Disclaimer: Mariana never returned my call, so there's no way I own Spring Awakening.
This is really just one view of Marianna, I'm sure we all have a different idea of the one who won't return our calls.
Marianna Wheelan was 17, almost 3 years older then most of her friends. It wasn't her fault though. Everyone her age had already been married and had moved away from this godforsaken village. So she was forced to bond with the girls younger and certainly more naïve then her. Ever since she was little, she never got along with kids her age. And then when the time came for boys and girls to go their separate ways, she just started to play with the younger children, boys included.
She would play with them by the river, in town, after church, and so many other places. Frau Wheelan's friend's never thought it was a good idea, but did that stop her? No, of course not. Because what could come of an older girl, a certainly more developed older girl, playing with younger girls and boys?
She was like a mother to them all, but without all of the yelling. She always made sure they were home before dark, and that they couldn't come out to play on weekends until they finished their homework. She wasn't happy about it, but it also made sense that one of the boys would fall for her. Otto's puppy glances, and his nervous manner, never went unnoticed. Marianna knew she couldn't return the feelings, and she did feel bad about it, but perhaps Otto would have eyes for someone else one day. Maybe Thea, Marianna's favorite of all her friends. She always thought they could be happy together.
She saw how the boys became more nervous around the girls, and vice versa. She listened to Melchior's radical ideas, never once telling him that he was wrong, and supported Ilse in all of her crazy plans. She noticed Wendla's dress getting shorter and shorter, until one day, Wendla came to play in a long blue dress and a frown on her face. She soothed Martha's bruises, day after day, and laughed with Thea and Anna about nothing in particular. She even accompanied Georg's piano playing by singing, or even by playing along side him. Otto and Bobby would ask for stories, and with such cute faces, how could she resist? She even went as far as to talk to both Hänschen and Ernst when she realized how they would look at each other, Hänschen's predatory stare, and Ernst's shy glances. She tried to comfort Moritz when he failed, and tried to calm down Wendla when she was frantic one day, but in both cases, she had not prevailed.
When playing house, it only made sense that she be the grandmother, the priest that would marry the pretend bride and groom, or the wise fortune-teller when playing kings and queens. When playing pirates, she was the sea-goddess that would secretly protect them all, and give the fallen pirates their lives back. Though when the game of pirates became reality, Marianna could do nothing, but watch as her friends fought their battles on their own, and stare when two pirates fell. Nothing killed her more then knowing her goddess powers were all pretend, and that the sea had swallowed up the fallen pirates.
Marianna liked to think she had impacted their lives in a positive way, but with two dead and one in a reformatory, she couldn't help but think that wasn't true. They were all getting older, more mature, and wouldn't need her any more, just as a child must leave their parents one day. She was nothing but a bystander in the changing world of these children.
Her last acts as sea-goddess was sitting with Ernst in the pouring rain as he cried over what wasn't supposed to be. And then starring Hänschen in the eye, as he tried to convince her that he didn't love Ernst. Silly boy, she always thought. A mere pirate can't fool a sea-goddess.
I also have a view of Marianna as a bitchy type, but I am liking the motherly type. Which do you prefer?