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This is to certify that the

thesis entitled

The Influence of Turgenev on the
Narrative Technique of Fontane

presented by

Willi H. Schwoebel

has been accepted towards fulﬁllment
of the requirements for

Ph-D- degree in Mam—
Language and Literature

 

Mark 0. Kistler

 

Major professor

DateMM—

0-7 639

      
    
      
 

OVERDUE FINES:
25¢ per day per item

RETURNING LIBRARY MTERIALS:
———-________

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charge from circulation records

    

  

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THE INFLUENCE OF TURGENEV ON THE NARRATIVE TECHNIQUE
OF FONTANE

By
Willi H. Schwoebel

A Dissertation

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Department of German and Russian

1981

ABSTRACT
THE INFLUENCE OF TURGENEV ON THE
NARRATIVE TECHNIQUE OF THEODOR FONTANE
by
Willi H. Schwoebel

This thesis seeks to show that Theodor Fontane's
narrative technique was strongly influenced by Turgenev. In

the earlier writings of Fontane, such as in Vor dem Sturm,

 

the narrator occupied an important role in telling the
story, but as the Turgenev influence made itself felt,
dialogue figured more prominently in the narrative method.
The new style, which was more dramatic and more vibrant,
reflected a technique strikingly similar to that employed by
Thrgenev. Both novelists used a series of dialogues to
develop the hero from.many points of view. To create a
natural setting for these dialogues, both authors have their
characters meet at social affairs where the principals
converse with each other and then disperse into different
groups. In the versatility of dialogue which ensues, the
plot and characters unfold clearly yet effortlessly.

A close look at the major characters in Fontane's works
revealed a polarity of weak men and strong women, that again
reminded of Turgenev's polarity of the Hamlet and Don Quixote
types. The use of narrative devices such as nature and the

arts in Fontane's works was likewise found to be quite

similar to their function in Turgenev. For instance,
beginning a novel with a short nature description of the
locality and then shifting over to the introduction of the
people, showed itself to be typical of both authors.

The last chapter of the dissertation uses Turgenev's

Rudin and Fontane's Schach von wuthenow as cases in point to

 

show how surprisingly similar the two works are in respect

to all the narrative techniques previously compared. From
the standpoint of form, Fontane's novels owe much to Turgenev,
but at the same time they offer a brilliant and loving
insight into a life and culture which is distinctively the

poet's own.

To my wife, Gail, for her support and
encouragement. Without it this would

not have been possible.

ii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A special expression of gratitude is due Professor Mark
O. Kistler, my dissertation adviser and Professor Munir
Sendich, for their extensive help in the completion of
this work. Their advice and direction were invaluable.
Their patience was appreciated. The help which was

given by other members of the committee was also deeply

appreciated.

Table of Contents

 

Introduction ....................................... 1
Chapter I The Function of the Narrator ........ 13
Chapter II The Function of the Portrait ........ 57
Chapter III The Function of the Dialogue ........ 64
Chapter IV Polarity of Characters .............. 84
Chapter V Narrative Devices ................... 100
Chapter VI Rudig and Schach von wuthenow:

a Comparison ........................ 142
Conclusions ........................................ 184
Footnotes .......................................... 188

Selected Bibliography .............................. 195

INTRODUCTION

In his correspondence with family and friends, Fontane
showed a constant preoccupation with literature. He con-
tinually commented on the works of European writers and often
compared his work with their work. In his pursuit of literary
excellence, he was exposed early to several Russian writers,
in particular to Turgenev.l Even though Fontane's opinion of
Turgenev was often clouded by misunderstandings, he claimed
in a letter to Ludwig Pietsch that Turgenev had been his
master.2

Fontane, however, had considerable exposure to Turgenev
before he reached the opinion expressed in this letter. His
first contact with Russian literature was in 1841-42 in the
Herwegh-Klub in Leipzig. The noted Russian-German writer and
critic Wilhelm Wolfsohn gave lectures on Russian literature
and found Fontane a willing listener. Fontane had decided that
he would imbibe as much knowledge as was feasible of Russia
and Russian literature for the opportunity might not present
itself again. At one point, he even attempted to learn
Russian, but soon relinquished the idea.3 Christa Schultze
refers to Fontane as one of the first renowned writers who
was so early acquainted with Russian literature.4 While a
member of the literary club "Tunnel ﬁber der Spree", Fontane
was once more afforded an opportunity to study Russian liter-

ature, and Turgenev in particular. This literary circle

-2-

invited different speakers to lecture on Russian literature,
among them.August Viedert who read part of his translation

of Gogol's Revizor. Since Fontane was the secretary of the
club, he formally introduced Viedert as a lecturer on April 23,
1954.5 Viedert later lived with Fontane, so the assumption
can be made that they exchanged ideas. Schultze speculated
that Fontane might have helped Viedert in smoothing out the
rough spots in his translation. At that time, Viedert not
only worked on Gogol's Revizor, but also on Turgenev's
Zapiski-oxotnika--of which the first eleven stories were
published by the Schindler Publishing House in Berlin October,
1954.6 Storm met Viedert the same day Fontane did, and
consequently Storm was instrumental in getting the

Aufzeichnungen eines Jagers published.7

 

Although Fontane got acquainted with Turgenev's writings
early, he did not make a thorough study of them until 1880.

By that time, he had published his Vor dem Sturm (1878), and

 

was working on Schach von wuthenow. All of his better known
works were still to be written. This might account for the
fact that Fontane never met Turgenev even though he was his
ardent admirer. However, many of his friends and contempo?
raries had close ties with Turgenev.

Turgenev was well acquainted with German philosophy and
literature not only from the time he lived in Germany and

France, but from his early youth. Since his early education

-3-

was administered by a German tutor, it is not surprising that
he studied and admired Goethe and Schiller. Tatjana Dehn main-
tained that their influence is evident in all of Turgenev's
works, for Turgenev not only alluded to them continually but
adopted their philosophy of life in their works.8 In the

largely biographical work Jakov Pasynkov, for instance, the

 

narrator (Turgenev) got excited when Pasynkov was reading

Schiller. After Pasynkov read Schiller's Resignation to the

 

narrator, they became friends. The spirit of Schiller had

brought them together.9 In Pervaia Lubov', young Vladimir

 

Petrovi! claimed that he was not impressed by the title of
nobility of the people who were moving in next door to his

parents. After all, he had just read Die R'aluber.lo Pavel

 

Aleksandrovid, in an attempt to introduce his friend Vera
Nikolaevna to literature, decided to read Faust to her in
Turgenev's novel Faust. Pavel was not sure that Goethe's
Faust was the right work one should read before anything else.
Possibly, one of Schiller's works would be more suitable for
such an undertaking.11

Although Turgenev was impressed with Schiller we have the
feeling that Goethe's works rank just a trifle higher in

Turgenev's opinion.12 In his Wilhelm Tell, Turgenev refers

 

to Goethe's "Man fﬂhlt die Absicht, und man ist verstimmt" to
criticize Schiller.13 In this essay and in the essay Faustl4,
Turgenev compares Goethe's and Schiller's works. He insists

that Goethe was the better artist, but that Schiller was the

-4-

better citizen. When Turgenev went to Berlin in May, 1838, he
studied philosophy, particularly Hegelian philosophy, under
Karl Werder, and also immersed himself in the study of Goethe.
It was at this point that Goethe won the upper hand over
Schiller.

While Tugenev's entire work reflects the influence of
Hegel and Feuerbach, it is the influence of Goethe that is most
prevalent. For instance, the line from Goethe's Faust,
"Entbehren sollst du, sollst entbehren," according to
Gergenzon, is one that could stand as a main theme in Turgenev's
work.15

While Tugenev's works amply testify to his preoccupation
with Schiller and Goethe, this attachment is also mirrored in
his letters. In a letter to Pauline Viardot on December 2,
1848, Turgenev advised and informed her that he is well
acquainted with this particular audience and wrote "Ich
kenne meine Pappenheimer."16

Although Turgenev quoted Schiller to make a point here and
there, his letters convey the presence of ambivalence toward
him. For instance, in a letter to Druzhinin on November 11,
1856,17 Turgenev criticized Schiller; whereas, in a letter to
Fet dated March 29, 1872, he eulogized him.18

But Goethe's place in Turgenev's esteem seemed to be
secure. Whenever he gave advice to some budding author, he
usually sent him.on his way with this quote from Goethe: Greift

nur hinein ins volle Menschenleben, Ein jeder lebt's nicht

-5-

vielen ist's bekannt. Und wo ihr's packt, da ist's inter-
essant.19

I have only attempted to demonstrate that Turgenev was
familiar with Germany's great writers at a very early age;
Elias Rosenkranz mentions that Turgenev was also familiar with
many other lesser figures of the literary scene of 18th century
Germany-~such as Lenz, Klinger, Bbttcher, among others.20 We
mentioned earlier that Storm had met Viedert and aided him in
the publication of the Zapiski-oxotnika. Thanks to Pietsch's
efforts Storm met Turgenev and resided with him for a period of
time in Baden Baden. Thereafter they continued to correspond
and exchange ideas. Karl Ernst Laage wrote about the period
in Turgenev's life in which he intensely studied the works of
Storm. This period terminated about 1875. Laage even claimed
that there are indications that Turgenev has been influenced
consciously or subconsciously, by Storm.21 Thomas Mann, also
an admirer of Turgenev, saw so many similarities between Storm
and Turgenev that he called them children of the same father
borne by different parents.22

Paul Heyse, a good friend of Storm, also became acquainted
with Turgenev. He published several of Turgenev's short

stories in the NovellenSchatz des Auslandes. He, like Turgenev,

 

wanted to make the Russian literature more accessible to the
German reading public. One of his collection of short stories
is dedicated to Turgenev, with cordial greetings.23 Heyse

and Turgenev met only twice in Munich. On one of these

-6-

occasions, Turgenev was present for the dedication of the
Goethedenkmal on August 28, 1869.

Through Viardot, Turgenev met Pietsch, who later became
Turgenev's most ardent admirer. A volume of 133 letters,
covering the period between May, 1863 to February, 1883, and
several of Pietsch's essays on Turgenev attest to the close

24 Pietsch assisted Turgenev in

relationship between them.
'many ways. It was Pietsch who initiated the relationship be-
tween Turgenev and Storm. He also introduced Turgenev to
Menzel's work and then Menzel himself. When Turgenev was
accused of being anti-German as a result of a letter which had
appeared in a French newspaper, he authorized Pietsch and
Julius Schmidt to write an article denouncing the allegations
in the letter. Turgenev was willing to sign anything written

25 Schmidt wrote two articles to defend

by these two men.
Turgenev as a friend of the German people. The extent of the
trust and friendship that Turgenev exhibited toward his German
friends is evident in a letter to Pietsch, in which he asked

him to write a review about OtCy i deti and gave him explicit

 

instructions as to what he wanted written:

Sie schreiben mir, Sie mﬂssen Rezensionen ﬁber
VHter'und Sbhne ‘machen. Gut!--- Machen Sie die
eine thl und streng, drﬂcken Sie aber darin

Ihre Befremdung und Verwunderung darﬂber aus, dass
Basarows Figur von der jungen Generation Russlands
als eine beleidigende Karikatur, als ein verleumr
derisches Pamphlet aufgefasst wurde. Zeigen Sie
vielmehr, dass ich den ganzen Kerl viel zu
heldenhaft—idealistisch aufgefasst habe--(was auch
wahr ist)--und dass die russische Jugend eine

viel zu sensible Epidermis besitzt.--Ich wurde

 

-7-

namlich--(und werde es noch)--fur den Basarov

mit so viel Kot und Dreck beworfen, so viel
Schmahungen, Schimpfnamen sind auf mein allen
HUllengeistern geweihtes Haupt gehauft worden
(Vidoco, fﬁr Geld gekaufter Judas, Dummkopf, Esel,
Giftkrbte, Spucknapf--war das wenigste, was man
von mir sagte), dass es mir eine Befriedigung
ware, zu zeigen, ggderen Nationen kame die Sache
gar nicht so vor.

In addition to serving his own ends, we again have the exchange
of ideas. Turgenev's desire to further the exchange of ideas
was later instrumental in his decision to assist Auerbach in

having his Das Landhaus am Rhein published in Vestnik Evropy,

 

 

and to write an introduction for that purpose.27 Turgenev

attempted to place Auerbach's Schwarzwalder Dorfgeschichten ,

 

but was unsuccessful. Auerbach visited Turgenev in Baden-Baden
and was later invited by him to come to Russia and attend the
dedication of the Pu§kin memorial. In a letter to his friend
Jakob Auerbach, Berthold Auerbach praised Turgenev, "the
Russian author, as one of the most important contemporary
writers."28
Whenever Turgenev wrote to Pietsch, he sent greetings
to his many friends in Berlin, among whom Freytag usually
was mentioned. The extent of the relationship between Turgenev
and Freytag has never been established, and we have found no
other material than mentionings in Turgenev's letters.
In reading Turgenev's correspondence, we come across
many names of well known Germans, who were acquainted with

Turgenev and maintained correspondence with him. One cannot

help but be impressed with the circle of German friends that

-8-

surrounded Turgenev at that time; and his influence has con-
tinued to disseminate to more recent times. For instance,
Thomas Mann admitted to be an admirer of Turgenev and called
him "the master of one of the most perfect works of world

literature; namely, Fathers and Sons."29 He admitted to

 

having Turgenev's picture on his desk for cultural reasons.3O

When we reflect on the many people who have recognized
Thrgenev's genius and have drawn close to him, we tend to
accept Freeborn's claim that "no sensitive European .
could afford to overlook the importance of Turgenev, once
that importance had been recognized and established."31 There
is no doubt that this importance has been established. Erich
Theodor Hock indicated that in the 1870's and 1880's, Raabe's
and Keller's works were not published as extensively in Germany
as Turgenev's. While Turgenev was highly praised in the
eleventh edition of the Brockhaus of 1868-69, the names of
Raabe and Keller were omitted.32

In his dissertation, "Turgenev und die Deutsche Literatur,
Ein Beitrag zur Geistesgeschichte des 19 ten Jahrhunderts,"
Hock outlined ways in which Turgenev has been influenced by
German writers or how he later influenced them. This is only
an outline and is not complete, as is indicated by Josef
Kbrner's statement that a comprehensive work showing Turgenev's
position in Germany is still lacking.33 Hock maintained that
Fontane was the German epic writer closest to Turgenev in

his work. He treated very briefly the similarities in the

-9-

works of the two authors but did not expound on these points

of similarity. Twelve years later, Hock published the essay,
"Fontanes Verhﬁltnis zur Erzahlkunst Turgenevs,"34 in which

he elaborated on the attitude which Fontane had toward
Turgenev's work and delineated the change that Fontane's
attitude had undergone. Through the use of Fontane's letters,
Hock showed that in the beginning, Fontane considered Turgenev
too pessimistic, too melancholic, and thought that he should
have softened these prevalent feelings by means of some poetic
device. But in his later life, Fontane realized that pessimism
is part of life and that it needs to be shown. His later works

have less of that Verklarung for which Fontane is so well known.

 

Verklarung, in Fontane's opinion, is an idea of mediating be-

 

tween the world as it really is and the world as it should be.
In his earlier works, he completely omitted the unpleasantness
of life; he did include it in his later works and attempted to
achieve a balance so that the work in its entirety would be
agreeable to the reader.35 While Fontane missed this

Verklarung_in Turgenev's work, he had, nevertheless, a high

 

regard for Turgenev's art-- i.e., the form of his work.
Intrigued by the sociological aspects in the works of
Fontane and Turgenev which deal with the generation gap,
Russell Eliason wrote a dissertation on "The Problem of the
Generations in the Fiction of Turgenev and Theodor Fontane."36
He indicated that as far as the problem of the generations is

concerned, Turgenev's and Fontane's views are similar, which

-10-

is partly due to their having both written about life in the
same time span. Even though one wrote about Russia and the
other about the Berlin area, the problems seem similar.

It appears that interest in Fontane has been on the rise.
Critics are especially interested in his relationship to other
authors, in particular to Turgenev. But much work still needs
to be done. In a discussion which Fontane had with Rudolf
Lindau in 1883, the two talked about character portrayal in
the novel. Lindau indicated, at that time, that he strictly
handled character portrayal in the same manner that Turgenev
does, with whom he had discussed this at length about twenty-
five years earlier. His reverence for Turgenev would not
allow him any other way.37 This is the only indication that
Landau was acquainted with Turgenev and that Fontane discussed
Turgenev's literary style with other authors. This exchange
of ideas must have occurred more frequently, for the same
people who were friends of and corresponded with Turgenev were
also acquaintances of and communicated with Fontane. Up to
the present time there is very little evidence to indicate
in what way Turgenev influenced Fontane. This influence is
not found in the subject matter, because both authors have
repeatedly stated that they depicted life as they saw it
around them. Turgenev usually wrote about the landed gentry
in Russia with which he was most familiar; while Fontane
wrote about the nobility in and around Berlin. Fontane often

condemned the content of Turgenev's work because it was too

-11-

pessimistic; he, nevertheless, praised the author for being

a first class writer. Fontane viewed Turgenev's presentation
as being clear and precise, without any unnecessary inter-
ference.

It is the aim of this dissertation to shed some light on
the influence of Turgenev on the structure of Fontane's works.
In the first chapter I will investigate the use of the narra-.
tor in their works and show the change that is evident in the
works of Fontane between his first and later novels. The role
of the portrait, as it is given by the author to introduce some
of the characters, will be the topic of the second chapter. In
the third chapter the role of the dialogue will be considered
and in this chapter we will show to what extent the dialogue
has taken over much of the function of the narrator. As one
studies the works of Fontane one can not help to notice the
polarity that exists between the main figures. It usually
consists of a strong woman and a weak and ineffective man.

The fourth chapter will consider this polarity and show that
this polarity is an important aspect of Turgenev's narrative
technique as well. Often both authors use nature descriptions
to set the stage for a future activity or to forecast future
events, in this way they function as epic predictions. But
both authors usually use nature descriptions to reflect the
'mood of the hero. In the works of Turgenev and Fontane we
find a myriad of such narrative devices which help to either

reflect the mood of the person without involving the narrator

-12-

or to set the stage for coming events. We will look at some
of these indirect devices to see how they contribute to the
work of art as a whole and investigate the influence Turgenev
exerted on Fontane in the fifth chapter.

In the final chapter of the dissertation, I will analyze
one work of each author to show how these different elements
are utilized by each author to create a unified entity. For

this purpose I have chosen Fontane's Schach von wuthenow and

 

Turgenev's Rudin, for these two works are similar.

Although my investigation will show many similarities
between Turgenev and Fontane, we have to realize that no
plagiarism exists. Reading the works of both authors we
realize that these similarities prevail but that at the same
time each author has a very distinct style of his own. We
have a case here of an author recognizing greatness in another

author while adopting his poetics to his own style.

CHAPTER I
THE FUNCTION OF THE NARRATOR
"Greif nur hinein ins volle Menschenleben
Wo du es packst, da ist's interessagg."
Goethe

In the Introduction, we have seen that Turgenev fre-
quently included a quotation from Goethe when giving advice
to budding authors. Fontane employed similar quotations in
discussing the literature of his time in the essay "Unsere
lyrische und epische Poesie seit 1848." The use of this
quote and the many comments concerning Goethe and his work
which are found in their literary and theoretical writings
attest to the veneration the two authors shared.

As one probes into the literary development of Turgenev
and Fontane one equickly finds that they have many other
things in common. Both had as their earliest literary
efforts the writing of poetry. Turgenev later renunciated
his poetry, and even wrote in a letter to Venorov that he
felt almost a physical repugnance toward his poetry and he
not only did not have a single copy of his poems, but would
pay a good deal to know that none of them were in existence.39
Even though in later life he did not acknowledge his poetry,
his poetry has contributed to the style of his later works.
According to Yarmolinsky the lyric touch came naturally to
Turgenev.40

Another important stepping stone in Turgenev's develo-

'ment was his work with the drama. He wrote a number of

-13-

-14-

excellent plays that were not successfully staged and soon
discontinued writing for the stage. His comedy Mesjoc v
derevne (1850), was by many considered his best play.
TUrgenev, however, considered it a failure, for play writing
was not his business.41 Although Turgenev considered his
endeavor with the stage a failure, one readily agrees with
David Magarshack "that this period of play writing for the
development of Turgenev's genius as a novelist can't be
underestimated. While his exercise, as he called it, as a
poet, had made him into one of the greatest prose stylists
in Russian literature, his work in the plays had taught him
to write the highly polished dialogue of his novels. Indeed,
the dialogue in his novels is of a brilliance such as he never
attained in his plays.42

While Turgenev-rejected his poetry, Fontane enjoyed
a measure of success with his poetry, especially with his
ballads, which are studied even today. In the ballads some
of Fontane's ideas on literature are already apparent. He,
too, proceeded to work with the theater and became a theater
critic. This fact is very important, for it seems that
exactly this experience with writing dialogues and structuring
a literary work is solely lacking in Fontane's early work.
This lack became very evidence in his next literary attempt,
Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg, and even more so

in his first novel, Vor dem Sturm.

 

-15-

Fontane's Wandergungen durch die Mark Brandenburg is

 

similar to Turgenev's Zapiski oxotnika, inasmuch as a nar-

 

rator, who travels through the country-side, tells us about
these experiences. In Turgenev's work the narrator was a
hunter who told us about the hunt, the country-side, and
especially the people he met. The hunt was only a pretense,
for we not once have an actual hunting description. What

was important in all the stories were the people, their
relationships, their environment and their difficulties.
"Turgenev's stories are not stories of incidents, but stories
of characters. The extraordinary interest they arouse is
confined almost entirely to our interest in his men and women;
the plot, the narrative, the events are always secondary.43
The titles of the works reflect this interest in people.
Conrad Wandrey pointed out that many of Fontane's works have
the name of the heroine or the hero for the title of the work
and some of the works that do not had been originally intended
to have the hero's or the heroine's name as the title. This

was the case with L'Adultera, which Fontane first had called

 

”Melanie van der Straaten."44 Vor dem Sturm he had called

 

"Lewin von Vitzewitz."45 A statement made by Fontane in a
letter applies to both authors equally well. "Allem voraus
der‘Mensch."46

But just how is the "Mensch" introduced and developed
in the early works of the two authors? The narrator plays

an all important role in this introduction and development.

-15-

Turgenev preferred the first person narrator. Twenty-six

of his stories were written utilizing this kind of narrator.
This fictive narrator went hunting, quite often in the
company of the hunter Ermolaj. Whenever they arrived at

a place, the narrator took the opportunity to quickly give

a description of the physical surroundings. These descrip-
tions were usually short, for the narrator's main interest
lay in the people he met, rather than in the nature around
him. For that reason the narrative turned to the people as
soon as it was feasible. A good example of this is found in

the story Der Himbeerquell. The narrator was out hunting, and

 

came to a small spring, which was called "Der Himbeerquell",
and described it in detail:

Dieser Quell sprudelt aus einer Erdspalte des Ufers,
die sich mit der Zeit zu einer kleinen, aber tiefen
Schlucht erweitert hat, und mﬂndet zwanzig Schritt
weiter in einem.munteren, geschwatzigen Platschern
in den Fluss. Die Hange der Schlucht sind mit
Eichengebﬂsch bewachsen... An der Bucht, die sich
durch die Mﬁndung des Quellwassers in den Fluss
gebildet hatte und deren Oberflache aus diesem
Grunde immer leicht gekrauselt war, sassen-mit
dem.Rﬂckenu mir - zwei alte Manner. Der eine, der
ziemlich kraftigebaut und gross war und einen
sauberen dunkelgrﬂnen Rock sowie eine weiche
Schirmmﬂtze trug, angelte; der andere...

The narrator continues with his extensive description of
the men he met there with particular emphasis on one of them,
Stepugka. This description will then go over into a dis-
cussion with the man described earlier. The impetus is some-
thing the narrator saw or heard. Many other reasons can
trigger in the narrator the need to digress. Often the cause

of this digression is something he himself has said, as is

-17-

the case in the story Jermaloj und die Mﬂllerin. The story

 

starts out with the narrator's introduction:

Gegen Abend begab ich mich mit dem Jager Jermolaj

auf den Schnepfenstrich. . . . Aber vielleicht

wissen nicht alle meine Leser, was das ist. So

hBren Sie denn, meine Herrschaften.

Sie gehen im Frﬂhjahr, eine Viertelstunde (T. I, 19).

Using the excuse that the reader might not know, what
a "Schnepfenstrich" is, the narrator gives us an extensive
description. After this lengthy description he continues:

Das nennt man also auf den Schnepfenstrich gehen.

Wir gingen also mit Jermolaj auf den Schnepfenstrich;

aber entschuldigen Sie, meine Herrschaften, ich muss

Sie zuerst mit Jermolaj bekanntmachen. (T. I, 20).

Just as the word "Schnepfenstrich" had served as a key
word for the narrator's digression, so Ermolaj's name serves
as a key word to cause the narrator to describe Ermolaj in
great detail. Included in this description is Ermolaj's life
style and even a discussion of the merits of Ermolaj's dog.
In this discussion the narrator seems to disappear almost
completely. He fades into the background and only comes for-
ward again at the end of the portrayal of Ermolaj with the
words" "Diesen Menschen hatte ich also als Jager zu mir
genommen" (T. I, 23) and then continues with narrating the
experience of this particular hunting expedition. As the
narrative continues we again see the change-over to the sub—
ject of people from that of nature, for as the two continue

they come to the Mﬂllerin, Arina. The narrator then relates

a discussion between Ermolaj and the Mﬂllerin, in which the

-13-

narrator eventually joins in. In the course of the conversa-
tion the narrator is reminded of a conversation he had at
one time with the former owner of Arina. At this point the
narrator again turns to the reader with the words" "Ich
muss dem.Leser sagen, warum ich mit so reger Anteilnahme auf
Arina blickte." He continues by retelling his experience
with the former owner and closes his remarks: "Der Leser
begreift nun wahrscheinlich, weshalb ich Arina mit warmer
Anteilnahme betrachtete." A few more words are exchanged
and the two hunters go to sleep, signifying the end of the
story.

In this particular story we find some of the basic

patterns of Zapiski oxotnika. The ”Ich Erzahler” reminds

 

us in many ways of Turgenev himself. He came from the same
social strata, lived in the same geographical area and had
similar habits and experiences. In the figure of Ermolaj,
who usually accompanies the narrator, we recognize the tall,
lean figure of Turgenev's favorite game keeper, Alfansij
Ivanov, who usually went hunting with Turgenev.48 But it
would be a mistake to totally identify the narrator with
the author, because we only have a partial portrait of the
author. As Gisela Jonas pointed out, the narrator is a
fictive character, created by the author.49 This fictive
"Ich Erthler," who relates to the reader his experiences,
helps to make the stories more immediate and gives them the
appearance of reality, because he tells us what he himself

observes or has observed earlier.

-19-

In so doing he makes us believe that he is there and

can be trusted. As we have seen in the story Jermolaj und

 

die Mﬂllerin, the narrator continually turned to the reader

 

with such phrases as: "meine Leser, meine Herrschaften, der
Leser versteht nun wahrscheinlich und ich.muss dem Leser
sagen." In his other Zapiski these comments to the reader
were ubiquitous. Only in the later stories, for instance

in Zivye mosa, they, became fewer. These comments served to

 

give the reader the feeling of closeness with the narrator,
and attempted to make him think that he participated in
a discussion.

While the narrator's comments had basically the same
function as the "wir," Gisela Jonas believes that there is
an added dimension to those comments. She saw in these
comments an attempt on the part of the narrator to assure him-
self of the good graces of his readers for introducing to
his aristocratic readers characters, which would normally

offend him.50 Thus, in the story Der Himbeerquell, the nar-

 

rator asked for permission of the reader to be allowed to

introduce Stephuska (T. I, 32). In the story Mein Nachbar

 

Radilow permission to introduce Ovsjanikov a little later

is being sought (T. I, 57). As it turned out, this character
was only introduced in the next chapter, giving us an example
of Turgenev's later method of connecting different chapters
by mentioning a name in one and then developing it in the

next. Although the narration abounds with the narrator's

-20-

comments, the narrator usually stuck to the material he
observed or had observed in the past. Only in the later
stories and especially in the novels he became omniscient.51
His comments all but disappeared when he described a nature
scene or a person, and with the disappearance of his comments
directed to the reader, the narrator seemed to step back,
thus becoming less noticeable. However, he never completely
disappeared. As in the case of the narrator's description

of Ermolaj (in the story Jermolaj und die Mﬂllerin) we still

 

have his asides, though they are not prefaced with "lieber
Leser." He commented, for instance, when he described
Ermolaj's dog: "Handelte es sich nicht um einen Hund, wﬁrde
ich das Wort Enttauschtheit gebrauchen (T. I, 21). And a
little later: "Es ist bekannt, dass Hunde lacheln kbnnen,
und sogar sehr lieb lacheln annen." These comments do not
distract as much frmm the story as do the comments prefaced
with the "Liebe Leser," for they go along with the narrative
and are comments of things observed.

