The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) is one of the landmarks of the German Expressionist movement. Written by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer, directed by Robert Wiene, and starring Conrad Veidt, Werner Krauss, Friedrich Feher, and Lil Dagover, the silent horror film features both a frame story and a main narrative whilst exploring themes of insanity, crime, power, and shifting identities.

Francis narrates his experiences to an old man in the park.

The hero Francis recounts his experiences with Dr. Caligari, a mysterious man at the fair who controls a somnambulist called Cesare and commits murders through him at night. After his friend Alan is brutally murdered, Francis is determined to investigate the crime and uncover the truth about Dr. Caligari.

The film’s director, Robert Wiene (1873–1938), was particularly prominent during the silent era of German cinema. Apart from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, he directed Genuine (1920), Raskolnikow (1923), I.N.R.I (1923), and Hands of Orlac (1924). Wiene was born in Breslau as the elder son of the successful theater actor Carl Wiene. Following the Nazis’ rise to power, he fled Germany as he was of Jewish descent. Wiene died of cancer at the age of 65.

The art movement of which The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a prime example is Expressionism, which distorts the image of reality to make it expressive of the artist’s inner world. Expressionist films were prevalent during the 1920s and included masterpieces such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu (FW Murnau, 1922), and Sunrise (FW Murnau, 1927). In addition to expressing characters’ inner realities, the films were characterized by the play of light and shadow, stylized visuals, and silhouettes. The somber mood of expressionist films is accompanied by heavy themes of insanity, betrayal, disillusionment, and other philosophical and psychological topics.

Holstenwall, Francis’s hometown, depicted with dark colors and distorted architecture.

The gruesome experiences that the German nation went through during WWI contributed to the crystallization of the expressionistic approach. Thus, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari may be said to communicate the emotions the German nation felt on both conscious and subconscious levels regarding the madness of authority and war, and incessant greed for power. The actors in the film employ a style characterized by exaggerated, overly theatrical, and unnatural movements, which help in manifesting and amplifying the intra-psychic spaces of the characters. The visual design in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is differentiated by its dark, strange, and eerie atmosphere. Twisted and distorted streets and buildings, sharp forms and angles, the uncanny play of light and shadow reflect a nightmarish world.

Diving into themes

An overarching theme in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is the juxtaposition between the real and the unreal. At the outset, we are led to believe that Francis’ account is reliable, given he presents himself as insightful, investigative, and sane. However, in the twist ending, the shocking realization is that Francis is an asylum inmate, rendering his account a mere hallucination about a series of events that never occurred. Additionally, Jane and Cesare turn out to be inmates of the asylum as well. The ending, therefore, raises questions about characters’ reliability and veracity.

A second theme is authority versus uprising. A malicious, insane, and exploitative authority is presented in the main story. Dr. Caligari, who uses the obedient Cesare to carry out his vicious aims, is a prime example of how power makes authority corrupt. Cesare is the passive, asleep, and manipulable spirit. Francis, however, represents an investigative mind, daring to find the hidden truth, despite the investigation being arduous. Additionally, the powerlessness of the public is seen in the visual hierarchy, with authority figures, such as clerks and police officers sitting atop high chairs and perches in opposition to the public, who are physically closer to the ground. Social hierarchy puts even Dr. Caligari in a desperate situation when, following his arrival in Holstenwall, he must obtain permission from officials to showcase his spectacle, but is berated by an arrogant clerk, underlining the bitter inequalities among people. The film scenario was written in a time when Germany was defeated during WWI and people had turned distrustful toward authority with unlimited powers. The writers of the film, Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer, both being pacifists, thus reflect their own ideas about the irrationality of authority and its ceaseless waging of wars in a power-driven frenzy.

Dr. Caligari presents Cesare to the public with an intense, wide-eyed expression.

A third theme is duality. The overarching duality lies in the contrast between the main story and the frame story: the latter is taken to reflect reality-as-it-is, whereas the former comprises the delusions of asylum inmates. However, given the viewers were once deceived by Francis’ tale, our trust in the truth of events is broken, further rendering the truth of the frame story uncertain. Another duality is that between the natural and the non-natural. Sharp geometric shapes, spiraling streets, and eccentric-looking places reflect artifice, while bizarre facial expressions of the actors add to the unnatural atmosphere. Therefore, the nightmarish quality of the visual aspects highlights the unnaturalness of the setting in the absence of natural, everyday elements.

Shifting identities make one wonder: Can we maintain our rationality under all conditions? Is one’s character a stable entity, or is it amenable to change according to circumstances? Francis, as presented in the main story, is the heroic, rational, and brave protagonist. However, in the frame story, he is paranoid with unreasonable suspicions about the director of the asylum being the mystic Dr. Caligari. The abrupt change in Francis’ character creates doubt as to which Francis is the real one and prompts us to ponder the fragility and malleability of the idea of identity. A parallel shift is seen in the antagonist Dr. Caligari, who is at first depicted as a tyrannical megalomaniac. In the frame story, however, he turns out to be a benevolent and caring doctor. This abrupt shift in identity creates unease.

At its most basic, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is about the fixations of a doctor that ultimately consume him. The asylum director’s fixation on attaining the knowledge of the 1700s mystic Dr. Caligari causes him to disregard the well-being of his patients, including the somnambulist Cesare, whom he views only as a means to an end. As the new somnambulist is admitted to the mental hospital, Dr. Caligari’s wide-open and zealous eyes betray his madness. His greed for power is akin to that of German authorities during WWI. Dr. Caligari is not only a perpetrator, but a victim as well, since his fixated thoughts — metaphorically speaking — devour him, as can be seen in the utterance: ‘I must know everything. I must penetrate his secret. I must become Caligari.’

Examining the characters

The heroic protagonist Francis’ recounting of his tragic experiences through flashbacks emphasizes his questioning spirit daring to rise against tyrannical authority. From the beginning, Francis is a loyal and protective friend to Alan. After Alan’s gruesome death, Francis is determined to find the murderer. However, in the frame story, his protagonist status is replaced by being an asylum inmate, rendering his original account delusional.

Francis outside the asylum (‘Irrenanstalt’).

Cesare is a twenty-three-year-old somnambulist, and the obedient puppet of Dr. Caligari, who foretells the future to the public at the fair. In the main story, he is a trained murderer, who never questions the morality of his actions, symbolizing the yielding masses complying with the actions of tyrannical authorities. However, in the frame story, he is nonviolent and peaceful, which can be seen while he is caressing the flowers in his hand.

Cesare, in a rare peaceful moment, caresses the flowers.

Dr. Caligari, the director of the asylum, reflects an outlook prevalent in the German expressionistic style of the time, as seen in the black stripes on his hands and hairdo, highlighting his rigid inner world: greed, ambition for power, and fixations. He is utterly plagued by the idea of transforming into the mysterious figure of Caligari from northern Italy around the 1700s, who had successfully controlled a somnambulist and committed murders through him. Dr. Caligari is therefore not only the evil master of Cesare the somnambulist, but also a slave to his mind’s compulsions.

This is a revised excerpt from my 2022 analysis on The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. If you’d like to read the full essay, you can find it here: Humanities Institute Archive

Medium link with visuals

Thank you for reading.

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