On the Marionette Theater by Heinrich von Kleist. In Other Words: The Impossibility of Man’s Salvation through Technology

The aim of this paper is to present some thought on Heinrich von Kleist’s Marionettentheatre-Essay, a very strange dialogue in which the German author reflects on grace and the destiny of mankind. After a brief introduction, I will discuss Kleist’s philosophical background by mentioning influences by Rousseau and Kant in order to show why he lost hope and faith and why, at a certain point, he changed his mind in favor of nihilism. The dilemmatic situation presented in his Marionettentheatre-Essay is the result of this evolution of thought, in which man is depicted with his desire to search for Heaven but damned to live his life by knowing that it is impossible to gain grace again. We exist in a place between the earth and the sky, where a purely material world or God, or even technology cannot save us.