#spellboundseries

In this Part I’ll introduce a reading of one of the most often quoted lines in the musical, that I haven’t come across yet.

Alfreds Seele gehört längst mir.

Alfred's soul has long since been mine. - Krolock

In "Sie irren Professor" Krolock refers back to "Vor dem Schloss", once again assuring that he and not Abronsius can give Alfred what he is looking for.

Here, regardless of their prior relationship, Abronsius supports Alfred: "Er bekämpft Sie!" - He is fighting you!

To which Krolock replies with the famous quote: "Alfreds Seele gehört längst mir!"

What some translations to English miss out on is that "längst" implies a long duration of time. Not only does Alfred's soul belong to him, it has for quite a while.

Now this sentence has been interpreted in a couple of ways one of them of course being that Alfred is under Krolock's spell. As you might have guessed, that's not my reading, so let's look at my personal interpretation:

Ich bin was ich sein muss, denn ich bin's für Sarah

I am what I have to be for Sarah - Alfred

Alfred is completely devoted to Sarah, who in turn is devoted to the Count.

Just like Sarah is willing to give herself up and be the way the Count wants her to be even if that results in her destruction ("Manchmal in der Nacht will ich so sein, wie du mich haben willst und wenn ich mich selber zerstör!"), Alfred wants  to change himself for Sarah ("Ich bin was ich sein muss [...] für Sarah!") and also is willing to destroy himself, the line "Für dich geb ich mein Blut!" - "I will give my blood for you!" is the most blatant occasion of foreshadowing in TdV.

Alfred did take a third option other than the professor and the Count, but this option was once again to fixate on a person rather than going his own way.

The power Krolock has over Sarah therefore extends to Alfred.

Alles wird neu sein

Everything will be new - Sarah

Sarah however will in the end see through the Count's ruse and find her own way, which in a deconstruction of a classic Coming of Age story, is not one of virtue, but one of crass egocentrism. And Alfred once again fully dependent on a single person and completely isolated, will follow her.

Sarah finds a new beginning, for Alfred everything stays the same.

The first two parts of this series were about Sarah's character in TdV. I offered to make a similar analysis for Alfred and @jadeite-art requested  this topic.(Sorry I took a while to get to it!) So let's try to answer the question:

Who is Alfred?

Niemand wird Alfred vermissen!

Nobody will miss Alfred - Alfred

Alfred is the first character that we meet in TdV. During "He Ho He" he is introduced as a frightened, slightly pessimistic, but realiable person. And we hear the sentence that is the launcher of a thousand headcanons: "Niemand wird Alfred vermissen!" - "Nobody will miss Alfred!"

This short sentence reveals that our protagonist is dependent on Abronsius, socially and likely also financially. The professor is (perhaps literally) the only person Alfred can still rely on.

While I don't want to go too deeply into his relationship with the professor - simply because it varies so wildly depending on the actors, ranging from a loving (grand)father-(grand)son relationship to downright abusive - what remains the same in all incarnation are the differences in hierarchy and age which prevent them from interacting as equals, emphasized by the asymmetric form of adress: Alfred refers to Abronsius with the respectful formal "Sie", Abronsius to Alfred with the familiar informal "du".

Alfred therefore has no confidant of the same social status, which leaves him isolated.

His isolation is further cemented in "Knoblauch". Due to his role as assistant he is overlooked: Chagal comically attempts to interact with the still frozen Abronsius rather than talking to him.

Being ignored or overlooked is something that will occur to him time and time again over the course of the musical, which leaves the audience with the impression that he must suffer from being overshadowed by the professor.But his association with the professor also puts him above the villagers, so he is not able to see eye to eye with them either.

The social class "university student" does not exist in this rural area, so as a student Alfred falls between the cracks of commoners and Bourgeois, between children and adults.

Not only does he lack a confidant from the same social circle, he lacks anyone that he can interact with on equal footing.

In "Wahrheit", we see Alfred attempt to overcome his isolation and make connections with people his age. First he gains the attention of Sarah, an interaction which is immediately cut short by an angry Chagal, then when Magda approaches him he gladly reciprocrates her advances only to be stopped by Abronsius who wants his attention solely on their mission.No matter their relationship until this point, here Abronsius shows a lack of understanding for Alfred's situation.

Du bist wirklich sehr nett

You really are very nice - Sarah

In "Du bist wirklich sehr nett", Sarah is the first person to treat him with familiarity switching from the formal adress ("Sie wollen baden?") to "du" quickly and in turn he adresses her informally as well.

This scene, set a day after his arrival at the inn, is also his first real chance to socialize with someone other than the professor (as his earlier attempts were unsuccessful) and since we do not know how long Alfred and Abronsius have been travelling through the wilderness this might be his first conversation with someone his age in a long time, let alone with a pretty girl that shows sexual interest in him.

Is it surprising then that in "Draußen ist Freiheit" he refers to Sarah as the "nicest person in the world" ("der liebste Mensch der Welt") fixates on her so exceedingly?