The play shows how cabals and their intrigue destroy the love between Ferdinand von Walter, a nobleman's son, and Luise Miller, daughter of a middle-class musician.

Ferdinand is an army major and son of President von Walter, a high-ranking noble in a German duke's court, while Luise Miller is the daughter of a middle-class musician.

The president instead wants to expand his own influence by marrying off his son Ferdinand to Lady Milford, the duke's mistress.

The president and his secretary Wurm (Ferdinand's rival) concoct an insidious plot, arresting Luise's parents for no reason.

Luise declares, in a love letter to the Hofmarschall von Kalb, that only by death can she obtain her parents' release.

This righteousness is visible in Intrigue and Love, since ultimately, its final court of appeal is not secular justice but God himself.

He saw its most important function, however, as to mediate between freedom and necessity, showing an idealised version of the individual's struggle with and victory over social, moral and religious constraints onstage.

Tragedy had previously been limited to the nobility, through the Ständeklausel or "estates clause", but Lessing's genre opened it to the world of the German middle classes.

In it, individual interests, subjective feelings and the demand for freedom from a class-ridden society's constraints are powerful drivers for the characters and ultimately lead to disaster.

Charles Eugene, Duke of Württemberg had just arrested Schiller and banned his works, in punishment for his unauthorised departure to attend the premiere of his play The Robbers.

Thus, in September 1782 Schiller fled the Duke's sphere of influence, moved to Mannheim and started work on Intrigue and Love as a response to this arbitrary injustice.

This can be seen in some of the play's themes: Schiller makes use of an elevated style, pathos and hyperboles in order to describe the cynical and cold world of the court.

The integrated French passages serve the uncovering of the court with its empty conversations and inclination for glamorous appearances.

The first one shows the secret opposition of the two lovers, the second one makes it an urgent matter in the turning point, and the third one seals it in death.

Mrs. Miller holds hopes of social ascendency regarding Luise's relationship to Ferdinand and secretly encourages their love affair.

The encounter with Ferdiand creates a conflict between her love for Ferdinand and the expectations of her father, the social limits willed by God and her religious conviction.

His whole behavior is adjusted in order to stabilize his position in court – and possibly to extend it – and to secure the duke's favor.

He places this calculus of power above other people, values and feelings; he sees love as a foolish rave: a marriage should serve dynastic or political goals alone.

He realizes that people cannot be moved like chessmen, but follow feelings and values that are not simply subordinate to utilitarian considerations or the pursuit of power.

Lady Milford, aka Johanna von Norfolk, the Prince's mistress, takes on the middle position between courtly and middle-class value systems.

Lady Milford longs for true love; she wants to leave the country with Ferdinand and start a new chapter in life.

It originally had the working title Luise Millerin, which was changed to Kabale und Liebe on the suggestion of the actor August Wilhelm Iffland.

[2][3] Another opera, Gottfried von Einem's Opus 44, used Schiller's original title Kabale und Liebe was set to a libretto by Boris Blacher and Lotte Ingrisch and premiered on 17 December 1976.