The basic material for this play, _The Sunken Bell_, says its translator, Mr. Meltzer, is found in Grimm’s Teutonic Mythology. Here are the characters of the bell maker, his wife, the elfish spirit, the schoolmaster and the vicar, and other factors interwoven with the allegorical and mystical. Hauptmann visualized these characters with consummate skill. Heinrich, the bell forger, who seeks the sun and a new, marvellous chime of bells, Magda, his faithful wife eager to free him from domestic toils, Rautendelein, the spirit of nature that lures him away and stirs his soul to unfulfilled aspirations, and Wittikin, the wise woman, the village priest and barber--all are alive and convincing. The evasive and mystical element becomes a part of the atmosphere of this “fairy-tale play”; the dramatic unities are well maintained. What is the meaning of _The Sunken Bell_? Each reader may make his own answer, for several are possible. It is as futile to analyze it, as it is to destroy the fantasy and mystery of _Peter Pan_ or _The Blue Bird_ or _Dear Brutus_. It is too subtle, too delicate to be treated by rigid rules of criticism. However, Mr. Meltzer makes three pertinent explanations; it may be a parable, the effort of all artists to reach their ideals; it may be the effort of a reformer to remold society by visionary ambitions; or Heinrich may embody any human being, striving for the goal of truth and light. As Rautendelein symbolizes Nature which offers freedom, so Wittikin expresses the eternal philosophy of life, opposed to the conventional creeds of the world, like those of the barber and the vicar, that are stumbling-blocks in the path of lofty idealism. Heinrich fails to attain his ideal; he cannot weld the pagan and Christian truths into one gospel, because he is _human_, with limitations. He cannot stay on the pinnacle of the mountain, with its mystic light and its new sun-bells, but he has not lost the influence of these in his life. When the vicar rejoices that “the old Heinrich” has returned, he answers: That man am I, and yet ... another man. Open the windows--Light and God stream in.[81]