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Marie’s room. Home of Woyzeck’s mistress, Marie. Marie’s bed, her son’s bed, a dressing table, and a mirror represent aspects of her life. The room is also associated with her sexual desires, for it is where she consummates her affair with Woyzeck, where she stands at the window when admiring the Drum Major, and where she later submits to the latter’s advances. The presence of Woyzeck’s son in the room reminds her of her bond with Woyzeck. When her conscience is stricken with guilt about her sexual betrayal of Woyzeck, she is also in her room.
Fairgrounds. Festive, colorful place with tents, lights, and booths crowded with people. Monkeys dressed as soldiers and an astronomical horse on display invite audiences to contemplate the proximity of animal and human behavior. In this atmosphere, the usual rules of everyday life are suspended. While the Drum Major is powerfully attracted to Marie in this setting, the imperfectly civilized animals help point up the crucial role that “unidealized nature” plays in human behavior.
Tavern. Public hall in which drinking and whirling dancing couples heat up the atmosphere and provide increased likelihood that passion will overrun reason and even will. Men brag and show off, among them drunken artisans who make coarse speeches. Woyzeck challenges the Drum Major for Marie, and a fistfight ensues. The beat of the dance music is allied to Woyzeck’s obsession with Marie’s betrayal and his fury at the evidence it provides for the uncontrollable nature of human sexual urges in general.