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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/woyzeck.jpg]]
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3A play (actually just a [[DiedDuringProduction fragment]]) by [[UsefulNotes/DichterAndDenker Georg Büchner]], who died in 1837 while working on it. Revolutionary for its time because up until that period, {{tragedy}} as a genre was reserved for stories about the upper classes. Its companion piece is Büchner's play ''Leonce and Lena'', which conversely is a scathing comedy about the upper classes -- a concept that was just as taboo.
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5Franz Woyzeck is a soldier with a child out of wedlock. To help make his living, he does odd jobs for his commanding officer and participates in "medical" experiments. He's gone completely crazy -- seeing apocalyptic visions everywhere -- but no one seems interested in that. When his wife, out of a mixture of boredom and hopelessness, begins seeing a Drum Major, Woyzeck lashes out.
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7The unfinished manuscript was edited and "completed" by Karl Emil Franzos in 1879, and this version was first performed on stage in Munich in 1913. Alban Berg adapted the play into the Opera ''Wozzeck'', which received its first complete performance in Berlin in 1925.
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9In 1979, Creator/WernerHerzog had just finished filming ''Film/NosferatuTheVampyre''. After almost spending a week without making a movie, he got to work on ''Woyzeck'' with Creator/KlausKinski. It became one of his most beloved films.
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11Music/TomWaits and Robert Wilson have written a RockOpera based on the play, the songs from which were featured on Waits's album ''Music/BloodMoney''. Waits' song "Children's Story" from ''Music/OrphansBrawlersBawlersAndBastards'' was also lifted from "Woyzeck".
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13!! The unfinished drama by Georg Büchner provides examples of:
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15%% Zero Content examples have been commented out. Please write up a full example before uncommenting.
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17* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Throughout this grim tragedy, every person Woyzeck encounters only give him a hard time.
18* AxCrazy: In the end, Woyzeck himself lashes out and [[spoiler: kills Marie, the only woman he ever loved]].
19* BasedOnATrueStory: ''Woyzeck'' is based on the case of the real-life soldier Johann Christian Woyzeck (1780-1824), who was executed in Leipzig after murdering a widow out of jealousy and a lengthy trial and several expertises on his mental state. Büchner however also incorporated elements from other murder cases that happened during his lifetime and the experiments conducted by Justus von Liebig with a pea diet.
20%%* CharacterFilibuster: Every character agrees, being poor sucks! It probably works better on stage.
21* FemaleGaze: "She [Marie] gazes through seven pairs of leather pants!" Said by another woman.
22%%* FracturedFairyTale: The "fairy tale" the grandmother tells the children. You can listen to it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2RQkTMDqW8 here]] as part of a YouTubePoop, narrated by Music/TomWaits.
23%%* HandsomeLech: Marie starts seeing a Drum Major. Bad idea.
24%%* HumiliationConga
25* MadDoctor: Woyzeck is going crazy partly because he volunteers for some very unusual medical experiments conducted by the Doctor and a few other medical professionals, such as the peas-only diet mentioned below.
26* MildlyMilitary: The military doesn't seem to do anything but drive Woyzeck crazy.
27%%* MushroomSamba: Described by Woyzeck and a big part of [[BasedOnATrueStory the actual case study]].
28* NoNameGiven: Drum Major. The Doctor. The Captain. The Workmen. This is important in the case of the first three, as they are authority figures who wield power over Woyzeck.
29* OneWordTitle: As a Last name of ProtagonistTitle.
30* ProtagonistTitle: His last name, making this a OneWordTitle.
31%%* ShootTheShaggyDog: The grandmother's fairy tale.
32* TestSubjectForHire: the titular character earns extra money for his family by agreeing to take part in medical experiments conducted by a doctor. At one of these experiments, the doctor tells Woyzeck that he must eat nothing but peas, which causes his mental health to break down and he begins to experience a series of apocalyptic visions.
33* ThereAreNoPsychologists: Woyzeck is clearly mad because of the abuse he's under, but no one seems to care, least of all The Doctor. His best friend tries to get him to go to the infirmary, to no avail. Justified in that psychology kind of ''didn't exist yet''.
34* TestedOnHumans: Woyzeck's pea diet is based on an actual experiment conducted by chemist Justus von Liebig: For three months a number of soldiers of the Hessian army were fed nothing but pease porridge (in order to test if peas could be used as a cheap source of protein), resulting in symptoms very much like those displayed by Woyzeck in the play.
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36----
37!! The {{opera}} by Alban Berg provides examples of:
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39* KickTheDog: The morning after Wozzeck stabs Marie to death and then drowns himself in the lake, the neighborhood children cruelly tell their now-orphaned son that his mother is dead. The little boy seems oblivious and, after playing a bit on his hobby horse, follows the other children as they run to look out the body.
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41!! The movie by Werner Herzog provides examples of:
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43%%* AdaptationExpansion: Actually ''expected'' in adaptations of ''Woyzeck'', since the play was unfinished because the author DiedDuringProduction.
44* KickTheDog: The Drum Major beats up the tiny, underfed Woyzeck after he finds out Woyzeck knows about his wife's affair. And the Doctor throws his cat out the window to see how it lands on its feet.
45* NietzscheWannabe: The Doctor:
46--> '''Doctor''': ''Didn't I tell you that the'' Urethral Sphincter ''is subject to the will!?''
47** Oddly enough, he seems to be the most cheerful of all the characters.
48*** In Alban Berg's opera, he's listed as a buffo bass. ''Buffo.''
49* SoundtrackDissonance: A string quartet plays the same song over Woyzeck's humiliating PT in the opening credit, Marie dancing with the Drum Major, and [[spoiler:Woyzeck's murder of Marie]].
50%%* {{Yandere}}: Woyzeck
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52!! The Waits/Wilson rock opera provides examples of:
53%%* IronicNurseryTune: "Lullaby"
54%%* LyricalDissonance: "Woe"
55%%* VillainSong: "Another Man's Vine" for the Drum Major, "God's Away on Business" for the Doctor, and "Starving in the Belly of a Whale" for the Captain.

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