How did Expressionist plays use dreamlike scenes and symbolic characters?

Expressionist theatre utilized dreamlike scenes and symbolic characters to shift the focus from external reality to the internal mental states of the protagonist.12

Dreamlike Scenes

Expressionist plays often abandoned continuous narrative progression in favor of Stationendrama ("station drama"), a structure consisting of loosely linked episodes or tableaux. These scenes were not intended to simulate reality; instead, they functioned as subjective projections of a character's mind. Settings were frequently abstract or distorted—with walls at sharp angles or trees shaped like skeletons—to serve as a dramatic force that mirrored the protagonist's psychological crisis or ideological position. In some works, such as Ernst Toller’s Man and the Masses, scenes explicitly alternated between reality and dream states.12

Symbolic Characters

Rather than developing individualized characters, Expressionist drama employed representative types to illustrate general truths or specific aspects of the protagonist's consciousness. Characters were often nameless or identified by roles such as "the Son" or "the Stranger," and they were sometimes presented as fragments of a unified psyche. To further depersonalize these figures, playwrights and directors used masks, stylized makeup, and costumes—such as skeletons painted on uniforms—to transform actors into visual emblems of societal or psychological concepts.123