Hedwig

Hedwig, a pretty young woman living in Professor Erlin’s Heidelberg household, becomes the focus of Philip Carey’s first serious romantic fancy in Germany. Her own love is directed toward a lieutenant whose family initially opposes their match; when the obstacle is overcome, Hedwig leaves to formalize the engagement. Her brief connection with Philip reveals both his self-conscious longing to be gallant and the difference between his imagined romance and her settled commitment elsewhere.

Identity and Introduction

Hedwig is introduced at the household’s crowded dinner, sitting beside Cacilie and exchanging whispers and giggles with her. Philip, newly arrived and obliged to listen to German, notices the girls’ glances and blushes under the impression that they are laughing at him. The first glimpse establishes her as lively and socially at ease, in contrast to his shyness; he has little experience with girls and is acutely conscious that they may find his club foot ridiculous.

That insecurity colors the first walk with Hedwig and Anna. Philip wants to appear bright and gallant, but cannot think of anything to say. Anna speaks to him out of duty, while Hedwig says little, looks at him with sparkling eyes, and sometimes laughs outright. Philip interprets the laughter as ridicule. His awkward reading of her manner shows how readily his concern about his deformity shapes his sense of how others see him.

Love and Social Circumstances

Hedwig’s own romantic story is already under way when Philip learns the household’s affairs. She is the daughter of a Berlin merchant, and a dashing hussar lieutenant has fallen in love with her. His parents oppose a marriage to a woman of her social condition, and Hedwig has been sent to Heidelberg to forget him. Instead, she continues to correspond with him and tells Philip about the conflict with sighs and blushes, showing him the lieutenant’s photograph. Philip likes her best among the young women in the house and tries to walk beside her; the others tease him about his obvious preference.

The impediment to Hedwig’s match is not a lack of mutual feeling but the lieutenant’s parents’ resistance to her position. Their eventual consent follows his importunity and the dowry offered by Hedwig’s father. The plot places her romance within the household’s wider concern with engagements, family approval, and social standing: affection persists, but its public realization depends on negotiation between families.

Philip’s Declaration and Hedwig’s Answer

Philip’s first declaration is an accident of language and timing. One evening, after Hedwig sings her favorite song, Ich liebe dich, Philip stands with her on the balcony looking at the stars and begins by repeating those words. His German falters as he searches for what to say next; before he can continue, Hedwig corrects his use of the familiar second-person form. The moment is comic rather than a deliberate exchange of vows: Philip has begun a phrase that sounds like a declaration, but cannot complete it before she responds to its apparent intimacy.

Hedwig smiles, takes his hand, and presses it before returning to the drawing-room. The next day Philip is so embarrassed that he avoids speaking to her and declines the usual walk, claiming he has work to do. Hedwig seeks him out alone instead of allowing his withdrawal to turn the misunderstanding into a quarrel. She tells him kindly that she is not angry, that she is flattered, and that he cannot help loving her; she also makes clear that, although she is not exactly engaged to Hermann, she cannot love anyone else and regards herself as his bride. Her answer recognizes Philip’s feeling without encouraging it. He blushes and adopts the expression of a rejected lover, then wishes her happiness.

Engagement and Departure

The resolution of Hedwig’s romance arrives after Philip has spent three months in Heidelberg. The lieutenant comes to the city with his parents, who have agreed to meet Hedwig after the dowry offered by her father and their son’s persistent efforts. The meeting is satisfactory, and Hedwig shows her lover to the household in the Stadtgarten. She is to return home at once so that the formal engagement can take place.

The household marks the news with a celebration. Professor Erlin prepares a Maibowle of hock and soda with scented herbs and wild strawberries, and Hedwig sings while Anna plays the Wedding March and the Professor sings Die Wacht am Rhein. Anna teases Philip about his departing lady-love; he feels uncomfortable and melancholy. The ceremony of communal congratulations contrasts with his private disappointment, but it also confirms that Hedwig’s attachment was not a passing obstacle to Philip’s romance: she has consistently understood herself as committed to her lieutenant.

Narrative Role

Hedwig’s episode gives Philip a small but consequential rehearsal in the difference between romantic self-dramatization and another person’s actual commitments. His earlier shyness, his desire to perform a Byronic gallantry, and his assumption that Hedwig’s laughter means ridicule give way to an awkward declaration and a response he cannot convert into a love story of his own. Her kindness prevents rejection from becoming cruelty, while her loyalty to Hermann sets a clear boundary.

Her departure also places Philip’s private disappointment against a fulfilled courtship: the lieutenant’s family changes its position, the lovers’ meeting succeeds, and the household celebrates their future. Hedwig therefore serves not simply as Philip’s first romantic interest in Heidelberg but as a contrast between his still-forming ideas of love and a relationship whose mutual attachment has already survived family opposition. The scene’s humor does not erase his melancholy; it lets embarrassment, tenderness, social constraint, and unreturned affection occupy the same brief encounter.