The call of life

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Data
Title: The call of life
Genus: Play in three acts
Original language: German
Author: Arthur Schnitzler
Publishing year: 1906
Premiere: February 20, 1906
Place of premiere: St. Petersburg
Place and time of the action: "Around the middle of the last century in Austria", d. H. around 1850

The first and second act in Vienna, the third in a Lower Austrian village

people
  • Old Moser
  • Marie , his daughter
  • Ms. Richter , Moser's sister-in-law
  • Katharina , her daughter
  • Doctor Schindler , doctor
  • Eduard Rainer , Forstadjunkt
  • The colonel
  • Irene , his wife
  • Young officers:
    • Max
    • Albrecht
  • Sebastian , sergeant
  • A soldier on watch
  • Soldiers, children

The Call of Life is a play in three acts by Arthur Schnitzler , which was premiered on February 20, 1906 in St. Petersburg . Four days later it was premiered in German at the Lessing Theater in Berlin. The text was published by S. Fischer in Berlin on February 27th . The author finished work on the piece in September 1905 and dedicated it to Hermann Bahr .

The parricide Marie finds no happiness.

time and place

The play takes place in Austria in the middle of the 19th century; the first and second act in Vienna, the third in a Lower Austrian village.

content

1

The 26-year-old Marie Moser patiently and devotedly cares for her bedridden 79-year-old father. The angry old man, a captain a. D., bullies Marie and insists on her constant presence in the sickroom. Marie has barely left the house for more than three years. She is insulted several times by the father. The beautiful girl is not lacking in admirers. The Forstadjunkt Eduard comes by with the news that he has been appointed chief forester in the distant Tauplitz . The widower Moser will not give up his daughter, his only child, under any circumstances. Marie also suggests a secure married life at Edward's side in the solitude of the forest in the forester's house. The young girl confesses in despair that the application is too late. You love a doomed man. Eduard withdraws, concerned.

Marie goes to the window. The blue cuirassiers pass by. It is said that the young soldiers are going into a battle from which there will be no return. Because thirty years ago the regiment had a guilt: cowardice before the enemy. That's why the army lost a battle at that time. The regiment now wants to atone for that guilt by fighting down to the last man.

Old Moser confesses to his daughter that thirty years ago he stained the honor of his regiment, that very blue cuirassier. He was the first to lose control shortly before the battle and caused a mass exodus. Marie poisons her own father, her tormentor, with medical assistance and rushes to her doomed lover. This young man is part of the last squadron that will ride into the field the next morning.

2

The doomed man is 27-year-old Lieutenant Max, a blue cuirassier. He's burning letters from his lover Irene. This is the Colonel's wife. The Colonel enters the room of his subordinate Max. The superior shows himself to the lieutenant; wants to take him out of the line of fire. Max refuses. The Colonel leaves and Marie comes. The girl is hiding behind a curtain because Irene appears. Irene, very wealthy, once again confesses her burning love to Max; wants to flee with him to the sunny south at the last minute. She prepared the trip meticulously. “I hate you, Irene!” Shouts Max. Nevertheless, Irene sticks: Young men will be sacrificed on the battlefield without meaning. The strange tête-à-tête is severely disturbed. The colonel jumps in through the window and shoots his wife. After the murderer has left, Marie appears dead pale and calm from behind the curtain. After the startling twist, Max gives the girl free to leave. Marie stays and spends one night with her lover - his last.

3

Max falls. Only one of the regiments survived the slaughter at the front. Marie sees herself as a criminal. She killed her own father out of selfishness. When asked why, Marie replied that life itself, the longed-for, the glorious, would have called for her outside the door. Marie lived through her own bliss, her own despair in just one night. Marie had been desperate because she had murdered for Max and he didn't want to live with her because, despite her pleading, he had simply left her just to kill himself. Life has lost its meaning for Marie. Marie can only confess her murder to the loyal Eduard, who calls in with a renewed request, and again give him the go-ahead. The young woman is considering serving as a sister in the army. It is rumored that the colonel drove the regiment to its death not out of heroism but out of lovesickness after his jealous murder.

reception

  • Schnitzler goes back to the draft of the novella The Parricide from 1898.
  • The title is an antiphrase , because the heroes go to death or even die.
  • The author criticizes militarism in the play . The ending is reminiscent of Florence Nightingale in the Crimean War . The vicissitudes of life seem a little improbable in the sequence presented.
  • Sprengel criticizes Schnitzler's drama for the crass and the almost trivial.
  • Schnitzler wrote a script based on the play in 1920. It was never made into a film.

Web links

literature

source
First edition

Arthur Schnitzler: The Call of Life. Play in three acts . 132 pages. S. Fischer, Berlin 1906

Secondary literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Schnitzler diary. Retrieved June 16, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Berliner Börsenzeitung. February 23, 1906, Retrieved October 4, 2016 .
  3. ↑ Berliner Tageblatt. February 27, 1906, Retrieved October 4, 2016 .
  4. ↑ Farese, p. 122, 13. Zvo
  5. ↑ Farese, p. 122, 11. Zvo
  6. ↑ Le Rider, p. 83, 7th Zvu
  7. ↑ Perlmann, p. 73 middle
  8. ↑ Perlmann, p. 74, 16. Zvo
  9. ↑ Perlmann, p. 74, 1. Zvo
  10. ^ Sprengel, p. 499, 17. Zvo
  11. ↑ Wolf, pp. 121-123
  12. ↑ Farese, p. 213, 2. Zvo