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 IChapter Summaries & Analyses
Act I, Scenes 1-2 Summary
Nathan has been away from home on a journey collecting debts. While traveling, he learned that his home was nearly destroyed in a fire. As he arrives back home, he finds his servant Daja in an excited state. She tells him that his daughter, Recha, nearly died in the house fire and that a Knight Templar seemed to appear out of nowhere during the fire and rescued Recha from the flames. Recha, who is recuperating from her burns, has visions of the Templar. Convinced that the knight is an angel, she has asked to see him again. Nathan wants to show the Templar his gratitude.
Recha enters in Scene 2 and happily reunites with her father. She tells Nathan that she believes the Templar was some kind of angel. Nathan tells her that he learned that the Templar is actually a prisoner, captured on a crusade. Daja adds that the sultan, Saladin, may have spared the Templar’s life not simply for rescuing Recha, but because the Templar resembles one of Saladin’s brothers. Nathan is skeptical of the claim that the Templar is an angel and of the significance of the physical similarity between the Templar and Saladin’s brother. He tells Daja that she is simply looking for a miracle when she defends Recha’s claims. Nathan’s skepticism upsets Recha.
Act I, Scenes 3-4 Summary
Al-Hafi—the sultan’s treasurer and Nathan’s friend—arrives. The friends greet each other, with Nathan commenting that Al-Hafi looks remarkably well and lavishly dressed for a dervish. Al-Hafi tells Nathan that his appearance is simply a result of his position as treasurer, which has been lucrative.
Nathan and Al-Hafi discuss business, including the sultan’s poor financial management. Al-Hafi tells Nathan that he will soon be resigning as treasurer, and offers Nathan the job. They continue to criticize the sultan’s practices, and Al-Hafi suggests that Nathan stands to make considerable financial gains by exploiting the sultan’s mismanagement of his finances. Just after Al-Hafi leaves, Nathan thinks to himself that he should have asked his friend if he knew anything about the Templar.
Daja tells Nathan that she and Recha have seen the Templar from a distance, picking dates from palm trees. Nathan tells her to invite the Templar to their home, and to follow him if he refuses the invitation.
Act I, Scene 5 Summary
The Templar encounters a Lay Brother (an associate of the Christian church) while wandering outside. The Templar thinks the Lay Brother is asking for alms or a charitable donation, but the Lay Brother tells him that the Patriarch (the head of the area church) has sent him. The Patriarch wants to know why Saladin spared the Templar’s life; the Templar tells him that he does not know why.
The Lay Brother also tells the Templar that the Patriarch wants the Templar to deliver a letter for him because the Templar has good knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of Saladin’s defenses. The Lay Brother tells him that the letter is for King Philip of France and is concerned with whether the European crusaders should work to maintain a truce with Saladin. After the Templar refuses the mission, the Lay Brother gives more details, saying that the Patriarch wants to know the location of a fortress in Lebanon where vast sums of Saladin’s money are stored. Saladin is known to occasionally travel to the fortress without a significant armed escort, and the Lay Brother implies that the Patriarch wants the Templar to capture and possibly kill Saladin on one of these trips to the fortress.
The Templar counters that he owes a debt of gratitude to Saladin for sparing his life. The Lay Brother tries to convince him of the plan by characterizing Saladin as the enemy of Christianity, even if he spared the knight’s life. The Templar continues to refuse to participate in the plot against Saladin, referencing the fact that he resembles the sultan’s brother as a sign that the plot is not just.
Act I, Scene 6 Summary
Daja encounters the Templar and asks about his health. She tells him that Recha is asking to see him and that Nathan will also soon invite him to their home. Daja tells the Templar that Nathan is regarded as both wealthy and wise. Daja tries to bond with the Templar over the fact that she is also Christian and that her husband had been a soldier in the army of Emperor Frederick of Switzerland. The Templar rejects the attention and the invitation, saying that he does not feel like he should be recognized for saving Recha when he really did it without giving it much thought. As he leaves, Daja vows to keep an eye on him.
Act I Analysis
Nathan the Wise opens with an air of mystery. Before the action of the play begins, Recha has been rescued from an accidental house fire by the Templar, who seemed to appear out of nowhere and whose location is now unknown. The mystery of the Templar and his identity, motives, and whereabouts make him seem like a larger-than life figure. The fact that the rescue of Recha happens before the action of the play begins means that readers do not have the textual information to determine more about the Templar, which amplifies the mystery surrounding him. In the first scenes of the play, Recha experiences feverish visions of the fire that haunt her: “[i]n her fantasy she still imagines fire / In all she sees” (22). Her belief that the Templar is not just an angel but “[her] own/ Angel” who has saved her adds to the mystery surrounding him (26).
Nathan first appears as a character who creates a strong contrast to this air of mystery. Having just returned from traveling, with gifts and money, he seems focused on material things and realistic facts. He is also characterized as wise and caring from the start, with no doubt “that there’s none / More honest and more generous than” he (21). Thus, it is no surprise that he is skeptical of Recha’s belief that the Templar is an angel, but there is no doubt that he loves his (adopted, it will later be revealed) daughter. This is expressed by his desire to show gratitude to the Templar for saving Recha, even if he does not believe the knight is supernatural.
When the Templar himself first enters the play, he seems to share some characteristics with Nathan, insofar as he is also generous and caring. Despite the notoriety that surrounds him for having saved Recha, he is humble and does not seek attention. Nathan admires his willingness to risk his life to save Recha, noting, “[f]or someone he had never known / Or seen—simply for a human being / He rushed into the fire” (30). This goodness seems to be reflected in Saladin sparing the Templar’s life—despite being a Christian and thus ostensibly an enemy—not only for saving Recha’s life, but because the Templar resembles Saladin’s deceased brother, Assad. The Templar’s moral compass also shows when he refuses to betray Saladin when he learns of the Patriarch’s plan to entrap the sultan Saladin, which he rejects, saying, “Not just a messenger; he wants a spy!” (40).
The first act of Nathan the Wise also lays the foundations of one of the play’s key themes, religious and cultural tolerance. The Templar, as a Christian knight, rescued a Jewish woman (who later turns out to have been born Christian), Recha. Then, a Muslim sultan, Saladin, spares the Templar’s life despite their cultural and religious differences and despite the fact that the Christians and Muslims are at war. On another level, the Muslim Al-Hafi and the Jew Nathan have a strong friendship, while Daja (a Christian) is a faithful servant of Nathan’s. All of these relationships and events present a spirit of friendship and tolerance that is remarkable given the conflicted setting and time period. As the play continues, this spirit becomes even richer.
