Story summary
Краткое содержание: Вильгельм Телль
- Чтение: 8 мин.
- 8 parts
- Аудио скоро
A father must shoot an apple from his own son's head while an Alpine land decides whether to rise.
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Вильгельм Телль — кратко о книге
Краткое содержание: 8 min на чтение
- Время чтения
- Около 2 h 10 min1 h 45 min fast, 2 h 35 min slow
- Длительность
- Слов: 31 500
- Уровень в библиотеке
- Средний longer sentences, everyday words
- Первая публикация
- 1804by Фридрих Шиллер
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Сколько времени нужно на чтение классики · Обновлено
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Вильгельм Телль in short
William Tell follows a people who learn to act together. A hunted man is saved on a stormy lake by the one person willing to risk it. A wife pushes her husband to seek allies.
What Вильгельм Телль is about
Picture a storm breaking over an Alpine lake. A hunted man falls on his knees and begs a boatman to row him across. The boatman says no, because the waves would swallow them both. Only one person on the shore finally takes the boat, after urging the boatman to help.
That is how Friedrich Schiller opens William Tell, a play in five acts finished in 1804. He turned the old Swiss legend of the archer who defied a foreign governor into a story about a whole people. You will meet shepherds, a blind old man, a young knight on the wrong side, and a wife who gives her husband the push he needs.
Для кого. You will love this play if you enjoy stirring stories of ordinary people facing a bully, mountain landscapes, family loyalty, secret plots, and a clear moral question to talk over.
The story in 8 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
A storm on the lake shows who will act
The play opens on the shore of Lake Lucerne. A fisher boy sings from his boat, a herdsman sings of the hills, and a hunter sings from a cliff. Then the weather turns. Clouds sweep down, the wind rises, and the men read the signs.
A farmer named Baumgarten bursts in, out of breath. The governor's horsemen are chasing him, because he killed the imperial seneschal who tried to dishonor his wife. Everyone on the shore agrees the deed was just. He begs the fisherman Ruodi to ferry him across. Ruodi refuses, and his reason is fair. The lake is foaming, and he has a wife and child at home.
Then William Tell walks in with his crossbow. He urges Ruodi to help. He says the brave man thinks of himself last, takes the boat, and pushes out into the breakers. Ruodi is shamed, and he admits that better men than he would not dare to copy Tell. The horsemen arrive too late and order an attack on the herds and the fisherman's cottage.
Courage in this play is a quiet deed, not a speech.
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A wife persuades a worried man to act
The second scene moves to the house of Werner Stauffacher in Schwytz, a well-built home with painted beams and carved sayings.
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A fortress and a cap show the tyrant's plan
In Altdorf, Stauffacher and Tell walk past a building site.
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A blind father starts a pact of three
In Furst's house in Uri, a young man hides in the next room.
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A young noble must choose his country
Ulrich von Rudenz is the nephew of Baron Attinghausen, a free lord of eighty-five years who leads the valley by custom and respect.
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At the Rootli the people swear their oath
At night, the men gather on the meadow, with torches among the rocks and a strange rainbow cast by the moon over the lake.
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A shot at an apple tests a father
At home Tell finishes repairing the door.
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Freedom, violence and the way the play speaks
The play asks when force is justified.
Read all 8 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- William Tell A skilled hunter and archer from Uri who prefers a quiet life with his family but will not fail his country when it needs him.
- Hermann Gessler The Austrian governor of Schwytz and Uri, who humiliates the people with a cap on a pole and a castle in Altdorf.
- Werner Stauffacher A prosperous farmer of Schwytz who seeks allies in the other valleys after Gessler threatens his house.
- Gertrude Stauffacher's clear-minded wife, who persuades her worried husband to look for allies and act.
- Arnold of Melchthal A young man of Unterwald, hot-tempered and loyal, who wants justice for his blinded father.
- Walter Furst Tell's father-in-law from Uri, a steady elder who helps plan the league of the three valleys.
- Ulrich von Rudenz A young baron drawn to the Austrian court, who must decide where his true loyalty lies.
- Bertha of Bruneck A wealthy noblewoman who admires the Swiss people and urges Rudenz to stand with them.
How it ends (spoiler)
Gessler is shot by Tell in a narrow pass as he refuses a poor woman's plea. The three valleys light signal fires, take the castles and tear down the keep at Altdorf. News comes that Emperor Albert has been murdered by his nephew, Duke John. Tell gives the fugitive duke directions to Rome but will not call his own deed the same crime. The people hail Tell, and Rudenz frees his serfs and wins Bertha's hand.
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Вопросы о книге Вильгельм Телль
What is William Tell by Schiller about?
It is a five-act play about the people of the Swiss valleys of Uri, Schwytz and Unterwald, who unite against cruel Austrian governors. The archer William Tell is its best-known figure.
Is William Tell a true story?
Tell is a figure of Swiss legend, and historians question whether he lived. Schiller finished his play in 1804 and used the legend, together with real Swiss history, to dramatize the struggle for freedom.
What is the apple scene in William Tell?
Gessler orders Tell to shoot an apple from his own son's head. Tell keeps a second arrow in his belt. The scene is the most famous in the play and decides the course of the later acts.
What is the Rootli in William Tell?
The Rootli is a hidden meadow on the lake shore where men from the three valleys meet by night. They swear an oath to be one free people, and the scene sets the plot in motion.
Is William Tell easy to read?
The play moves through clear scenes with strong characters, songs, storms and short, direct speeches. Its large cast is introduced gradually, and the central conflict is easy to follow from the first scene.
Как сослаться на это издание
Schiller, Friedrich. William Tell. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/william-tell.
Schiller, F. (2026). William Tell. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/william-tell (Original work published 1804)
Schiller, Friedrich. William Tell. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/william-tell.
@book{schiller2026william,
author = {Schiller, Friedrich},
title = {William Tell},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/william-tell},
note = {First published 1804}
}
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