Sarah and Alfred - a tragic âloveâ story?
I know this will get long, but please, I beg you, read the whole thing. Something that I keep seeing is people talking about how Sarah doesnât care about Alfred, never liked him and could never like him or how actresses can decide how to play the part and I feel like we need to look at the libretto a little bit closer. Or, to be more accurate, for once think of a song that people seem to forget about.
I know that DrauĂen ist Freiheit is basically the âbigâ Alfred and Sarah song. It makes sense, itâs only the two of them, itâs a beautiful song etc. A song that happens quite a bit before that, though, and that is incredibly important to the show, is Nie gesehân, and people tend to forget about that song.
Iâm not going to translate the entire song and put the lyrics in here, but letâs talk about the general meaning for a moment: Alfred and Sarah are both singing about how nice and lovely the other is, how they have never seen someone like that. âSince we met, everything I do makes senseâ. âInstead of sleeping, Iâm wondering if you can guess what I am dreamingâ. âSince we met, I only feel youâ. âIf I ever fall in love then I will surely love someone just like you, or I will never restâ.
Sounds a lot like a crush, doesnât it? The important thing here is: Sarah is all on her own. She isnât talking to anyone else, not her mother, not a friend, not Alfred directly. She is talking to herself, which means that everything she says is meant exactly the way she says it. One doesnât say things they donât mean when theyâre talking to themselves.
Iâm not saying that her crush is as strong as Alfredâs is; it is obviously possible that Sarah is so excited about someone being there that she believes her feelings are stronger than they actually are. But that doesnât change anything about the fact that she does indeed like him and that the crush is there.
That changes later in the show, obviously, and most of what we see of her is Sarah wanting to get away from Alfred. I get that since we mainly see her wanting to get away from him, people ignore these three minutes in which sheâs crushing on him, but hear me out, yes?
In Du bist wirklich sehr nett, Sarah uses Alfred to get the bathroom. She really wants that bath. She likes bathing. The thing is: Alfred just happens to be there. Except from her parents, who forbade her to use the bathroom, it could have been literally anyone. Sarah didnât know it would be Alfred using the bathroom. She only heard someone in there and decided to take a chance. It could have been Magda. Hells, it could have been Abronsius. The only reason why itâs Alfred is because we need them to actually talk to each other so Alfredâs love for her makes sense. Sarah didnât use Alfred because itâs him, but because he was the one who was there.
Then we have DrauĂen ist Freiheit. What happens here is actually incredibly important. Sarah has never felt good at home, thatâs obvious. Sheâs been locked in her room for most likely years, and now her father even hit her after using the bathroom. Thatâs abuse. Sarah is in the situation of feeling so horrible at home that she simply cannot stay there anymore, and she wants to run with the first person who offers her a place to go to because anywhere is better than home. âI canât handle it anymoreâ.âIn there, Iâd suffocateâ. She doesnât say that to be dramatic. She truly wants and needs freedom, because sheâs in a toxic home.
The problem? Alfred doesnât get that. He is nothing but kind and he means well, Iâm definitely not denying that, but he doesnât understand that Sarahâs home is such a horrible place that she needs to leave. Instead of listening to her and trying to find a better solution, he asks her to stay home.
Think of it as if it was you: Youâre telling someone you trust that your parents abuse you, that staying at home is no option at all. But instead of trying to help you, the person insists on you staying with your family. Thatâs not what you want to hear, and, more importantly, it implies that this abuse is okay. If Alfred had offered to take her away, she most likely would have agreed. Itâs not that she desperately wants to go to Dark Vampire Dudeâą; she wants to be free, to get away from her parents. Krolock is just the only option she has, and so she goes for it.
The next time they meet is in the bathroom in act two. At this point, Krolock has been nothing but kind to Sarah. It doesnât matter if he means that or if heâs just acting in order to get an easy meal. The point is: Sarah is being treated with respect for the first time in her entire life. She can bathe, she actually gets nice clothes etc. And then Alfred walks by and tells her to leave all of that behind.
Remember Harry Potter who was happy to stay at Hogwarts during the holidays because it meant he didnât have to see the Dursleys? Yeah. Now imagine forcing him back there during the Christmas holidays. Literally the same.
Itâs cruel to ask someone to go back to a place where they only get hurt. Sarah sends him away, not because she dislikes Alfred, but because heâs asking something of her that she could never agree to. Heâs asking her to go to a place where she will be locked in again, where her father will hit her again for running away (since Sarah doesnât know Chagal has been turned).
And those arenât interpretations, itâs all literally in the libretto. Sarah and Alfred could have worked out, in some way. The tragic thing about them is that they actually care about each other (Nie gesehân, friends. That song is a thing and yes, you can definitely take it literally because nothing else would make sense); they just donât understand each other.
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