{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.02880658436213992, 'fraction_numerical': 0.00102880658436214, 'mean_word_length': 5.08125, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Freedom and Order in Arden's Ironhand

IRONHAND IS JOHN ARDEN'S "free paraphrase" of Goethe's first play, Goetz von Berlichingen, yet the play is very much Arden's. This judgment may not be the reader's first response, for Ironhand seems rooted in the turbulent world of Elizabethan drama which Goethe was imitating. The stark conflicts between the forces of freedom and order, the court intrigues, the treachery of politicians and clergymen, and the frustrations of the aspiring individual in a struggle between uncertain values suggest comparison with Shakespeare, Marlowe and Marston.2 At its core, however, Ironhand is a play about politics, not about character, and it is in the treatment of politics that the play is clearly Arden's. The play explores the paternalism of the feudal lords and the parliamentarianism of the nobles, the clergy and the peasants, but it is the politics of transition, the force for change between these two worlds, which interests Arden.