We also experienced a certain withdrawing from the nar-
rative on the part of the narrator as soon as a discussion
was started between two or more other persons. However,
here too, he was not completely out of the picture, though
he restrained himself considerably. It seemed as if he had
abdicated his role as a narrator completely in the frame-
stories, which he only introduced to give the narration over

to another person, as was the case in the story Peotr Petrovid

-21..

Karataev. He coaxed Peotr into telling his story, but he
did not want the reader to forget all about him, so he threw
in some comments and questions: "Hier verhielt der Erthler

I

plbtzlich, und sah mich an,‘ or asked "und fuhren mit ihr
fort", or "was wurde denn daraus" (T.I. 236). Questions
were the narrator's favorite device to get dialogues started
and to keep them going, extracting from the persons involved
the information we wanted to get.

In his effort to illuminate characters the narrator's
favorite device was the contrasting of different individuals.
He allowed, or sometimes coaxed, each person to speak and
tell his story. He himself was careful not to comment on
anything others had said, but let the reader draw his con-
clusions.

When we consider Zapiski in their entirety, we can
already recognize many traits of Turgenev, the novelist.

The narrator introduces the works, gives a description of
the locality and the milieu and then sets up the situations
for conversations. The characters are then developed in the
discussions and monologues. To aid the characterization the
characters are contrasted one with another. Several Zapiski
are connected by mentioning a name in one story and then
making that person the topic of the next story.

How different is Fontane's method in Wanderungen durch

 

die Mark Brandenburg? His interest in the people was already

 

apparent here. Speaking about Feldmarschall von dem Knesebeck,

-22-

the narrator indicated that he would be the focal point of

this section:

Dieser ausgezeichnete Mann wird ﬁberhaupt den Mittel-
punkt alles dessen bilden, was ich in weiterem zu
erzahlen habe, da er, wie der Haupttrager des Ruhmes
der Familie, so auch zugleich derjenige ist, der

am segensreichsten an dieser Stelle gewirkt und den
toten Dingen entweder den Stempel seines Geistes
aufgedrUckt oder ihnen durch irgend eine Beziehung

zu seiner Persgg zu einem poetischen Leben

verholfen hat.

Just as the hunter in Zapiski oxotnika used the hunt

 

only as a vehicle to eventually talk about the people, so the
narrator here only talked about the places he saw in connec-
tion to the people, and used them mostly as a starting point
for giving the history of the people.

We find in Fontane a familiar pattern, one that we
recognize from Turgenev. Because Fontane's narrator, just
like Turgenev's, starts out by giving the reader first a
description of the locality and then turns to the people as
soon as possible, this pattern can be seen in the first page

of the work:

Der Ruppiner See, der fast die Form eines halben
Mondes hat, scheidet sich seinen Ufern nach in zwei
verschiedene HHlften. Die nUrdliche Halfte ist sandig
und unfruchtbar, und die freundlich gelegenen Stadte
Alt-und Neu-Ruppin abgerechnet, ohne allen malerischen
Reiz, die Sﬂdhalfte ist aber teils angebaut, teils
bewaldet und seit alten Zeiten her von vier hﬂbschen
Dbrfern eingefasst. Das eine dieser DUrfer Treskow,
war bis vor kurzem ein altes Kammerei-Gut der Stadt
Ruppin; die drei anderen; Genwikow, Karwe und wustrau
sind Rittergﬂter. Das erstere tritt aus dem Schilf—und
Wald-Ufer am deutlichsten hervor und ist mit seinem
Kirchturm und seinen Bauernhausern eine besondere
Zierde des Sees. Es gehbrte seit Jahrhunderten der
Familie von Woldeck; jetzt ist es in andere Hande

 

-23-

ﬁbergegangen. Der letzte von Woldeck, der dies Erbe

seiner Vater inne hatte, war ein Lebemann und

passionierter Tourist. Seine Exzentrizitﬁten hatten
ihn in der Umgebung zu einer volkstﬁmlichen Figur
gemacht; er hiess kurzweg der "Seebaron". Das Wort

war gut gewﬁhlt. Er hatte mit den alten "Seekbnigen"

den Wanderzug und die Abenteuerlust gemein (W. I, 3).
This pattern is repeated again and again not only at the
beginning of a chapter but often also within it whenever the
narrator comes to a new locality or is speaking about a new
item -— a church, a castle or alike.

In considering the above paragraph once more, we notice,
that the narrator does not appear here at all. It is a
straight forward description of the area seen and of its
history. The narrator does not appear until page six, when
he makes the statement: "Wir kommen in einem Boot ﬁber den
See gefahren (W. II, 6). As was the case when Turgenev used
the "wir" in his narrative, so here also the narrator is
taking the reader along with him to view with him.that, what
he is describing. But he uses even this "wir" rather spar-
ingly. He often uses the indefinite "MAN" in his descriptions
in an effort to leave out any reference to himself.

While in the bulk of Fontane's narration the narrator
uses the "wir" to include the reader in the proceedings, from
time to time the narrator uses the first person "Ich." He
seems to use it consistently when he talks about the act of
narrating. When the time comes to go and see a place or

thing, however, he quickly goes back to using the "wir" and

included the reader in his undertaking. We find a good

-24-

example of this switch from "ich" to "wir" at the beginning
of the chapter on Radensleben:

Garz, Vichel, Rohrlack, sind alt-Quastche Gﬁter,

von denen ich in einem spﬁteren Abschnitt erzﬁhlen

werde, abeffﬁber das am Ostufer des Sees gelegene

Radensleben sei schon an dieser Stelle berichtet.

Radensleben das wig schon in wenig mehr als Viertel-

stﬁndiger Fahrt von Karwe aus erreichen.

(W. I, 31).
In a later passage the narrator makes perfectly clear who is
included: ”Der Zug rasselt inzwischen weiter, nur der Leser
und ich sind ausgestiegen" (W.I. 416). Only the narrator
and the reader, always make up the "wir". This particular
method of narration seems to be well suited to leave the
narrator in the background but he nevertheless is always
there. Some of his comments are part of the narrative, for
they blend in with the same almost completely: "Es bedarf
wohl keiner besonderen Hervorhebung, dass mit diesem allen
kein Tadel gegen den Schadowschen Zieten ausgesprochen sein
soll, der - nach der Seite des geistvollen hin — ganz
unzweifelhafte Vorzﬁge hat" (W. I, 7). Another comment is
found on a subsequent page: "Das Schﬁne fehlt noch, aber
das Characteristische ist da" (W. I, 10). In other comments
the narrator comes more out of his reserve and reveals
himself more fully, as in the comment in the form of a foot~
note: "Wenn ich mich nicht irre" (W. I, 8). He once in a
while questions the veracity of certain statements or the

genuineness of certain objects, as is the case with the

picture of Zieten: "Ob das Bild echt ist, stehe dahin.

-25-

Von der Rhnlichkeit mit dem alten Zieten natﬁrlich keine
Spur" (W. I, 10).

Sometimes he just does not seem to be able to contain him-
self and he stands back and exclaims in admiration: "Wie
schﬁn." (W. I, 33) or comments: "Wb Madonna weilt, da weilt
auch die Scthheit" (W. I, 34).

In this respect Fontane is much like Turgenev, who is
always present with his comments. But in other respects the
early work of Fontane shows a style much different from
Turgenev's. There is one major aspect in the early Fontane
that is radically different from the early Turgenev. In
Turgenev's work the narrator sets the stage by giving a
short description of the locality and then setting up
conversations in which the characters themselves would
characterize themselves and each other. In Fontane's

Wanderungen there is almost a total void of all dialogue.

 

The narrator saw it as his duty to tell amost everything.
There were occasions when the narrator mentioned that he had
a conversation with someone but then he gave the gist of the
conversation without bothering to relate it in its entirety.
In the few exceptions the conversations given to us were
taken out of the memoirs of some person who might have heard
a conversation which had taken place in some point in time.
This lack of dialogue points to a basic difference be-
tween the early Fontane and Turgenev. Fontane's narrator

thought that he had to narrate everything, whereas in

-26-

Turgenev's early works the characters already took over much
of what Fontane's narrator still considers his domain. To

be sure Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg is, in

 

reality, a historical literary-travel account rather than a
novel. We will see, however, that this manner of narration

held true for Fontane's Vor dem Sturm, but changed drasti-

 

cally in the later works, after his study of Turgenev.

While Fontane did not use much dialogue in his Wanderungen,

 

he attempted to break up the narration by using personal
letters, personal reports from people and official historical
reports. In his discussion about Oberst Knesebeck, for
instance, the narrator referred to the memoirs of the same
by introducing them with the words: "Hﬁren wir, was er
selber darﬁber schreibt" (W. I, 23). Much of this and the
whole of the next chapter was taken from the memoirs. The
fact that the narrator found memoirs such a fertile ground
for his material showed the stress that he put on the
historical aspect of the narration and also underlines the
continued effort of putting people into the foregoing.
Another favorite tool of the narrator was the letter. He
quoted extensively from.the letters of people about whom he
was writing. When Prinz Friedrich of Hamburg was on the eve
of an important battle, he wrote a letter which Fontane in-
cluded with a short introduction: "Von hier aus schrieb
unser Prinz, dem fﬁr den nﬁchsten Tag eine so bedeutende

Rolle vorbehalten war, an seine Gemahlin den folgenden

-27-

Brief." The letter gave details of the battle to come and
the mood of the Prince. The battle went well and the next
day another letter was sent to his wife, elucidating on

the feeling of the accomplishment (W. I, 420-421). These
letters are dispersed thoughout the narrative and give us a
more intimate feeling for the people described.

Although the letters add much to the understanding of
the people, the introduction to the letters served to
illuminate the role of the narrator a little more clearly.
Even though he seemed very objective and reported what hap-
pened through the use of letters and memoirs, he informed us
of his presence and his sympathy when he introduced the
Prince not simply as the Prince, but rather as "unser Prinz"
(W. I, 420) indicating the narrator's loyalty to be with the
Prince and in a way all he stood for. It also is indicative
of the casual attitude the narrator has concerning his nar-
ration.

Another narrative device used to authenticate and break
up the narrative, are the many stories and anecdotes that
are connected to people or things. These tales were lovingly
retold by the narrator. One of these concerned the Ruppiner
Klosterkirche. The church, as the name implies, used to be a
catholic church belonging to a monastary, but during a war
it became protestant. This change led to the story that is

related by the narrator, who introduced it with the words:

-23-

"Die Tradition selbst ist aber folgende." He then told this

anecdote:
Wénige Tage, nachdem die Kirche, 1564, dem luthe-
rischen Gottesdienst ﬁbergeben worden war, schritten
zwei befreundete Geistliche, von denen einer noch zum
Kloster hielt, durch das Mittelschiff und disputierten
ﬁber die Frage des Tages. Eher wird eine Maus hier
ﬁber die Wblbung jagen, rief der Dominikaner, als dass
diese Kirche lutherisch bleibt. Dem Lutheraner wurde
jede Antwort hierauf erspart; er zeigte nur an die
Decke, wo sich das wunder eben vollzog (W. I, 45).

The narrator did not need much encouragement to tell one of

these stories. He simply introduced them.with: "Es verhielt

sich damit so," or "Die Sache war die" (W. I, 55).

Many of these stories add nothing to the material
presented, for they are used as asides for suspension. He
gave us their justification that "Unser Sandboden hat nicht
allzuviel von solchen Legenden gezeitigt und so mﬁssen wir
das Wenige wert halten, was ﬁberhaupt da ist." These asides
have the same effect in Fontane's narrative as the conversa-
tions do in Turgenev's. They give the narrator an opportunity
to step back, to indirectly give the word over to the char-
acters themselves so that they can be presented in part by
means of their own words rather than those of the narrator.

Though one might consider these narrative devices similar
to those used by Turgenev, they were used sparingly by
Fontane so that his narrator still had to do the majority of
the work.

It is not correct to compare Fontane's style in

wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg with Turgenev's'Zapiski

-29-

because Wanderungen, though similar to the sketches, is more

 

of a historical work. To have a better feeling for Fontane's
early style we will look at Fontane's first attempt at the

novel, Vor dem Sturm (1878). This first novel still stands

 

in the tradition of the Wanderungen and is a stark contrast

 

to the later works. In a letter Fontane wrote about the

method used in Vor dem Sturm:

 

Ich habe mir nie die Frage vorgelegt: soll dies ein
Roman werden? Und wenn es ein Roman werden soll,
welche Regeln und Gesetze sind einzuhalten? Ich habe
'mir vielmehr vorgenommen die Arbeit ganz nach mir
selbst, nach meiner Neigung und Individualitﬁt zu machen,
ohne jedes Vorbild . . . . Ohne Mord und Brand und
grosse Leidenschaftsgeschichten, habe ich mir einfach
forgesetzt, eine grosse Anzahl markischer Figuren aus
dem Winter 1812-auf 1813 vorzufﬁhren, Figuren, wie sie
sich damals fanden und im wesentlichen auch jetzt noch
finden. Es war mgr nicht um Konflikte zu tun, sondern
um Schilderung.
We gather from this letter that Fontane did not want to
think about the form at all. We will see how much this is
in contrast with his thinking in later novels, when the form
and the structure were more important than what he said. He
also indicated in his letters that he wanted to parade a
number of characters before the reader. In this endeavor
the stress is on the last word of the letter, i.e.,
Schilderung. The narrator will take his characters and parade
them, they will not be given the opportunity to show them-
selves.

we mentioned that Vor dem.Sturm is in the tradition of

 

wanderungen durch die Mark BrandenbUrg; this is best shown

by a quote from the beginning of the second chapter. After

-30-

a short description of the locality and the mood of the
setting, we meet Lewis von Vitzewitz, the main character of
the work. We have seen this kind of description of the
locality before and we will come to realize that almost all
of Fontane's works begin in this fashion. The introduction
of Lewis von Vitzewitz is interesting, for it will strike
in us a familiar chord. The narrator introduced him as
"der Held unserer Geschichte" and a little later called him
"unser Held" (p. 6). This sympathetic introduction takes

us back to the Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg, and

 

the introduction of the Prinz von Hessen-Homburg, whom the
narrator had called "unser Held." As we have seen earlier,
this endearing "unser Held" did not only show the sympathy
of the narrator to the hero, but also the narrator's deep
involvement with his character. The narrator tried to get
the reader's sympathy for his character immediately.

At the end of the first chapter Lewis arrived home and
he started the second chapter with the following quote:

In der Halle schwelen noch einige Brande; schﬁtten
wir Tannﬁpfel auf und plaudern wir, ein paar Sessel an
den Kamin rﬁckend, von Hohen Vietz.

Hohen Vietz war ursprﬁnglich ein altes, aus den Tagen
der letzten Askanier stammendes Schloss mit Wall und
Graben und freiem Blick ostwarts auf die Oder. Es lag
auf demselben Hﬁhenzuge wie die Kirche, deren schatten-
haftes Bild uns am Schluss des vorigen Kapitels
entgegentrat, und beherrschte den breiten Strom.wie
nicht minder die am linken Flussufer von Frankfurt nach
Kﬁstrin fﬁhrende Strasse. Es galt fﬁr sehr fest, und
Jahrhundertelang hatten sie einen Reim im Lebusischen,
der lautete:

De sitt so fest up sinen Sitz,

As de Vitzewitz up Hohen-Vietz.54

-31-

As we read the quote we realize that there is no connection
between the first and second chapter. Lewin went upstairs
but the narrator and the reader stayed downstairs. The
narrator then starts to narrate the story of Hohen Vietz,
Lewin's family place. This disjointedness of one chapter
from another is a result of Fontane's attempt to parade a

few personae before the reader, without concerns over
results. Is reminds us of the loose manner in which chapters

were thrown together in the Wanderungen. The critics took

 

Fontane to task for this problem and Wandrey pointed out
that "even though in the nineteenth century the writers

were not that much concerned about structure, Fontane outdid
them all, for his work seems to have no real center, which
holds the work together and that the different parts are
just the stringing together of descriptions of places,

persons and things. In Vor dem Sturm Fontane brought

 

together more people than in any other work and showed less
connection between them.55
Such a similarity can be found in the narration itself.

The narrator employed the "wir" of the Wanderungen to include

 

the reader in his narration. The reader is invited to pull
up a chair and put a little more wood into the fire, so that
there will be a cozy atmosphere and the narrator can in a
casual style tell the story of Hohen-Vietz, the home of

Lewin von Vietzewitz and his family.

-32-

We are familiar with the narrator's method of relating
incidents or describing places. As he had indicated in the

'Wanderungen, he is only interested in places and occurrences

 

as they reflect the influence of people who owned and shaped
them. While he sits down and promises that he will tell us
about Hohen-Vietz, he quickly tells us after a few pre-
liminary remarks about the family that owned Hohen-Vietz and
relates their whole history. This takes all of the second
chapter. As we come to the end of the second chapter and
the beginning of the third, we notice again that no effort
has been made to bring the two together. Chapter three seams
to continue exactly where chapter one left off. Chapter two
is simply put into the middle without any attempt to connect
it at all. This phenomenon makes us think of the discussion
between Lewin, Renate and Tante Schorlemann, in which some
comments were made on the art of narrating events. These
comments could be applied to Fontane. While Lewin gave us a
report about the retreat of Napoleon from Russia, the nar-
rator made the comment: "Es gab Altes und Neues, bei
einzelnen Punkten lﬁnger verweilend, als vielleicht nﬁtig
gewesen ware" Commented Renate later:

Vorzﬁglich und wie belehrend! Ein wahrer General-

bericht ﬁber russisch-deutsche Poststationen. Oh,

ihr grossstadtischen Herren, wie seid ihr doch so

schlechte Erzahler, und je schlechter, je klﬁger

ihr seid. Immer Vortrag, nie Geplauder.

Sei's drum, Renate; ich will nicht widersprechen. Aber

wenn wir schlechte Sprecher sind, so seid ihr Frauen

noch schlechtere Hﬁrer. Ihr habt keine Geduld, und
die Wahrnehmung davon verwirrt uns, lasst uns den Faden

-33-

verlieren und fﬁhrt uns, links und rechts tappend, in
die Breite. Ihr wollt Guckkastenbilder. . . . Ich
weiss wohl, wo die wurzel des Ubels steckt: der
Zusammenhang ist euch gleichgﬁltig; ihr seid Springer.
(F. II, 42)

In the discussion two shortcomings in narrative
technique are mentioned. The first one is that there is
too much narration and not enough dialogue and the second
grievious sin is that his narration is like the
"Guckkastenbilder" mentioned above. We only need to look

at the titles of the chapters to get a feeling for the

method of giving small scenes. (Guckkastenbilder) The

first five chapters are entitled: "Heiligenabend," "Hohen-
Vietz," "Weihnachtsmorgen," "Berndt von Vitzewitz," und
"In der Kapelle." Each chapter presents a complete picture

in itself with little connection to other chapters. Fontane's

later works still have that quality of the Guckkastenbild,

 

but he was able to connect them better. As we shall see,
Turgenev himself was also a writer of episodes.

Another comment made by Renate is the accusation that
Fontane prefers: "Immer Vortrag, nie Geplauder." In the

Wanderungen the bulk of the material was narrated, broken up

 

only by some rare dialogues and some quotations from letters,

memoirs, and historical writings. In Vor dem Sturm.we find

 

a little more dialogue, but the largest part of the work is
still narrated. The existing dialogues are still cumber-
some, do not flow smoothly as the small talk, for which

Fontane later became so well known. In the later works the

-34-

characters are often introduced and developed in the dia-
logues. This task is completely the burden of the narrator
in the novel under discussion, and it is often accomplished
in a rather clumsy fashion. While Turgenev's narrator apol-
ogized for the persons he was introducing, Fontane's narrator
had to apologize for the manner in which he introduced and
developed characters. An example of this is the introduction
of six characters in the beginning of chapter twenty entitled
"Allerlei Freunde":

Es wird unsere nachste Aufgabe sein, der blossen

Vorstellung dieser Herren, die, mit Ausnahme Doktor

Faulstichs, alle das sechzigste Jahr erreicht oder

ﬁberschritten hatten, eine kurze Charakterisierung

folgen zu lassen. Wenn dies ein Verstoss gegen die

Gesetze guter Erzﬁhlung ist, so mﬁge der Leser

Nachsicht ﬁben und um so mehr, als der zu begehende

Fehler vielleicht mehr scheinbar als wirklich ist.

(F. II, 127).
It takes the narrator a whole chapter to characterize these
six characters and he devotes another chapter for a seventh
person. Tante Schorlemmer's introduction is another example
of the narrator's skill in performing this task: Her name
had been mentioned on page 31 without any introduction or
comment. A little later, in the middle of the description
of the activity around the open fire, the narrator stops the
narration to introduce Tante Schorlemmer with the words:

Da wir nun im langen Verlauf unserer Erzﬁhlung

nirgends einen Punkt entdecken kﬁnnen, der Raum

bﬁte fﬁr eine biographische Skizze unter dem Titel

"Tante Schorlemmer", so halten wir hier den Augenblick

fﬁr gekommen, uns unsrer Pflicht gegen diese treff-

liche Dame zu entledigen. Denn Tante Schorlemmer
ist keine Nebenfigur in diesem Buche, und da wir ihr,

-35-

nach flﬁchtiger Bekanntschaft in Flur und Kirche, an
dieser Stelle bereits zum dritten Male begegnen, so
hat der Leser ein gutes Recht, Aufschluss darﬁber zu
verlangen, wer Tante Schorlemmer denn eigentlich ist.
(F. II, 39-40).
The ineptness of the narrator to introduce and develop his
characters properly is another weakness of the author which
is shown quite clearly in the quotes above. In his discussion

of Irrungen and Wirrungen Marianne Zerner joined Conrad

 

Wandrey in criticizing Vor dem Sturm for its disjointedness,

 

but then went on and pointed out that Fontane handled the
characterization of his characters just as he had done in

Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg, for he still lets

 

the narrator talk about the characters, instead of develop-
ing them.and bringing them to life in the dialogue, as he
did in the later novels.56 The narrator does not only
insist on talking about his personae, but stops arbitrarily
at any spot he feels like to talk about them. This might be
in the middle of the narration, as is the case in the two
quotes above. Once he finishes with the task, he returns to
the narration and continues until some other interruption
comes along. Nobody seems much disturbed except the reader,
who is trying to keep up with the narrator. The disjointed-
ness from chapter to chapter is perpetrated by the narrator
even within the chapter.

Fontane's break with his early technique seems to have
come right after his first novel, which had been published

in 1878. His next work, Grete Minde, published in 1880, al-

 

ready showed a greater commitment to the use of dialogue, and

-36-

as a consequence the stepping back of the narrator. While

Grete Minde showed a new emphasis on narrative technique and

 

style, it was only a new beginning that was to continue
until it came to fruitation in Fontane's later works. Mary
Gilbert noticed these changes in Fontane's development and
pointed to three periods of development in his work. 1878-
1882 she called the early time of clumsyosearching; 1883-
1895 the time of loosening of the language, where language
and conversation became suddenly more natural; while the
time from 1895-1898 was designated as the time of the
"fontanesierende" characters.57

We have mentioned that Fontane studied Turgenev intensely
around 1880. He gave us an indication of his preoccupation
with Turgenev in the latter part of what Mary Gilbert called
the early period. On May 5, 1883, in a letter to Martha
Fontane, he maintained that if he were younger, he could
certainly become a better writer than either Zola or

Turgenev.58 He succeeded at least partially, for Ernst

Reuter clahms, in his discussion of Irrungen und Wirrungen,

 

that in that novel one is greeted by the same atmosphere

found in Turgenev; Reuter also claims in Die Poggenpuhls

 

Fontane came close to the level of art for which Turgenev
is known.59

Writing about the narrative technique of both authors
we should make several points. Both authors started out

without idea or plot, but rather with a real person.

-37-

Turgenev emphasized this about his novel Otgy i deti:

 

Wie oft hﬁrte ich und las in kritischen Aufsﬁtzen,

ich hatte mich bei meinen Erzeugnissen "von der Idee"
entfernt oder "eine Idee durchgefﬁhrt". Die einen

haben mich deshalb gelobt, die anderen dagegen getadelt.
Was mich angeht, so muss ich gestehen, dass ich niemals
versucht habe, "ein Gemﬁlde zu schaffen", wenn ich nicht
als Ausgangspunkt hatte- nicht etwa eine Idee, sondern
eine leibhaftige Person, an welche nach und nach
geeigneten Elemente sich anlehnten, mit welcher dieselben
verschmelzen konnten. Da mir eine bedeutende Erfindungs-
gabe nicht zuteil geworden, bedurfte ich stets eines
bestimmten Bodens, auf dem ich mich frei und sicher
bewegen konnte. Just ebenso verhﬁlt es sich mit dem
Roman Vﬁter und Sﬁhne. Was die Hauptgestalt desselben,
den Bazarov anbelangt, so lieferte mir die Grundzﬁge

ein junger, in der Provinz lebender Arzt, der einen
tiefen Eindruck auf mich gemacht hatte. In diesem.Manne
verkﬁrperte sich—wenigstens in meinen Augen- jenes

kaum geborene Prinzip, das spﬁter den Namen Nihilismus
erhielt (T. I, 282).

Turgenev usually was attracted by some person in whom
he realized some quality that attracted him, as was the case
with the young doctor in whom Turgenev saw the principles
of his nihilism theory. Even if he did not start with a
person, he needed some kind of impetus and inspiration from

life itself. The conception of Pervaja ljubov’gives us a

 

clue to Turgenev's method. In a letter to Countess Lambert,
dated February 16, 1861, he claimed that life itself gave
him that story, that he did not think it up.60 Magarshack
then reported on his method of outlining the story:

He wrote the story in 1860 and by that time had
perfected his method of drawing up preliminary
lists of characters and a detailed history of
each of them. The list is headed by the
following characters:

I, a boy of 15 (13 years)

my father, 38 years

‘my mother, 36 (40 years)61

-33-

It is evident that Turgenev was not only concerned with the
main character, but also with the minor charaCters. But it
was the main character that was chosen for that one partic-
ular trait that impressed him. Once Turgenev had made up
the list of characters and a history for each of them he
concerned himself with the plot, which by that time sug-
gested itself to him. From Kurt Wﬁlfel we found out that
Fontane worked in a similar fashion in conceiving his works:

Wenn ihm nicht ein in Wirklichkeit geschehener Vorfall

die eigene Erfindung einer Fabel ﬁberhaupt abnimmt,

dann sind es die Figuren, nicht eine Fabel, was sich
seine Phantasie zuerst vorstellt. Die Figur aber
entsteht in Fontane's Phantasie aus oder doch zusammen

'mit einem "Sprechbild". Mag bei anderen Erzﬁhlern eine

sinnliche Gestalt, eine Gebarde oder Lage, ein Problem

oder Schicksal am Anfang der schaffenden Tatigkeit der

Einbildungskraft stehen, bei Fontane ist es eine

Redeweise, die sich, durch das Hinzutgsten einer Person

als deren Trﬁger zur Figur entfaltet.

This similarity consisted in the fact that both authors
started with a character but yet they were different inasmuch
as Turgenev and connected it with some principle that
intrigued him. Fontane, on the other hand, saw a character
and connected it to a manner of speaking. For him the mode

of speech attracted him.

In the case of Effi Briest Fontane is supposed to have seen

 

a young lady exactly as he described her in the book, and
have heard the exact same words he used in the book. "Effi
komm". From this picture and the words came the inspiration

for Effi Briest.

-39-

Another important aspect of their early development is
the intent of their work. Both authors intended to give a
portrait of their characters, to show them not in the
developmental stage, but as finished. They wanted to expose
the characters to many different situations in life to show
how they reacted to each other.

Since this seemed to be best accomplished in the love
story, both writers used this as their main vehicle to show
the interaction of the characters.

These similarities explain why Fontane saw in Turgenev
a kindred spirit and was willing to learn from him. In

Vor dem Sturm Fontane had some basic ideas and he was willing

 

to learn, for he was being criticized for lack of cohesive-
ness, and conversation and for the casualness with which

his narrator handled his subject. In Turgenev's works
Fontane recognized that Turgenev also used an episodic style
to expose his characters to each other in order to develop
them, that his works were tightly constructed, and that
Turgenev made extensive use of the dialogue to relieve the
narrator.

