The Legacy (Schnitzler)

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The legacy is a play in three acts by Arthur Schnitzler , which premiered on October 8, 1898 at the Deutsches Theater Berlin . The text was published the following year by S. Fischer, also in Berlin.

time and place

The play takes place in Vienna in 1899.

content

26 year old Dr. jur. Hugo Losatti lies on his deathbed at home after a riding accident. He confesses to the assembled family his double life, which has been secret for years, and asks to take in his four-year-old son Franz and his mother, the 22-year-old civil servant daughter Antonie Weber. The head of the family, the liberal MP Adolf Losatti, professor of economics, is amazed and follows the urgent request, but tries to cover up the hard truth in front of the staff. He wants his 20-year-old daughter Franziska to believe that Toni - as Miss Weber is called - is a guard. But Franziska is smarter. The girl had met the small family of three by chance in town months ago and had figured out the surprising observation.

Dr. Ferdinand Schmidt, Franziska's bridegroom, diagnosed Hugo as a general practitioner for the Losattis as "a severe shock". Hugo dies. The Losattis fulfill the legacy of the deceased. Toni and little Franz are taken into the house. The two are allowed to mourn together with the family at Hugo's grave. The reaction of the upper class circle of friends is not long in coming. One no longer associates with certain people who protect the maitresse of the deceased son under their roof. The liberal professor confesses to little Franz as if it were his legitimate grandson. Thus he provokes the contradiction of the family doctor Ferdinand. The doctor rose from a poor background.

The tide turns when little Franz falls ill and dies. Toni foresees her near future in the stately Losatti house. Franziska dispels the concerns. Her groom Ferdinand would rather have Toni out of the house today than tomorrow. The host, initially cautious, steers more and more resolutely into the waters of the future son-in-law. Fortunately, Toni also has an advocate. Emma Winter, a 36-year-old widow, related by marriage to the Losattis, wants to take in mother and child in her home. Emma is determined to do this; even when the Losattis want to turn away from her completely. The professor shows his true colors. He indirectly accuses Emma of having been Hugo's lover. Emma then never wants to enter the Losattis' house again. However, Emma brings her 17-year-old daughter Agnes down. The daughter has an insurmountable dislike for Toni. Agnes was promised as a wife to Hugo by the family during his lifetime. So Agnes cannot live under one roof with Fraulein Weber.

Toni, urged to go without the slightest mercy, especially by the ruthless Ferdinand, leaves the house and sees the only way out is suicide. The professor is relieved that Toni has turned his back on "decent society" without much ado. Franziska can no longer bear her hard-hearted groom and no longer wants to see him. Ferdinand leaves. Prof. Losatti, who has meanwhile taken the side of the family doctor, does not want to let the future son-in-law go and orders him to stay.

reception

  • In 1898, Harden called the play in the magazine Zukunft a "tragic comedy of big bourgeois decency".
  • Scheible condemns the play. It is "not to be saved". The effortlessly anticipatory audience could not be shaken by the piece. Action is rare. At the end there is moralization. Only Professor Adolf Losatti is drawn in an acceptable manner.
  • On Korte the piece makes a constructed impression in places. In addition, Hugo's last will is not enforceable in the middle class household. This legacy also reveals a serious weakness of Hugo's character - indecision. What is meant is Hugo's years of double life. The latter life is only possible in a morbid bourgeois family whose members have grown apart.
  • Perlmann also emphasizes Hugo's indecision and the rigidity in Ferdinand's demeanor.
  • In the Austrian Biographical Lexicon , the drama is described as socially critical .

literature

source
  • Arthur Schnitzler: The Legacy. Play in three acts p. 231 to 318 in Heinz Ludwig Arnold (Hrsg.): Arthur Schnitzler: The lonely way. Time pieces 1891 - 1908. With an afterword by Hermann Korte . S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1961 (2001 edition). 525 pages, ISBN 3-10-073558-7
First edition
  • Arthur Schnitzler: The Legacy. Play in three acts . 191 pages. Illustrated. S. Fischer Berlin 1899
Secondary literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nickl, H. Schnitzler, p. 368, 22. Zvo
  2. ↑ Source, p. 523, fourth entry
  3. ↑ Source, p. 232 below
  4. ↑ Harden, quoted in Scheible, p. 55 below
  5. ↑ Scheible, pp. 55 and 56
  6. ^ Korte in the afterword of the source, pp. 519 to 520 above
  7. ↑ Perlmann, p. 67 middle
  8. ↑ Austrian Biographical Lexicon
  9. ↑ See " Schnitzler ".