6.
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and Germany to this day, A young man of means makes love to a girl
of lower station. She is happy and devoted to him with all her soul.
But when she learns that he has died in a duel on behalf of another
Coman, she realized what a trial part she played in the life of him
to whom she gave iherself and commits suicide. Commonplace as this
little tragedy may seem, it is a very serious study of modern life and
possesses high esthetic reflexment. The laps of the heroine exhibits
nothing gross or sensual. It ishnoreover carefully motivated by
the absence of a mother, the extreme leniency of the father and the
attitude of various character of her environment who indirectly help
to shape her life. The tragedylaises from the fact that the heroine
cannot play the love game lightly.
To account the plots of the long list of Schnitzler's works would
be quiteDutile. neither his playe nor his stories are distinguished
by any powerful or olever action. There is little plot in the strict-
est sense of the term in his works. His strength lies chiefly in
subtle characterization, in the creation of an atmosphere rather than
In the manifestation of violently dramatic situations. Schnitzler is
primarily a voet of the soul. He brings the most hidden Houden omtions to
light and he does it with infinite delicacy. Details of circumstances
mean little to him,»roods everything. He is not interested in problem
as such, although he most effectively satirizes and ridicules dueling,
militarism, semitism, anti-semitsm, the government, revolutionary
parties etc. in his works. Only in Professor Bernhardi does a political
intrigue really condition the plot, and even here it is well subor-
ddaated to the chief interest, -- the character of Professor Bernhardi.
Two works of Schnitzler in particular have created a storm of
gros
discussion, although neither is exactly representative of the author.
One is his only full-lized novel so far, Der Weg ins Freie. It is