While Turgenev used an "Ich Erzahler" in his early
works, in his later works he used a third person narrator.
we always know that the narrator is present, but in the
novels he usually does not show himself overtly in the

first few pages. In his Dvorjanskoe gnezdo, the narrator

 

stepped forward on the seventh page at the beginning of

-40-

the fourth chapter or episode, with the words: "Der junge
Mann, mit dem wir den Leser soeben bekanntgemacht haben"
(T. II, 145). We have discussed how both Turgenev's and
Fontane's narrators have used this "wir," but we quickly
realize that it is used differently. In Fontane's earliest
works the first person narrator indicated that the narrator
included the reader in whatever he was undertaking. In this
particular instance, however, the reader is not included in
the narrative, for in the same breath in which he used the
"wir" the narrator talks about the reader, giving a clear
indication that we now have a third person narrator. The
narrator uses now the editorial "wir" of the third person
narrator and only indirectly makes the reader aware of his
actions, without turning to him directly. This practice
seems to make the narrator much more objective, and Ralph
Matlau expressed this idea when he discussed the use of the
third person omniscient narrator, by saying that:

it may therefore also be said, that the novels

are apparently the mggt impersonal and objective

of Turgenev's works.
We need to remember that word "apparently," for even though
we now have a third person narrator instead of the first
person narrator of the early works, who was obviously more
out front and seemingly more subjectively involved, we soon
realize that while this third person narrator seems to be

more objective, in reality he is not. The first person

narrator only told us what he actually observed first hand;

-41-

.he was limited in his View. The third person narrator is
omniscient. He knows everything about the people concerned
as well as about the situations. When we read the work
carefully, we realize that he is deeply involved and that he
is continuously commenting on the action. One example is
the aside given by the narrator in the first paragraph of

Dvorjanskoe gnezdo. Here the narrator casually comments:

 

"Das Ereignis spielte im Jahre 1824" (T. II, 139). While
this comment does not interrupt the flow of the narrative to
any great extent, it nevertheless signals to the reader the
presence of the narrator and reminds him that this narrator
is all knowing. This narrator is not limited to things he
had observed. Also he is not reticent to express his own
feelings or pronounce judgment. This becomes obvious in his
discussion of Panscin's language ability:
Fﬁr anstandige Menschen schickt es sich nicht,
gut deutsch zu sprechen; doch da und dort ein
germanisches Wﬁrtchen bei einzelnen, grﬁsstenteils
heiteren Gelegenheiten fallen zu lassen, das geht an
(T. II, 146).
Despite the fact that the narrator is still intruding into
the narrative here, he is much more reserved in his comments
and they still go along with the story. Turgenev's
narrator in the later works has left behind him.the habits
of the first person narrator of the earlier works who
continuously turned to the reader with explanations and

comments. Spanger was right, however, when he claimed that

even though the narrator does not turn to the reader with an

-42-

overt comment, he nevertheless always has him in mind and
always will attempt to influence him as much as possible.64
There is a good example of Turgenev's use of the nar-

rator in the first paragraph of Dvorjanskoe gnezdo:

 

Ein heller Frﬁhlingstag neigte sich dem Abend zu,
kleine rosige Wblkchen standen hoch am klaren Himmel
und zogen scheinbar nicht vorﬁber, sondern verschwanden
in der Tiefe des Firmaments.
Vor dem offenen Fenster eines schﬁnen Hauses in einer
Aussenstrasse der Gouvernementsstadt O . . . (das
Ereignis spielte im Jahre 1842) sassen zwei Frauen:
die eine so um die Fﬁnfzig, die andere schon eine
Greisin an die Siebzig.
Die erste hiess Marja Dmitrijewna Kalitina. Ihr Mann,
der ehemalige Staatsanwalt des Gourvernements,
ieiperzeit eine bekannte Persﬁnlichkeit. . . (T.II,

39 .

It is the function of the narrator to give a short description
of the locality and the milieu. From.this he turns quickly

to the introduction of the two minor characters. He gives us
some background information on the characters and then relates
a conversation between them. The conversation itself soon
turns to the topic of the next character to be introduced,
Sergej Petrovitg Gedeonskij. Before we ever meet Gedeonskij
we are acquainted with him through the information obtained
from the ladies conversation. He is introduced at the end

of the chapter in a rather unobtrusive manner.

As we read the next five chapters we realize that this
pattern is repeated in the subsequent chapters with minor
variations. The narrator sets up the situation, which even-
tually will lead to conversations between the people already

introduced. In the process of the conversation the next

-43-

character is previewed for the reader and the character
then appears in the next chapter. We have witnessed the
introduction and exposure of Gedeonskij in the first chapter.
He was announced at the end of the chapter and the narrator
then gave a short portrayal of him the next chapter. Again
we saw that a conversation was set in progress and in the
course of the conversation the next person arrived and we
learn something about him. But in the meantime the hero

has been announced and his situation mentioned. He is to
appear later. This is a departure from the established
system, for we now expected to meet the hero and to know him
better. But instead of the hero, Pan§5in arrives. In the
third chapter we only find out that he makes a dashing
figure on a horse and that the family is quite taken with
him. But the interesting part of chapter three is the last
phrase: "Im gleichen Augenblick erschien auf der Schwelle
der anderen Tﬁr ein schlankes grosses Madchen von etwa
neunzehn Jahren-die altere Tochter Marja Dmitrjewnas--Liza."
We have the feeling that the whole chapter is there just for
this announcement. The placement of the announcement as
well as its manner make us aware that Liza is to play an
important part in the story. Just as was the case when the
hero was introduced, here, too, we do not have the expected
extended description by the narrator in the next chapter,
but rather, the fourth chapter gives us a description of

Panscin and his grand entrance. Subsequently, the less

-44-

dramatized entrance of Lemm is given and Lemm himself is
featured in the fifth chapter.
As we read this chapter we realize that each chapter is
a complete episode. In the first the narrator shows a
picture of two ladies talking to each other. A lady and
a gentleman are talking in the next chapter with the same
backdrop. The arrival of Pansdin on horseback makes a very
striking picture as well as his performance in the family
circle. The fifth episode is the life of Lemm. In each
chapter a new personality is introduced either by the nar-
rator himself or in the course of the conversation by one
of the characters already introduced. Each chapter is
almost a unit by itself, but each is connected nicely to
the other by the mentioning of a name in one chapter and
the introduction of that character in the other chapter.
Each character we have seen so far has been extensively
introduced and described by the narrator except Liza and
Lavreckij. Turgenev left the development of his major
characters to a great extent to minor characters. They
mirrored themselves in those around them and some have a
greater influence on this development than others. Liza
is a case in point. ‘Matlaw pointed out that she is
developed gradually, trait by trait, with intervening matter
designed to delay such disclosure still further. Liza
appeared at the end of the third chapter and then did not

appear until the sixth chapter. Chapter four and five

-45-

were devoted to the histories of Panscin and Lemm, so that
in the following scenes we may judge her by the remarks of
those we already know. Particularly important in this
respect is Lemm, that remarkable man who valued Liza so
highly.65

Similar patterns are found in all of Turgenev's novels.

In the case of Dvorjanskoe gnezdo the location is obviously

 

the estate of the nobility. These estates furnished the
background for almost all novels. Here people met, conversed
and showed themselves. Usually a stranger came into the
established circle, was contrasted and at the end found
wanting. Social gatherings were set up by the narrator to
bring about the conversations. These social gatherings

could be small intimate affairs of two or three, as we have

seen them at the beginning of Dvorjanskoe gnezdo or large

 

elaborate parties and dinners.
An excellent example of this exposing of the hero and
the heroine to different social situations can be found in

the hero of Octy i deti, Bazarov. After Bazarov and Arkadij

 

arrived at the station, father and son travelled together on
their way home and in their conversation gave some infor—
mation about Bazarov. Shortly after arriving at the estate
of the Kirsanovs, all sat down to dinner. During the dinner
and the subsequent meetings Bazarov's character was shown.
He was continually contrasted with the Kirsanovs. From the

estate of the Kirsanovs the narrator took the hero to the

-45-

city, where he and Arkadij were exposed in conversations

with various people. The ball given by the governor was the
highlight of their stay in the city. There they met Odincova,
who invited them to her estate. After an extended stay with
her Bazarov went home and we saw him in the family circle
where he died.

The narrator presented Bazarov in four major episodes,
each one consisting of several minor episodes. Once he had
set up the situation he withdrew somewhat and only related
the conversations of the characters. This was the main
function of the narrator, to connect the different episodes
smoothly, so that there is an appearance of real life in-
stead of the appearance of having only separate disconnected
episodes, as we have seen them in Fontane's first work. In
his discussion of the duty of the narrator Ebelhard LHmmert
pointed to this when he claimed that:

Die Verkleidung seiner kﬁnstlerischen Absichten in

eine Ereignisfolge, in die Blumenkette der Zeit, wie

Jean Paul sie nannte, ist die Leistung des Erzﬁhlers.

Die andere, ebenso entscheidende ist die Bewﬁltigung

Endagistalggng dieser Ereignisfolge im Zuge des

rz ens. c

When we now investigate Fontane's novels in light of
what we have found in Turgenev's works, we can fully appre-
ciate the change in narrative technique and we realize that

his novels have gained much from his study of Turgenev's

technique. The change already is evident in his Grete Minde,

 

published in 1880, two years after Vor dem Sturm.

 

-47-

It started out with a few lines of conversation, after which
the third person omniscient narrator took over to give a little
bit of background material and describe the location. His
narration was straightforward, without much interference into
the narration.

It is interesting to compare the novel Grete Minde with

 

Irrungen Wirrungen which was published two years later. In

 

Grete Minde the narrator was there, we noticed his presence

 

but he did his best to conceal it. He did not use the usual
"wir" or "unser" or gave any other direct indication of his
presence. When we look at the later work, however, we notice
some of that loosening of the language, which.Mary Gilbert
thought to be indicative of the middle period in Fontane's
development. This loosening of the language referred to

the conversations, but we find that it applies to the nar-
rator equally as well. In the later works the narrator still
attempted to be in the background, but he was not afraid to
talk on the first page about "unsere Erzﬁhlung" or "unsere
Frau Nimptsch." After the difficulties Fontane had in

Vor dem Sturm he went to an extreme in Crete Minde but

 

 

realized that he had gone too far the other way. This
realization might have come to him as a result of his study
of Turgenev's works.

The "unsere," that the narrator used above, reminded us of

the "unser" used in the Wanderungen, when the narrator talked

 

about "Unser Held." we realize, however, that here the

reader is not included.

-48-

Another difference became apparent when comparing the
two works. The first work was bare of the narrator's comments,
whereas the latter has them in abundance. 0n the first
page, in the description of DBrr's Schloss, the narrator
‘mentioned that on the tower was the face of a clock, and
commented: "von Uhr selbst keine Rede." This is the type of
comment found in Turgenev's works, and they just seemed to
be there to remind us of the narrator's presence. This is
his way of letting us know that this was not merely a
description of something he observed, but that it was some-
thing created and told to us by a narrator. Just as Turgenev's
narrator was all knowing, so was this narrator.

The narrator we meet in Fontane's later works is more
polished and less casual and we find that he has learned not
to interfere and interrupt the flow of the story. But the
biggest change that we learn is that this later narrator has
learned that not everything has to be narrated by him, but
that many things can and should be presented in dialogues
and casual conversations. Another important change is in
the narrator's handling of the introduction and the develop-
ment of the characters.

Fontane's narrator starts out to give us a description
of the locality, in which the works take place. This
introduction reminds us of Turgenev's habit of introducing
his work with a description of the locality. Fontane's

descriptions, however, usually run a little longer. While

-49-

Turgenev used the country estate as a background for his
works, Vincenz pointed out that Fontane's works play in "dem
norddeutschen, aristokratischen oder stadtischen Milieu
neuerer Zeit und die schwﬁcheren Romane sind durchwegs jene,
die diese Zone verlassen."67

Once the locality is outlined with a few strokes,
Fontane's narrator moves quickly to the introduction of the
people, just as he had observed it by Turgenev. We remember
how awkward the characters were often introduced in Vgr

dem Sturm. The main character was the first to be intro-

 

duced in a lengthy description by the narrator.

In her discussion of Irrungen Wirrungen, Zerner indicated

 

that Fontane's narrative technique changed notably in two
aspects:

Als besonders auffallige Beispiele techniker
Entwicklung seien nur noch die verfeinerte Art
der Einfﬁhrung einer Person, die Vorbereitung
einer Szene durch eine Andeutung oder die
Kapitelﬁbergﬁnge seit Vor dem Sturm erwﬁhnt.68

 

The introduction of the characters in Irrungen Wirrungen

 

is the most obvious change. Fontane changes from the
description of the locality to the introduction of Frau
Nimptsch, a minor character. These minor characters are
lovingly drawn and overshadow the major figures, as is
evident in the character of the widow Pittelkow in grins.
After the introduction of Mrs. Nimptsch she receives a
visitor in the person of Frau Dﬁrr. In their ensuing con-

versation they mention Mr. DBrr, whom we meet later, and

-50-

also mention the major character of the work. The two

ladies characterize themselves partly in their conversation
and we receive some information about them from the narrator.
In the last sentence of the chapter the heroine is presented,

‘much in the fashion of Liza in Drorjanskoeggnezdo. It is

 

interesting that the narrator in Irrungen Wirrungen employs

 

the same device of prolonging the wait before he introduces

the heroine as the narrator in Drorjanskoe gnezdo did.

 

Where we had expected to hear about Lene in the next chap-
ter, we find out all about Dﬁrr's nursery. Only later do we
find out more about Lene and her meeting with the baron.
Schillemeit saw in this a very successful device, for it
gave the reader time to let the things he has read so far
take hold of him. Not only did the reader become familiar
with the surroundings, but he has met the major characters,
the most important minor characters and received some infor-
mation concerning the major characters and their relation-
ships to each other.69

Comparing DrOrjanskoe gnezdo to Irrungen Wirrungen

 

 

we find the same patterns of introducing the major and minor
characters. First the minor characters are introduced by
the narrator and situations are set up for them to converse
about. In their conversation the major characters are then
introduced and developed step by step. Wandrey saw in this
later technique in Fontane's works a complete break from the

earlier style, for there the narrator thought that almost

-51-

everything had to be narrated. However, now we get instead

of the finished portrait from the narrator the light conver-
sation of the figures, in which the characters are characteri-
zing themselves and are slowly developed.70 When we read

Poggenpuhl, one of Fontane's last novels, we quickly realize

 

that the narrated portion of the work is minimal. Almost
everything is happening in the dialogue; if anything happens
at all. But the author has repeatedly indicated that he is
not interested in what is happening, but rather in the "how"
it is happening.71 Turgenev expressed the same thought in
the preface to his novels published in 1880, where he wrote:
"I am mainly interested not in the what, but in the how and
the who."72

Since the description of the characters was to take
place now in the dialogues, the narrator was delegated a
different role. Dialogues are something we more commonly
associated with the stage. In order to provide ample
opportunity for conversation, ways and means had to be found
to give these characters a stage where they could meet and
converse. It was now the main function of the narrator to
set up the stage, where these conversations could take
place. Turgenev used social functions of every kind (dinners,
balls, excursions) to give his characters this opportunity.
The same elements are found in Fontane's works. Demetz

indicated that Fontane wove these elements (social gatherings)

-52-

which he had found in Turgenev in similar fashion, into an
order, which started to be successful in his new novel

L'Adultera.73 To show the extent, to which Fontane utilized

 

social events as a vehicle to expose his characters, we will
look at the novel mentioned above. In the first three
chapters van der Straaten and his wife Melanie are intro-
duced. At the beginning of the fourth chapter the narrator
indicates that the family is to move to the summer residence:

vorher sollte aber noch ein kleines Abschiedsdiner

stattfinden, und zwar unter ausschliesslicher

Heranziehung des dem Hause zunﬁchst stehenden

Kreise (F. VI, 20).
The dinner is not only announced by the narrator, but he also
proceeds to set the stage and introduce the close circle of
friends that is to participate in the dinner. This introduc-
tion comprises the fourth chapter and the actual dinner makes
up the fifth chapter. At the beginning the narrator still
carries the action, but he is repeating the words of van der
Straaten. It is later that the conversation takes its own
course, with very little interference from the narrator. The
fact that the chapter, in which the dinner is related to us,
is almost as long as the introduction that went before, is an
indication of the importance of these events.

While the dinner itself serves as a stage for the conver-
sation of the characters, we see the narrator's hand hard at
work once more when the people leave the dinner. He pairs up

the different characters so that they are able to discuss the

other characters who had been present at the dinner.

-53

The work has three main characters, two of which are
introduced and exposed before the reader in the course of
the dinner. Rubehn, the other main character, is yet to be
properly presented. His chance comes in the eighth chapter.
In the second paragraph of that chapter the narrator again
has the duty to set the stage:

Und so war Hochsommer gekommen und fast schon vorﬁber,

als an einem wundervollen Augustnachmittage van der

Straaten den Vorschlag einer Land-und Wasserpartie

machte (F. II, 45).

Once the outing is announced preparations are made for it.
These take up the rest of the chapter and the whole of the
next chapter. A small party then is described in the
latter part of the eleventh chapter. This party becomes a
party for two, namely Melanie and Rubehn, in the twelfth
chapter, bringing about the catastrophe a little later. A
dinner party finds the well known group of family friends
together for Christmas dinner, with the exception of Rubehn.
This is one of the last social functions, for the separation
comes soon afterward and in Fontane's works social functions
are a sign of well being of the individual. With a different
party almost every chapter, one would expect that everything
would become get a little hectic and possibly mixed-up.

This is not the case, for the narrator takes us skillfully
from one event to the next, making sure everything is smooth
and believable. This weaving of the different parts into an

entertaining whole becomes the main function of the narrator.

-54-

He sets up various situations and then disappears, but yet
he never lets us forget his presence for a moment.

The narrator retreats at times but his presence is not
only felt in the words that are spoken, but in the action
that is occurring. For instance, in the case of the land
party we realize that the physical arrangement is important.
The narrator informs us that the ladies go together in a
coach while van der Straaten and Rubehn follow in another.
But on the way home,_after the van der Straatens have a
stormy time, Melanie and Rubehn end up together in a boat
all alone. The boat trip leads to some very pointed remarks
and almost to commitments. This type of arrangement can be
detected in many of Fontane's works and shows the importance
of the narrator as the prime mover behind all characters.

The social gatherings and conversations are an indication
of the well being of the people involved. Just as the many
gatherings give an indication of social well being, so the
total absence of the same indicates that things arenot
going well with the person or persons involved. we have
seen that the gatherings are there to provide an opportunity
for the characters to participate in the conversations and
by so doing make a statement about him- or herself and the
surroundings. Mittenzwei sees in the lines: "Du sollst
reden mit mir. Reden ist Menschheit."74 from Hoffmannsthal's
work Der T’urm75 the essence of Fontane's philosophy. When

speaking is "Menschheit" then the lack of speaking is an

-55-

indication of a lack of "Menschheit." Many of Fontane's
characters feel this lack and attempt to rectify the situa-
tion. When Melanie returns from her trip she attempts
feverishly to get back into the social circles she knew.

But she is rejected even by her own sister and her own
children. This rejection is not the result of some religious
or moral judgement, but rather it is a condemnation by
society for breaking accepted social norms. Melanie,
however, is one of the few who seemed to have had the
strength to endure this condemnation and at the end is given
hope to overcome and be accepted back. That forgiveness is
granted is indicated by van der Straaten's present. But an
even stronger indication is the fact, that she is planning a
Christmas dinner, to which even some of her old friends are
invited. Just as the lack of social gatherings signal that
things are not going well socially, so the resumption of the
social gatherings signals forgiveness and a state of well
being. The narrator makes sure we know about this change
and about her excitement, for he tells us that she "war ganz
Aufregung." While Melanie is able to overcome this state of
condemnation, many other of Fontane's heroes and heroines
are unable to overcome it. Effi Briest, for instance, is
unable to cope with it and eventually succumbs.

After the narrator has woven his pattern of social gatherings
by smoothly setting the stage and providing carry over from
one act to the next, we have seen in Turgenev's works that he

then had to round out the work by giving us details about some

~56-

of our heroes and heroines so that we know at the end what they
all are doing and how they are doing. Fontane's narrator also
has the last word and rounds out the work. The title of the
last chapter already indicates that there will be a reconcilia-
tion. In the last couple of pages a package arrives. The
package contains a present for Melanie, Which consists of a
miniature of the painting L'Adultera by Tintoretto, the very
painting that supplies the name for the work. We remember

that the painting has as the caption Christ's saying: "He,

who among you is without sin,‘ indicating that this moment
that van der Straaten does not consider himself to be without
sin and has forgiven her. He is not the judge. This present
with its symbolism.rounds out the work, for the transgression
is forgiven and at the end we find a happy couple, looking
forward to a life of bliss.

In our investigation of the role of the narrator we have
found that despite extended use of the dialogue in the
introduction and the development of characters the narrator
still has an important function. Both authors have the
narrator introduce us to the work, and the narrator sets

the stage by giving the background material and takes us
skillfully from scene to scene to the finish by rounding

out the work in the closing chapter. In the case of Fontane,
after the study of Turgenev's works the once slow moving

and sluggish narrative has changed to a well paced, well

rounded and smoothly polished narrative.

CHAPTER II

THE FUNCTION OF THE PORTRAIT

In the development of his characters Fontane left
an important function to the narrator, inasmuch as he left
it to him to give the reader the first impression of his
characters. Only after that initial view were the char-
acters developed by minor characters in the dialogues.
Gottfried Kricker stresses that this twofold method of
development is found in Fontane's works and he indicated
that in the first of the two steps the narrator is prominent
whereas in the dialogue he steps into the background.75
He also saw this very same method of character development
in Turgenev.
While some authors and critics considered this initial
portrait of the characters to be a weakness, Fontane appar-
ently accepted this practice for he used it extensively.
Paul Heyse, on the other hand, criticized him severely for
this device, for he thought that before the reader has
developed an interest for the characters and their moti-
vation, there exists no need to give an extensive portrait
of them.76 But William Lyon Phelps was of a different
opinion. He thought that Turgenev introduced his characters
and accompanied each portrait with extensive biographical
remarks to stir the curiosity of the reader, to know the
characters more intimately.77 Although Phelps might be
right in his claim, Ernst Laage's explanation seems to be
the most correct one. He saw in the portraits simply an

-57-

-58-

extension of Turgenev's method of conceiving a work. Since
he first perceived a character and then a plot Turgenev
wanted to give the reader the first impression he himself
had received in his mind of the different characters.78

These portraits are not just physical descriptions of
persons involved, for often little is told the reader of the
person's appearance, but, rather short histories combined
with a composite picture of the character described.
Included in this description are the persons' idiosyncrasies,
especially those that might be important to the story later.
A good example of such a portrait is the one of Nikolaj

Kirsanov, the first major character in Otcy i deti.

 

Wir werden den Leser mit ihm bekanntmachen, solanger
‘mit untergeschlagenen Beinen so dasitzt und nachdenk—
lich in die Runde blickt.

Er heisst Nikolaj Petrowitsch Kirsanow. Er besitzt
fﬁnfzehn Werst vom Rasthaus ein schﬁnes Anwesen mit
zweihundert Seelen oder- wie er sich ausdrﬁckt,
seitdem er sein und seiner Bauern Land vermessen und
eine Farm eingerichtet hat- mit zweitausend Desjatinen
Land. Sein Vater, Frontgeneral des Jahres 1812, ein
grober, aber nicht bﬁser russischer Mann, der kaum
lesen und schreiben konnte, plagte sich sein ganzes
Leben lang, kommandierte zuerst eine Brigade, dann
eine Division und lebte standig in der Provinz, wo
er kraft seines Ranges eine ziemlich bedeutende
Rolle spielte. Nikolaj Petrowitsch kam im.Sﬁden
Russlands zur welt, ebenso wie sein Hlterer Bruder
Pawel, von dem weiter unten die Rede sein wird, und
wurde bis zu seinem vierzehnten Lebensjahr zu

Hause erzogen, umgeben von billigen Gouvernanten,
dreisten, doch diensteifrigen Adjutanten und anderen
Persﬁnlichkeiten aus Regimentern und Staben (T. II,
302-301).

The portrait quoted gives us a good insight into the type of
portrait in Turgenev's works. Many other portraits have

more of the physical description, but for the most part they

-59-

concentrate on the background of the individual, give the
individual's educational background, and, especially his
position in life. Marine Ledkovsky saw in Turgenev's penchant
for exhaustive background information a belief that the
background information explains the present personality of
the character and make it easier for the reader to under-
stand the character's action later in the work.79 One also
believes that by giving the background of the secondary
characters Turgenev felt that he was bringing them to life

so that they could later illuminate the major characters.
This was indirectly stated by Ralph Matlaw in his discussion
of Bazarov. Matlaw mentioned that we find little about
Bazarov's past. It is almost, as if Turgenev, knowing that
he had finally created a character who had life of its own,
grasped that his present actuality is more important, and
that a recapitulation of his past is not only unnecessary

but undesirable.80 There is almost no portrait of Bazarov

at all. We quickly realize that there is a distinct differ-
ence in the length of the portrait for the various characters.
This difference in the length of the portraits can be
observed in most of Turgenev's novels. While the portrait

of the supporting characters is often extensive, those of

the major characters are much shorter and sometimes almost
nonexistent. Their introduction and development is often left
to the dialogue. This development of the major characters in

the dialogues is made easier by giving the reader the extensive

-60-

background of the secondary characters, for the reader now
has the feeling that he knows them and that he can evaluate
their comments on the major figures on the basis of that
knowledge. This instills in the reader a certain trust and
confidence.

To show the great similarity between Fontane's and
Turgenev's portrait as given by the narrator, we now want to

consider the portrait of van der Straaten in L'Adultera.

 

While Fontane occasionally used the casual introduction of
the portrait as Turgenev, he preferred, in his later works,
to give the portrait without any introductory remarks, as in
the portrait of van der Straaten:

Der Kommerzienrat van der Straaten, Grosse Petristrasse
4, war einer der vollgﬁltigsten Finanziers der Hauptstadt,
eine Tatsache, die dadurch wenig alteriert wurde, dass
er mehr eines geschﬁftlichen als eines persﬁnlichen
Ansehens genoss. An der Bﬁrse galt er bedingungslos, in
der Gesellschaft nur bedingungsweise. Es hatte dies,
wenn man herumhorchte, seinen Grund zu sehr wesentlichem
Teile darin, dass er zu wenig draussen gewesen war und
die Gelegenheit versHumt hatte, sich einen allgemein
gﬁltigen Weltschliff oder auch nur die seiner Lebens
stellung entsprechenden Allﬁren anzueignen. Einige
neuerdings erst unternommene Reisen nach Paris und
Italien, die ﬁbrigens niemals ﬁber ein paar Wochen
hinaus ausgedehnt worden waren, hatten an diesem
Tatbestande nichts Erhebliches andern kﬁnnen und ihm
jedenfalls ebenso seinen spezifisch lokalen Stempel wie
seine Vorliebe fﬁr drastische Sprichwﬁrter und heimische
geflﬁgelte Worte von der derberen Observanz gelassen.

Er pflegte, um ihn selber mit einer seiner Liebling-
swendungen einzufﬁhren, "aus seinem Herzen keine
Mbrdergrube zu machen", und hatte sich, als reicher
Leute Kind, von Jugend auf daran gewﬁhnt, alles zu tun
und zu sagen, was zu tun und zu sagen er lustig fand

(F. VI, 7).

As in the portrait of Kirsanov, the portrait of van der

Straaten gives us very little information about the outward

-6l-

appearance of the character. Neither one of the authors
thought this lack of information of major concern. When

some information about the physical appearance is given, it
is rather sketchy. We have seen that Turgenev's portraits
concern themselves with the family history and the educa-
tional background of the individual, but we realize that
Fontane did not worry as much about it. In his portraits
Fontane usually stressed the individual character traits as
they later influence the work. Nuance of the language or

the mode of expression is an important aspect of van der
Straaten and is brought out in the narrator's comment that
"van der Straaten pflegte aus seinem Herzen keine Mﬁrdergrube
zu machen." The description also pointed out that van der
Straaten enjoyed this particular aspect of his character.
That is to speak just as he felt, and saw no need to change
it. In the first few pages, Fontane already outlined the
conflict that is to come later. In putting this much impor-
tance in the character's attitude about language we can
detect the author's feeling concerning this topic.

