The special day
The Day of Honor is a novel by Arthur Schnitzler about a supporting actor who is driven to suicide by a joke. It appeared for the first time in 1897 in the literary magazine Die Romanwelt in Berlin and was subsequently printed in the volume of novellas The Wise Woman (1898).
content
The Viennese coffee house visitor August von Witte has a friend at the theater - Blandini, a soloist in the operetta field. After the evening performance, he wants to have dinner with her and friends. He wants to have a joke in the parquet, Herr von Witte. That’s what his friends are for. One appoints Mr. Dobrdal. He commands a crowd of paid clappers. It is agreed with Dobrdal that the applause should rise as soon as Friedrich Roland appears briefly in his insignificant role alongside Albertine Blandini. Witte is jealous of Roland.
During his ten-year engagement on the city stage, his dear colleagues "with the fine instinct of the lowly" have long since discovered the weak points of the aging actor Roland. They laugh at him who has to appear as a page, servant or servant. In short, Roland, the supposedly conceited mime, is joked all over town. But he has at least one person who is fond of him. Sometimes a bouquet of violets is in its place in the cloakroom. Roland has no more hopes. He's already so far that he envies the boys on stage who can still hope. He has also closed the chapter on women. Miss Blandini, the prima donna of the theater, had sometimes exchanged a word with him at a rehearsal. But Roland hadn't dared to elaborate on it.
When Roland now appears and the storm of applause breaks out, he says that the Blandini next to him will be given the ovations. Not correct. His really pathetic supporting role is honored. A laurel wreath is passed up amid the laughter of the audience. The ribbon says: "The brilliant mime Roland. The grateful world." A terrible loneliness overwhelms the "honored one" when he sees through the fun that is being made with him. Roland is constantly called in front of the curtain. He is reluctant, but he cannot get over the theater director. That is Roland's "special day," says the director with a laugh. Once in a lifetime it's everyone's turn. The Blandini has tears in her eyes. The young lady probably recognizes who ordered the fun. She gives Mr. von Witte the pass. When looking for Roland, she finds the unfortunate man hanged in his cloakroom.
reception
- According to Perlmann, the constituent element is the contrast between the small actor Roland and the prima donna Albertine Blandini. The line between stage and privacy blurs for Roland when he is fooled with thundering applause.
- Farese breaks down the perfect composition into prologue, action and epilogue. At the climax, Roland acts in the experienced speech . In it Schnitzler expresses the alarming loneliness of the extras.
filming
- "The Day of Honor". Director: Peter Schulze-Rohr . ZDF 1978.
Web links
- The text at Zeno.org
- The special day in the Gutenberg-DE project
- Review by Evelyne Polt-Heinzl on August 13, 2002
literature
- source
- Arthur Schnitzler: The special day. S. 144–164 in Heinz Ludwig Arnold (Ed.): Arthur Schnitzler: Leutnant Gustl. Stories 1892 - 1907. With an afterword by Michael Scheffel . S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1961 (2004 edition). 525 pages, ISBN 3-10-073552-8
- First edition in book form
- The special day . In addition to The Dead Silence , Flowers , The Wise Woman and A Farewell , contained in: Arthur Schnitzler: The Wise Woman. Novellettes. S. Fischer Verlag, Berlin 1898.
- Secondary literature
- Michaela L. Perlmann: Arthur Schnitzler. Metzler Collection, Vol. 239. Stuttgart 1987. 195 pages, ISBN 3-476-10239-4
- Giuseppe Farese: Arthur Schnitzler. A life in Vienna. 1862-1931 . Translated from the Italian by Karin Krieger . CH Beck Munich 1999. 360 pages, ISBN 3-406-45292-2 . Original: Arthur Schnitzler. Una vita a Vienna. 1862 - 1931. Mondadori Milan 1997
- Gero von Wilpert : Lexicon of world literature. German Authors A - Z . S. 555, 2nd column, 24. Zvu Stuttgart 2004. 698 pages, ISBN 3-520-83704-8