and Order in Arden's Ironhand

Freedom and Order in Arden's Ironhand NIGEL HAMPTON • IRONHAND IS JOHN ARDEN'S "free paraphrase" of Goethe's first play, Goetz von Berlichingen, yet the play is very much Arden's.1 This judgment may not be the reader's first response, for Ironhand seems rooted in the turbulent world of Elizabethan drama which Goethe was imitating. The stark conflicts between the forces of freedom and order, the court intrigues , the treachery of politicians and clergymen, and the frustrations of the aspiring individual in a struggle between uncertain values suggest comparison with Shakespeare, Marlowe and Marston.2 At its core, however , Ironhand is a play about politics, not about character~ and it is in the treatment of politics that the play is clearly Arden's. The play explores the paternalism of the feudal lords and the parliamentarianism of the nobles, the clergy and the peasants, but it is the politics of transition, the force for change between these two worlds, which interests Arden. Arden's fascination with politics focuses on the nostalgic stability of the past in The Workhouse Donkey and on the uncertainties of the immediate future in Live Like Pigs. But Ironhand tackles the personal relevance of politics in the present: Goetz must assume his own political role in the here and now of the play, without the benefit of historical or corporate politics. Arden's work consistently shows the artist's reluctance to provide easy solutions to complex problems; in Serjeant Musgrave's Dance, for example, the tension between militarism and pacifism reinforces the limitations on individual action within a social framework of interlocking responsibilities. Ironhand pulls this tension one twist tighter, providing a formidable task for Goetz; yet it is the only meaningful approach for a dramatist who wants his audience to face squarely the awe129 130 NIGEL HAMPTON some consequences ofpolitical power. Ironhand is the story of Goetz, free knight in sixteenth-century Germany , who finds his way of life destroyed during a peasant revolt against the ruling nobles and clergy. Goetz thinks his personal battle is between a new legal system and his common law, between feudal independence and the restraints of national government. But he is weakened through other battles between Weislingen, his old friend who has joined the establishment , and the peasants who threaten his own values. Weislingen promises to marry Goetz's sister Maria, then jilts her in favor of Adelheid , who, in turn, betrays Weislingen for her own ambition. Goetz incurs the emperor's wrath, his army is routed, he is captured and released only because Sicklingen, a more political knight, intervenes. Broken, without army or castle, Goetz seems defeated until the leaders of the peasant revolt ask him to be their spokesman; he consents only when they promise to "kill only in fair battle." He is betrayed by the leaders, captured again by the Imperial army, and he dies in prison. As the man with the iron hand, Goetz represents traditional views of man's hierarchical role in society. There is nothing radical in his aspirations : he wants things to stay as they have been: hereditary, paternal, comradely, personal. He takes the emperor on faith: "I have the utmost trust in the justice and good sense of His Majesty" (p. 47). His enemies are "the gross merchant oppressors from the vampire cities" (p. 37). His mission is to protect his people: "Live honest on your land, good friends; till it, in fit season, like your fathers did before you, and leave it to us to give you your protection" (p. 69). He keeps his sister from Weislingen until they can be properly married, and when she is jilted, he assumes her shame as his own. He is faithful to his wife, treats her as an equal and asks her advice on all important matters. Goetz operates in a world of personal and direct responsibility. He would renew his old friendship with Weislingen; he attempts to keep his friends out of his battles; he will not accept soldiers without feeding them; he even takes the word of the peasant leaders because he still thinks that a man's word is his bond. The problem is that the world is...