To understand the difference in the stress on the portrait

of the two authors we need to consider each writer's regard
for his craft. While Turgenev was interested in delineating
finished characters, Fontane was concerned in the peculiarity
of their speech patterns. It is the subtlety of language
reflected in the portraits that attracted him in many instan-
ces. Haiko Strech writes that Fontane does not give us

"Ausseres, sondern Russerungen."81

-62-

Although we have a lengthy portrait of van der Straaten,
we do not have a lengthy sketch of Melanie van der Straaten,

the heroine of L'Adultera. we recall that Fontane wanted to

 

name the work "Melanie van der Straaten" but changed his
mind. Her portrait is much shorter and we get only a few
sketchy remarks. In this, Fontane's method is in line with
Turgenev's, for Turgenev gives brief portraits of his heroes
or heroines or no portrait at all.

Another example is Effi Briest written about ten years

 

after L'Adultera. The heroine of Effi Briest was only

 

 

sketched in a few lines and then developed in dialogues. In
the period in which this work was written Fontane wanted to
have everything developed in dialogues and consequently
avoided lengthy introductions by the narrator. Haiko Strech
indicated, however, that Fontane went right back to the
portrait by the narrator in his later works.82 The extensive

portraits of the three sisters in Die Poggenpuhl and the even

 

longer one of Dubslav von Stechlin in Der Stechlin give ample

 

evidence of Fontane's return to the portrait.
This change falls into the three different periods

outlined by Mary Gilbert. L'Adultera fell into the period

 

when Fontane was preoccupied with the study of Turgenev.
Because of Turgenev's influence Fontane gave more weight to
the dialogue while diminishing the role of the narrator. In
the third period, which Mary Gilbert called the time of the

"fontanisierende" characters, Fontane came back and attempted

-63-

to combine the lengthy portrait with the extensive use of
dialogues. The mature Fontane, after he realized that he
had to opt between the use of the narrator in portraits or
having the characters develop naturally in dialogues, ended

up combining both of these methods as he found it in Turgenev.

CHAPTER III
THE FUNCTION OF THE DIALOGUE
If we were to answer the question of Fontane being con-
sidered the foremost German writer of the nineteenth century
we would respond that he is recognized as such for his
masterful use of the dialogue. This claim would surprise

anyone who had read Fontane's first novel, Vor dem Sturm,

 

because the novel lacks any meaningful dialogue. Its nar-
rator describes the action and he alone is responsible for
the development of the characters. How much different are
Fontane's later novels? They are with almost no static
description. Everything that does happen happens in the
dialogue; the same is often said of Turgenev's novels.

Ralph Matlaw, for instance, insists that in Otcy i deti the

 

narrative interest is almost nil, for the novel is devoted
to discussions of ideas, particularly those current at the
time of writing.83 At about the same time that Fontane
studied Turgenev another German , Eugen Zabel, praised him
for his dialogue:

Dasselbe gilt von seinem Dialog, dieser Achillesferse
der modernen deutschen Erthler. Es hat vielleicht
niemals einen Dichter gegeben, der seine sﬁmtliche
Figuren mit der vollendeten Natﬁrlichkeit reden lest,
wie es bei Turgenev der Fall ist. Man muss sich einzelne
Seiten laut vorlesen und die dabei entstehenden Bilder
‘mit den eigenen Beobachtungen vergleichen, um zu ver-
stehen, wie plastisch, individuell und natﬁrlich sein
Dialog gebildet ist. wahrend es bei vielen neueren
Poeten so unangenehm nach Tinte schmeckt und literarisch
abgeblasst erscheint, tngt dgrselbe bei unserem Dichter
alle Farben der Wirklichkeit. 4

~64-

-65..

A short dialogue, from Turgenev's Dvorjanskoe gnezdo,

 

gives us an idea of the nature of Turgenev's dialogues and
shows some of his methods. The dialogue is between Pansdin
and Liza. Panscin has just arrived and the narrator has
given us an extensive portrait of himu After he has spoken
with Lemm, whom he has upset, Liza is upset with him and
chastised him:

Was ist Ihnen?, fragte er.

Weshalb haben Sie nicht wort gehalten? fragte sie. Ich
habe Ihnen Christof Fjodorowitschs Kantate unter der
Bedingung gezeigt, dass Sie mit ihm darﬁber nicht
sprechen sollen.

Meine Schuld, Lisaweta Michailowna- es ist mir
herausge-rutscht.

Sie haben ihn geernkt- und mich auch. Jetzt wird er
auch mir nicht mehr trauen.

Was befehlen Sie zu tun, Lisaweta Michailowna! Von
klein auf kann ich einen Deutschen nicht gleichgﬁltig
sehen:, es treibt mich geradezu, ihn zu necken.

Was sagen Sie da, Wladimir Nikolajewitsch! Dieser
Deutsche, ein armer, einsamer, g schlagener Mann- und
er tut Ihnen nicht leid? Sie wollten ihn necken?
Panschin wurde verlegen.

Sie haben recht, Lisaweta Michailowna, sagte er. An
allem ist meine Unﬁberlegtheit schuld. Nein, wider-
sprechen Sie mir nicht; ich kenne mich gut. Meine
Unﬁberlegtheit hat mir schon viel Bﬁses zugefﬁgt.
Durch sie bin ich in den Ruf eines Egoisten gekommen.
Panschin schwieg ein Weilchen. Womit er auch ein Gesprﬁch
anfing, gewﬁhnlich endete es doch damit, dass er ﬁber sich
selber sprach, und zu allem klang es noch angenehm und
weich, herzlich, gleichsam unwillkﬁrlich (T. II, 153).

Liza up to now had been introduced with a few simple
words without any reference to her looks, personality or
background. This dialogue shows her to the reader as a young
lady who is sympathetic and compassionate with the unfor-
tunate Lemm. This is brought out in her language as well as

in the contrast to Panscin, who here is shown as somewhat

-66-

cruel and thoughtless. Neither impression, however, is
created solely by the words of the individual but in the
interaction between the two speakers.

The narrator starts out the dialogue by quoting the
first remarks but after Liza's reply the narrator withdraws
from the conversation that is now moving forward of its own
volition, almost effortlessly, very naturally. At the end
of this segment the narrator comes back, however, and comments
on the dialogue. His comments are partly about the dialogue;
but they also enlighten the reader about another aspect of
Panédin's character, his contradiction about his own statement.
This last statement by the narrator serves to add another
dimension to the dialogue. While all other dimensions help
to complete Panscin's character we are left at the end with
an ambivalent feeling to ask ourselves if Panscin is selfish
or thoughtless.

We have seen that in the dialogue people characterize
themselves by what they say, by the manner of their speech,
and in their comments about others. At the same time they
also characterize the people around them. Although many
other facets can be found in each dialogue, each one con-
tributes to the development of the portrait of the hero/
heroine, for we have seen that the hero/ heroine is the only
one that had not been described in detail in an initial
portrait by the narrator. The relationship of the characters

to each other is also developed. For example, Liza, Panscin

-67..

and Lemm are involved in dialogues. We learn about the
feelings Liza and Pangdin have for Lemm and in what kind of
relationship they stand to each other. The dialogue also
outlines Liza's feelings and relationship to the former.
This dialogue, together with subsequent dialogues, makes it
possible for Turgenev to have Lemm later tell of the love
between Liza and Lavreckij--which he does so well through
his music.

After a dialogue we experience the regrouping of
characters and the situation is once more discussed, now
from a different point of view, and with different partici-
pants. So we have a meeting between Lemm and Liza in which
they talk about the situation that led to the dialogue
between Liza and Pansdin. The method in this dialogue re-
minds us of the one above.

Christofor Fjodorowitsch, hﬁren Sie, sagte sie zu ihm
auf deutsch und begleitete ihn ﬁber den kurzen grﬁnen
Rasen des Hofes ans Tor. Ich habe Ihnen Unrecht getan,
verzeihen Sie.

Lemm antwortete nicht.

Ich habe Wladimir Nikolajawitsch Ihre Kantate gezeigt;
ich war ﬁberzeugt, dass er sie wﬁrdigen wird - und sie
hat ihm.tatsachlich gefallen.

Lemm blieb stehen.

Das macht nichts, sagte er auf russisch, um dann in
seiner Muttersprache fortzufahren: Aber er kann doch
nichts verstehen; sehen Sie es denn nicht? Er ist

ein Dilletant und weiter nichs.

Sie sind nicht gerecht zu ihm, erwiderte Lisa. Er
versteht alles und kann nahezu alles selber tun.

Ja, alles zweite Sorte, leichte Ware, hastige Arbeit.
Das gefallt, und er gefallt und ist damit zufrieden-
nun, also bravo. Ich argere mich nicht; diese Kantate
und ich- wir sind beide alte Narren; ich schame mich
ein wenig, aber das macht nichts.

-68..

Verzeihen Sie mir, Christofor Fjodorowitsch, sagte

Lisa von neuem.

Macht nichts, macht nichts, erwiderte er auf russisch.

Sie sind ein gutes Madchen . . . aber da kommt jemand

zu euch. Leben Sie wohl. Sie sind ein sehr gutes

‘MHdchen (T. II, 155-156).
we can see how Turgenev strings together several dialogues.
In the dialogue Pansdin is exposed as a dilletant by Lemm
while Lemm's contempt for Panscin is made obvious. Liza is
shown as a good person in the earlier dialogue for she does
not think anything bad about her friends. In a few lines a
great deal is accomplished, with a minimum of interference
by the narrator.

One does well to follow this succession of dialogues in

Otcy i deti. The first short introduction to the protagonist

 

comes in the dialogue between father and son on their way
home. There is not much conversation at the dinner table
but afterward Bazarov and Arkadij have a discussion about
Pavel Kirsanov. In the morning, at tea, the three Kirsanovs
are sitting together talking about Bazarov and his nihilism.
He later joins them and the discussion continues. After the
group breaks up Bazarov and Arkadij again talk about Pavel
Kirsanov. In the dialogues the following patterns emerge:

1. Father and son--talking about Bazarov;

2. Bazarov and Arkadij--talking about Pavel Kirsanov;

3. Arkadij, Pavel, and Nikolaj Kirsanow-— talking

about Bazarov;

-69..

4. Bazarov and the Kirsanovs-- talking about nihilism,
indirectly about Bazarov;
5. Bazarov and Arkadij--talking about Pavel Kirsanov.

In between short conversations by different people,
always about a person not included in the conversation at
hand, come forth. This someone is often the hero. Similar
patterns are repeated in the work. When Arkadij and Bazarov
go to a small town, they first talk about Odinzova, then
meet her at the governor's ball. Later, they talk again
about her and subsequently visit her at the country estate.
Here a series of conversations takes place with the participants
in the conversation groups continually changing. More
conversations follow when they leave the estate. A similar
chain of dialogues repeats itself when Bazarov arrives home.
The continual regrouping, with everyone talking about every-
one else, gives the author the opportunity to expose all the
characters to each other--and in the process to the reader.
In their conversations the participants divulge not only
their own feelings about the other characters but they
comment continually on their feelings about the world around
them. A major part of this world concerns Bazarov and his
position in the world.

In this fashion, proceeding from dialogue to dialogue,
we develop a picture of the location, the milieu and the
characters themselves without any extensive assistance from

the narrator whose primary function is to lead us from one

-70-

dialogue to the next. The setting is usually the country
estate and many of the conversations occur during the meal,
a casual gathering or festive occasions. Invariably, the
groups will split up and regroup after the main conversation
and continue to discuss, including people who had been
present earlier.

Another dimension of Turgenev's dialogues, retrospect
and epic prediction, should be mentioned. Characters bring
us up to date with information that is needed to understand
the present and give us information that will influence the
future or at least prepare the reader for the things to
come; These structural devices help to bring the different
parts together and cause each individual dialogue to become
part of the whole. While this is a help to the reader, the
many facets of the dialogue make it necessary for him to pay
close attention so to recognize all intricate, inner relation-
ships.

Turgenev's fascination for dialogue is very much evident in
Fontane's novels as well. The above discussion of the
portrait of van der Straaten already pointed to nuance of
speech as emphasized by Fontane. Herman Meyer stresses this
fact:

Diese Menschen sind fast ausnahmslos sprachbewusst,

sie horchen auf den Ausdruckswert ihrer werte und

kommentieren dessen Nuancen in Nebensﬂtzen und

Parathesen, die sich auf die Richtigkeit, aber mehr

noch auf den Stilwert, die kulturelle Atmosphare des

Wortes und besonders auch auf ihre eigene Sgbjektive
Einstellung zu bestimmten Worten beziehen.

-71-

This preoccupation with the right word can be seen well in

Der Stechlin, where the different characters continually

 

talk about words and question if they used the right word
under the circumstances. When at one point Woldemar is
asked by Melusine how she and her sister appeal to him, he
replied: "Unendlich nett," whereupon she answered: "Nett?
Verzeihen Sie, Stechlin, nett ist kein Wort. Wenigstens
kein nettes Wort. Oder wenigstens ungenﬁgend" (F. XIII,
116). The reader notices that in the very act of question-
ing the validity of Woldemar's word she questions her own
word. When she at first considers "Nett" to be not a nice
word, she thought about that and decided that this was not
quite the right way to put it and changed it to "ungenﬁgend,"
it is simply not up to par. With this change she indicates
that she is not only aware and critical of the words of
others, but she is critical of her own words as well. A few
pages later the princess claimed that "alle Hilfe fliesst

aus dem.Wort, only to continue later, "aber das richtige
wert wird nicht ﬁberall gesprochen" (F. XIII, 340). Her
concern is also about the word, and, to be exact, it is

about the right word. Many more instances, in which Fontane's

characters are concerned with language, are found in Der Stechlin.

 

These instances give ample testimony not only that the
characters were concerned with their language but that the

author was also concerned about it.

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Even though many differences can be found in the manner in
which the two authors approach the dialogue, one can readily
discern similarities between thema Mary Enole Gilbert
considers briefly a similarity in the dialogue and sees
Turgenev's influence on Fontane's dialogue in two areas.
Firstly, she sees Turgenev's influence on Fontane in his
turning more and more to the dialogue as a means of char-
acter portrayal and development, and, secondly, in giving
Fontane's dialogue that "easy grace" for which Fontane's
dialogue is best known, as opposed to his early cumbersome
and almost non existent dialogues.86
Although we agree with Gilbert's assessment, we believe that
it is not extensive and needs to be elaborated on. That
Fontane's dialogues in earlier novels were cumbersome and
almost non existent has been pointed out. His later works,
however, are known for their dialogues and it is necessary
to investigate what Fontane saw in Turgenev's dialogues that
helped him improve his dialogues.

We want to consider a dialogue found in the beginning

of one of Fontane's later works, Der Stechlin. Just before

 

the start of the conversation Woldemar von Stechlin and his
two friends have been welcomed by Dubslav von Stechlin at

the Stechlin castle. The friends were introduced as Assessor
von Rex and Hauptmann von Czako. While the two are upstairs
to get ready for dinner, Woldemar von Stechlin is talking
with his father; their conversation is introduced by the

narrator :

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WHhrend Rex und Czako Toilette machten und abwechselnd
ﬁber den jungen und den alten Stechlin verhandelten,
schritten die, die den Gegenstand dieser Unterhaltung
bildeten, Vater und Sohn, im Garten auf und ab und
hatten auch ihrerseits ihr Gesprach. "Ich bin dir
dankbar, dass du mir deine Freunde mitgebracht hast.
Sind sie denn ausgiebig und plauderhaft?" "O sehr,
Papa, vielleicht zu sehr. Wenigstens der eine." "Das
ist gewiss der Czako. Sonderbar, die von Alexander
reden alle gern. Aber ich bin sehr dafﬁr; Schweigen
kleid't nicht jeden. Und dann sollen wir uns ja auch
durch die Sprache vom Tier unterscheiden. Also wer am
meisten red't, ist der reinste Mensch. Und diesem Czako,
dem.hab ich es gleich angesehen. Aber der Rex. Du sagst
Ministerialassessor. Ist er denn von der frommen Familie?"
"Nein, Papa, du machst dieselbe Verwechslung, die beinah
alle machen. Die fromme Familie, das sind die Reckes,
grﬁflich und sehr vornehm. Die Rex natﬁrlich auch, aber
doch nicht so hoch hinaus und auch nicht so fromm.
Allerdings nimmt mein Freund, der Ministerialassessor,
einen Anlauf dazu, die Reckes womﬁglich einzuholen.
Dann habe ich also doch recht. . .
Und muss man ihn denn vorsichtig anfassen, wenn das
Gesprﬁch auf kirchliche Dinge kommt? .
Wie steht es denn da mit ihm? Muss ich mich in acht
nehmen?
Oder macht er bloss so mit?
Das will ich nicht gerade behaupten. Ich denke mir,
er steht so wie die meisten stehen; das heisst, er
weiss es nicht recht.
Ja, ja, den Zustand kenne ich.
Und weil er es nicht recht weiss, hat er sozusagen die
Auswahl und wﬁhlt das, was gerade gilt und nach oben hin
empfiehlt. Ich kann das auch so schlimm nicht finden
(F. XIII, 23-24).

We have noticed that in the middle period Fontane
shunned this kind of introduction but came back to it later
on. This introduction is interesting because it points
early to one aspect of Fontane's dialogue we have established
in Turgenev's dialogue. Although the dialogues, as their
‘main purpose, have the expansion of the portrait of the main
character, all characters converse about all other characters.

While Dubslav von Stechlin speaks with his son Woldemar

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about the two guests, they speak about the two Stechlins.

Just as we have found in Turgenev's works, in Fontane's
works the narrator now fades out of the picture once he
completed the introduction and he only ventures forward from
time to time with comments such as: "sagte er" or "erwiederte
er."87 Otherwise, the conversation moves forward of its own
volition.

When we turn our attention to the dialogue itself we observe
its many levels. From the very beginning the conversation
turns to discussing the men who have just been introduced to
the Stechlin circle. As soon as a few comments have been
made, the speaker, Dubslav von Stechlin, changes the conver-
sation and is prompted to speak about himself, giving the
reader new information. After a few sentences about himself
the conversation again returns to the guests and deals with
one in particular. But this change is only to offer Dubslav
von Stechlin another opportunity to digress and talk about
the importance of conversation and to state his own views on
the subject: "Wir unterscheiden uns ja auch durch die
Sprache vom Tier. Und wer am meisten redet, ist der reinste
Mensch" (F. XIII, 23).

Although the dialogue deals with the new guests, we
realize that Dubslav von Stechlin tells us more about
himself than about his guests. This is somewhat typical of
all Fontane's dialogues in his later works. The characters

speak of other things but in their conversations they reveal

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more about themselves than about the subject at hand. They
do this through the words they utter but more often by the
way they act while speaking and the manner in which they
react to what is said by others. This caused Fritz Martini
to write that; "Im Geserch ist bei Fontane meist weniger
der mitgeteilte Inhalt als der sprechende Mensch, seine
verdeckte Charakterisierung mit allen Untertﬁnen, darin die
Psychologie seines Standortes, seiner gesellschaftlichen und
zeitlichen Zugehﬁrigkeit und deren Beleuchtung und Relativierung
durch die Gegenposition des Partners das eigentliche Thema."88
Just as it was the case in Turgenev's dialogue so it is also
here. These different influences make the dialogue complex
and demand of the reader a certain sophistication to recognize
and sort out all the different indicators given by the
author. This process is made even more difficult for the
reader when we realize, with Jost Schillemeit, that even
more is involved in each dialogue:
Alles hat wie von selbst zweierlei Sinn: einen, der
innerhalb des Stromes der Ereignisse seine Gﬁltigkeit
hat, und einen anderen, der uns, den Lesern gilt und
uns aufhorchen lasst. Besonders trifft dies natﬁrlich
auf die Dialoge zu. Nie geht hier der Sinn des
Gesprochenen ganz im gegenwartigen Augenblick auf, immer
entnehmen wir aus ihm etwas, was das Ganze der Geschichte,
Zukﬁnftiges oder Vergangenes betrifft. Auch dies ist
natﬁrlich, dass am Schluss der rﬁckwﬁrts gerichtete, im
Laufe der Erthlung aber und vor alle? am Anfang der
voerrts gerichtete Blick vorherrscht.‘9
We have seen that the characters give us information about

themselves, about those around them, and the world they live

in. According to the above quote they are also pressed into

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service to help out the narrator and supply the reader with
information that will help to make the work a cohesive
whole. In this way the dialogues are not standing alone but
tie in with the past as "Rﬁckblick" and the future as "epic
prediction." This helps the reader to get a complete pic-
ture of all the forces that come into play and also give him
an inkling as to what the future might hold. The reader is
always informed and often knows more than the characters and
most of that information he has gleaned from the dialogues.
This wealth of information in the dialogues, gave to the two
authors the possibility of accomplishing the goals they had
set themselves when writing their novels. Turgenev demanded
that his novels portray a slice of life; Fontane wanted the
same when he stated that the novel should be "ein Bild
seiner Zeit." Walter Killy claimed that only in the dialogue
could they achieve their goals, for no other tool at their
disposal had the ability to do so as completely as the
dialogue could.90

Since the two authors portrayed life as they saw it in
their particular environment, we realize that life portrayal
had to be different. Turgenev portrayed life as he experi-
enced it at the country estate. Here his characters met and
conversed about their problems and their ideas. Fontane's
characters met in the homes of Berlin's bourgeoisie and the
lower aristocracy native to that area. They, too, were

concerned with the problems indigenous to their lives. But

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both authors had this in common: they arranged to have
their people get together at dinners, at parties, other
festive occasions or casual gatherings. In this respect
their method is alike.

We have come across several aspects of the dialogue in
which the methods of the two authors are similar. Despite
of the overwhelming evidence of Turgenev's influence on
Fontane we still wonder if the extent of that influence
holds true. There is another aspect of the dialogue that
will help us to be completely convinced. In Turgenev's
works the dialogues were not only molded together by retro-
spect and epic prediction, but by the fact that dialogues
were part of a series of other dialogues. A group of people
at a dinner or a party starts the major dialogue and then
breaks up. When the group breaks up, smaller groups are
formed, which in turn converse and their dialogues, when
added to the major dialogue of the whole group, forms the
series of dialogues. This grouping of dialogues is a marked
aspect of Fontane's style as well. The one cited above is an
example of dialogues in series, for it is only one of a
series of dialogues that go hand in hand. The narrator in
the introduction has made us aware of the dialogue that
simultaneously is taking place between Hauptmann von Czako
and Assessor von Rex. Indirectly, Dubslav von Stechlin
refers to another conversation that is to follow when he
mentions that during the dinner he will seat Assessor von

Rex next to Lorensen, the pastor of the area.

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An information learned in this dialogue has given one
of the participants a new insight that will influence his
decision in the future. After Dubslav von Stechlin learns
about von Rex's background he decides to seat him next to
Lorenzen. Not only does this incident show that one conver-
sation will influence other subsequent conversations, but
this action of seating likeminded people together to facilitate
conversation between them shows that conversations are of
utmost importance to these dinners, and one might even say,
that these functions only exist to bring together people for
the sake of conversation. As these conversations progress
we realize that each one will provide the reader with new
insight and at the same time serve to propel the action
forward, which makes it possible that most, or all of the
action, occurs in the dialogue. Ingrid Mittenzwei observes
that because of such dialogues it is possible to bring the
world to these dinners and other occasions. By means of the
dialogue we experience the world around these characters
without leaving the table of their homes, for the conver-
sation takes us on a trip while the people stay.91

As we ponder on the discussions around this table at
Stechlin's dinner, we realize that there are two groups
involved in conversations simultaneously. To be sure, the
conversations weave in and out between these groups, but on
the whole they stay within each small entity. The narrator

has the responsibility to bring these two groups and their

-79-

conversation together which he does deftly with such comments;
"Sehr, sehr anders ging das Gesprﬂch an der entgegengesetzten
Seite der Tafel" (F. XIII, 29). Shortly after the dinner,
these groups from the dinner table are further divided and
four small groups, each consisting of two people, now go to
diverse places and continue in their conversations. We know
without listening that while they will talk about various
subjects they, nevertheless, will talk about themselves, and
in the process will tell us about the main character and
about the world around them. Since all speak simultaneously
the narrator again is at hand to bridge the gap and connect
everything with his comments.

Another such dinner was described by Conrad Wandrey.

He took as an example the dinner from L'Adultera in the home

 

of the van der Straaten's. In his discussion he stressed

that these recurring conversations seem to repeat what has

been said before, but they serve to create in the reader's

mind a picture that is more rounded out and becomes more and
more alive as the reader gets the different view of the people
discussing. When we have earlier stated that the two authors
created with their descriptions by the narrator small portraits
of the minor characters, then we can state here that by pro-
viding the reader with the various details as they are supplied
in the different conversations by all figures of the work

they are, in fact, creating in the reader's mind extensive

portraits of their main characters. In their endeavor to

-30-

give the reader as complete a picture as is possible, both
authors go to great length and supply the reader with
endless variations of similar themes. This becomes evident
when we go back to the series of dialogues. After the
dinner conversations the two guests Rex and Czako go to
their rooms where they once more exchange thoughts about the
evening, the people, and the events. It is as if the author
wanted to close a circle he had started with the first
dialogue. Only a few lines later it is morning and we find
weldenmar von Stechlin in a conversation with his father.
They are joined shortly by the two friends, but not before
weldemar has told his father that he is serious about a
young lady, thereby opening new avenues.

If we quickly recapitulate the different groups involved
in these series of dialogues, we get the following pattern:
1. Rex and Czako-~talking about the Stechlins;

2. weldemar and Dubslav von Stechlin-~talking

simultaneously about the two friends;

3. Dubslav, Herr and Frau Gundermann, Czako-~talking
at dinner;
4. Rex, Woldemar, Lorenzen and Kanzler - talking at

dinner at the same time;
5. Four groups after dinner; Rex and Kanzler; weldemar
and Gundermann; Lorenzen and Frau Gundermann,

Dubslav and Czako;

-31-

6. Czako and Rex--talking in their bedroom about the
Stechlins and the evening;
7. weldemar and Dubslav--in the morning before breakfast
8. Woldemar, Dubslav, Rex and Czako.
These different dialogues take about fifty pages, not
counting the conversations Woldemar and his two friends
had on their way to the Stechlin castle. The other 350 pages
could be investigated and we would continue to add one series
of dialogues to the other until we come to the end of the
work. We have established that dialogue rules supreme
in Fontane's later works and we have seen this to be true
in Turgenev's works as well.
There is one more aspect of Fontane's dialogue which can be
considered unique: the conversation is usually ambivalent
and relative. Fritz Martini discussed this aspect in his
discussion of Fontane's literary style:

Das Gesprach legt nicht fest zur endgﬁltigen Wahrheit.
Es lﬁsst vieimehr den Wechsel von Augenblick zu
Augenblick, eine Mischung von Skepsis und Ironie
einerseits, von persﬁnlicher Anteilnahme zu, die dennoch
im folgenden Moment sich schon wieder zu relativieren
oder selbst zu widersprechen vermag. Im.Gespr§ch
spiegelt und relativiert sich das individuelle Verhaltnis
zur Zeit, zur Welt ﬁberhaupt. Im Gesprﬂch taucht eine
Wahrheit auf, aber sie wird in der Rede des Partners
gleich wieder eingeschrﬁnkt, aufgehoben, korrigiert, so
dass sie stets in der Gesprﬂchsbewegung bleibt, nur in
ihren individuellen Brechungen erscheint, die ihr bei
Fontane eigentﬁmliche Offenheit zum.Mehrdeutigen behﬁlt.
Denn darin liegt die Grundstruktur des Fontaneschen
Dialogs, die ihn zum.spezifischen Mittel des Zeitromans
‘macht: das Gesprﬁch vermittelt Doppelperspektiven, die
das vieldeutige der Dinge, der Zeitzustﬁnde und des
Lebens aufscheinen lassen und derart einprﬁgen, dass

es etwas absolut Richtiges nicht gibt. Das Gesprﬁch

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lﬁsst die relativierende Distanz des "jeu d'esprit"

bewahren. Es bezeugt auch eine Art von Spielfreiheit

des Ich mit und ﬁber dem determinierten Leben. Es
gibt, was immer besprochen wird, in einer bereits
reflektierten und subjektivierten Spiegelung wieder,

in der der Mensch im Grggde mehr ﬁber sich als ﬁber

den Gegenstand aussagt.

We have mentioned that Fontane's characters oscilate
and that they do not hold to any particular conviction at any
given time. The reason for this lies in his dialogue, which
is made up of point and counterpoint. When the elder
Stechlin asks his son if Rex is of that particular religious
family, his son answers him no. He does not leave it with
that "no" but he goes on to say that Rex is religious and in
some ways tries to outdo even one particularly religious
family, whereupon the father replies that he was right in
his judgment anyway, and that he got that impression because
of Rex's physical appearance (F. XIII, 23).

