Originally a play in five acts by Frank Wedekind before he split it into two plays, Erdgeist ("Earth Spirit) (1895) and "Die Büchse der Pandora ("Pandora's Box") (1905). Alban Berg subsequently adapted it into his three-act opera, Lulu, in 1937, but he had to put it aside after finishing just two acts out of three and died before he could finish it. The opera was finally completed in 1977 by Friedrich Cerha.
The story is a scathing critique of the moral hypocrisy of the wealthy and powerful and the center of it all is a mysterious young woman known as Lulu, who follows a downward spiral from a well-kept mistress in Vienna to a street prostitute in London, while being both a victim and a purveyor of destruction.
In a Prologue, the characters in the drama are introduced by an ‘Animal Tamer’ as if they are creatures in a travelling circus. Lulu herself is likened to a serpent, described as “the true animal, the wild, beautiful animal” and the “primal form of woman”.
When the action of the play starts, Lulu has been rescued by the rich newspaper publisher Dr Schön from a life on the streets with her alleged father, the petty criminal Schigolch. Dr Schön has taken Lulu, who was only 12 years of age at the time, under his wing, educated her and made her his lover. Wishing however to make a more socially advantageous match for himself, he has married her off to the medic Dr Goll.
In the first Act Dr Goll has brought Lulu to have her portrait painted by Schwarz. Left alone with him, Lulu seduces the painter. When Dr Goll returns to confront them, he collapses with a fatal heart attack. Lulu is unmoved by his death but remarks that she is now a rich widow, much to Schwarz's consternation.
Lulu soon marries the painter Schwarz, who, with Schön’s assistance, has now achieved fame and wealth. She remains Schön’s mistress, however. Wishing to be rid of her ahead of his forthcoming marriage to a society belle, Charlotte von Zarnikow, Schön informs Schwarz about her dissolute past. Schwarz is so shocked that he kills himself with his razor.
Lulu then appears as a dancer in a revue, her new career promoted by Schön’s son Alwa, who is now also infatuated with her. Dr Schön is forced to admit that he can't break free from her. Lulu forces him to break off his engagement to Charlotte.
Lulu is now married to Dr Schön but is unfaithful to him with several other people (Schigolch, Alwa, the circus artist Rodrigo Quast and the lesbian Countess Geschwitz). Geschwitz remains the only person in the drama who actually cares about Lulu, though Lulu hardly reciprocates. On discovering this, Schön presses a revolver into her hand, urging her to kill herself. Instead, she uses it to shoot Schön, all the while declaring him the only man she has ever loved. She is imprisoned for her crime.
A year later, Lulu's confederates await her arrival after she has been sprung from prison in an elaborate plot. The Countess Geschwitz, who remains in love with Lulu, has swapped identities with her and takes Lulu's place in prison, hoping that Lulu will love her in return. Rodrigo Quast, the acrobat, plans to take Lulu away with him as a circus performer but when she arrives, emaciated from the prison regime, he declares her unfit for his purposes. Alwa Schön, the writer, succumbs to her charms, despite that she murdered his father. They leave together.
In Paris, Lulu and Alwa, now married, are entertaining in their lavish home. All are profiting from investments in the Jungfrau cable-car company. Two characters attempt to blackmail her, since she is still wanted by the German police: Rodrigo the acrobat and Casti-Piani, a white slave-trader who offers to set her up in a brothel in Cairo. The sinister Schigolch, who was Lulu's first patron and may be her father, reappears, and by offering to lure Rodrigo and Geschwitz to his lodgings, promises to "take care of" the threatening Rodrigo. As the police arrive to arrest her, Lulu swaps clothes with her valet and escapes. The Jungfrau share price has meanwhile collapsed, leaving her penniless.
Lulu has fled to London and is living in a garret with Alwa and Schigolch and working as a prostitute. Geschwitz arrives with the rolled-up portrait of Lulu as an innocent Pierrot which has accompanied Lulu throughout the action of this play and its predecessor. Lulu's first client is the pious mute Mr Hopkins. Alwa is killed by her next visitor, the African prince Kungu Poti. Another client, the bashful Dr Hilti, flees in horror and Geschwitz tries unsuccessfully to hang herself. 'Jack' (putatively Jack the Ripper ), her final client, argues with her about her fee. Geschwitz vows to return to Germany to become a lawyer and fight for women's rights. Jack then murders Lulu and Geschwitz; the latter dies declaring eternal love for Lulu.
