The Bajazzo (Thomas Mann)

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The Bajazzo is a novella by Thomas Mann , which was first published in 1897 in the literary magazine Neue Deutsche Rundschau and then appeared in the short story collection Der kleine Herr Friedemann from 1898.

content

The 30-year-old first-person narrator looks back on his life. As the son of a wealthy businessman, material worries have always been alien to him. He can always give in to any inclination. It begins at a tender age with imaginative opera performances in his well-equipped puppet theater in his father's house and continues at school, where he cheers his classmates by imitating the teachers. He fails in class because he does not concentrate on the subject matter, but only on the teachers' gestures. The father is indignant about this, accuses him of his Bajazzo attitude and orders him to do a business apprenticeship.

After the death of the father, the son inherits a comfortable fortune. After his mother died too, the first-person narrator travels around the world, stays in Italy, Sicily and Spain for a total of three years and lives on his inheritance, not spending too much time in pensions. He wants to do everything possible, just not seriously work. His musical and dramatic talent does not go unnoticed abroad either and is sometimes admired and sometimes laughed at benevolently. He clearly feels that he has what it takes to be a musician or actor, but does not even begin training in one of these subjects.

Eventually he moved back to Germany and settled in Mainz because of the southern-looking Lerchenberg. There, too, his “comfort” was not insignificant, but now, in addition to satisfaction and trust, there was “some small feeling of anxiety and restlessness, [...] the slightly depressing thought that my situation, which had never been more than temporary, now for the first time had to be regarded as definitive and unalterable ”. He successfully combats boredom by playing the piano and reading modern novels. “I want and must be happy!” Is his motto. He dresses carefully, attends theater performances but otherwise avoids company.

On one of his walks on the Lerchenberg, he met the beautiful, carefree wealthy Anna, who, accompanied by her father, the judiciary Rainer, was eagerly trying to reine the horses of her two-horse hunting carriage from the coachman's seat. The Bajazzo resolves to get to know the young, natural girl better. When he discovered Anna at the opera a few days later, however, he was horrified to find that the young lady had a good-looking admirer, the self-confident assessor Dr. Alfred Witznagel, by her side. Nevertheless, he wants to take on the rival. So he seeks Anna's closeness at a well-frequented charity bazaar in the town hall, where she acts, disguised as an Italian wine and lemonade seller. The young assessor is at her side again. For the first time in his life, the first-person narrator is attacked by the no longer bajazo-like feeling of disturbing himself and making himself look ridiculous as "a stranger, unjustified, unrelated". He messes up his appearance, especially since his clothes, on which he always attaches great importance, are not very correct on that day. With his inappropriately researching and wooden form of address, he reaps Anna's displeasure and a mocking sideways glance at Witznagel. Embarrassed, he searches the distance.

Soon afterwards he reads in the newspaper that Anna and the assessor are engaged. "Since that moment it has ended" with the Bajazzo. His "last remnant of happiness and complacency collapsed to death". He, who always considered himself happy in his easy-going distancing from the seriousness of human society, is now unhappy. The society he ignored now pays him back and in turn disregards him. He only sees himself as a “ridiculous figure” and considers himself “lost”. He closes his report with self-loathing. Even suicide is out of the question for him, because "wouldn't that be almost too heroic for a 'Bajazzo'?"

reception

  • In many ways, The Bajazzo is an ironic self-portrait by the young Thomas Mann. With the novella, the 22-year-old author has written free and overcome the Bajazzo in himself.
  • Hermann Kurzke points out the “superior ridicule” that Bajazzo has for his teachers at school. Actually, says Vaget, “ The Bajazzo could just as easily be called The Dilettante ”. A questionable self-confidence, based on ridicule, acting and amateurism, let the first-person narrator fail in the "test" Anna Rainer. He could not recover from this defeat.
  • Kurzke also mentions the autobiographical traits in the story, especially with regard to the “image of father and mother”, which is similar to that of Thomas Mann's parents in several respects.
  • Hans R. Vaget addresses a weakness of form in the narrative. The unfortunate choice of the first person favors a “self-pity” of the narrator, which makes it difficult for the reader to develop sympathy for him.

expenditure

  • Thomas Mann: Little Mr. Friedemann and other short stories . S. Fischer Berlin 1909. 171 pages, content: The will to happiness / disappointment / the Bajazzo / Tobias Mindernickel / Luischen / the hungry / the railway accident.
  • Thomas Mann: Novellas . 2 volumes. Fischer, Berlin 1922. First to tenth edition. 373 pages. Collected Works . Volume 1: Little Mr. Friedemann - Disappointment - The Bajazzo - Tobias Mindernickel - Luischen - The way to the cemetery - The hungry - The wardrobe - Gladius Dei - One luck - With the prophet
  • Thomas Mann: All the stories. Volume 1. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt 1987, ISBN 3-10-348115-2 , pp. 102-136

literature

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