Are you paying attention?

After reading The Beaver Coat, I noticed that the story is told in an interesting way. The story is very tricky to follow adn if the reader does not pay close attention to the subtle actions of the characters, the reader will most likely be lost at the end of the play. Notice at the end of Act I when Mrs. Wolff says to Julius that there is some wood outside of Krueger's house and if they were to take it, it would not hurt anyone. The audience never actually sees Mrs. Wolff and Julius take the wood, but instead the act ends with them riding their sleigh into the night and then goes to a courtroom in Act II where Krueger says some of his wood has been stolen. However, where the audience really needs to pay attention is at the beginning of Act III when Julius tells Mrs. Wolf, who is counting a lot of money, that she needs to put that money away or they will go to jail. If the audience does not pay attention here, they mat be confused and unable to determine that the fur coat Wulkow is wearing at the end of the play is the same one that Krueger reports stolen. They also may not remember that when Mrs. Wolff tells the judge that he can have her home searched, she has already insured her safety by making Julius bury the money in a goat shed. Thus, the audience ends up completely clueless as to the whereabouts of Krueger's beaver coat and wood just as Von Wehrhon and Krueger himself were. I am unable to say whether or not the author intended to write this play in this manner, but to me The Beaver Coat is just as mischievous and clever as its fictional character Mrs. Wolff.

The Effect of Mother Wolff on Her Family

"I've always been friendly with people and nobody can complain about me. But if it must be, I can talk plain, too. I do my duty, and that's all. And nobody in the town can say anything against me. But I won't let nobody trample on me." -Mrs. Wolff.

There is no doubt that Mrs. Wolff is a strong character. As she says and clearly demonstrates throughout the entire play "I won't let nobody trample on me." Not even Judge von Wehrhahn or the property owner Krueger, who would normally be considered her when one superiors when one looks at the social scale, can get a word in when Mother Wolff has an idea to state or an agenda to push.

Although this earns her respect with von Wehrhahn and Krueger instead of the contempt that might be expected of them, what effect does her overbearing attitude have upon her family?

The effect on her husband Julius is quite clear. Julius is the typical henpecked husband, always doing exactly what his wife says, although he makes quite a show of protesting. Mrs. Wolff is repeatedly telling him, "You're just ignorant, Julius. You've got no education at all. If it hadn't been for me, Julius, what would have become of the girls?" She is constantly bringing him down and giving him no credit for anything when he works just as hard as she does and appears to be a good husband and father. At he, unlike Mitteldorf doesn't go to the taverns against his wife's wishes. In fact, Julius doesn't seem to drink at all unless Mrs. Wolff is shoving whiskey in his hands.

Their eldest daughter, Leontine, is weak like her father. The only reason she comes home is because she doesn't want to put two loads of wood in the shed. Her employer wishes her to put the wood away so it will not get stolen; and in fact, he is quite right to want her to put the wood away because it IS stolen, and by her own mother. If Leontine displayed the kind of hard working attitude her mother says she lives for, she would have toughed out the situation at her job and not come whining.

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, as we can clearly see in Mrs. Wolff's second daughter Adelheid. Adelheid seems to be clever like her mother when it comes to getting things she wants. She threatens her mother by saying she knows where the deer came from at the beginning of the play, but doesn't go through with ratting her family out; she also knows about the beaver coat. She chooses instead to help her mother get away with the crime this time, but Mrs. Wolff had better watch out in the future should she ever cross her daughter. It does not feel out of character for Adelheid to use her knowledge of the illegal goings on at her own home to gain something for herself. When she enters the home with an orange, claiming it was a gift, how does the audience know she didn't steal it herself, taking after her mother's example?

The impact Mrs. Wolff has on her family can be clearly seen. Her husband and eldest daughter have weak personalities and are easy to walk over. Her youngest daughter seems to have picked up on her thieving and conniving ways. Though she doesn't reap any bad consequences this time around, Mrs. Wolff had better watch her family because one day they might betray her, either through weakness or spite.

The Beaver Coat- Mrs. Wolff

The Beaver Coat: Mrs. Wolff

            The Beaver Coat is a comedy that revolves almost exclusively around the unforgettable figure of that of the washwoman, Mrs. Wolff. With great skill and exuberance, she manipulates friends and foes alike. She dominants both her family and her friends, and she enlists their aid in outwitting the arrogant justice of the peace who threatens her schemes for increasing her family’s wealth.  

Mrs. Wolff is a character all right. And I believe she is the most important character in this play. She understands how to get involved with the people who can help her and to get what she wants she wants from them. Although she is responsible for a series of crimes, her victory of getting away of such crimes was not entirely of her own doing. Judge Von Wehrhahn was too distracted by what he considers his greater mission, which is rooting out the tendencies he suspects in Krueger and even more in the quiet young scholar Dr. Fleisher, to notice what is happening under his very nose.

            Manipulation of others for one’s private ends is not an endearing trait to have, but the play has Mrs. Wolff direct it against her natural enemies Wehrhahn and Motes and even her husband, Julius. Manipulating her husband is no challenge for Mrs. Wolff given his naïve nature and limited intelligence. And she does so almost scornfully by appealing to his fatherly instincts, casting slanders on his manhood, and plying him with alcohol before giving him his marching orders.

            The Beaver Coat’s ending is a bold difference from the sacred tradition that the guilty must be punished and justice is served. That Mrs. Wolff escapes punishment and will continue in her wicked ways focuses attention on the relativity of legality and introduces an element of reality into the plot.