History Theatre / TheRobbers

Franz von Moor, second son of the old count, starts an intrigue against his older brother Karl, to become the heir instead. Also, he tries to hit on Karl's LoveInterest Amalia. Meanwhile Karl, with some nudge from his buddy Spiegelberg, decides to join a band of robbers and becomes their captain (he hopes to become someone who helps the weaker, like RobinHood). Things escalate soon.

* DramatisPersonae: As befitting a classical drama, all characters snd their positions are listed at the beginning of the play.

* AntiHero: Karl is a WellIntentionedExtremist.

* BastardBastard: Hermann, whom Franz uses in his schemes.
* BeautyEqualsGoodness: Or rather, Evil Equals Ugliness. As in the case of Franz Moor, who lampshades it when he laments his bad looks, referring in an un-PC way to his "negro lips" and "Hottentot eyes".
** though it's debatable whether Franz is truly ugly or just thinks he is due to having been TheUnfavorite for so many years, as other characters never refer to his looks. There are usually two ways to address this topic in different productions: Either the monologue is taken literally and the actor is turned immensely hideous, or they cast a certified PrettyBoy to show the audience just how caught up in his own psychosis Franz is
* BloodOath: Karl swore it.

* CainAndAbel: Franz and Karl. It is an unusual example because the younger brother is the more villainous.

* CrossCastRole: Quite a few famous productions cast an actres as one of the brothers. Franz gets this treatment far more often than Karl.
* [[DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster Damn It Feels Good To Be A Robber]]: The robbers sing a song at the campfire.
* DefectorFromDecadence: Karl. "I am disgusted with this age of puny scribblers [[Literature/ParallelLives when I read of great men in my Plutarch]]."

* DramatisPersonae: as befitting a classical drama, all characters snd their positions are listed at the beginning of the play.
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Franz and Schweizer.]]
* ForTheEvulz: Spiegelberg and Schufterle.

* HollywoodAtheist: Franz is one of the evil kind.

* ItsGoingDown: [[spoiler:The Moor castle ends up in flames.]]
* LastNameBasis: the robbers among each other, to the extend that, besides Karl, Spiegelberg is the only one who even has a cannonically mentioned first name.
* LoveInterest: Amalia loves Karl, but Franz also wants her.

* {{Monologuing}}: Franz does it several times.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Karl
* OldRetainer: Daniel

* QuoteOverdosed
* RapePillageAndBurn
* RealisticDictionIsUnrealistic

* AntiHero: Karl is a WellIntentionedExtremist. Spiegelberg is a HeroInNameOnly.

* LoveInterest: Amalia. She loves Karl, but Franz also wants her. Making it a triangle #4.
** Actually Hermann also wants her.

* HoYay: There is a very tender moment between Karl and his second in command Schweizer in the third act, after the robbers have battled an army of Bohemian soldiers. Karl, seeing the scars Schweizer carried away, gently strokes his forhead and tells him that his scars are beautiful. Of course, while this may seem homoerotic to modern readers, that degree of physical affection between young men was considered normal in Schiller's day.

* RealisticDictionIsUnrealistic:

* BandOfBrothers: The robbers (or at least those loyal to Karl) soon become one of these, going out of their way to save on of their own from execution.

* LovesMyAlterEgo: Amalia has sworn to be faithful to Karl, even after she believes him to be dead. She becomes overridden with guilt when she starts to fall fo the mysterious "count Brand", not knowing that he is Karl in disguise.

* AmbiguouslyJewish: Spiegelberg appears to be Jewish, beeing circumcised, a zionist, and bearer of a jewish sounding name. His religion is, however, never quite confirmed, and he uses some antisemitic idioms quite freely.

* Toxic FriendInfluence: Without Spiegelberg, Karl and his friends would never have become outlaws.

* WouldHurtAChild: Schufterle brags about having thrown a baby into the flames of a burning house. Karl expells him for that.

* HoYay: There is a very tender moment between Karl and his second in command Schweizer in the third act after the robbers have battled an army of Bohemian soldiers. Karl, seeing the scars Schweizer carried away, gently strokes his forhead and tells him that his scars are beautiful. In the same scene, Karl also rests his head in Grimm's lap.

* MeaningfulName: Edelreich, Amalia's last name, consists of the German words for "noble" and "rich". Schufterle (one of the robbers) means "little scoundrel".Spiegelberg, whose name is German for "mirror mountain, mirrors Franz in many ways.

* ForTheEvulz: Spiegelberg

* MeaningfulName: Edelreich, Amalia's last name, consists of the German words for "noble" and "rich". Schufterle (one of the robbers) means "little scoundrel".

* DefectorFromDecadence: Karl. "I am disgusted with this age of puny scribblers when I read of great men in my Plutarch."

* {{Badass}}: At the end of Act II, Karl badmouths his fellow robbers while they're surrounded on all sides by an enemy army, giving them a step by step explanation for why they should betray him and even tying his own arm to a tree to make his capture easier. [[spoiler: They don't go for it.]]

''The Robbers'' is a drama by [[DichterUndDenker German]] playwright Friedrich Schiller. It was his first play to be printed and performed and became his breakthrough success.

* Badass: At the end of Act II, Karl badmouths his fellow robbers while they're surrounded on all sides by an enemy army, giving them a step by step explanation for why they should betray him and even tying his own arm to a tree to make his capture easier. [[spoiler: They don't go for it.]]

'''The Robbers''' is a drama by [[DichterUndDenker German]] playwright Friedrich Schiller. Franz von Moor, second son of the old count, starts an intrigue against his older brother Karl, to become the heir instead. Also, he tries to hit on Karl's LoveInterest Amalia. Meanwhile Karl, with some nudge from his buddy Spiegelberg, decides to join a band of robbers and becomes their captain (he hopes to become someone who helps the weaker, like RobinHood). Things escalate soon.

----

* CompleteMonster: Franz. He even imprisons his own father, at a water-and-bread diet.

* HarsherInHindsight: "Set me at the head of an army of fellows like myself, and out of Germany shall spring a republic compared to which Rome and Sparta will be but as nunneries." Well, there was a later German republic like that.

* IHaveNoSon: Their father to Karl. which makes the latter so desperate that he agrees to become a robber.

* MisaimedFandom: Some people like to cite The Robbers' "Death or freedom!" They rarely think of the many unjustified crimes committed by them.

* MoralEventHorizon: Spiegelberg crosses it during the drama.

* PottyFailure: For once, PlayedForDrama. Spiegelberg and his men break into a nunnery to rape the nuns. Spiegelberg brags how some nuns "put their cells under water".