The well-dressed man (Die Kinder 1897)
As with most characters in Rilke’s poems, this personification of an experience beyond life has no name. Rarely, in fact, are protagonists named in Rilke’s poems.
This particular character is the main protagonist of the poem "Die Kinder" (The children) from the early collection of Rilke’s poems. As most of these focus on religious symbolism, the personification of death in unison with Christian symbolism (e.g. Heiland = Savior) has, here as well, a very powerful and positive feeling attached to it. The character fits with the general concept of Rilke’s poems of being a concept that juxtaposes the original thought a reader would have when seeing the title. Death and children should not be part of the same story.
However, the way the character is displayed here, it paints a yearning picture, a positive conception of death as the culmination of life. The religiously loaded character describes himself as the light when you have to go into the dark ("Ihr muesst ins Dunkel, ich bin das Licht" = You have to go into the dark, I am the light) early on and later refuses to accept children too soon. Only after seeing the despair of a hungry child that has lost its mother is the personification ready to accept a child into its realm.
The character of death, as the only relevant character of this particular poem, shows the perception of life and death Rilke had. Life is a story that needs to be lived for the joy of eternal life in death. These concepts would be challenged in later poems.
The beggar (Das Lied der Bettler 1906)
This character stems from a poem from a later stage of Rilke’s work in which the life of different people was more important than the religious truth of earlier work. The main character here is a beggar who contemplates his own hands.
The hands, however, act as a metaphor for the life of beggars as a general. The character uses his hands to cover his ears, hearing screams he does not know if they are his own or someone else’s. The plight of pennilessness is exemplified in the hollow screams the beggar cannot even recognize himself anymore.
In the next verse, the beggar is using his hands to cover his face. It is described as an act of rest, as a symbol of the shame he feels of being a beggar. With the last two lines of the poem Rilke clarifies this position by spelling out the beggars need to not be seen as someone who has no place to rest.
The panther (Der Panther 1907)
As the main and only character of one of the most famous poems by Rilke, the panther is an excellent example of Rilke’s way of describing situations.
Within the poem the panther is described as pacing his small cage, tired of the never changing vista of bars. Its mind is paralyzed by the numbness of the situation of being caged. The third and final verse describes the small flickers of emotion that still pierce through to the core of the animal, but cease to be when reaching the already dead heart.
The character of the panther can be seen as a personification of imprisonment and loss of freedom. The animal loses hope and even the few things that stir its interest die within its heart, as it has already lost its will to live. Very often this character is seen as either an animals rights, wild heart metaphor, or a personification of the terrible plight a loss of personal freedom puts on an individual.The poem is written so powerfully that the reader is lead to feel pity for the imprisoned creature.
