This study bears upon woman and her image in Emilia Galotti by Lessing, who exerted strong influence on the German theatre of the eighteenth century. His tragedies, fables, essays and other writings have since given rise to countless analyses. Rarely, however, has that polyphony of commentary addressed the faint presence of the female characters in his plays or their often unenviable fate. Indeed, only recently has literary criticism initiated debate on the feminine condition in Lessing's dramaturgy and theatrical aesthetics. Pursing that same line of inquiry, we will attempt to uncover the logic of exclusion of the feminine Other that lies behind the reactions of the male characters in the play under consideration. We will premise our exploration on the feminist concepts of woman as image and on male fantasies of women. / Our inquiry is two-pronged: How should Emilia's death be interpreted? Where does her guilt lie? First, we will explore the "economics of separation," i.e., the universe of mental representations harboured by patriarchal man of the Enlightenment. Through analyzing the concepts of death and gender, first from the vantage of the eighteenth century and then within the context of the theatre and literature of that period, we will define those concepts and better assess their powers (death) and limitations (gender). Second, we will probe the image of woman and her sexuality by observing the characters as they interrelate. We will underline the phenomena of projection and identification as well as the structures of abjection in the play. Lastly, our study will bring to light the fiction of the masculine identity and the manner in which women are imagined as "individuals," in sum, how stereotypes are engendered.

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