A goodbye
A farewell is a novel by Arthur Schnitzler that appeared on February 2, 1896 in the literary magazine Neue Deutsche Rundschau in Berlin. It was included in Schnitzler's novelette collection The Wise Woman , S. Fischer Verlag in 1898.
content
The bachelor Albert, a wealthy idiot, is anxiously waiting for the secret visit of his young, beautiful lover Anna. Because Anna, a married woman, last visited five days ago. Albert then patrols the house of the loved one. Finally, he can no longer bear the uncertainty and sends a servant in front. The lady of the house was sick. There is talk of head typhus . Albert wants to see the dying woman again, but does not venture into the house. He fears the husband's challenge to a duel. Albert finally struggles. To the amazement of his servant, he leaves the apartment early in the morning and goes to Anna unhindered. The beloved died "half an hour ago". The widower kneels on his deathbed and thanks Albert in a tear-choked voice in a whisper for his condolence. Albert it is as if Anna smiled contemptuously. And he reads a demand from the face of the dead: Albert should tell the husband everything. But the intruder slips away without a word. He mustn't mourn with the relatives who are present next door. As he walks, Albert feels as if Anna had chased him away because he had denied her.
reception
Schnitzler himself wrote a variation on the theme in his novella The Dead Silence in 1897 .
That mocking smile that the lover wants to see on the lips of the dead is an expression of his long-hidden, now erupting feeling of guilt. In connection with his theory of the “unconscious”, the “I” and the “it”, Freud had postulated that the I was “not the master of one's own house”. Schnitzler paints it in when he describes Albert.
filming
- "Farewells". 1st part after "A Farewell" by Arthur Schnitzler; Part 2 based on the story “Farewell” by Barbara Frischmuth . Director: Gedeon Kovacz . ZDF , ORF 1986 with Karlheinz Hackl and Mijou Kovacs
Web links
- The text at Zeno.org
literature
- source
- Arthur Schnitzler: A farewell. P. 108–125 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
- A farewell . In addition to The Dead Silence , Flowers , The Wise Woman and The Day of Honor , included 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
- 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