37 pages • 1 hour read
Gotthold LessingNathan the Wise
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1779A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Act VChapter Summaries & Analyses
Act V, Scenes 1-4 Summary
Saladin’s mamelukes let him know that finances have arrived from the Nile region. Next, Emir Mansor arrives. He and Saladin discuss how the Templars are preparing for another skirmish.
The Templar paces in front of Nathan’s house, wondering if he is right to be angry with Nathan for raising Recha under false pretenses. He begins to feel as though his anger is misguided. When he sees Nathan and the Lay Brother emerging from Nathan’s house, the Templar becomes concerned that Nathan has already been summoned to the Patriarch.
Nathan and the Lay Brother discuss the book belonging to Recha’s deceased father, which the Lay Brother has recovered. Nathan plans to take the book to Saladin and share what can be learned. Though Nathan knows he is in danger, he prays thanks to God that he is beginning to feel free of his burden.
Act V, Scenes 5-7 Summary
The Templar asks to accompany Nathan. As they walk, Nathan tells him that someone “denounced” him to the Patriarch, and asks if it was the Templar. He admits that it was he who divulged the information, but says that he was influenced by what Daja had revealed to him. He recognizes his action has wrong, and says that he now only cares to be with Recha, no matter what.
Nathan tells the Templar that a brother of Recha has been discovered, who must give his blessing to whomever Recha ends up with; the Templar still does not know that Recha is his sister. Nathan alludes to the fact, but avoids telling the Templar directly. Instead, he urges that they go quickly to the sultan.
Sittah and Recha talk, with Sittah asking Recha to call her “sister” or “mother.” They talk about Nathan, and Recha bursts into tears, saying she fears she will lose her father. Recha believes that Daja has something to do with the situation that her father is in, but does not think Daja is evil. She explains how Daja took her to the ruins of a Christian temple, where she revealed that Recha was actually a Christian and Nathan’s adopted daughter. Saladin enters and is introduced to Recha. She begs Saladin to let her keep Nathan as her father. Saladin agrees.
Act V, Scene 8 Summary
Nathan and the Templar arrive. Nathan is distraught to see Recha in tears, but both feel better after Nathan assures her that “Your father / Is not lost” (137). Saladin reveals that Recha has a brother. Both she and the Templar are surprised to hear this. Nathan reveals that the Templar’s name is not actually Curd von Stauffen, but Leu von Filnek. He explains that the Templar’s mother was a von Stauffen, and that his uncle Curd raised him. Nathan goes on to explain that the Templar’s father, Wolf von Filnek, was his friend, and that Recha is the Templar’s sister. Recha’s birth name is Blanda von Filnek. He shares Wolf von Filnek’s book as proof. Saladin and Sittah ask about Wolf, who Nathan said was not a German, and spoke Persian. Nathan reveals that Recha’s and the Templar’s father was Assad, Sittah’s and Saladin’s brother; Assad took the name Wolf von Filnek in honor of the German woman he loved. Thus, Recha and the Templar are Sittah’s and Saladin’s niece and nephew, respectively. The Templar realizes that the magnetic attraction he felt to Recha is due to their blood relation. The play closes with the entire group embracing in acceptance.
Act V Analysis
Act V begins by stepping back from the personal world of Nathan, Recha, the Templar, Saladin, and the others to consider the larger context of the play’s setting. The opening scenes depict Saladin discussing the ongoing Crusades and the likelihood of imminent skirmishes with the Christians. The Crusades were a conflict between European Christians and Muslim leaders for control of the Holy Land around Jerusalem. Thus, the Templar’s decision to stay in service with Saladin is remarkable, in the context; the knight has chosen to work with a Muslim leader despite being a Christian. This represents one of the play’s many instances in which the strict boundaries of religious and cultural distinctions are ignored in order to stay true to fundamental principles of loyalty, tolerance, and love.
The Templar, in Act V, undergoes a related transformation. Having been angry with Nathan for surreptitiously raising Recha as a Jew, the Templar begins to reassess his anger. He begins to feel foolish that he would be “angry with / The man who, single-handed, made her what / She is” (122). Nevertheless, now that Nathan’s secret is out, and the Patriarch and Saladin learned of the situation, Nathan remains in danger. He is nevertheless relieved; he senses that justice is coming, and that the truth being out means a large burden has been taken off his shoulders. This is clear in Nathan’s reaction to the Templar’s honest admission that he is the one who betrayed Nathan to the Patriarch. Their embrace is another celebration of tolerance within Nathan the Wise.
The same can be said of Recha’s reaction to Daja. Recha is upset after Daja reveals to her that she had been living a false identity and was in fact born a Christian. Recha also feels that Daja is somehow related to the danger that Nathan is in. However, Recha refuses to denounce Daja as evil. Recha proves to have the same spirit of tolerance as Nathan, despite not being biologically related to him.
The big revelation in the final scene of Act V underscores this spirit of tolerance. The Templar and Recha discover themselves to be siblings, the children of Saladin’s and Sittah’s deceased brother Assad, yet Nathan is accepted to be Recha’s father as well. All embrace as friends and family, despite their religious and cultural differences. The connections between religions ultimately happen not for wealth, power, military or political convenience, or dogma. Instead, the group embraces because of their personal, heartfelt connections to each other, bonds that transcend any categories that could have divided them.