This back and forth, together with the use of the
present tense, gives Fontane's dialogue a dramatic quality.
we become involved in it and often want to participate as
the different points of view evolve. At the same time this
dramatic quality of the dialogue is reduced by the synthesis
which is a step forward, yet is softened because it retracts
some of the things said. A result of this retraction is a
certain wavering, an unsureness on the part of the reader.
One sometimes is not sure whether a character is or is not

of this or that persuasion. This feeling is reflected in

Woldemar's later statement about Rex's religious attitude:

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"Ich denke mir, er steht so wie die meisten stehen, das
heisst, er weiss es nicht recht." His father is quick to
reply: "Ja, ja, den Zustand kenne ich." In the son's
answer lies a clue to the purpose of this kind of dialogue.
"Und weil er es nicht recht weiss, hat er sozusagen die
Auswahl, und wﬁhlt das, was gerade gilt (F. XIII, 24). As
Fritz Martini expressed in the above quote, this is often
the case with the reader. This ambivalence is to indicate
there is not anything that is absolutely true. There is
always a "but" or a "however" for Fontane, and he would say
with Dubslav von Stechlin, in whose portrayal we recognize
Fontane's loving attention, "etwas ganz Richtiges gibt es
nicht" (F. XIII, 315). Because of this attitude Fontane's
characters resign themselves to their fate, for if they were
to do something else they would not be completely right
either. Botho von Rienaker speaks for all of them when he
states that "Resignation-Ergebung ist das Best." (F. IV,
88). As Martini indicates, this stance gives the author a
certain amount of freedom, for he maintains a certain dis-
tance and almost an aura of uninvolvement. For this pre-
dilection he was often taken to task by the critics and he
often saw himself as sitting on the fence, looking on. This
manner of dialogue expresses Fontane's philosophy; it also
indicates that Fontane developed his own style, capitalizing

on good points he saw in Turgenev.

CHAPTER IV
POLARITY OF CHARACTERS

In her discussion of Fontane's dialogue Gilbert made several
remarks on similarities between characters in Fontane's and
Turgenev's works. As the most striking of these similarities
she mentioned the inability of the hero to live life fully,
which seems to be a direct result of his inner conflicts.
She also saw similarities in the female characters whom she
considered passive and languid. She saw these similarities

especially in Fontane's Elternklipp, Cecile, and Stine. A

 

comment in the manuscript of Cecile later left out of the
finished work showed that Fontane himself was aware of some
of these similarities: "Sie sind wie die Turgenjevschen
Frauen."94 These similarities in the treatment of the
characters in the works of the two authors are observable.
Although Gilbert recognized these similarities she has
missed the mark as far as the description of the female
characters goes when she calls them passive and languid, for
we shall see that most of the time it is the female that
will be the strong character, with the will and strength to
make up her mind and act upon her convictions, which the men
very seldom do. This, then, gives us a definite polarity in
which we can observe the hero who is tormented with con-
flicts; and because of these conflicts the hero is unable to
act, while on the other end of the pole we have the female
counterpart who is usually strong and decisive.

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-85-

In studying Fontane's theoretical writings we do not find
any conscious theory as to why this polarity in his works
exists. In Turgenev's theoretical writings, on the other
hand, we observe that he has developed a theory about this
phenomenon. He refers to this polarity as the "Hamlet and
Don Quixote” syndrome and expounded on this in length in a
lecture given to the Society for the Support of Needy
writers on January 22, 1860. The title of the lecture was
appropriately called "Hamlet and Don Quixote." E. Reisner
indicated in his discussion of that lecture that Turgenev
must have considered these ideas very important for he
worked on this twenty page lecture for over three years and
then delivered it himself. These two figures, Hamlet and
Don Quixote, represent in TUrgenev's thinking two types that
are diametrically opposed to each other.95 In this polarity
Don Quixote is seen as the stronger figure for he represents
the person with singleness of mind and purpose, one that has
a goal that lies outside of himself. He is involved in
fighting for human principles and for humanity as such. In
this Don Quixote type we find the later revolutionary who
wants to change society for the sake of the masses. The
important aspect of this type is that he is not divided in
his purpose but is without any inner conflict, and, as a
result of that inner equilibrium, can act.

While Don Quixote is a figure with singleness of purpose who

is void of any and all doubt, Hamlet is just the opposite.

-86-

Turgenev sees him as the thinker; the intellectual. De
Vogue wrote that "the hero of Turgenev's novels is not the
brilliantly uniformed officer, nor an artist, nor a magni-
ficent and noble land owner, but nearly always the middle-
class Hamlet, honourable, cultivated and of well balanced
intellect, but of feeble will."96 But why does Hamlet have
this feeble will? Turgenev himself explained that in his
defense of the Hamlet type.
Let us not be too hard on Hamlet. He suffers and his
suffering is more sickly and poisonous than Don
Quixote's suffering. Rough shepherds and criminals
freed by the latter hit him. Hamlet wounds himself.
gﬁaiggiga37a sword- the double- edged sword of
The great irony here is that the very object that makes the
Hamlet figure so appealing to his contemporaries, i.e., his
intellect, should cause his downfall in the end. He thinks
about the world and his place in it and because he discovers
many inconsistencies and the weaknesses of mankind and of
himself, he is a skeptic, lost in thought and full of irony.
To the masses he is useless, because he is not going anywhere
and therefore he can not lead them anywhere. As an intellec-
tual he is an aristocrat and as such looks down on the
masses which are beloved by his counterpart, Don Quixote.98
With all his other faults or because of them, however, the
most tragic aspect of his character is that he is incapable
of love. Ralph Matlaw pointed to a few lines spoken by Steno

in a soliloquy in Turgenev's works by the same title which

could serve as a good description of the Hamlet type:

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I feel involuntary contempt for everything. Not

because I am better than others. No. No! I am

worse than they. Some demon drew forth my soul

and left me pitiful intellect.
A study of Turgenev's attitude concerning these two types
shows that his sympathy is with the Don Quixote Type, but at
the same time, he defends the Hamlet type. At one point he
says that the end of progress for mankind was at hand should
the Don Quixote type die out, and there would be nothing for
the Hamlets to brood about anymore.100 We ask ourselves why
then does Turgenev defend his Hamlet type? Many critics
have asked the same question and came to the conclusion that
he saw himself as one of this type and he himself was contin-
ually yearning to achieve that oneness and completeness he
saw in the Don Quixote type. An interesting sideline to the
discussion on Hamlet is that Turgenev considered Hamlet as
the forerunner of Goethe's "Geist, der stets verneint," a
phrase that identifies Mephisto in Goethe's "Faust."101
Reissner maintains that Goethe's influence in the develop-
ment of Turgenev's Hamlet idea can be felt throughout.
Goethe's discussion of the Hamlet figure was available in
Russian since 1827.102
To consider these two types in one of the works we will look
at Bazarov and Odincova. Bazarov was chosen for he does not
seem to fit the pattern described for the Hamlet type; he

appears to be a person who knows what he is doing and

exactly where he is going. Bazarov, however, fits the mold

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of Turgenev's middle class intellectual hero figure who was
taken out of his own environment in the city and put into
new surroundings in the country. Here he impresses with his
intelligence and attracts the attention of Odincova. As
Bazarov's ideas unfold it becomes apparent that he looks
down on the masses, even though he claims to understand and
even love them. At the same time one must realize that
Bazarov has scorn for just about everyone and almost every-
thing. He gets everyone around him excited with his ideas
and causes much consternation. While his duel with Pavel
Kirsanov is caused by other conflicts we can be certain that
one of the real reasons is the disagreements between the two
men over Bazarov's ideas. But what becomes of these high
ideas that Basarov defends and espouses? Nothing. Like so
many other of the superfluous men in Turgenev's works he
dies as a result of a minor mistake, having achieved nothing
and fully realizing that his life was wasted.

To watch a person of great promise fade away without ever
seeing it come to fruition is a sad experience. But this
difficulty is compounded by the hero's other shortcoming--
the one he shares with other Turgenev heroes, an inability
to love completely. In Bazarov's case this inability means
that he does not understand love intellectually.103 Through-
out the work Bazarov derides the very idea of romantic love
and deep personal involvement. Even when Bazarov confesses

his love for Odincova, he does it in a peculiar way, and his

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confession is put into question as a declaration of true
love:

Die Odinzowa streckte beide HHnde aus wﬁhrend Basarov
seine Stirne an die Scheibe presste. Es nahm ihm den
Atem: sein ganzer Kﬁrper zitterte sichtbar. Doch es
war nicht ein Zittern jugendlicher Schﬁchternheit,
nicht der Schrecken eines ersten Gestﬂndnisses hatte
ihn ergriffen: die Leidenschaft tobte in ihm - eine
starke und schwere Leidenschaft, dem Zorn thlich und

diesem vielleicht verwandt. . . . Der Odinzowa wurde
es unheimlich zumute und zugleich tat er ihr leid.
(T. II, 395).

What he declares as love is a passion which is akin to
anger. So great was his outburst of passion and anger that
it made her afraid.
The earliest discussion between Bazarov and the Odincova is
even more revealing than Bazarov's actual confession. In
this discussion they converse about the idea of giving
oneself completely and without reservation in love. She
asked him whether he thought it easy to give oneself completely
and without any reservation, to which he answers:

Es ist nicht leicht, wenn man anfﬁngt zu

ﬁberlegen, zu zaudern und sich selber einen

hohen Wert beizumessen, das heisst, viel von

sich zu halten; ohne Uberlegung ist es jedoch

leicht, sich hinzugeben (T. II, 390-391).
Here Bazarov is convicted by his own words, for all the
evidence indicates that he will be incapable of doing any-
thing without reflecting first on all its aspects. Odincova,

on the other hand, can be characterized by just one short

paragraph. For her love can be only total and irrevocable:

-90-

Meiner Meinung entweder alles oder nichts.

Ein Leben gegen das andere. Hast du meins

genommen gib auch deines her, und dann ohne

Bedauern und unwiderruflich. Sonst ﬁber-

haupt nicht (T. II, 391).
She has been portrayed as a woman who knows her mind, as one
who has chosen her way of life but is seeking to perfect it.
It is evident that she is in love with Bazarov, but that she
has her feelings under control. She is willing to give
herself completely but expects the partner to do the same.
Recognizing that Bazarov is unable and unwilling to do so
she rejects him. We detect in her attitude a certain
resignation so prevalent in Turgenev's works. This resig-
nation became the trademark in Fontane's later works.
In this interplay between man and woman it is usually the
woman who takes the initiative, it is she who has been given
the will to act. The male heroes merely react and in their
reactions show their inadequacy. Thus, Odincova first
invites Bazarov and his friend to visit her and in the
course of this visit she then invites Bazarov up to her
room. Here she initiates the discussion about love and
Bazarov proves to be incapable of complying with her stan-
dards. Finally, the hero is rejected and leaves. This
pattern with minor variations, is repeated in most of

Turgenev's works.

In Irrungen Wirrungen, Fontane's Botho von Rieanker's

 

behavior in succumbing to family pressure to marry a wealthy

-91-

woman of his own background could apply to most of Turgenev's
heroes as well. Botho would rather have married Lene
Nimptsch, the girl he loved, but she was from common back-
ground and poor. In his attempt to rationalize he expressed
the following: "Es liegt nicht in mir die Welt herauszu-
fordern und Ihren Vorurteilen Bffentlich den Krieg zu
erleren: ich bin durchaus gegen solche Donquichotterien."
(F. IX, 93). Here Fontane used the image of Don Quixote as
a man's fight against the world. If Botho could not be like
Don Quixote whom could he be like?

Although we find similar traits in Fontane's males as in
Turgenev's Hamlets, Fontane does not have any conscious
theory about the polarity of his characters. Although he
does not use the term "Hamlet," he uses a derogatory term
"Halber" for his characters that fit the Hamlet type which,
as Steno claimed, has no soul but is only intellect. One of

these occasions is in the novel Unwiederbringlich after the

 

hero Holk made a comment to Ebba Rosenberg. She scolded him
severely and called him "ein Halber" (F. X, 232). Through-

out the work he is frequently called "schwach" and "schwankend,"
words that Fontane reserved strictly for his male heroes.

This term "ein Halber" is used again in Effi Briest, and

 

here it's use is explained to some degree. Sidonie von
Grasenabb commented to her neighbor concerning Pastor
Lindequist: "er ist ein Halber, einer von denen, die

verworfen sind, weil sie lau sind" (F. XII, 119). Referring

-92-

to the biblical saying from Revelation chapter 9, verses 15-
16, she indicated that he is rejected because he is not
fully committed, he is neither completely one thing nor
another.

Another look at Botho's statement reveals something that is
basic to Fontane's outlook that is different from Turgenev.
The heroes of both authors are tried and fail in the crucial
relationships between man and woman. This failure rests in
their inability to act and take the consequences. But in
the case of Fontane's heroes we always have the added
dimension that is present in the form of pressure exerted on
him by society. Society plays some part in the decision
Turgenev's heroes make. His heroes are not influenced by
society to such an extent as Fontane's heroes are. In
Fontane's works society reigns supreme and the heroes can
not stand up to the pressure which comes as a result of this
supremacy. The conflict arises often out of the difference
of social levels of the men and women, with the men being of
the aristocracy and the women of the lower classes. In
TUrgenev's works this relationship seems to be the reverse,
the man is usually from the lower class and the woman from
the upper class.

These examples of polarity display an important difference
in the works of the two authors. In both Fontane and Turgenev
the polarity of weak ineffective men unable to act and

strong women with the will to act prevails but this polarity

-93-

in Fontane is always joined by a third party-~the pressure
of society. Rosemary Park also finds that "unlike the male
characters Fontane's women do not live consciously between
two sets of social ideas. Whether it be Melanie van der
Straaten or Mathilde Moering all his women decide and
act."104 This means that Fontane has borrowed something
from Turgenev but he has added his own touch to make it his
own style.

This aspect of Fontane's polarity will be discussed when we
discuss the polarity between Botho von Rienﬁcker and Lene

Nimptsche in his Irrungen Wirrungen. When Botho is put to

 

the test and a decision has to be made he reminds us much of
Turgenev's characters inasmuch as Botho starts to think
about his predicament and rationalizes about his intentions
and responsibilities. When he finally reaches a decision we
realize that he has not decided to act but rather accepts
the decision made for him by his family and the society as a
whole. Although he rationalizes a great deal, we realize
that he accepted the inevitable without a great struggle.
Botho, a gentleman from an impoverished aristocratic family,
fell in love with Lene Nimptsch, the daughter of an old
widow who makes her living as a wash woman. Attracted to
Lene by her natural charm, Botho at times toys with the idea
that he might be able to marry her. But he realizes that if
he were to marry her he would lose all that he has: his

honour, his family, his title, and the society he lives in.

-94-

To understand his difficulty we need to consider the choice
he is making. We have already mentioned that Lene is a
natural, charming, and intelligent young woman. Repre-
senting the other side is Kathe von Sellenthin. She does not
seem to be a real human being but more of a foil to show off
the empty, superficial life of the aristocracy and contrast
it to the atmosphere around Lene. We realize that in the
portrayal of Kathe we find Fontane's ideas about the decline
of the aristocracy as a whole. Again and again, the reader
is told that she is frivolous and incapable of uttering a
logical sentence. Botho is often upset with her and one of
her friends finds that: "She is rather a little silly" (F.
IX, 121). Botho also thinks that with Kathe one might have
a reasonable conversation but never a serious one (F. IX,
108). She is the master of light conversation and can talk
for hours without saying anything (F. IX, 117). If we
recall the importance Fontane places on conversation we
realize the seriousness of this condemnation of Kathe
through her future husband, Botho.

And after Botho receives the letter from his mother in which
she informs him that the family fortune is depleted and that
he has to make a decision, for the young lady to whom he had
been promised will not wait much longer, he goes for a ride
to think things over:

wer bin ich? Durchschnittsmensch aus der
sogenannten Oberschicht der Gesellschaft.

-95-

Und was kann ich? Ich kann ein Pferd stall-

meistern, einen Kapaun tranchieren und ein Jeu

machen. Das ist alles, und so hab ich denn die

Wahl zwischen Kunstreiter, Oberkellner und Groupier.

Hﬁchstens kommt noch der Troupier hinzu, wenn ich

in eine Fremdenlegion eintreten will. Und Lene

dann mit mir als Tochter des Regiments. Ich sehe

sie schon in kurzem Rock und Hackenstiefeln und

ein Tﬁnnchen auf dem Rﬁcken" (F. IX, 92).
In Botho's deliberation it is evident that he considers
marriage to Lene, for only in such a case he would have to
find a different employment, and only in such a case she
would be with him in the foreign legion as the daughter of
the regiment. But in the next paragraph he answers his own
question if he wants to marry Lene with a resounding "No."
He says that he does not want to marry her, that he has not
promised to marry her, and that she does not expect him to
marry her. As we have mentioned, Botho is honest enough to
realize that he is not strong enough to challenge the whole
world. At one point in his deliberation he confesses that
"das Herkommen unser Tun bestimmt. Wer ihm gehorcht, kann
zugrunde gehen, aber er geht besser zugrunde als der, der
ihm widerspricht" (F. IX, 94). Just how strong this
"Herkommen" is can be seen in his claim that it is stronger
than reason, and stronger even than the laws of the land.
When we finally come to the end of his rationalization we
realize that he has accepted the decision forced upon him.
While he makes a big pretense of thinking about his decision

we know that he knew much earlier that this decision would

be his final action. When Lene told him.that he would leave

-95-

her, he reassures her that he will not leave her while at
the same time he realizes that he will not go against the
wishes of society. Early in the work, he says: "Arme Lene,
was 8011 werden?" (F. IX, 38). This statement is an
indication of his intention to give up Lene and to succumb
to the demands of society. Later he reaffirms his belief
that the laws of society are supreme, in a discussion with
one of his friends, who had come to him for advice. His
friend was in a similar situation and wanted to know from
Botho what he should do. Botho advised him to relinquish,
and live within the bounds prescribed by society.

How different from Botho is Lene! She knows her place and
is willing to accept it. To be with the man she loves she
gives herself fully without any regards for consequences,
almost with an attitude of condemning society. She does not
think of tomorrow, for she knows what it will bring; someday
Botho will have to leave her. Fontane stresses this several
times. In her discussion with Frau DBrr, for instance, she
indicates that she has no illusions and that she does not
want anything from him but the little happiness she receives
in the time she is allowed to spend with him (F. IX, 20).
Almost word for word she repeats this to Botho in a later
discussion: "Glaube mir, dass ich dich habe, diese Stunde
habe, das ist mein Glﬁck. Was daraus wird, das kﬁmmert mich
nicht. Eines Tages bist du weggeflogen. . .." (F. IX, 33).

Lene states emphatically that he is weak, as all good

-97-

looking men are weak. The stronger one will force him to do
something he does not want. Who is this stronger one?
Possibly, his mother, the talk of the people or just the
circumstances. Not only does Lene realize that Botho is
weak but also his friends at the club. In a conversation
amongst themselves at the club they agree that he is weak
and that he will not dare to go against the demands of
society.

In the last meeting between the two we once more get a feel-
ing for the strength that radiates from the young woman.
"Ich habe es kommen sehen, von Anfang an, und es geschieht
nur, was muss. Du hast mir kein Unrecht getan, hast mich
nicht auf Irrwege gefﬁhrt und hast mir nichts versprochen.
Alles war mein freier Entschluss" (F. IX, 98). She does

not blame him even though or maybe because she knows that

he is weak, but as she had much earlier indicated it had

to come this way and all are victims of circumstances. He
has to live up to the expectation of society.

In these two characters we recognize Turgenev's own char-
acters. In Lene's words we seem to hear an echo of Odincova
when she speaks about complete commitment. Although
Bazarov was ready to fight the world for his ideas and in
this way was different from Botho, we nevertheless see both
of them fail when the action is demanded. The woman who is
willing to give all for the man she loves and the man who

rationalizes himself out of any real action and in the end

-93-

becomes disappointed. Their stumbling blocks are somewhat
different. Turgenev's heroes lack the will to act because of
excess of introspection. Fontane's heroes also have no will
and are unable to act, but they are simply not willing to
fight the world for the sake of their love but rather give
in. The hero who resembles mostly Turgenev's heroes is
Schach von wuthenow in the novel by the same name, and the
heroine who is most like Turgenev's heroines is Melanie van

der Straaten in L'Adultera. She gives up a comfortable life

 

just to be able to be with the man she loves. Although most
of Fontane's heroines possess this quality, it is most
apparent in Melanie van der Straaten. ‘Melanie's husband is
the weaker character who is simply unable to change his own
behavior so that he can keep his wife.

The list of couples that display this polarity is extensive.
One could mention the polarity of Gordon and Cecile in
Cecile; of Weldemar and Stine in Srine; of Holt and Christine

in Unwiederbringlich; of Baron von Instetten and Effi Briest

 

in Effi Briest, just to mention a few. This list points out

 

that Fontane saw his heroines as stronger characters, for
many of the works are named after leading female characters.
we have mentioned that he had contemplated to name other
works after his heroines.

At this point we should ask ourselves again if this
polarity is the pattern that Fontane followed right from the

start and if he continued it consistently once he started.

-99-

The answer to the first question is a no. In Vor dem Sturm,

 

for instance, this polarity does not come into play at all.
Here the male characters act of their own volition. They
are not weighed down with the problems that we find in the
later heroes. Here we do not find that aspect of the su-
preme rule of society over the characters, as is so preva-
lent in later works. The first real strong use of the

polarity comes in L'Adultera, with the friction between

 

Kommerzienrat van der Straaten and his wife Melanie van der
Straaten. This works falls into the Turgenev period as Mary
Enole Gilbert had outlined it earlier. But from now on
Fontane is consistent with this particular narrative stance
and we can find it in almost all the works. The constella-
tions repeat themselves faithfully with the strong women and
the weak, inaffective men. In his last major work, Der
Stechlin, Fontane had pastor Lorenzen say: "Die Frauen
bestimmen schliesslich doch alles” (F. XIII, 283).

This statement indicates that Fontane held on to this

philosophy to the end.

CHAPTER V
NARRATIVE DEVICES: NATURE AND THE ARTS
Two statements made by Fontane scholars seem to contradict
each other. Heinz Eugen Greter claims that Fontane's

Vor dem.Sturm is different from Fontane's subsequent works

 

in every aspect of narrative technique.105 Conrad Wandrey,
on the other hand, maintains that in this first novel the
basic philosophy and narrative technique can already be
seen, namely "der Mensch in seinem innerlichen reinen So-
sein ist das Wichtige und Entscheidende, dem alle anderen
Faktoren, Milieu, Handlung, historische und gesellschaft-
liche Begrenzheit, ja das Mit-und Gegeneinander der Menschen
untergeordnet ist."106
One could, however, prove either critic wrong or either
critic right. We have shown above that Fontane's narrative
technique in the first novel was definitely different from
that in the following works, but at the same time we agree
with Conrad Wandrey that in this first work Fontane's ideas
were already visible. Conrad Wandrey also claims that,
Es fallt dabei wenig ins Gewicht, was Fontane bei
der Gestaltung des Werkes ﬁber seine Absicht geﬁussert
hat, wichtig und entscheidend ist, was er tatchhlich
gestaltete und dass schon in diesem.Erstling und zum
Teil gegen seinen Willen, ein Grundzug seines Werkes
und seiner Kompositionsweise sichtbar wird.
Wandrey insists that Fontane expressed certain intentions
but instinctively did something else. This seems to point
out that Fontane had already specific ideas which influenced
his writing subconsciously but which up to that time had

not been formulated into a conscious philosopy.

-100-

-101-

But in this kind of development Fontane and Turgenev are
kindred spirits, for Turgenev also went through this kind of

development. In his early works, Zapiski oxotnika we

 

already find some aspects of Turgenev's later narrative
technique and philosophy but we realize that there is quite
a change from the earlier to the later works. This is
especially apparent in the use of nature as a narrative
device. The narrator in Zapsiki goes into a lengthy descrip-
tion of nature at the slightest excuse. Usually, he starts
out the narrative with an extended nature description.
Their major contribution is in supplying a background for
the hunter's story and to show the hunter in the surround-
ings in which he meets the people as the focal point of the
story. Nature does not call forth feelings or reflections
on the part of the hunter nor on the part of the other
characters. Turgenev sees nature not as a temple, as the
romantics have viewed it, but as a divine but malevolent
force. This attitude is best expressed in "Priroda," a
lyric in prose:

All creatures are my children, and I take care

of them in the same way and - destroy them in the

same way. When he stammers out the words good-

ness, reason and justice she replies: These are

men made words. I know neither good nor evil.

Reason is no law for me and what, pray, is

justice? I gave you life and shall take it away

and give if go others- worms or men, it is all

one to me. 0

Although this attitude toward nature has influenced Turgenev's

nature descriptions in Zapiski so that nature usually

-102-

serves as background, once in a while nature was permitted
to serve as part of the narrative. This is especially the

case in the story Xor i Kalinyé where two different geo-

 

graphical areas are described and the descriptions are used
to characterize the people of the regions in general and Xor
and Kalinyﬁ in particular. At the beginning these two
regions are described and then we learn that these two men
are natives of these regions. As we follow the development
of the story we realize that some of the statements con-
cerning the regions apply to the two friends and that
Turgenev has used his nature descriptions to foreshadow

their personalities. In the short story Les i Step we

 

encounter another instance where the description of nature
does not stand isolated by itself but it functions as
calling forth reflections on the part of the observer:

Die feuchte Erde federt unter den Fﬁssen; die hohen
trockenen Grashalme rﬁhren sich nicht; lange Faden
ngnzen auf dem vergilbten Gras. Ruhig atmet die
Brust, doch deine Seele befﬁllt eine merkwﬁrdige
Unruhe. Du gehst am Waldrand entlang, achtest auf
den Hund, und inzwischen entstehen vor dir im.Geiste
liebe Bilder; geliebte Menschen, verstorbene und
lebende fallen dir ein, lﬁngst erloschene Eindrﬁcke
tauchen unerwartet auf; die Einbildung blﬁht und
schweift wie ein Vogel, und alles bewegt sich und
steht so klar vor Augen. Bald zuckt das Herz
plﬁtzlich zusammen, fangt laut zu pochen an und
stﬁrmt leidenschaftlich voraus, bald versinkt es
unwiederbringlich in Erinnerungen (T. I, 361).

This story helps us to understand Turgenev's nature de-
scriptions that are quite consistent throughout Zapiski.

Most of the seven pages of the story are devoted to the

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description of the forest in the different seasons and what
effect it might have on the viewers. But when the narrator
comes to the steppe he only remarks: "Da ist sie endlich-
die grenzenlose, unﬁbersehbare Steppe" (Turg. I, 363). The
reader who expected a more extensive description of the
steppe is disappointed because that is all there is. We
realize by now, as Michael Nierle confirms it, that Turgenev
does not like to describe large open spaces but prefers to
describe a small area in loving detail, as it might be
perceived through the eyes of a hunter.109
To gain more of an insight into Turgenev's method we will
examine a nature description of Svidanie:

Ich sass im Herbst, Mitte September, in einem

Birkenwald. Vom.Morgen an fiel ein feiner Regen,

der zwischendurch von einem.warmen Sonnenschein

unterbrochen wurde; Es war unbestandiges Wetter.

Der Himmel ﬁberzog sich bald ganz mit weissen Wolken,

bald klarte er sich einen Augenblick auf, und dann

lugte zwischen den auseinandergeschobenen Wolken

ein Stﬁckchen blauer Himmel hell und freundlich hervor.

Ich sass da, schaute um mich und lauschte. Kaum

hﬁrbar raschelte das Laub ﬁber mir; allein am Ton

dieses Raschelns konnte man die Jahreszeit feststellen.

Nicht ein Vogel war zu hﬁren: alle waren irgendwo

untergekrochen und verstummt; vereinzelt nur erscholl

wie ein stﬂhlernes Glﬁcklein das spﬁttische Stimmchen

der Meise" (T. I, 242).
Here are details typical to nature descriptions in Zapiski.
The hunter sits and describes a small area he perceives. In
descriptions the appearance of the forest is not important
but different shades of light evident throughout the forest
as the weather changes. Another important aspect are the

different noises the hunter hears or the absence of these

-1o4-

noises. With the hunter we hear the rustling of the leaves
which can tell the hunter which season it is. We hear the
different birds or the absence of their chirping. The end
result of this nature description is that it seems real to
the reader. Moreover, no reflection on part of the narrator,
no epic prediction or any other narrative device is used to
connect nature descriptions to the story itself. They only
serve as a background. They supply the milieu.