The play has attracted a wide range of interpretations, from those who see it as misogynist to those who claim Wedekind as a harbinger of women's liberation. Central to these divergent readings is the ambiguous figure of Lulu herself. Arguably, she embodies not so much the "primal form of woman" (itself a nebulous and subjective concept) as (specifically male) perceptions of that "primal form". Significantly, we never learn Lulu's true name, only the names imposed on her by a succession of lovers. To Schigolch she is "Lulu", an asexual name suggestive of children's earliest speech; significantly, Lulu is canonically only about 15 years of age when the drama begins. To Schön she is "Mignon", the name of the mysterious girl in Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship who pursues the hero with submissive fidelity. To Schwarz she is Eve, mankind's first mother but also alleged agent (in the biblical narrative) of humanity's own undoing.
Provides examples of:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Lulu is pursued relentlessly by the male characters, as well as by one woman (the only one of Lulu's admirers who actually cares about her and does anything selfless for her).
- Ambiguously Related: It's never clear how Schigolch is related to Lulu. Earlier in the play, he is stated to be Lulu's father, which she does not deny. But in Act 2, he agrees with two of her admirers that he'd like to marry her; when they ask him whether he's her father he denies it and states that "she's never had one". Lulu agrees. He's also implied to be her first sexual experience and/or her first pimp, but whatever their history is Schigolch has clearly known her the longest.
- All Men Are Perverts: None of the male characters can control their hormones around Lulu, who is underage for most of the play.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: Most of the wealthier characters (except for Countess Geschwitz) have shades of this, but Dr. Schön definitely fits this description. He "rescues" Lulu from working as a flower-seller when she is just twelve years of age and conducts and affair with her at the same time that he raises her with his son, Alwa. He nonetheless insists that Lulu stay away from him since he has become engaged to a respectable lady, but when he fails to resist his attraction to Lulu he throws a pistol at her and urges her to kill herself or he will kill her and make it look like a suicide. But she kills him instead, albeit accidentally.
- Black-and-Grey Morality: The Countess Geschwitz does some questionable things, like trading places with Lulu in prison to help her escape, but she is by far the most upright character in the whole story, especially compared to the numerous male characters and Lulu herself, even if Lulu is herself a product of the corruption around her.
- Blackmail: In Paris, the Marquis Casti-Piani knows that Germany's police are still after Lulu for the murder of Dr. Schön and he threatens her: he can either simply summon the police and claim the reward money or he can sell her to a brothel in Cairo, to which he has already sent a painting of her.
- Corruption of a Minor: Where to begin? Schigolch, as Lulu’s supposed father and first pimp, definitely qualifies, as does Dr. Schön, who “rescued” her from the gutter as a child to raise as his own yet has regularly sex with her at the same time. That Lulu herself is just 15 when the play begins (18 when Jack the Ripper murders her) makes all her admirers guilty of this.
- Defiled Forever: As far as the male characters, notably Dr. Schön, are concerned, Lulu is unwelcome in respectable society because of her history, never mind their own responsibility in the matter.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: In addition to Alban Berg's atonal opera score, the whole story is a gritty tale about sex, implied incest and child prostitution, crime, sadism, murder, and suicide.
- Driven to Suicide: When the artist, Schwarz, is married to Lulu, he is so shocked by Dr. Schön's exposition of Lulu's former life and how little that he actually knows about his wife that he takes his razor and slits his own throat.
- Fille Fatale: Lulu is only fifteen when the drama begins and Dr. Schön took her under his wing and made her his mistress when she was only twelve years old. Schigolch, who may or may not be her father, is implied to be her first sexual experience.
- Forbidden Fruit: Lulu herself. The male characters who lust after her often meet unfortunate fates, and to a modern audience Lulu is very much forbidden fruit considering her extreme youth.
- Humans Are Bastards: Practically averted with Countess Geschwitz. Not so much with the other characters. Even Lulu, who is often blamed for ruining men's lives, is just as much a victim of these men, especially given that she's underage for most of the story.
- Human Trafficking: The Marquis Casti-Piani blackmails Lulu since Germany's police still want her for Dr. Schön's murder. He indicates he could summon the policeman stationed out in the street and claim the reward for her capture, but he would get a far higher price by selling her to a Cairo brothel, to which he has sent a picture of her portrait.
- Incest Is Relative: Schigolch, Lulu's possible father; Dr. Schön, Lulu's guardian and lover; Alwa Schön, Lulu's foster brother and eventual husband.
- Incompatible Orientation: The Countess Geschwitz is the only character who has no secondary agenda with Lulu and actually cares about her, even going so far as to switch places with her in prison. Unfortunately for her, Lulu is not interested. She dies declaring her undying love for Lulu.
- In Love with Looks: All the male characters who pursue Lulu. Acrobat Rodrigo Quast notably wants Lulu to join him in the circus after she has escaped from prison, but when he sees her weakened and haggard from cholera he decides that she is no longer suited to his purposes.
- Innocent Flower Girl: Supposedly what Lulu was before the play began, but a number of flower girls in the late 1800s were actually in prostitution and sold flowers as a front. It fits with Lulu's history, considering that Schigolch (who may or may not be her father) seems to have been her first pimp.
