The Greek dancer

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The Greek Dancer is a novella by Arthur Schnitzler that appeared on September 28, 1902 in the newspaper “ Die Zeit ” in Vienna.

Mathilde couldn't get the grizzled first-person narrator. So he casts a sad look at their happy marriage.

content

The narrator doubts "that Ms. Mathilde Samodeski died of a heart attack ". The narrator does the mourning work as follows: He walks to the Vienna villa, in whose garden the Greek dancer , a white marble statue , stands, and tells its story. At that time, when Mathilde was still single, the narrator had figured out chances with her despite his advanced age. But then she married the sculptor Gregor Samodeski. Samodeski, who is young, who is swarmed by women, who has artistic success, is repugnant to the first-person narrator. The narrator believes that Mathilde was not happy in her marriage because Samodeski did not love her, because he only married her because of her money. The narrator now reviews his encounters with the married Mathilde. Each time Mathilde had tried to convince him of her luck. Every time he hadn't believed her. Mathilde, who wanted the narrator to believe that she was never jealous of Samodeski's numerous women acquaintances, had told the narrator the story of the extra Madeleine: At that time in Paris, Mathilde and her husband made a pilgrimage to the Moulin Rouge . Mathilde laughed all evening and didn't even know why. When the little Parisian approached Samodeski in the course of the evening, Mathilde was already a little annoyed, but quickly dismissed it as nothing. Because at the time she was already inextricably linked to the sculptor through her pregnancy. It was Madeleine who modeled Samodeski for the statue The Greek Dancer . On the one hand, the narrator had not inwardly accepted this strange story of marital happiness from Mathilde, but had seen a lot of suffering in Mathilde's eyes. On the other hand, there was a look that Mathilde, absorbed in conversation with the narrator, had thrown at Samodeski. That look had betrayed infinite love. In retrospect, the narrator simply reinterprets Mathilde's look as pure hypocrisy. In reality, the woman suffered in the marriage, finally - driven to madness by the woman hero Samodeski - thrown her life and finally played a natural death for the world. Mathilde betrayed everyone with her pretended marital happiness. In the end, however, the narrator becomes unsure. He has to admit that Mathilde loved Samodeski very much. All he has left is to hate the widowed sculptor.

reception

  • Perlmann emphasizes the ambiguity of the story. The narrator suspects, implies and harbors prejudices - for example against the successful artist.
  • Sprengel regrets the troubled reader who gets his uncertain, prejudiced information about Mathilde from a narrow-minded, jealous, philistine narrator.
  • According to Farese, strangeness and resignation dominate the scene.
  • Perlmann gives two further positions (Martin Swales 1971 and Beatrice Wehrli 1978).

radio play

Web links

literature

source
First edition in book form
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
  • Peter Sprengel : History of German-Language Literature 1900–1918. Munich 2004. 924 pages, ISBN 3-406-52178-9
  • Gero von Wilpert : Lexicon of world literature. German Authors A - Z . S. 555, 2nd column, 19th line from Stuttgart 2004. 698 pages, ISBN 3-520-83704-8

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Perlmann, p. 126, 11th to 30th line from
  2. ^ Sprengel, p. 237, 11th to 20th line vu
  3. ↑ Farese, p. 107, 18th line vo
  4. ↑ Perlmann, p. 134, 4th line from above