Critics agree that in Turgenev's later works nature
descriptions without any specific purpose disappear almost
completely. Michael Nierle sees in the nature descriptions
in Turgenev's novels strictly a device to characterize the
people and also to help to show the "byt"--a mode of life.
TUrgenev, however, still prefers to describe small segments
of the whole and includes in his descriptions shades of
light, noises and smells.110

A scene from Otcy i deti shows best Turgenev's use of

 

nature. We realize some similarities with nature descrip-
tions in Zapiski but, to be sure some differences as well.
The scene is taken shortly after the discussion between the
three Kirsanovs and Bazarov, in which Arkady and Bazarov
espouse their cause of nihilism.

Doch die Poesie abzulehen? dachte er wieder. Die
Kunst, die Natur nicht zu lieben?

Und er blickte um sich als kﬁnnte er nicht verstehen,
wie man die Natur nicht lieben kﬁnnte. Es wurde schon
Abend, die Sonne war hinter dem.kleinen Espeanldchen
verschwunden, das eine halbe Werst vom Garten entfernt
war; sein Schatten dehnte sich endlos ﬁber die reglosen

-105-

Felder. Ein Bauerlein trabte auf einem.weissen Pferd—
chen auf einem dunklen schmalen Weg dicht am waldchen
entlang: er war ganz deutlich zu sehen, samt dem
Flicken auf der Schulter, obgleich er im Schatten ritt;
angenehm deutlich huschten die Fﬁsse des Pferdchens
dahin. Die Sonnenstrahlen hatten sich nun in das
WHldchen gebohrt, drangen durchs Unterholz und ﬁbergossen
die Espenstamme mit einem so warmen Licht, dass sie
Kiefernstammen glichen, wahrend ihr Laub fast blau
wurde, und darﬁber wﬁlbte sich ein blassblauer, vom
Abendschein kaum gerﬁteter Himmel. Die Schwalben
flogen hoch, der Wind war eingeschlafen, verspﬁtete
Bienen summten trﬁge und verschlafen in den Flieder-
zweigen, Mﬁcken tanzten als Saule ﬁber einem verein-
zelten, weitvorgestreckten Astchen. Wie schﬁn, mein
Gott! dachte Nikolaj Petrowitsch, und geliebte Verse
kamen ihm auf die Lippen. . . . (T. II, 351).
The narrator here does not give us a nature description
without any reason, for the narrator is prompted by Nikolaj
Kirsanov's thoughts. Only after Nikolaj Kirsanov asks
himself the question he becomes aware of the nature around
him. What does he see? A small forest in the sunset, a
light shining through the trees. He is aware of the shadow
and of the different colours of the trees. He sees the
swallows and realizes that the wind has gone to sleep and
hears the bees humming lazily. If in earlier works this
description would have been the extent to which the narrator
would have permitted himself to go, here it is just the
beginning, for now the narrator exploits the material for
characterization.
This nature description is used to differentiate between the
two generations. For the older generation not to revere
nature is something unthinkable. In addition it shows the

difference within the two groups, for even though Arkadij

-106-

professes nihilism he likes nature. This isolates Bazarov
and points to the future differences between Bazarov and
Arkadij.

This scene also sets Nikolaj to dreaming about his past, his
courtship with his wife and his life with her. In addition,
the act of dreaming sets him apart from his son Arkadij and
his guest Bazarov because they are "scientists" who negate
Nikolaj's predilection for nature.

Nature description, furthermore, is used as a symbol of
the sunset found in Nikolaj's life. At the end of the page
Nikolaj asks himself why can not those sweet, moments of the
past exist forever? Just as the sun sets and the day
changes into night, so Nikolaj notices changes in his life.
His dreams of conversing with his son as an equal are
shattered. In an earlier discussion with Pavel he referred
to an incident with their mother and indicated that just as
she did not understand him so now he does not understand his
son. It appears the sun has set on their relationship and
in a greater sense on Nikolaj's whole life. This idea is
supported by Nikolaj when he says: "und sie sagen, dass mein
Liedchen gesungen sei. Ja, Bruder, ich fange selber an zu
glauben, dass es tatchhlich gesungen ist (T. 11, 341). On
the next page the two young men decide to leave the estate
to go to visit friends.

This example shows that Turgenev has kept the basic aspect

of his technique in earlier nature descriptions but has

-107-

given them more meaning. They are now an integral part of
the characterization with the ability to comment on char-
acters without the narrator being involved as much in the
characterization as had earlier been the case. In his last
novel Raugh_which took place in Baden-Baden, Germany, nature
coupled with the reflection about the same, even supplies
the title of the work and therefore gives the idea of nature
prime importance.111

As indicated, a change in nature descriptions exists in
the works of both authors. In Fontane this change seems to
be much more abrupt than in Turgenev. Conrad Wandrey saw in

Fontane's Die Wanderungen and Vor dem Sturm similarities

 

 

in two aspects: "das in sich abgerundete seelenverwandte
Portrait und die seelisch durchdrungene, nicht nur Husserlich
abgestimmte Landschaft."112 We have already discussed the
portrait and would like to examine Wandrey's term "seelen-
durchdrungene Natur." While Turgenev's narrator saw nature

as a hunter, Fontane's narrator in Die Wanderungen perceives

 

it as a tourist guide. As Wandrey had put it, it is nature
permeated by the soul of man, in particular the soul of
people who worked and lived there and left their mark on the
land. Nature then is not there to influence or to call
forth sentimental dreams, but it is described to show what

influence man has had upon it. In Zapiski oxotnika nature

 

serves as a backdrop for the story itself; here, in Fontane's

Die Wanderungen, it functions as a vehicle to get us to our

 

real goal.

-108-

Nach links hin Klarheit und Schweigen. Der Gamen-See,
wie ein Flussarm, windet sich in leicht gespanntem
Bogen zwischen den Tannenhﬁgeln hin, und nichts unter-
bricht die Stille als ein letschernder Fisch, den die
Nachmittagssonne an die Oberflﬁche treibt. Nach rechts
hin Dunkel und Leben. Aus dem Grunde herauf und bis an
die Hﬁhe des Dammes, beinahe greifbar fﬁr unsere HHnde,
steigen die Hltesten Eichen und thrend sich die Stamme
in Schatten und Waldesnacht verlieren, blitzt die Sonne
ﬁber die grﬁnen Kronen hin. Allerhand Schmetterlinge
wiegen sich auf und nieder, und die Vﬁgel sind von
einer Herzlichkeit, als ware dies das Tal des Lebens
und nie ein Falk oder ein Weih ﬁber den Gamen-Grund
dahingezogen. In der Ferne Kuckucksruf.

Und ein blauer Himmel ﬁber dem Ganzen.

. Wir wandern dieser Halfte zu. Der Wald hat uns
bis an ein Vorwerk begleitet, dessen Stall und
Wirtschaftsgebﬁude bis hart an die Chaussee treten.
Jenseits derselben fangt der Wald wieder an. Dies
ist die Stelle, die wir suchen (F. I, 226).

Fontane, like Turgenev, does not describe large areas but,
instead, shows us a small part of the whole; We hear, see,
feel and smell the nature around us. On the one hand, we
feel the afternoon sun and experience the quiet which is
only disturbed by the fish in the lake. On the other hand,
we see the shadows made by the large oak trees and the sun
above the trees. No such scene would be complete without
the birds and the butterfly. We get the feeling of exact
description, yet this is different. When the hunter saw
nature he saw it with some enthusiasm.but with an attempt at
objectivity. Fontane's narrator, on the other hand, is not
an observer but a tourist guide giving his own impression.
This tour-guide tinge is noticeable at the beginning of the
quote when the narrator points out that on the left we find

this and on the right we can yet see something else. The

-109-

narrator also comments on what he sees because he projects
human emotions into the picture when he talks of birds who
are of such a "Herzlichkeit." The narrator is only filling
in with comments until such a time that he gets to the place
where his real interest is aroused. Nature is not doing much
of anything for him. He is not influenced by it nor are the
people he is guiding. The reader, is of course, included in
this group, and even he is not influenced by nature descrip-
tions. For Fontane's narrator, nature is not there to
influence, but the part of nature that he is interested in
is the part that has been influenced by man. We realize it
when we read a little further: "Jenseits derselben fangt
der Wald wieder an. Dies ist die Stelle, die wir suchen.

. Dieses Steinfeld ist die sogenannte Stadtstelle" (F. I,
226) .

The narrator's interest, as observed, is taken up with the
historical aspects of the people who lived here and shaped
this part of the country. He knows what he is looking for
and he guides us to it. Turgenev's narrator, on the other
hand, is different from this because he is interested in the
people of the particular time of which he narrates and
usually his encounters with people are coincidental. The
use of nature descriptions is different, but their overall

flavor is the same.

-110—

In Fontane's Vor dem Sturm, there exist similarities and

 

differences in his use of nature. The most obvious differ-
ence is a complete absence of any use of nature. Fontane's
preoccupation is strictly with the people, and since he has
not yet come to a point where he uses nature for the purpose
of characterization, he left it almost completely out of the
work. The tour-guide tint we mentioned earlier has dis-
appeared though we still find most nature descriptions as a
bridge that carries us from one place of interest to the
next. On one such occasion a group of young people went for
a sleigh ride:

Die Gesprache stockten oder wurden einsilbiger;

alles hatte nur noch einen Gedanken: das Ziel. . . .
Zuerst Tannen. Ah, wie die Stille des Waldes alles
labte! Der Wind schwieg, und jedes Wort, auch wenn
leise gesprochen, klang laut im Widerhall. Ein
warmer Harzduft war in der Luft und steigerte das
Gefﬁhl des Behagens. Uber den Weg hin, hier und
dort, liefen die Spuren, die das Wildschwein in

den Schnee gewﬁhlt hatte: von den schlanken Zweigen
flog das Rotkehlchen auf, und aus der Tiefe des Waldes
hﬁrte man den Specht. Nun kam eine grosse Lichtung,
an deren entgegengesetzter Seite das Laubholz anfing,
aber zunﬁchst noch mit Tannen untermischt. Die Sonne
glﬁhte hinter den Baumen, und je nachdem.die Lichter
fielen, schimmerte das braune Laub der Eichen golden
oder Kupferfarben, wahrend die schwarzen Tannenwipfel
‘wie scharfgezeichnete Schatten in der schwimmenden
Glut des Abends standen" (F. III, 410).

In the opening line, the people are preoccupied with the
destination of their journey. The nature description to
come will occupy their minds and thoughts for a moment and
even delight them, but that is all. No deeper significance
can be expected. As far as the description itself is con-

cerned, we recognize the old pattern. Even though the

-111-

sleigh ride lasted several hours, only a small part of the
entire way is described. A prominent place has the description
of the nuances of light and shadows as well as the sound of
the birds. One can hardly speak of a nature description,
for Fontane picks out small details and focuses the attention
of the reader upon them in such a way so that the reader is
under the impression that he sees the whole picture. This
method is similar to Turgenev's but we realize that Turgenev's
nature descriptions are much more objective and extensive.
Conrad Wandrey has already mentioned that phenomenon with
his classification of Fontane's works as "seelendurchdrungen."
This aspect disappears in Fontane's later works almost
completely. Nature becomes more and more objective and is
less and less there just to be present. Peter Demetz sees
the reason for this in the stress the author now puts on
society and people in society:
Das Gesellschaft-Normative, nicht das organisch
gewachsene beschﬁftigt den Erthler; wo er sich
dennoch bemﬁssigt fﬁhlt Natur und Landschaft zu
entfalten, tut er es ohne tieferes Interesse und
gegen sein Talent. Er selbst hat sich ﬁber die
ﬁblichen Landschaftschilderungen sehr skeptisch
ausgesprochen: Eine Sonne auf-oder untergehn, ein
Mﬁhlwasser ﬁber das wehr fallen, einen Baum rauschen
zu lassen, ist die billigste literarische Bescthtigung,
die gedacht werden kann. . . (sie) gehBrt zu den
Kﬁnsten, die jeder ﬁbt und die deshalb aufgehﬁrt
haben, als Kunst zu gelten; (sie) wird bei der Lektﬁre
von jeder regelrechten Leserin einfach ﬁberschlagen und
in neununneunzig Fallen von hundert mit vBlligem

Rechi denn (sie) halt den Gang der Erzﬁhlung nur
auf. 13

-112-

Demetz also states that Fontane shows people in the circle
of other people but not in the green nature. Hubert Ohl, on
the other hand, contradicts Peter Demetz's view. In his

article, Ohl argues that Fontane uses nature descriptions

extensively:

WO gibt es in Wirklichkeit einen so konsequenten
Perspektivismus in der Landschaft wie in Fontanes
Landschaftsschilderungen. Hinter der scheinbaren
naturtreue seiner Landschaften verbirgt sich eine
ﬁsthetische Zurichtung der Natur: nicht die Kunst
will hier Natur werden, sondern die Natur wird Kunst.
Sie wird zu einem Bild, das menschliches Erleben
spiegelt, zumindest aber auf menschliches Geschick,

sei es auch nur als dessen Hintergrund, bezogen
b1eibt.1l4

Ohl concedes that Fontane's nature descriptions are not as
exact as they seem at times, but in his later works they are
carefully set up to mirror human experiences and to expose
the character's feelings. Fritz Martini states that "nature
is used to help us to understand the human experience."115
To show nature's role in the characterization of the differ-
ent personae in Fontane's works we would like to examine a
description from Unwiederbringlich, published in 1892, after
Fontane's exposure to Turgenev. Graf Holk and his wife just
had an argument which led to their separation:

Auch Holk erhob sich. Eine Welt widerstreitender

Empfindungen regt sich in seiner Seele; was aber

nach allem, was er eben wieder gehbrt hatte, doch

vorwog, war ein Gefﬁhl bitterer Verdrossenheit.

Eine ganze Weile schritt er auf und ab, und dann

erst trat er an die Balkontﬁr heran und sah wieder

auf den Parkgang hinaus, der, mit BlHttern und

Tannapfeln ﬁberstreut, in leiser Schngung bergab
und zuletzt links einbiegend nach Holkeby fﬁhrte.

-113-

Der Himmel hatte sich wieder bezogen, und eh eine
Minute um war, begann ein heftiges Schneetreiben,
ein Tanzen und Wirbeln, bis der Windzug plﬁtzlich
nachliess und die Flocken schwer und dicht hernie-
derfielen.
Holk konnte nur wenig Schritte weit sehen, aber so
dicht die Flocken fielen, sie liessen ihn doch zwei
Frauengestalten erkennen, die jetzt, von der rechten
Seite des Schlosses her, in den Parkweg einbogen und
auf Holkeby zu hinunterschritten. ‘
Es waren die Grﬂfin und die Dobschﬁtz (F. X,
223-224).
The separation is accomplished, which Holk had anticipated
but was not sure how to bring about. He is full of cone
flict, but the feeling that prevails is that of "bittere
Verdrossenheit." It is in this mood that he looks outside
to see the_sky darken and the heavy snow descending. Nature
here is a reflection_of the character's mood. And just as
initially there is darkness and a terrible blowing
of the snow so are the feelings within him tossed back and
forth. The wind soon abates and the snowflakes fall so
heavy and thick that he just is barely able to see his wife
and friend walking by the window. In this, too, we have a
reflection of his own mood, for he seems to have such a
faint picture of his wife. His heart is affected deeply,
but his resolve to leave her is unchanged.
It is ironic that this is the last impression Holk has of
his wife, disappearing in a snow storm, for he often called
her an iCeberg because of her cold demeanor. It is difficult

to say if Fontane has done this on purpose, for his sympathy

is with her. He encourages her to force her heart and try

-114-

to persuade Holk to realize his mistake, but she could not
change her character which leads to her death a short time
later.

Nature in Effi Briest does not just serve the characterization

 

but actually contributes to the action of the plot inasmuch
as it seems to cause the final downfall of the heroine.
Early in the work, as the newlyweds are approaching their
destination, they see the moon over the water:
Aber sieh mal den Mond da drﬁben. Ist er nicht schﬁn?
Effi war wie benommen. "Ja, du hast recht, Geert,
wie schﬁn; aber es hat zugleich so was Unheimliches.
In Italien habe ich nie solchen Eindruck gehabt, auch
nicht, als wir von Mestre nach Venedig hinﬁberfuhren.
Da war auch Wasser, Sumpf und Mondschein, und ich
dachte, die Brﬁcke wﬁrde brechen; aber es war nicht
so gespenstig. Woran liegt es nur? Ist es das
Nﬁrdliche? (Font. XII, 48-49).
Effi looks at the scene, the likes she has seen in Italy not
too long ago. But here all of a sudden the scene has some-
thing gloomy, something sinister. She herself does not
realize why this should be so, but Geerd points out to
her that this is most probably the result of hearing about
the pirate and the Chinese, about whom he had talked earlier.
This brief nature description is used to point out
that she is upset over Geert's stories, and, at the same time,
shows that she is really not aware of how deeply these things
have really troubled her. The subsequent connection of the
nature scene to the place of their destination is used

to give the reader an indication and prediction that this

feeling of gloom and dismay will be with her in this place.

-115-

As if nature wants to make sure that this prediction would
come true it takes a hand in bringing the prediction about.
The occasion is a sleigh ride to a party. On the way home
we are given the first indication of impending trouble when
Effi claims to hear in the waves of the ocean music and
seems to think that she hears the water sprites. A moment

later the sleighs come to a stop because they come to the

"Schloon":

Mit solchem Schlitten ist es was anderes; die versinken
im Schloon, und sie werden wohl oder ﬁbel einen Umweg
machen mﬁssen.

Versinken! Ich bitte Sie, mein ganigstes Fraulein,
ich sehe immer noch nicht klar. Ist denn der Schloon
ein Abgrund oder irgendwas, drin man mit Mann und Maus
zugrunde gehen kann? Ich kann mir so was hierzulande
gar nicht denken.

Mein Gott, was sind das alles nur fﬁr Namen und Wﬁrter!
Da wird es ein Sog, und am starksten immer dann, wenn
der Wind nach dem Lande hin steht. Dann drﬁckt der
Wind das Meerwasser in das kleine Rinnsal hinein, aber
nicht so, dass man es sehen kann. Und das ist das
Schlimmste von der Sache, darin steckt die eigentliche
Gefahr. Alles geht namlich unterirdisch vor sich, und
der ganze Strandsand ist dann bis tief hinunter mit
Wasser durchsetzt und gefﬁllt. Und wenn man dann ﬁber
solche Sandstelle weg will, die keine mehr ist, dann

sinkt man ein, als ob es ein Sumpf oder ein Moor ware
(F. XII, 162). '

Sidonie, who earlier lectured Effie about goodness and
dangers of a wrong thinking, can go across the Schloon
without any difficulties, whereas Effi and her group have to
go around it. The danger is not obvious, for it is under-
ground and out of sight. One only gets an inkling of the
danger that is present. So it is with the affair between

Major Crampas and Effi which will come to full bloom here as

-116-

a consequence of the "Schloon" and will not come to light
until years later. '

Effi just cannot believe that the "Schloon" is something
that dangerous and asks if it really is something in which
men could sink to their doom. She is assured that it is and
we realize later that in a way this is true, for it causes
the death of the Major in the long run and brings misery and
an early end to Effi's life. This is underscored when von
Innstetten next morning confesses to his wife that he slept
poorly because he dreamed that she drowned in the Schloon
and Major Crampas attempted to save her but perished along
with her (F. XII, 165). This scene and the conversation
about it are of prime importance for they reflect the whole
affair of Effi with Major Crampas. If we miss this we miss
a major element of the work and do not catch up until later
when the affair is discovered by von Innstetten, when he
finds some letters of Major Crampas to Effi.

In this Fontane has another trait in common with Turgenev,
the tendency to downplay the erotic element. Both authors
write love stories but neither one of them.aver stresses the

erotic. This particular trait is also found in L'Adultera

 

in the scene in which Melanie van Straaten takes the final
step in her affair with Rubehn. Here nature has a hand in
bringing that affair about. Melanie just had a discussion
'with the gardener in which she promised him palms for his

wedding and talked about the importance of palms at weddings

-117-

and now even baptisms. The gardener shows them through the
greenhouse and leaves them at the most secluded spot under
the palm trees.

Es war eine fantastisch aus Blattkronen gebildete

Laube fest geschlossen, und ﬁberall an den Gurten und
Rippen der WUlbung hin rankten sich Orchideen, die die
ganze Kuppel mit ihrem Duft erfﬁllten. Es atmete sich
wonnig aber schwer in dieser dichten Laube; dabei war
es, als ob hundert Geheimnisse serchen, und Melanie
fﬁhlte, wie dieser berauschende Duft ihre Nerven
hinschwinden machte. Sie zﬁhlte jenen von Husseren
Eindrﬁcken, von Licht und Luft abthgigen Naturen zu,
die der Frische bedﬁrfen, um selber frisch zu sein.
Uber ein Schneefeld hin, bei rasender Fahrt und scharfem
Ost,-da war ihr der heitere Sinn, dar tapfere Mut ihrer
Seele wiedergekommen; aber diese weiche, schlaffe Luft
‘machte sie selber weich und schlaff; und die Rﬁstung
ihres Geistes lockerte sich und lBste sich und fiel

(F. VI, 73).

 

The pattern is similar to the one in Effi Briest. First, a
short conversation that leads up to the following scene
preparing the heroine and the reader with its talk of
weddings and baptisms. Then comes the nature description.
The scene itself is not described in detail. We are only
told that the palms form a very dense cover all around the
place. The stress here is on the effect nature has on Melanie.
The heavy air takes all the will power out of her, and
before we know it they are whispering words as hot and sweet
as the air around them- Nature has taken a hand and has
brought about that final surrender. But just as in Effi
Briest the reader almost misses it. No exploitation of the
basic desires are to be found by Fontane. Just as in

Effi Briest, also a conversation follows to help us understand

 

-1l8-

the situation. The conversation here is between Melanie and
Anastasia. When Melanie jokingly complains about a headache,
Anastasia makes the apparently casual remark that one can
not walk with impunity under palms (F. VI, 73).

In both instances, nature is used to bring about the final
decision on the part of the lovers. It contributed actively
in propelling the action forward at a critical point in the
development of the work and thereby creates a high point.

In giving nature much more of an active part in his work
Fontane has gone beyond Turgenev, otherwise his use of
nature parallels the pattern set by Turgenev.

USE OF THE ARTS AS A NARRATIVE DEVICE.

Both authors have made a conscious effort to surround
themselves with artists representing the different arts.
Fontane emphasizes the written word and the visual arts
whereas Turgenev tilts toward music. Both writers portray
the sphere of the lower aristocracy and the upper middle
class. Critics point to Turgenev's use of music and claim
that passages where he uses music are unequalled in litera-
ture. Music is closely linked with love and maybe for this
reason Turgenev considered it the highest art form. Loves,
joys, and sorrows are declared through music. Ledkovsky
even claims that music in Turgenev's works serves to purify
and enoble human emotions, and that Turgenev's description
of music imparts to his prose lyrical enchantment and

intangible perfection.116 The frequent use of musical

-ll9-

episodes stems from his conviction that music conveys the
infinite shadings of human emotions in a much subtler way
than does language. Turgenev acknowledges the impotence of

the word in Ve§hie Vody. We will not attempt to describe

 

the feelings experienced by Sanin, the hero, while reading
this letter. There is no satisfactory expression for such
feelings: they are deeper and stronger and more elusive
than any word. Only music could transmit them. In 1858
Turgenev wrote to Countess Lambert from Rome: "Yesterday I
was roaming amongst the ruins of the Caesar's palaces - and
I was inspired with a kind of epic feeling; that immortal
beauty surrounding me (as against) the triviality of earthly
things. . . . This cannot be rendered in words . . . those
impressions are musical and can best be communicated by
music."117

One such scene of emotions is in Dvorjanskoergnezda, when

 

Lemm expresses Lavreckij's feelings in music after the
latter's encounter with Liza in the garden. The lyrical
quality of this passage speaks to the reader and affects him
as it has affected the two persons concerned. We see the
affect it has on Lavreckij as he cries as a little child;
Lemm tells us that it was his purpose to express this
feeling of a great love. "I know everything" and then
repeated "You heard me, don't you realize that I know
everything?" Lavreckij, already moved by his experience in

the garden and further stirred up by this experience with

-120-

Lemm, is unable to sleep. Liza is also unable to sleep:

she prays. This whole passage is a high point in the work,
it serves to express the feelings that can not be put into
words, but at the same time to characterize the people
involved. Lemm achieved a moment of greatness and is shown
as a man of great sensitivity and musical ability. Lavreckij
is shown as a man of feelings and great emotion who is moved
to tears by this experience. Then in one simple sentence we
have the juxtoposition of the effect the evening had on
Liza: She prays. By simply showing the reactions of the
different characters to the events of the evening and stres-
sing how different these reactions are Turgenev characterizes
these people.

While many of these musical experiences come at a high point
in the work, music is used throughout the works to help the
narrator to show his characters instead of him telling about
them. These figures are characterized by their ability or
lack of ability to perform and by their likes and dislikes
of music. An example of this is seen by Eugen Zabel in the
scene in gym, in which a Russian general again and again
sings the first verse of the song: "Deux gendarmes un beau
dimanche" to which the narrator remarks: "wrong, of course,
because I have not yet seen a Russian noble man who doesn't

sing poorly."118

-121-

The fact that the general seems to know only the first verse
and sings it repeatedly, coupled with the narrator's remark,
indicates the low opinion the narrator has of these noble-
men.

At this point we would like to go back to our dis-
cussion of the use of nature as a narrative device in

Otcy i deti and see how music is used to reinforce the

 

conclusions we reached during that discussion. In that
discussion we have seen how Turgenev used nature to isolate
Bazarov from his surroundings. While Bazarov and Arkadij
are still discussing nature and its meaning to Bazarov they
hear music:

Im selben Augenblick drangen die Tﬁne eines Cellos
aus dem Haus zu ihnen. Jemand spielte mit Gefﬁhl.
wenn auch mit ungeﬁbter Hand, die "Erwartung"
Schuberts, und wie Honig verbreitete sich in der
Luft die sﬁsse Melodie.

Was ist das? sagte Basarow erstaunt.

Mein Vater.

Dein Vater spielt Cello?

Ja.

Wie alt ist dein Vater?

Vierundvierzig.

Basarow brach plﬁtzlich in lautes Gelﬁchter aus.
Worﬁber lachst du?

Ich bitte dich! Ein Mann von vierundvierzig
Jahren, pater familias, spielt im . . . wschen
Landkreis Cello!

Basarow lachte weiter, doch Arkadij chhelte

trotz aller Verehrung fﬁr seinen Lehrer

nicht einmal (T. II, 338-338).

Arkadij's father plays on the Cello romantic music by
Schubert which causes Bazarov to break out laughing. In his
Opinion a man of forty four has no right to such nonsense.

Arkadij looks up to Bazarov and supports him.in almost

-122-
everything but here he draws the line and does not even
smile. He can not agree with his mentor, and when we have
seen above in our discussion on nature that Arkadij feels a
little different about nature than does Basarov, here he is
totally removed from him. After all is said and done Bazarov
stands by himself once more, just as he had been alone in
our discussion about nature. It seems that Turgenev's use
of music is consistent with his use of nature as a method of
characterization and the two complement each other.
Just as music was used to characterize the different charac-
ters in Turgenev's works so was poetry and literature. In

Otcy i deti the difference between the two generations was

 

shown by means of the reading material that Nikolaj was
reading, and by what his son Arkadij and his friend Bazarov
thought he should be reading. Nikolaj had been reading
Pugjkin when Bazarov saw him and Bazarov got upset and told
Arkadij that this "old romantic stuff" is outdated and that

he should give his father some other reading material.
Together they decided that Nikolaj should be reading Bﬁchner's

Stoff und Kraft, for it is written in a popular language and

 

‘more appropriate for the times.

When we recapitulate we see that the contrast is complete.
Nikolaj was shown to love nature, to love the romantic music
of Schubert, to play the Cello, and to read Puskin.
Contrasted with this idealistic romantic figure is Bazarov,

the man who sees nature as a work place without any romantic

-123-

attachment to it. To him it is ridiculous to play the Cello
and especially to play all that "romantic nonsense." In
literature his material comes from the German revolutionary
Bﬁchner. All three; nature, music, and poetry are skill-
fully used to bring out the difference between the two
groups of peOple.

