Brigitta (founder)

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Brigitta is the title and at the same time the name of the female protagonist in the first version of the 1843 almanac Gedenke Mein! Paperback for 1844 (journal version) and in a revised form in 1847 in the fourth volume of studies (study version) the story by Adalbert Stifter . The publisher of the study volumes was Gustav Heckenast .

In spite of all her reason and energy, Brigitta is disadvantaged in an unusual way: As a child so ugly that even her mother turns away from her, she grows up lonely and misunderstood, and her marriage is not a lucky star either. The reader is initiated into the events step by step and only fully recognizes the protagonists when looking back from the end.

The scene of the action is the Hungarian puszta . Hungarian national awareness and cautious criticism of Metternich's system are evident in the people's words and actions. Stephan Murai is a progressive landowner. Numerous impulses for innovations in agriculture came from Hungary at that time, for example Carl Ritter published the book Instructions for the beautification of country estates and landscapes along with the planting method of fields, arable land and meadows in the English style by Carl Ritter in Vienna in 1839 , which above all describes the conditions in Hungary and that, according to the literary scholar Moriz Enzinger (1967), Adalbert Stifter served as a template for names and locations of the story.

people

  • First-person narrator (male, name remains unnamed): observer of the event, only takes part in the margins. Tells about his trip to Hungary to his friend, the major, whom he met on a trip to Italy. He is relatively young compared to the main actors in the action.
  • Stephan Murai: Major, rank earned during the war. Around 50 and after long journeys he lives at the Uwar farm in Hungary. Married as a rich son. Farms the land and trades in land.
  • Brigitta Maroshely: Took last names after moving to the castle. 40 years and ugly, but pleasant to deal with. Lives alone with his handsome son and tends her estate, dressed as a man. Major's neighbor.
  • Gustav Maroshely: Pretty young man, son of Brigitta. Not married.
  • Milosch: Is Brigitta's servant. Lead the first-person narrator to the major.
  • Gabriele: pretty, young daughter of an aged count in the neighborhood of Murai and Brigitta. Repeated races and a hug between Murai and Gabriele in the forest causes Brigitta to file for divorce, because she had demanded the highest love (i.e. that his life was fully focused on Brigitta) from Stephan.
  • Gömör: Neighbor of Marosheli and Murai, also in the association of agricultural promoters. The three of them founded an association to make and use the landscape better and friendlier. Tells about Brigitta's past.

content

The narrator follows Major Stephan Murai's request to visit him and live on his estate for a while. The two met during a trip to Italy on Mount Vesuvius and were inseparable for a while (Chapter 1). At the beginning of the plot , the narrator roams through Hungary to get a glimpse of his friend's homeland and first meets a woman in man's clothes, whom he believes to be an administrator. As he later learns, however, it is the protagonist Brigitta Maroshely. She instructs her servant Milosch to take him to the major's estate. In Uwar there are already three pretty rooms ready for him, as he was expected earlier (cp. 1). Accompanied by the host for days, he gets to know the environment and the activities of the shepherds and workers (Kp. 2). Little by little he tells the reader the story of the relationship between the major and the neighboring landlady, and at the end reveals Murai's identity (cp. 2-4).

After unhappy love and long wandering, the major has finally found his goal, a job in which he can realize himself. He cultivates the land, builds greenhouses, plants vines and maize, builds roads and drains swamps. He was inspired by Brigitta, who used new ideas to transform the once barren plain into a blooming landscape. The first-person narrator gets to know this energetic woman standing with both feet on the floor and observes that Brigitta and the major treat each other like good friends. Her love is imperceptible at the beginning, but gradually becomes more and more evident (cf. chapter 4).

Brigitta's past is inserted into the course of the story (Chapter 3): She lived in a castle with her wealthy family, but because of her ugliness she never felt the love of her parents. While her two sisters received all of the parents' love and attention. She lived it withdrawn, especially in her own room. Surprisingly for everyone, the handsome young man Stephan Murai, the son of a rich landowner, was interested in the outwardly unattractive girl with the beautiful soul. He observed her again and again at parties and it took him a long time to convince her of his love and to gain her affection. She demanded a boundless, indispensable love from him, which sparked his passion even more. They married and had a son: Gustav. The misfortune began when Stephan fell in love with the pretty Gabriele, the beautiful daughter of a neighboring landowner, and the two got closer. Murai claims to Brigitta, who was entrusted with the upbringing of the small child, that she has to travel for important business. But he secretly went to a very distant and secluded country estate and stayed there for several weeks (probably together with Gabriela). When Brigitta found out about this, she separated from her husband because he had not kept her condition of one and only true love. She got divorced and took her maiden name again. Murai left the estate and voluntarily renounced his son, whom Brigitta now raised alone. After fifteen years, Stephan returned from his travels through Europe and settled on the neighboring Uwar estate . He could never forget Brigitta and deeply regretted his mistake. He bought a neighbor's property so that he could at least be near her, from then on he only called himself the "major" and remained hidden from her. It was only when Brigitta became seriously ill that Murai dared to contact again. He stayed by her bed day and night until she recovered. Since then, the two have been close friends. Brigitta could never forgive him for the mistake and she continued to keep a secret from Gustav that the major was actually his father.

During his stay on Uwar , the narrator experiences the couple's reconciliation and the complete fulfillment of their love after Major saved Gustav from a pack of wolves and brought him wounded into his house. Brigitta immediately visits her son, who is injured by a bite wound, and Murai and they can no longer hide their feelings for each other and weep into each other's arms. Gustav finally learns that Stephan Murai is his father (Kp. 4).

Film adaptations

Secondary literature

Rosemarie Hunter-Lougheed: Adalbert Stifter: Brigitta , In: Interpretations - Stories and Novellas of the 19th Century , Volume 2, No. 8414 [5], Verlag Philipp Reclam jun., Stuttgart 1990. pp. 41-97. ISBN 3-15-008414-8

Albert Meier: Discreet storytelling. About the connection between poetry, science and didactics in Adalbert Stifter's story Brigitta . In: Aurora. Yearbook of the Eichendorff Society 44 (1984), pp. 213-223.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Moriz Enzinger: Founder's story «Brigitta» and Hungary . In: ME (Ed.): Collected essays on Adalbert Stifter . Vienna 1967, p. 134-142 .