Day of Wrath, the Spirit of Tragedy, and the Judgment of the Creator

Abstract

Critics often speak of Carl Theodor Dreyer's treatment of religious themes, his sense of history, and his austere style, but few recognize any tragic intentions on his part. The director himself, however, writes that in the films The Passion of Joan of Arc, Vampire, Day of Wrath, and The Word, he 'ended up with a [...] form which [...] has characteristics in common with that of tragedy'. Using a model based on that of classical Aristotelian tragedy, this essay attempts a detailed consideration, from a dramatic as well as a cinematic point of view, of the tragic aspects of Dreyer's film Day of Wrath (1943), whose script is adapted from the 1909 theatrical melodrama Anne Pedersdotter.