Empress Elisabeth of Austria

Empress Elisabeth of Austria is the main character in Elisabeth.

Throughout the play
The play starts with Elisabeth "Sisi" falling almost to her death, but Death spares her and they fal in love. Then she starts accompanying her mother and sister to Bad Ischl, so her sister can marry Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria. Franz chooses her, defying his mother, who remains angry at Sisi for the rest of her life. She marries Franz Joseph, but Death follows her and she becomes suicidal. Her marriage is a disaster. She gives birth to two daughters, but her mother-in-law Sophie takes them away. Franz Joseph does nothing while Elisabeth remains tortured by Sophie in all ways. She agrees to woo his Hungarian enemies if she gets back her children, Franz agrees. In Hungary, Death takes her eldest daughter and Sisi becomes suicidal again.She birthes an heir, but he and her other daughter are taken away. She eventually gains custody after Sophie's death and on an ultimatum to her husband. When he gives her syphilis from a whore, she leaves Vienna and starts travelling around the world, constantly fleeing Death. Death takes her son Rudolph in the form of suicide and she quickly returnes to Vienna. Franz Joseph tries to gain her trust again but Elisabeth refuses, saying that freedom is what she desires now more than ever and Franz Joseph dreams to little.

In Switzerland, she is stabbed by Luigi Lucheni, an arsenist, and she is reunited with death at last.