#lit crit was never my strong suit

[after-perfect]

Incoherent scrap of Elisabeth thought for the evening: I've seen a decent amount of discussion about who/what der Tod is - is he an actual entity who happens to fixate on Elisabeth and spends the rest of her life following her around? Is he a manifestation of Elisabeth's - and later Rudolf's - depression, the voice of their self-loathing and suicidal thoughts which has been given a physical form for the play? Is he Lucheni's creation, born of his need to shift the guilt from his own soul - after all, if der Tod was the one pulling all the strings, then Lucheni was just another puppet, just following orders?

I think it depends on the production/actor, and in my favourite German-language Tods, I think at least two - possibly three - of the interpretations are covered.

Uwe Kröger is the first one. His Tod is a real being. He's otherworldly and mystical. He's able to interact with the human world (obviously) but rarely does unless it's time for someone to die. He's not a nice guy, but he's not actively malevolent; kissing people to death just happens to be the reason he exists, so that's what he does. Something about Elisabeth catches his attention and he becomes obsessed. His methods of pursuit are the only ones he knows, and he's not even necessarily aware of the damage done. I absolutely love how Uwe does the act one Schatten; it's this eerie sense of "hmm, it turns out that killing her daughter doesn't make her fall for me. Fascinating creatures, humans." The way he walks and moves onstage, and his appearance in general (particularly the pallor and white-blond hair of the original Vienna version) give an impression of something inhuman and apart.

Máté Kamarás might be another take on option 1. This excellent post sums up the argument for this better than I could do. Like Uwe's, his Tod is real; he just happens to be less ethereal and more emotionally volatile. He's not used to feeling like this about anyone, and when his attempts to woo Elisabeth fail, he lashes out. A lot. His face during der Schleier fällt has this mix of joy and amazement, like he can't quite believe it's finally happening. At first, anyway. Then after the kiss, he suddenly realizes - for the first time - that because he's death, having Elisabeth means losing Elisabeth.

There might be a case for Máté's Tod being Lucheni's invention, but it's a bit weaker. I'm basing this more on a sort of matching chaotic, frantic energy between his Tod and Serkan Kaya's Lucheni in the 2005 proshot that might speak to der Tod being a product of Lucheni's psyche. There's also that one moment during Prolog when Lucheni says that Elisabeth loved Heinrich Heine, and der Tod gives him this (honestly slightly comical) death glare (pun intended). It's a sort of warning, "look, buddy, you may have conjured me as a focus for your guilt, but by doing that you give me power in the story as the master puppeteer. Knock it off with the Heine."

Finally, Mark Seibert's Tod is depression and suicidal ideation made flesh. His Tod is, quite frankly, an absolute bastard. He can be seductive, but it's always with an ulterior motive, and the motive is always cruel. With both Elisabeth and Rudolf, he goes from sweet-talking to physically rough, even violent. He coaxes them to self-destructive behaviours, then scorns them when they self-destruct. He toys with them by letting them think life might be getting better, then moves in to strike. He's around to put a damper on things when Elisabeth thinks she's at her highest (wenn ich tanzen will), and to push her past rock-bottom when she's at her lowest (Totenklage). He can drop Rudolf like a rag doll once he's dead because he never cared for him; he was manipulating him in order to destroy him. Depending on the production, he can leave Elisabeth onstage once she's dead for the same reason. To both Elisabeth and Rudolf, he comes across almost like an abusive, stalking-prone partner. From my own experience, that's a pretty fair description of depression, except that the abusive bastard is your own brain. For what it's worth, it's also a pretty fair description of an eating disorder, which the real Elisabeth definitely had, although it doesn't get more than a passing mention in the show. This might actually be part of the reason I like Mark's Tod so much - the idea that my own depression can be separated from myself.

In the musical overall, there are moments and lyrics that could be evidence for each of the interpretations of der Tod (along with others). Personally, I go back and forth on which I feel is most strongly supported, and I think part of the reason is that different productions and different Tods lean more strongly towards one or another.