In the above example literature was used to characterize the
characters but in some instances literature was used to
bring about action on part of the characters. One such

incident is in Dvorjanskoe gnezdo in which Ivan AndreeviE is

 

taught by a former student of Jean Jacques Rousseau who
taught him all about Rousseau, Voltaire, Diderot and many
others. After refusing to take a government position he
returns home. There he dislikes everything he sees except a
maid of his mother. He eventually runs away with her and
marries her. His father blames his son's choice of reading
material for this whole fiasco and the son quite readily
agrees, for he states with great pride, that he did not
betray his teachers, Rousseau and Diderot. The choice of
reading material is not just used to characterize but
heavily influences the character, and, therefore, the action
of the work.

we find a similar incident in Turgenev's EEEEE- In one of
his letters Pavel Aleksandrowid’wrote to his friend that he

was rereading Goethe's Faust:

-124-

Welche Wirkung brachte die ganze grossartige erste
Szene in mir vor! Die Erscheinung des Erdgeistes,
die Worte, die er spricht, erinnerst Du Dich: In
Lebensfluten, im Tatensturm, erweckten in mir ein
langentbehrtes Beben und Schauern des Entzﬁckens.
alles tauchte in meiner Erinnerung wider auf: Berlin
und die Studentenzeit, Fraulein Klara Stich, und
Seidelmann in der Rolle des Mephistopheles. .
Ich konnte lange nicht einschlafen meine Jugend war
wiedergekehrt, und wie ein Phantom war sie vor mir
auferstanden; wie Feuer und Gift rollte sie durch
meine Adern, das Herz wurde weit und wollte sich nicht
mehr zusammenziehen, etwas griff in seine Saiten, und
WUnsche wallten auf (T. I, 908).
Here he characterizes himself by his own admission of the
influence reading the work has on him. When he later meets
his childhood friend Vera Nikolaevna he decides to read to
her and her husband and he chooses Faust for his reading
material. Her husband is characterized by his complete lack
of understanding and by the fact that he is bored by it all.
But Vera Nikolaevna is deeply touched and even moved to
tears, something that had not happened to her for years.
She has great ability and feels deeply. The reader is not
surprised at her ability in the literary arts for we know
that she is a special person. After all, did not Pavel tell
us that she has a wonderful soprano voice and are we not
aware that in Turgenev's works musical ability was always a
recommendation for the person who had it? Vera eventually
falls in love with Pavel as a result of their reading of
Faust and their time together. She is in great turmoil over

this situation but nevertheless meets with him.and kisses

him. At this point.Turgenev introduces another element in

-125-

the supernatural when she sees her mother, who had long been
dead. This brings her to the breaking point and she becomes
ill and dies. Literature, a work of art, is the force that
brings them together, and it is the cause of her death. Art
is the topic of the work or the influence that art can have
on people. It was used to characterize her but also to
cause the action of the work.

In many instances a work of art is only mentioned to char-
acterize a person either as literate and educated or as an
oaf, or to show that some person was either a romantic or a
skeptic, modern or oldfashioned. Music and the arts have

in Turgenev's works three major functions. In most in-
stances they have the purpose of characterizing the indi-
vidual. They also have the function of influencing the
characters to act in certain ways or maybe even to influence
the people around them, and therefore the narrative as a
whole. As a third function they are used as an epic pre-
diction of things to come. It is evident that these three
functions can not necessarily be separated, but they are
interwoven with each other.

These three elements are found in Fontane's works but as we
observe there are some differences in his approach. In
Turgenev's works the music used is considered classical music.
In Fontane's works the "Lied" is prevalent. In a few
instances we have the mention of Wagner and his work. This

is the case in L'Adultera, at the first meeting of Melanie

 

-126

van der Straaten and Ebenezer Rubehn. At the occasion of
their meeting they hear music coming from the background,
and he seems pleased and later compliments the artist on the
playing and the choice of music, to which Melanie later
comments:

Ei, da dﬁrfen wir Sie, wenn ich recht verstanden habe,
wohl gar zu den Unseren zahlen? Anastasia, das trafe
sich gut! Sie mﬁssen nﬁmlich wissen, Herr Rubehn,
dass wir hier in zwei Lagern stehen und dass sich das
van der Straatensche Haus, das nun auch das Ihrige
sein wird, in bilderschwﬁrmende‘Montecchi und
musikschwﬁrmende Capuletti teilt. Ich, tout a fait
Capulet und Julia. Doch mit untragischem Ausgang.

Und ich fﬁge zum Uberfluss hinzu, dass wir, Anastasia
und ich, jener kleinen Gemeinde zugehﬁren, deren

Namen und Mittelpunkt ich Ihnen nicht zu nennen
brauche. Nur eines will ich auf der Stelle wissen.
Und ich betrachte das als mein weibliches
Neugiersrecht. welcher seiner Arbeiten erkennen Sie
den hﬁchsten Wert zu? werin erscheint er Ihnen am
bedeutendsten oder doch am eigenartigsten?

In den Meistersingern..

Zugestanden. Und nun sind wir einig, und bei nachster
Gelegenheit kﬁnnen wir van der Straaten und Gabler und
vor allem den langweiligen Legationsrat in die Luft
sprengen. Den langen Duquede. Oh, der steigt wie ein
Raketenstock. Nicht wahr, Anastasia (F. VI, 44).

In this short exchange all three uses of music found in
Turgenev's works are here used. First it characterizes the
people as followers of Wagner and his music. Fontane had
some unpleasant experiences in the Bayreuth Festspielhaus
and his opinion of Wanger and his music was negative.119
The reader shares this negative impression of Melanie at
least in the period of her affair With Rubehn, in the time
before she left van der Straaten and married Rubehn. After

the marriage she eXperiences hard times and our sympathy and

that of the narrator is with her. Although there was no

-127-

renunciation of her Wagner worship, he or his music are
never mentioned again.

This short exchange not only characterizes the participants
in it but it influences the narrative drastically, for it
establishes new relationships. When Ebenezer Rubehn first
comes Melanie is cool toward him. This coolness is a
reaction to his calling card on which she read that he is a
lieutenant in the reserves. She comments at that to her
friend: "Auch wieder einer. Und noch dazu aus der Reserve!
Mir widerwﬂrtig, dieser ewige Leutnant. Es gibt gar keine
Menschen mehr (F. VI, 41) But once she realizes their
common enthusiasm for Wagner and his music, she accepts him.
Not only is he accepted but right away he is forced to

take sides in a dispute that exists within the family and
the circle of friends that comes with the family. To
appreciate this paragraph we have to look at it in the light
of the whole work. Only then can we appreciate it as what
it truly is -- an epic prediction of the coming separation
between Melanie van der Straaten and Van der Straaten. Just
before Rubehn appeared on the scene there was a little bit
of a struggle between Fraulein Friderike von Sawatzki and
Melanie, in which Rieke defended van der Straaten against
Melanie and attempted to show that he is good and that
Melanie does not know him well enough. Rubehn comes right
after this conversation, and at the end of her conversation

withhim.we find a new constellation in which Rubehn is to

-128-

take sides with her against her husband and his friends. We
will not go too far when we see in this paragraph the seed
for future trouble in the van der Straaten family. It
predicts the split that is to come in the future. If we
need any proof we have it in the behavior of Melanie's
daughter Lydia. For some unknown reason she never accepts
Rubehn right from the start and when he left she would not
look at him but went into the house with a tear in her eyes.
Sometime later it was Lydia who told Melanie that as far as
she was concerned she did not have a mother anymore. This
statement is only a culmination of a development that
started early with Melanie's and Rubehn's first meeting.

We have mentioned earlier that it seems that the Wagner
enthusiast Melanie has found forgiveness in the eyes of
Fontane in the latter part of the work. In another instance
where Fontane used Wagner and his music to signal disfavor,
no forgiveness was given. Von Instetten, in the novel

Effi Briest, is at one point shown sitting at the piano

 

improvising on some Wagnerian melody. . . . We do not have
to go to any great length to show that von Instetten never
regained the good graces of the author. This is somewhat
astonishing since it was Effi Briest that was guilty of
infidelty. This only helps to underline the fact that
Fontane, like Turgenev, does not condemn immorality or
reward morality, but that he only condemns and rewards that

which is condemned and rewarded by society.

-129-

In most cases where Fontane uses music he makes use of the
simple "Lied." While Rubehn had been characterized as a
follower of wagner he later is characterized by a song he
plays on the piano. After he and Melanie got married they
experienced financial and personal difficulties because
society disapproved of their actions. Even Melanie's sister
had just told her in a letter that her husband had forbidden
her to visit her or receive a visit from.Melanie. In a
moment of great despair Rubehn played on the piano: "Mit
einem Mantel vor dem Sturm, beschﬁtz ich dich, beschﬁtz ich
dich (F. VI, 105). Here Rubehn shows himself to be the
loving husband who is willing to live up to the words of the
song. Another aspect of this song is important as well,
namely the manner of the delivery. It is mentioned that he
plays it with exaggerated lightheartedness. This is an
effort to break up the serious mood in which we find Melanie
and which leads her to despair and to give up. It is to
encourage her for the future, as we understand it from the

comment that he makes to her in English: "Cheer up, dear.’

In Unwiederbringlich we find that a poem and a song team up

 

to set the mood of the whole work. They serve here to
characterize the people involved and to predict the ending
of the work. First we want to examine a poem by Uhland.
Graf Holk wants to build a new castle located at the ocean,
and in an attempt to win her for his plans he quotes the

first part of the poem.

-130-

Hast du das Schloss gesehen?

Das hohe Schloss am Meer?

Golden und rosig wehen

Die Wolken drﬁber her (F. X, 9).
With this poem his enthusiasm for life and his ability to
see life in a positive manner and without problems is
indicated. The picture itself is too romantic, and we find a
little later that Holk fits that romantic image. All this
is positive until we get the narrator's comment that Holk is
not much of a literary nature, and therefore his enthusiasm
is cause for surprise on the wife's part. Fontane does the
same here as does Turgenev, for with this little comment he
has influenced the reader against Holk. Especially after we
find out that he got this part of,the poem from a plaque he
had seen in the house of his wife's brother. The character-
ization here is divided in two parts; in the first part the
poem and its meaning show him to be positive, in the second
part his lack of knowledge about literature and the poem in
particular can be seen as a negative part of his person-
ality.
His wife now proceeds to give him the second part of the
poem.

Die Winde, die wegen alle

Lagen in tiefer Ruh,

Einem Klagelied aus der Halle

Hﬁrt ich mit Trﬁnen zu (F. X, 9).
It is significant that she knows the second part of the

poem, Whereas the first part is romantic and hopeful, the

second part is full of sadness, mourning, and tears. This

-l31-

characterizes her well, for we soon learn that she tends to
be sad and to exaggerate the part of mourning and tears.
While he is happy go lucky she is sober and reserved. The
conflict is set from the beginning and can be seen in the
two different natures of the characters as we perceive them
in the two verses of the poem.

From the beginning we feel that the tears, of which the poem
spoke, would come. The following conversation supports this
as a prediction, for in the conversation the countess
indicates her dislike of moving, especially since she has a
foreboding of evil. This is again brought to light in a
comment by the narrator: "Trotz aller Liebe-seine leicht-
lebige Natur und ihre melancholische, sie stimmen nicht
recht mehr zueinander (F. X, 31). What we have learned in
the poem is here stated as a fact. The narrator, further-
more, points out that this difference in their character has
caused a serious deterioration of their relationship despite
their attempts to improve it.

Shortly after the poem and the conversations, important to the
work, a song is sung during a small party. After the song the
countess takes the notes and leaves the group. We do not
have the words to the song until the end of the work, but
Count Holk asks for the title and is told that it is "Der
Kirchhof." He makes the remark "Drum auch," meaning that
this is the reason that his wife took the song and left the

group. Here we have the situation that a song does not

-132-

characterize the performer but the listener. The countess
is characterized by her reaction to the song. This is
brought out by the typical Fontane style dialogue between
the departing guests, who all agree that this was a poor
choice of song because the countess was so affected by it.
Her brother mentioned that by now she has the song memorized.
The title of the song, together with the discussion it
brought forth, helps the reader understand the countess
better and realize that her nature is a melancholic one.
With a poem and the title of a song, the author has char-
acterized the two main characters and deliniated the con-
flict. As the novel now progresses we realize that the
conflict develops exactly as predicted: the two are sepa-
rated. We are surprised, however, when they reunite at one
point of the work and wonder if this can endure the stress
of two so different characters. To give us the answer to
this the author repeated the setting that we found at the
singing of the first song. The song that is being sung is
not the same as the one in the earlier setting but it has
the same message. The narrator here makes it a point to
remind us of that first occasion at the beginning of the
work stating that the countess left the salon quietly after
the song,just as she had done two years ago, when the
‘mournful song "Der Kirchhof" by waiblingen was sung. The
narrator wants us to connect these two occasions. The song

is about the days past and if the person would like to have

-133-

them back. The countess repeats the last two lines of the
song which state that she does not long to have the happiest
days of her life back. This gives the message, that what-
ever happiness together they might have had, they will not
achieve it again, and that she does not even wish for them.
No happy end can be expected. And so it is. On the next
page we are informed that she has taken her life by drowning
herself in the sea. In this letter we are also given the
words to the song to which we had up to now only the title:

Die Ruh ist wohl das Beste

Von allem Glﬁck der Welt'

Was bleibt vom Erdenfeste,‘

Was bleibt uns unvergﬁllt?

Die Rose welkt in Schauern,

Die uns der Frﬁhling gibt:

Wer hasst, ist zu bedauern,

Und mehr noch fast, wer liebt (F. X, 258).
we have closed the circle. The song expressed the longing
she felt for peace in the grave and reaffirms her melan-
cholic nature. But it also expresses her feelings concern-
ing love. The one who loves is to be pitied more than the
one who hates. She had underlined these words and by doing
so confessed to us her dilemma. She loved her husband, but
in that love she saw something not beautiful but rather
pitiful. In the use of the song and the poem.we see that
they have characterized the two characters from the begin-
ning. They influence the thinking and the actions of the
characters, and served as constant reminders of their

predictions. As a structural device they helped to round

out the work by tying the beginning and the end together. In

-134-

these aspects the use of music remind us of that of Turgenev
even though in some respects the two uses are different. In
Fontane's works we do not find Turgenev's lyrical quality.
Fontane used music more consistently to let the reader know
of the coming turmoil and to influence the action of the
work itself. Another good example of this is in 9212;. At
the beginning the hero sings a song about his homeland
Schlesien and tells us how much he loves it. He questions
if he will ever see it again. With this song the reader
gets the distinct impression that he will have to leave the
country. The hero has a powerful enemy and he will have to
leave. Thanks to this song we wonder if the hero will
return. He goes to America and dies there, but until his
end this question returns to us repeatedly. Only a letter
with news of his death arrives home. In the case of a
prediction the reader is always looking to see whether it
comes to pass. The prediction creates interest in the
proceedings. This question does the same. The reader is
constantly wondering what the answer will be.

The reason the hero had to leave his homeland is because he
had killed his enemy. In the strange country he slowly
finds peace. This is developed in a series of songs which
show his progress. One of the songs indicates that he will
find forgiveness with God and peace in the other world.
Music is used to project this development which reaches far
beyond the scope of the novel -- even into eternity. The

author achieves this without interference of the narrator

-l35-

into the action of the novel, by giving the reader a pro-
gression of songs which slowly build to the point where they
pronounce this forgiveness and peace. Only a comment is
needed in the letter home to restate the obvious. Proper
use of music has minimized the role of the narrator.

The same device is seen in the use of art. Poetry, litera-
ture, and other art forms serve the same purpose. A good

example of the use of literature occurs in Frau Jenny Treibel.

 

Throughout the work she talks about "das Poetische." She
claims that only the ideas are important and that money and
status are nothing: "Ich fﬁr meine Person verbleibe dem
Ideal und werde nie darauf verzichten (F. XI, 30). She
delights to talk about how she herself, who had a modest
beginning, educated herself by memorizing poetry. But all
this talk is contrasted by her actions. For instance, she
has received from the professor a book of poetry which had a
nice blue cover. We are told that she reads this poetry
when she has difficult moments and that she cries over it.
But in the same breath she tells us that she had the book
bound in an expensive leather binding. This conflict
between the poetic, which represents higher values, and the
baser values of money and position is carefully worked. At
times we might believe that she actually believes some of
the things she is saying, but Fontane puts it all into doubt
in a conversation she has with Corinna Schmidt, the daughter

of the professor. In this conversation Frau Treibel praises

-136-

the professor but at the same time she again professes her
favorite claim:

Dein Papa ist ein Juwel, das weiss ich am besten.

Er unterschﬂtzt alles Ausserliche, Besitz und Geld,

und ﬁberhaupt alles, was schmﬁckt und schﬁn macht.

Nein, Corinna, sage das nicht, Er sieht das Leben

von der richtigen Seite an; er weiss, dass Geld

eine Last ist und dass das Glﬁck ganz woanders liegt.

Sie schwieg bei diesen Worten und seufzte nur leise.

Dann aber fuhr sie fort. Ach, meine liebe Corinna,

glaube mir, kleine Verhﬂltnisse, das ist das, was

allein glﬁcklich macht.

Corinna chhelte. Das sagen alle, die drﬁber stehen

und die kleinen Verhaltnisse nicht kennen.

Ich kenne sie, Corinna.

Ja, von frﬁher her. Aber das liegt nun zurﬁck

und ist vergessen oder wohl gar verklﬁrt (F. XI, 12).
Here seems to be the crux of Treibel's thinking. She has
been in poorer circumstances and now sees this in a radiant
light. Now that she has the money and the title, she likes
to talk of poetry and songs and the relative unimportance of
money and position.~ After all, she claims, they can be a
hindrance in life. At a party the Treibel's are giving for
a business associate from England, she sings a song rather
poorly. She has sung this particular song at parties many
times, but is willing to sing it again and again. The two
prominent lines from the song give the ideas she professes
so often: "Was 3011 Gold, ich liebe Rosen, und der Blumen
schlichte Zier." (F. XI, 49). The narrator lets the guest of
honor exclaims in English: "wunderfully good. 0, these
Germans, they know everything, . . . even such an old lady"
(F. XI, 49). Even he, the guest of only one evening, has

seen through Frau Jenny Treibel's little charade. And

-137-

therefore the reader is well prepared and is not surprised
when Frau Jenny Treibel finally admits that her talk of
poetry and high ideals are just talk. The occasion is her
son's engagement to Corinna Schmidt. When her son first
told her of the engagement, she fainted. She forgets her
talk of poetry and high ideals and attempts to stop the
marriage of her son to that poor girl.

But at this point the work takes an interesting twist. All
the work done to characterize Frau Jenny Treibel through
poetry and talk about the poetic is now used to characterize
Corinna Schmidt and to praise her marriage to the friend of
her youth, Dr. Marcell Wedderkopp. At their wedding
Professor Schmidt requests that the singer Krola sings the
song that Frau Jenny Treibel always sings at parties. He
sings it with feeling and receives much applause. Now the
song is acceptable, and it serves as a contrast to earlier
renditions and as a bridge between Professor Schmidt and the
Treibels. Professor Schmidt claims that Jenny Treibel was
right after all. The poetic, the ideal, is justified as
found in the lives of Corinna and Marcell and as proclaimed
by Frau Jenny Treibel. She is right in the principle but
failed to live up to the principle. But is she condemned?

No, with typical "Fontane resignation life goes on.
Fontane was not satisfied to use music and the spoken word
as narrative devices, but on several occasions the visual

arts were called upon to help in his works as well. In

-138-

grin; all the different art forms were used to show the
world the contrast that makes up the widow Pittelkow. The
contrast is shown in the choice of inexpensive prints, an
old oil painting, an old and expensive sculpture, a couple
of figures made of plaster of paris and in a set of expen-
sive looking leather bound books contrasted to the "Berlin
Pfennigmagazin" (F. IX, 182). What do all these items tell
us about the widow Pittelkow, for according to the donor of
these contrasting items, it is their function to indicate
who the widow is. We have items with which the widow is
comfortable and which represent her low birth and back-
ground. The other part is the influence that comes from.her
aristocratic patron. The two opposites, represented in the
different art objects, indicate the opposites that she
experiences in her life. The narrator points out that this
contrast is readily noticeable and cannot be overlooked.
Even though it has been stated that the purpose of this
whole set up is just to show the world who the widow really
is, we can be certain that much more is intended. It is
important to realize that the hero and the heroine are to
meet at this place. Stine and Waldemar are representative
of these two worlds. Later in the work we find out that the
contrast between the aristocracy and the low birth cannot be
overcome, just as it is the case with the contrast in the
widow's room. The room.and the objects therein are not only

a characterization of the widow, but in a much larger sense

-139-

state from the beginning the dilemma the two will face, and
in a way foreshadow the impossibility of overcoming the
conflict.

The use of art in Die Poggenpuhls reminds us somewhat of the

 

scene above. Here, too, art objects are described, which
are used to characterize the whole family and the whole
work. Most important is a picture that is portraying the
high point in the history of the family. All one can see is
a man standing in a cemetery in the middle of a battle of
which one can see only powder smoke. To add to the precar-
iousness of the situation, we find out that the picture is
beset by a problem. Everytime it is dusted it falls down,
just as is the case with the family's fortune. The wall has
been repaired several times, but the picture refuses to stay
in its place. The picture itself, together with the diffi-
culties it presents by not staying up, characterizes the
situation of the Poggenpuhls. Just as they have a difficult
time to keep the picture on the wall, so they have a dif-
ficult time keeping up the facade of the aristocracy. If we
were to read these small excerpts and the ending, we would
pretty much know the story. At the ending one of the
daughters tells us about the Poggenpuhls now and later.

They will somehow muddle through as poor aristocrats and
hope that in the future one of the brothers will bring about
a moment of glory for the family. In other words, they will

continue trying to hang pictures.

-140-

One use of painting should be mentioned here, for its use is

similar to the use of poetry and music in Unwiederbringlich.

 

This is the painting L'Adultera by Tintoretto in the novel

 

of the same title. The picture serves as an epic prediction
for the adultery that is to take place in the novel. When
Melanie first sees the picture, she attempts to defend the
woman in the picture saying that there is so much innocence
in her look and that all seems to be predetermined (F. VI,
13). Van der Straaten explains several times that in his
family the problem is hereditary. He wants the picture to
serve as a warning. Both Melanie and van der Straaten seem
to be right, for the adultery does occur and the two sepa-
rate. At the end the picture is again brought to our
attention in a form of a miniature which is sent to Melanie
as a Christmas present by van der Straaten. It is used as
an indication that she has found his forgiveness. Again,
we have come full circle when we read Melanie's comment that
it appears that the woman in the picture does not realize
her guilt, to which the narrator comments: "Ach, sie
fﬁhlte jetzt, dass das Alles auch fur sie selber gesprochen
war, und sie nahm das ihrer Hand entfallene Bildchen wieder
auf und gab es an Rubehn und errbtete" (F. VI, 124).

The narrator onlyconfirms what we have known for most of
the novel. The problem was there right from the beginning.
It was indicated by the picture and the discussion that

followed its unwrapping about guilt and tears. Melanie was

-141-

right in her comment about predestination. Throughout the
work we have seen Melanie's struggle with her guilt and seen
the tears she shed, and finally we have seen her deliverance
by the same picture that had predicted her fall. In the use
of art, as well as music and nature, Fontane stayed true to
the idea he learned from Turgenev: by using narrative
devices and by letting the characters do their own talking,
he managed to keep the narrator's comments to a minimum- In
some ways he was much like his master because he used these
devices to characterize the characters, to influence the
action, and to anticipate the future action. But Fontane
went further than his mentor, for he used the different art
forms more extensively. They were not used to characterize
one person, but reflected the novel in a nut shell, as we

have seen in the novels Stine, Poggenpuhls, Unwiederbringlich

 

 

 

and Frau Jenny Treibel.

 

CHAPTER SIX
COMPARISON OF SCHACH VON WUTHENOW AND RUDIN

 

In our investigation we were impressed with a number of
similarities in Fontane's and Turgenev's works in general,

but especially in Schach von wuthenow and Rudin. Rudin was

 

published in 1855 and Schach von wuthenow in 1882. We

 

recall that Fontane's preoccupation with Turgenev was around

1880, at the time when Schach von wuthenow was written. A

 

rough outline that could be applied to both works would show
that a man meets a woman who is willing to give him all her
love and devotion, but he is too weak to accept it. The
similarity does not end with the content, but in the form of
the work.

we will show that both Turgenev and Fontane used the same
technique to develop the plot of the novel from its begin-
ning to the end. The hero enters the stage and faces an
antagonist in a dispute in which he is introduced and
characterized. In Rudin_the hero meets Pigassov, and in

Schach von wuthenow the hero meets Bﬁlow. Already here at

 

these discussions the heroes meet their heroines as well as
their mothers. In both cases the mothers are strongwilled
with a strong sense of social status. When their daughters
fall in love with the heroes and are willing to abandon
social status and family ties, their mothers intervene. In
Rudin's case the mother wants to prevent a marriage, because

he is not socially acceptable to her; in Schach's case the

-142-

-143-

mwther forces Schach to marry her daughter to keep her
social status. Both mothers act in accordance with the
demands of society. If the daughters would act contrary to
their wishes, the mothers would lose some of that precious
social standing. Since the mothers are strongwilled and
influential, and they are pitted against a weak willed
Hamlet-type hero, the heroes succumb to pressure.

In the earlier chapters we have discussed the development
that has let both authors to progressively cut down the nar-
rated time and to increase the time for dialogues and other
narrative devices. Eugene Kolai documented this development
for Fontane's works. According to him Fontane's Vor dem
§EE£E» published in 1878, consisted of 48.5% of narrated
material, 46.6% of dialogues and monologues, and 4.9% of

letters. In Irrungen und Wirrungen, published nine years

 

later, the relationship has changed considerably. Only 33%
are taken up with the narration, while 63% comparise with
dialogue, and 4% letters. Almost the same proportions are

found in Effi Briest.120 The change in narrative technique

 

that resulted from.this shift in usage of the narrator is
considerable. But we have seen that the narrator still has
an important role. It is he who has to arrange the meetings
of the people, so that they can converse.

When we examine the use of the narrator in these two partic-
ular works, we realize that both authors start their work

with a short description by the narrator of the locality in

-144-

which the characters find themselves. While the narrator is
observing and seems to be objective, we realize that we have
in both cases an omniscient third person narrator, for he
gives us information that he could not get by simple observa-
tion. Turgenev's narrator tells us that the woman he is
describing is a widow, that she is childless, very wealthy,
and that her name is Lipina. Fontane's narrator relates that
he, who should have the place of honor next to the lady of
the house, is not here.

The information given above reveals that the narrator does
not spend too much time with his description of the locality
since this information is found on the first page. The
narrator quickly gets to his main task, which is to intro-
duce the characters and get the dialogue moving. Even
though Fontane's narrator in the first paragraph alludes to
the hero of the novel, like Turgenev, he usually introduces
and develops some of the minor figures in portraits, so that
the major figures can be developed later in the work. For
that reason the two narrators assemble people together in
social gatherings -- in the salon. Once this is accom-
plished, the narrator withdraws so that the people can talk
freely. But he is always just around the corner. He inter-
jects some comments from.time to time to keep the dialogue
flowing and to make sure that we do not forget about him.

In this vein Turgenev's narrator explains the habits of

Pigassow, who is acting peculiar in his dialogue with Rudin:

145

"Im Streit gab er sich zuerst Mﬁhe mit dem Gegner, dann
wurde er grob und schliesslich blies er sich auf und
schwieg" (T. II, 31). Or a little later comments: "Rudin
betrachtete Pigassow . . . unwillkﬁrlich von oben herab; er
war um mehr als zwei KUpfe grﬁsser. Pigassow ware beinahe
vor Wut geplatzt und sein galliges Gesicht erbleichte"

(T. II, 34). It is the same way in Schach von wuthenow,

 

when the narrator interjects: "Bﬁlow lﬁchelte vor sich hin
und schien sagen zu wollen: Ein jeder nach seinen Mitteln
(F. V, 18). A little later he states about Bﬁlow: "Er war
ein Kind seiner Zeit und romantisierte" (F. V, 18). These
comments serve to keep the presence of the narrator in mind
and to characterize other characters; They help to point
out contrasts that otherwise might escape the reader.

The majority of these comments are in agreement with the
action of the novel and do not slow down the narrative. In
this they are also in agreement with the conviction of the
two authors that the narrator should not interfere unnec-
essarily. But from time to time both authors cannot help
making comments that seem to detract from the proceedings.
This leads Turgenev's narrator to address the readers:
"Ubrigens, meine Leser; habt ihr nicht auch bemerkt "
(T. II, 17). This is the kind of remark frequently found in
Turgenev's early works, but in his later works is very rare.
The narrator turns to the reader to make him feel involved.

Fontane's comments are not quite as blatantly directed to

-l46-

the reader; but he is trying to get the same effect:

"Unsere drei Freunde" (F. V, 20). He, too, includes the
readers to give them the feeling of intimacy. The narrator
has brought us to this social gathering, and it is his duty
to bring us back and prepare for the next meeting. When we
examine the dialogues, we will see that here too the develop-
ment of the works is parallel, for the narrator in both
works pairs up people to let them.go home, and on their way
they discuss everything they have heard and felt in the
course of the evening. In this aspect we see an important
difference, for Fontane actually permits the people to speak
to the reader directly without going through the narrator,
whereas Turgenev has his narrator relate them to us.
Turgenev's narrator tells us who went where and what they
thought. He also gives us an indication of some of the new
relationships that exist as a result of the evening.

