Good

by Cecil P. Taylor

Book Overview

Good is the story of how a 'good' man gets caught up in the nightmare of the Third Reich: "Germany in the thirties? Nothing, I should have thought was harder to dramatise. Witness all those turgid... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0413502503
• ISBN13: 9780413502506
• Release Date: January 1982
• Publisher: Methuen Publishing
• Length: 97 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A good man?

John Halder is an educated German in the 1930s - a scholar, hearing dance bands playing in his head virtually all the time, marking his mood, to a degree his desperation. This play is a journey through Nazi Germany - but more portrayed by Halder's train of thought than following the actual chronology of events leading to the Final Solution. Halder is a good man, preoccupied by his demented mother, the loveless marriage he's stuck in, the responsibility he feels for his children and his infatuation with Goethe - and not least of all the newly found love for his student Anne. His pro-euthanasia work, based on the experiences with his mother, attracts the interest of the Nazis. Halder not only joins the party, but becomes an active member of the SS in the attempt to do good - to help the less fortunate. Halder has, like most human beings, a great capacity for self-deception, is lured by the power of the Nazis and the improvements his "membership" brings to his personal life - through all this time not believing for a single moment that anything bad could come from what he promotes - that Hitler's final plan could ever be pulled off. He falls into the same trap as many others - with a maybe naive belief in the propaganda and lies of the regime. Halder leaves his wife and takes a mistress - the beautiful student Anne with whom he experiences mutual love and who in unadulterated admiration tells him "he is good" and "only capable of doing good". Halder's best friend is Maurice - a Jew - the irony of this relationship is that Halder loves the Jews, while Maurice detests them, though Halder step by step makes the Nazi ideas of the evilness or at least questionableness of the Jewish ways/ ideals his own. Very slowly Halder's conversations with Maurice drift from "Hitler is never going to last" to "you should leave Germany" - climaxing in "the Jews had enough time to leave this country", displaying the efficency of the gradual Nazi brainwash. Halder participates in building up "hospitals" that actively promote euthanasia, partakes in the burning of books and the "re-settlement" of the Jews only to be ordered to Auschwitz. The music playing in his mind stops, being replaced by an actual band of prisoners in the Death Camp playing in his honour - and Halder sees the reality of what he was and is doing. Is Halder an evil German - rolemodel of a whole generation of dangerous, deadly animals, a despicable Nazi? No, he is not. He is human - back in the 30s but likewise today people are turning a blind eye on things that might be too cruel to actually fathom, not believing for a moment fanatism like this could actually gain a foothold in society and an unbelievable climax could actually happen - until it is too late. More often than not we concentrate on the things happening in our small target group - neglecting the overall picture - Halder is not different from that. This play, though set in Nazi Germany, gives food for thought and is as contemporary as

C-P-Taylor Good, really good

A very interesting play. I would love to see in in a theatre. But I do believe, that in a film it will even work better. I'm looking forward to see it done.