- Innocent Soprano: Averted with Lulu herself. A former street child who has been groomed to be a prostitute and then a rich man's concubine, she is hardly innocent.
- Ironic Echo: In Berg's opera, the actors who play Lulu's husbands also play her three clients; her first client is a silent but polite professor; her second client becomes angry when she asks him to pay and advance and kills Alwa when he comes to her defense; the actor who plays Dr. Schön plays her last client, Jack the Ripper.
- Jack the Ripper: The man who ultimately kills Lulu in her dingy London flat. In Berg's opera, the actor who plays Dr. Schön also plays Jack.
- Lack of Empathy: Lulu. She is strangely unmoved by the deaths of her husbands and quick to move on, especially if that means that she can marry Dr. Schön, because she reasons, "If I belong to anybody, I belong with you."
- Love Cannot Overcome: Countess Geschwitz, at the end of the play, has lost her wealth, her reputation, and is living in a dingy garret in London with Lulu. She has sacrificed so much for Lulu and Lulu gives her nothing in return. In despair, as Lulu takes her third client (unknown to her, Jack the Ripper), the Countess vows to return to Germany, become a lawyer, and fight for women's rights. But she ends up dying by Jack's knife with Lulu, pledging her undying love to Lulu.
- Lust Object: Lulu, to everybody except Countess Geschwitz. All the males regard her as just a toy. Which is all the more shocking since she is underage for the vast majority of the play.
- Moral Myopia: Wedekind (and Berg) wrote this drama as a critique of the decadence and moral hypocrisy of a ruling class who regularly turns to the socially excluded (prostitutes, circus performers, cabaret artists, conmen, etc) for entertainment, who are presented as grotesque caricatures of the wealthy clients whose vanity needs to be stroked.
- Dr. Schön is the one who began an affair with Lulu after he became her guardian and yet, despite his continual lust for her, tells her to leave him alone for fear that respectable society will shun him because of associating with her.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: Lulu confesses to Alwa, Dr. Schön's son and her adoptive brother, in Act 2 that she poisoned his mother so that she could marry his father. This does not stop Alwa, who is not exactly thinking with his brain, from declaring his love for her.
- Mysterious Waif: Lulu began as this before the play begins. The details of her early life are unclear.
- Mysterious Woman: Lulu, since her various suitors know her by many different names ("Nelly", "Eve", "Mignon", etc), but who she really is remains unclear. Considering that Lulu is canonically only a teenager during the drama, referring to her as a "woman" is probably inappropriate since she would today be considered underage.
- Old Man Marrying a Child: This is effectively the dynamic between Dr. Schön and Lulu, even though she is the one who insists that he marry her.
- Pimping the Offspring: What Schigolch is implied to have done with Lulu.
- Questionable Consent: Played with; if Schigolch is actually Lulu's father and her first sexual experience, if Dr. Schön began having an affair with her when she was just twelve years of age, that alone implies some pretty dubious consent.
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Lulu's eventual end in prostitution is effectively set because Schigolch, and others, have treated her as a toy since childhood instead of giving her a safe, stable childhood.
- Sex Is Evil, and I Am Horny: Played with, but especially with Dr. Schön; he wants Lulu to leave him alone so that he can marry respectably and yet he still lusts over her, culminating with him throwing a pistol to her and telling her to commit suicide or he will do it and make it look like a suicide.
- Lulu is often made out to be a femme fatale, but she is really only the product of the corruption around her; she is the target of the lust, rage, and frustration of others who then blame her for their own delusions and weaknesses when the truth is that she is only an adolescent and they are lusting after her instead of setting a good example for her.
- So Beautiful, It's a Curse: More like "so seductive, it's a curse", since practically all the characters find her irresistibly seductive. It's especially jarring to remember that she is only an adolescent throughout the show and the implication that Schigolch introduced her to sex when she was only a child.
- This Is Wrong on So Many Levels!: Schigolch, who may or may not be Lulu's father, is also implied to be her first sexual experience and outright says that he's wanted to marry her. Dr. Schön, who allegedly "rescued" her from the gutter when she was twelve has been conducting an affair with her for just as long, all the while raising her with his own son, who later becomes her lover. Everybody lusts after Lulu, who is only a teenager. Only Countess Geschwitz actually cares about Lulu herself.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: With her admirers, Lulu's seductive and flirtatious behavior implies sexual abuse in childhood.
- Unequal Pairing: In abundance! Everybody, from the beggar and petty criminal Schigolch (who may or may not be Lulu's father) to the wealthy and powerful, wants Lulu, who is an adolescent former street child. The inequality is all the more shocking considering that Lulu was twelve when Dr. Schön took her to his bed and probably younger when Schigolch first had his way with her. Lulu is only 15 when the play begins and 18 when Jack the Ripper kills her.