In both works the social gathering with its introduc-
tion and subsequent explanations by the narrator comprise
three chapters. By now the reader has an idea about the
different constellations of the characters and about what he
can expect of them. It is now up to the narrator to connect
the fourth chapter to the third. How does he go about it?
In Eggig the first sentence in the fourth chapter reads:

"Am nﬁchsten Morgen, kaum dass Rudin sich angekleidet hatte,
erschien ein Diener Darja Michailownas mit der Einladung,

sich in ihr Kabinett zu bemﬁhen und mit ihr Tee zu trinken"

-147-

(T. 11, 39). In Schach Von wuthenow the first sentence

 

starts out aimost the same way: "Der nachste Morgen sah
Frau Carayon und Tochter in demselben Eckzimmer, in dem sie
den Abend vorher ihre Freunde empfangen hatten" (F. V, 26).
The two authors start the fourth chapter with almost the
identical lines. It is, furthermore, important that between
the third and the fourth chapter there is hardly any connec-
tion. We have mentioned that both authors have something
of an episodic style, that is, separate episodes are loosely
connected to each other, if they are connected at all.

These episodes usually are a social gathering or just a
conversation between two people. In Rudin the narrator takes
us from a discussion between Rudin and Lasunskaja, which is
later joined by Leschnew, to one between Rudin and Natafja,
and then to one between Lipina and Leznev. A similar series

of such encounters is found in Schach von wuthenow. After

 

an initial meeting at the home of Frau von Carayon we are
taken on a trip to the country, then to a gathering at the
residence of Prince Louis of Prussia, and from there to the
parade ground. Since these events take place simultan-
eously, it seems that it would be difficult for the narrator
to handle the transition. Not so. Smoothly he maneuvers us
from episode to episode. At one point in Rudig the narrator
states: "Am selben Tag kam es auch zu einem.Gespr§ch ﬁber
Rudin zwischen Alexandra Pawlowna und Leschnew" (T. II,

60). Fontane uses a similar phrase at one point to make

-l48-

this kind of transition: "An demselben Abend, an dem
Victoire von Carayon ihren Brief an Lisette von Perbandt
schrieb, empfing Schach in seiner in der Wilhelmstrasse
gelegenen Wohnung ein Einladungsbillett von der Hand des
Prinzen Louis" (F. V, 46). In this fashion each narrator
creates a chain by combining several single episodes to-
gether. Other time phrases are often used to relate one
incident to another. In Rudin: "Der nachste Tag war ein

Sonntag,’ or "Es waren etwa zwei Jahre vergangen." In

Schach von Wuthenow we read: "Es war kurz nach diesem Dinner

 

beim Prinzen" or "Die Zimmeruhr schlug neun.’ These time-
relationships give the reader the feeling of continuance and
of relationships, where both are often missing between the
different episodes.

After having taken us from episode to episode and having
helped with his comments to develop the characters, it is
the narrator's duty to conclude. In Rudin_all loose ends
are nicely tied up. Lipina gets married to LeZnev who makes
his peace with Rudin. Rudin is killed in a Paris uprising

and his death is almost anticlimactic. He had previously

predicted that he would take an ugly end. In Schach von

 

wuthenow the narrator does not have the last word, for
Fontane differs here in this again just a bit from Turgenev,
inasmuch as he uses two letters to finalize. Some might
claim that in this he was preserving this objectivity that

he was struggling to achieve in his work. He gave Schach's

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arch enemy Bﬁlow, his wife, and possibly best friend, an
opportunity to comment on the story. Victoire had the last
word, which seems to be an indication that Fontane wanted to
stress the struggle in Schach, given priority over the theme
of Prussia's predicament. In this, he, again, is akin to
Turgenev, who stresses the private struggle over the polit-
ical struggle. Despite the minor differences, Fontane's use

of the narrator in Schach von wuthenow parallels that of

 

Turgenev's in Rudig. We have mentioned that both authors
assign another important function to the narrator, namely
that of giving the reader the first glimpses of the char-
acters as they are introduced. To do that both authors use
the portrait. In this the two authors proceed in very much
the same fashion, yet so differently. Both of them usually
give extensive portraits of their minor characters, and
hardly any description about their major character. The
portrait of Pandalevskij in Rudin is twenty-three lines
long, that of Pigassov is over two pages, but Rudin, on the
other hand, is described in seven short lines. In a depart-
ure from the rule that most major characters are more left
to the dialogue, the portrait of Natarja is thirty-three
lines long. In the portrait in this work the narrator does
not give us long descriptions of the person's appearance,
but tells us about the person's background and experience.

In Schach von wuthenOW the portraits are not as lengthy, but

 

just as important. The portrait of Bﬁlow is only thirteen

-150-

lines and that of Sanders is nine lines. The longest one is
that of Tante Marguerite von Carayon, thirty five lines
long. Of Frau von Carayon we only have three words, fre-
quently repeated throughout the work. She is always referred
to as "die schﬁne Frau." Of Victoire we only find out that
"ihr feines Profil, das einst ihrer Mutter geglichen haben
mochte, durch zahlreiche Blatternarben aber um seine frﬁhere
Schﬁnheit gekommen war" (F. V, 9). Not one word of intro-
duction of Schach, when he enters the room, His portrait is
to be developed later in dialogues. Fontane's portraits are
not only shorter than Turgenev's but are different in their
content: they usually point out features important to the
work. The short but precise portraits of Frau von Carayon
and her daughter are good examples. The fact that Frau von
Carayon is beautiful and Victoire is disfigured by the pock-
marks plays an important role in the work, the latter later
leading indirectly to Schach's death.

This portrait analysis brings us back to the constellation
of characters. In Rudin_Pigassov was given the longest
portrait: to him falls the role of antagonist to Rudin when
Rudin first appears. In their dispute Rudin shows himself
to be brighter and finds acceptance into the circle of
friends of Lasunskaja. In the process Pigassov loses some
of his influence amongst these people. In Schach von
wuthenow Bﬁlow and Sanders receive the longest portraits at

the outset and Bﬁlow has the same function Pigassov has in

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Rudin. Just as Rudin is developed in this dispute with
Pigassov, so Schach is developed in his dispute with Bﬁlow.
This makes obvious the system both authors use. First they
give a portrait of the minor figure and then they contrast
these minor characters with the hero, and in the process the
hero is characterized. For that reason any lengthy portrait
of the major characters is unnecessary.

In the course of the dialogues the narrator seems to with-
draw to permit the uninterrupted flow of the dialogue. Only
occasionally the narrator assists the participants in the
dialogues with an occasional comment such as "antwortete er"
or "unterbrach sie." In the dialogues every person comments
as a rule on the other persons around, but the feature of
these dialogues is to develop the main character. In the
dispute between Rudin and Pigassov we learn much about Rudin
in his defense of ideas, convictions -- and words. This
defense reveals that his ideas are important to him and show
that they might be even more important than the facts
themselves. He also speaks much about egotism. He is asked
to tell about the time he spent in Germany but soon he is
talking about the Enlightenment and science, as well as uni-
versity life in general. He is right back to talking about
ideas, not about specific experiences. To learn more about
specifics we have to rely on Lesznev's account of their time
in Germany. The narrator here interjects that Rudin is

talking with conviction and enthusiasm: "Rudin beherrschte

~152-

schier das hﬁchste Geheimnis, die Musik der Beredtheit" (T.
11, 38). He seems to be intoxicated just from hearing his
own voice, giving us a good idea why he is so often talking
about "egotism."

We also learn about Rudin in the course of the discussion
as well as about others present. Lipina becomes more involved
in the dispute than do the other people, and therefore we
learn most about her. She is delighted that Rudin defeats
Pigassov and admonishes Rudin to destroy him completely (T.
II, 30). Pigassov then takes his revenge on her when the
discussion turns to the topic of truth, and he accuses her
that she could much easier live without the truth than she
could without her cook Stepan (T. II, 35). After the
dispute fizzles out, she starts it up again by admonishing
Pigassov to make another try at defeating Rudin. In the
manner of the aristocracy of old she feels she must attract
Rudin to her house. During the debate she signals her
acceptance to him by taking his hat from his hand. In the
course of the discussion she shows herself to be a strong
and forceful woman who likes to have things go her way and
does her best to assure her success. She is also shown to
be very much aware of her position in society and attempts
to enhance it. All these aspects of her character are
important later in the work, when the possibility of Rudin's
marriage to her daughter comes up.
we are especially interested in Nataiﬁa and really don't

need the narrator's comment that she is deeply moved. A

-153-

short exchange between her and Volyncev tells us all we need
to know. At one point Volyncev whispers to Natal'ja that
Rudin has magnificent eyes, to which she quickly agrees.

But when he then criticizes Rudin's hands for being too
large, she simply ignores him, and signals that she does not
want to hear anything negative about Rudin. This gives us
the first indication of the possibility of some alliance
between Rudin and Natal'ja. This is even before Natal'ja is
introduced to the reader in the portrait a little later.

The people characterize themselves in the back and forth of
the conversation and also all others about them. But also
the manner in which they speak or do not speak, as in in the
case of Natal'ja, is important. When Rudin speaks about
ideas and conviction, he becomes all excited. Another
aspect of the conversations is that most of the action
occurs within the conversation, as, for example several
changes occur during the first dialogue. Rudin is accepted
into the house of Lasunskaja and Pigassov loses favor.
Natal'ja is fascinated with Rudin, and from now on her
relationship to Volyncev is cooling. All others are spell-
bound by his influence and even worship him. This all was
accomplished with one extended dialogue and a minimum of
interference by the narrator.

But there is even more to be found in this dialogue. we
anticipate the future of Natal'ja's involvement and wonder

about comments made by Rudin in the conversation. The

-154-

narrator makes it clear that some of the comments should be
considered in light of the future, for all of Rudin's
thoughts are directed to the future. (T. II, 38). Seen in
this light we anticipate that the very things Rudin is
saying will come to pass in the future. In his discourse on
egotism he claims that "Eigenliebe ist Selbstmord," unless
one can overcome it and help others (T. II, 36). We need
to keep this in mind as we watch the novel unfold and see
Rudin display his own kind of egotism. He is right, inas-
'much as egotism.led to his own destruction. At the end of
the conversation Rudin tells a Skandinavian legend and
closes with the words: "erst im Tode findet er [der Mensch]
sein Leben, sein Nest" (T. II, 38). Nothing more true can
be said of Rudin, who never has a home of his own, but
wanders about relying on the help of others.

The dialogue of Fontane's hero Schach resembles the one con-
sidered, except that in his case we do not have a stranger
who comes into a new environment. Instead we find a group
of people gathered together, as they must have been many
times before, as we can ascertain from their comments. But
their conversation follows the same pattern as we have seen
it above. In the dispute between Bﬁlow and Schach the
person that is characterized most by what he says, as well
as what others say about him, is Schach. Just as was the
case with Rudin, he is the last to enter the salon, and the

conflict starts as soon as he enters the room. The lines of

-155-

demarcation are drawn from the beginning, and though every-
one participates at one point or another in the conversation
it is a dispute between Schach and Bﬁlow. In these dis-
cussions Schach always comes out on the losing side, and in
the process he shows himself to be of limited ability. The
topic of discussion is the political situation of Prussia
and later turns to a play by Zacharias Werner. In both
instances Schach is on the defensive and loses, but he shows
himself a man of principles, a quality that will lead to his
death. This devotion to principles is shown in his defense
of Prussia and its policies, and his defense of Martin
Luther. A few lines taken from the dialogue are revealing
and give the reader an insight into the dialogue. Victoire
was asked to sing some of the songs from the play by
Zacharias Werner. When she mentions that she has had hardly
any time to look at the notes, Schach replies:

0 dann bitt ich um so mehr, bemerkte Schach. Alle

Salonvirtuositat ist mir verhasst. Aber was ich in

der Kunst liebe, das ist ein solches poetisches

Suchen und Tappen.

Bﬁlow lachelte vor sich hin und schien sagen zu wollen;

ein jeder nach seinen Mitteln (F. V, 18).
In his words Schach reveals himself as a diletant. The
reader would not judge him harshly for that, were it not for
the comments by the narrator which reveal much more. We
indicated earlier that Schach was always on the defensive
and lost all the arguments. Here the prevalent feelings we

acquire in the dialogue are vocalized by the narrator. He

implies that Schach likes the kind of art that is not

-156-

polished or perfected, because he is too limited in ability
to do anything else.

But what about the other people who participate in the
dialogue? Frau von Carayon shows to be conciliatory and
definitely on the side of Schach. When Bﬁlow is about to
pounce on Schach, she interrupts with the words: "Wo nicht
Frieden sein kann da sei wenigstens Waffenstillstand" (F.
V, 13). Where Lasunskaja in Rudig advocates strife, Frau
von Carayon advocates peace. But while their attitude in
this regard is different, they have something in common,
both of them are strongwilled. When Bﬁlow talks about his
dislike of the work by Zacharias werner, she replies that
she and Victoire will go and see it. She certainly displays
this strength of spirit in her struggle with Schach.
Victoire is in many ways her mother's daughter and supports
her in her opinions. One small segment of the conversation
in which the tOpic turns to Victoire's like of the Polish
people is interesting, for it tells us a little more about
her. She declares her admiration and love for the Polish
people, and gives as a reason: "weil sie so ritterlich
sind" (F. V, 9). This little insight helps us to under-
stand her motivation in her love for Schach. He is always
typified as the most gallant of them all, and she herself
uses the term in her letter to her friend: "Ich hasse das
wert ritterlich, und habe doch kein anderes fﬁr ihn" (F. V,

45). As far as her relationship to Schach is concerned,

-157-

very little is said here. The only indication given here in
the salon is the fact that they are entertaining the guest
together with their music. He plays the piano and she sings

the songs of the play weihe der Kraft. We realize, however,

 

that both Carayons are fond of Schach despite his short-
comings.

All in all, this first dialogue in both works is revealing.
we have learned much about the hero and also about the
people about him, as well as about their relationship to
each other. The conversations that take place after the
main dialogue, when the people split up into groups, is even
'more revealing. We have mentioned earlier that Turgenev has
his narrator take over this responsibility while Fontane
gives this assignment to his characters. In the case of
Rudin we really do not learn anything new, but our suspi-
cions are confirmed. Lasunskaja speaks with Rudin and asks
him to stay. Lipina is deeply impressed with Rudin's
erudition. But her brother argues that Rudin was often not
clear and throughout the discussion with his sister he makes
a sullen face and is moody, which gives us an indication of
his reaction to Rudin. Most importantly, Natal'ja's actions
speak louder than words. She cannot sleep, for "alle ihre
Adern pulsten fieberhaft, und ein schwerer Seufzer hob
haufig ihre Brust" (F. V, 39).

In Schach the different people go their way, but Bﬁlow,

Sanders and Alvensleben deCide to go somewhere to talk.

-158-

They are a little later joined by Nostitz, a colleague of
Schach and Alvensleben. The topic of their conversation is
Schach. We find out much about him, and how people around
him relate to him. Especially informative is this dis-
cussion about the flaws of Schach. Some of them have
already been exposed in the earlier conversation. His
biggest fault is that he is totally dependent on the opinions
of his peers specifically, and society as a whole. For that
reason he would never marry either of the Carayon women. As
we can expect from the earlier discussion, Bﬁlow expresses a
low opinion of Schach and calls him a pedant and a pompous
ass. He condemns him especially for his narrow views and
for having the opinion reflected in the sentence: "die Welt
ruht nicht sicherer auf den Schultern des Atlas als der
preussische Staat auf den Schultern der preussischen Armee"
(F. V, 25). Nostitz considers Schach stiff and boring. As
a final statement Sanders tries to summarize some of the
comments when he states: "Seine Majesth, der Rittmeister
von Schach, er lebe" (F. V, 25). This all sounds like a
thorough condemnation of Schach, the man, yet all agree that
he is one of their best. He is the most gallant, which is
what attracts Victoire, and, above all, he is always him-
self. He never pretends to be something he is not.

In retrospect we observe that the first dialogue with its
subsequent comments by either the narrator or, in Fontane's

case, by characters are in their basic form quite similar.

-159-

In the dialogues the people characterize themselves and
everyone around them, and tell us much about their rela-
tionships and their situation. This characterization is
done through an episodic style and these episodes are conver-
sations which take place in different settings and amongst
different people. These conversations follow the same
pattern. The narrator starts them, disappears during the con-
versation, and again takes over at the end. The topic of
the discussion is usually their hero. In Rudin, on the day
after his first meeting, Rudin is invited to have tea with
Lasunskaja. Rudin talks again of egotism and about himself.
Of her it is said that she talks about herself in everything
she says, which in one way or another is true of all of
Turgenev's characters, as well as of Fontane's. But the
narrator makes us aware that she talks about herself more
than the other characters. After leaving her, Rudin meets
Natal'ja by accident, and the process starts from the
beginning. In the afternoon there is a gathering in the
salon and we witness that the rift widens between Natal'ja
and Volyncev. A little later Leznev converses with Lipina
and tells her about Rudin's youth. In this fashion the
dialogue does not only give us a feeling for the present and
the future, but in it we are also informed about the past.
Just like a mosaic we can put the little pieces given in the
dialogues together into one big picture. But not only is

most of the information given in the dialogues, but most of

-160-

the action happens in them as well. Because of Rudin's
eloquence in these dialogues, Natal'ja falls in love with
him and eventually out of love with Volyncev. Volyncev and
Pigassov learn to dislike Rudin because of their conver-
sations with him. Natal'ja's confession of love and the
expression of her total devotion to him, which would even
‘make her leave her family and her way of life, occurs in the
dialogue, as well as does his rejection. By the time we
arrive at this juncture, we have received so much infor-
mation in the dialogues that we are quite certain how Rudin
will respond to Natal'ja's question.

A similar pattern of dialogues is apparent in Schach von

 

wuthenow. And again we can predict what Schach will do in
any given situation; his suicide at the end does not come to
us as a complete surprise. After the initial dialogue,
discussed above, Schach and the Carayons get together and go
on an outing to Tempelhof. During that outing Schach devotes
time to both Carayons. The conversation between Frau von
Carayon and Schach is of special interest to us, since it
shows well how the characters talk about themselves in
everything they say. The topic of discussion is Bﬁlow. Frau
von Carayon shows herself full of compassion and under-
standing and defends Bﬁlow. Schach does not accept her
defense, and in the course of his attack he talks about
himself and states his own philosophy: "Ich aber halte zu

dem friderizianischen Satze, dass die Welt nicht sicherer

-l6l-

auf den Schultern des Atlas ruht als Preussen auf den
Schultern seiner Armee” (F. V, 36). We recall that in an
earlier conversation Bﬁlow used the very same sentence to
condemn Schach, and what he stands for. Schach states his
philosophy as a virtue, and Bﬁlow considered it as a con-
demnation. The reader must consider both sides and make up
his mind.

The topic of conversation with Victoire turns to the topic
of beauty. She states that in her opinion "die Schﬁnheit
macht selbstisch und wer selbstisch ist ist undankbar und
treulos." (F. V, 41). The narrator adds that Schach was
certain these words were not directed against him, This
might be the case, but the very fact that he even entertains
that thought, makes us aware that there is a reason for him
to wonder about that. The narrator's assurance has exactly
the opposite effect. This kind of statement on part of the
narrator is found in Fontane's works, as well as in Turgenev's.
If the narrator's first comment served to put the original
statement in question, the additional comments adds to the
readers' puzzlement, for he implies that, while Victoire
said these things without any particular purpose, she
nevertheless uttered them out of some kind of dark premo-
nition. Not only have these comments put the original }
statement into question, but from now on the reader will be

looking for other indications of such a problem.

-162-

Victoire recalls this conversation, and the walk with
Schach, in a letter to a friend. When we consider narrated
time and time occupied by dialogue, we can consider the
letter almost timeless. It is a form of dialogue which by
its nature makes possible a transmittal of thought, that
might not be possible otherwise, in a face to face encounter.
In this letter Victoire bares her soul to her friend and we
learn much about her, about Schach, and their relationship.
We find out just how deeply Schach has affected her with his
conversation, and how much she was hurt by his obvious
attempt not to be seen together with her in public. She
realizes that he is totally governed by his vanity and his
dependence on the good opinion of the people. In her letter
she reminds us of her conversation with him the day before
about beauty and selfishness of the beautiful people. In
her letter she also admits that Schach is only of average
ability. Despite of all these shortcomings, she likes him
and holds him.in high esteem.

The letter served as an important interlude. It is followed
by a conversation at the residence of Prince Louis of
Prussia. In this conversation two items of interest need to
be mentioned. One is that the conversation between Bﬁlow

and Schach is repeated. They are arguing about the same
topic -- the peace treaty with France. Schach loses again.
But the second part of the conversation is even more impor-

tant for its topic is beauty. Victoire and Schach had

-163-

talked about beauty. The prince states quite emphatically
that beauty by itself is nothing. The absence of beauty
might even be an advantage. Only the heart is important.
He insists that he be introduced to the Carayon family.
This conversation is of pivotal importance, for in it we
have several occurrences. Schach has once more been defeated
by Bﬁlow in front of, and almost with the help of the
prince. In the discussion about beauty Schach's feelings on
the subject are expressed here for the first time in his
words. After the prince's comments, however, his conviction
seems to have been shaken. This becomes apparent in the
conversation between Schach and Victoire, which follows the
dialogue in the prince's residence. During their conver-
sation the narrator states that "manches, was der Prinz
ﬁber sie [Victoire] gesagt hatte, ging ihm durch den Kopf"
(F. V, 69). Another important aspect of the conversation at
the prince's residence is the prince's request, that he be
introduced to the Carayons soon. It is this request that
brings Schach to the house of the Carayon family and leads
to the involvement with Victoire.
When Schach arrives at the home of the Carayons, he is
received by Victoire, who is a little ill. She admits him.
In the ensuing conversation they talk again about beauty,
and she berates her fate. He attempts to reassure her:

Sie dﬁrfen nicht so lachen, Victoire, nicht so. Das

kleidet Sie nicht, das verhasslicht Sie. Ja, werfen
Sie nur die Lippen -verhﬁsslicht Sie. Der Prinz hatte

-164-

doch recht, wenn er enthusiastisch von Ihnen sprach.
Armes Gesetz der Form und der Farbe. Was allein gilt,
ist das ewig Eine, dass sich die Seele den Kﬁrper
sshafft oder ihn durchleuchtet und verklart (F. V,
This is what she wanted to hear. Nothing is said about what
happens now, we almost miss it. It is reflected subtly in
the spoken word. The action is reflected in the dialogue.
At one moment the narrator comments: "Und nun hbrte sie sie
[die Worte Schachs] willenlos and schwieg in einer sﬁssen
Betﬂubung." This is followed by Schach's words: "Was
erregt dich? Du hﬁrst zu fein" (F. V, 70-71). The languge
changed from Schach's earlier use of the polite "Sie" to the
familiar "Du."
We could go from dialogue to dialogue and follow the develop-
ment of the novel to the end, and by doing so we would find
that most action is in the dialogue. In it, for example,
Frau von Carayon confronts Schach and demands an engagement
and later marriage. Schach receives his orders from the king
and encouragement from the queen. In the dialogue he makes
his peace with Frau von Carayon, and it is in the dialogue
that we first learn of his plan. In some uses of the
dialogue Fontane differs from Turgenev, especially in
Fontane's customary conversations after the social gather-
ing, which Turgenev left to his narrator. But on the whole,
their approach to the dialogue in these two works is the

same. Both authors use the portrait to introduce and

characterize the minor characters, but then leave the

-165-

development of the major characters and the development of
the conflict to the dialogue. In the dialogue everyone
characterizes everyone, and the relationships between
different people are made apparent. In most instances each
dialogue presents a little episode which is loosely connec-
ted to the rest of the work and could be presented by a
still photo, such as "Rudin and Natalja in the garden;
Schach and the Carayons at Tempelhof." Since the episodes
resemble still life photos, the action of necessity has to
be in the dialogue. Only a few items are reported by the
narrator.

We have indicated that in both works a polarity of weak men
and strong women exists. Turgenev saw in this polarity a
representation of the Hamlet and Don Quixote type. Fontane

1

called his weak men "Halbe,' indicating that something is
‘missing in their psychological make-up. In both works there
are one weak man and two strong women. In each case we are
slowly presented with a picture of the Hamlet type, as he is
developed in dialogues. Knowing the criteria for the Hamlet
type from.our earlier discussion, we should be suspicious of
Rudin for his talk of ideas and egotism. Our suspicions are
confirmed in the dialogue between Rudin and Natal'ja, in
which she urges him.to be useful to society. He replies:
"Nﬁtzlich zu sein. . . das ist leicht gesagt! Er fuhr sich

‘mit der Hand ﬁber das Gesicht. Nﬁtzlich zu sein! wieder-

holte er. Selbst wenn ich davon fest ﬁberzeugt ware: wie

-l66-

kﬁnnte ich nﬁtzlich sein? Selbst wenn ich an meine Kerte
glaubte" (F. V, 50).

In his words we recognize Turgenev's superfluous man, who is
not convinced of his worth, and just cannot be convinced
that he could be useful. A conversation between LeZhev and
Lipina gives us another clue about Rudin. Leinev tells her
that he had been in love with a young girl, but that Rudin
ended all that. He did that by setting LeEhev down and by
analyzing the situation for him and advising him.how he
should proceed from.there. In typical Hamlet fashion he
killed all ardor with his analyzing. Rudin talks often of
love, but admits to Natal'ja in another conversation, that
he could never give himself completely to any woman (T. II,
73). When it seems that he does commit himself, he goes to
Volyncev to tell him about it. Volyncev wonders about
Rudin's real purpose of telling him about his love and asks
LeEnev: "Wollte er prahlen vor mir oder hatte er Angst" (T.
II, 85). Leinev understands Rudin well and tells Volyncev
that this was only an opportunity for Rudin to talk. He
adds: "Seine Zunge ist sein grﬁsster Feind." As Rudin is
waiting for Natal'ja at the dam, he is nervous, and the
narrator reminds us of a comment made by Pigassov about
Rudin: "der Kopf habe immer das Ubergewicht" (T. II, 88).
All these pieces given in the dialogue prepare us for the
final meeting between Rudin and Natal'ja. When the choice

is placed before him to take Natalﬁa and run, and by doing

-167-

so take upon himself the wrath of the society, personified in
the person of Lusanskaja, and also the responsibility of mar-
riage, he decides that this is too much to ask and runs. For
him there is only one alternative, to give in to the pressure
and run. As a typical Hamlet figure he is all talk and no
action. He realizes his own predicament and talks about it
with Lexnev in their last meeting: ”Worte, nichts als

Worte, aber keine Taten" (T. p. 131). He talks much of
"egotism” as is characteristic of the Hamlet type, and when
he leaves and cries, the narrator tells us that these are
tears of "egotism". Besides his inability to act he is too
‘much influenced by this ”egotism” to go against society.

But how much different is Natal'ja? In her portrait we are
already given a clue in the narrator's statement that she
feels "tief und stark, aber heimlich" (T. II, 48). It is
Lethev who adds to our knowledge of Natal'ja when he tells
Lipina in their conversation that Natal'ja will surprise

them all, for she is full of passion. It is girls like her
who drown themselves or take poison (T. 11, 71). This kind
of commitment is evident in her conversation with Rudin at
the dam. Even though she knew the consequences better than
anyone else that would come about if she married Rudin, she
professed to him, that whatever he decides, she would
believe in him all the way. She had told her mother earlier
that she would rather die than marry anyone but Rudin. She

would follow him anywhere under any circumstances. But she

-168-

realizes that with Rudin it is a long way from words to
action. She chastises him and repeats that she is prepared
to go anywhere with him. But, alas, she is a Don Quixote
type, and he a Hamlet type -- and the two shall never be
united.

Just as Rudin is shown to be a Hamlet type in the dia-
logues, so it is with Schach. Little by little he is
exposed in the statements of his peers. The first indica-

' comes to us in the conversation in

tion of being a "Halber,'
the restaurant after the social gathering at the Carayons.
Alvensleben, who defends Schach against Bﬁlow's attacks, has
to admit that Schach has psychological problems: "Er ist
krankhaft abhﬁngig, abhangig bis zur Schwﬁche von dem Urteil
der Menschen, speziell seiner Standesgenossen" (F. V, 24).
This dependency is considered a great weakness by Alvensleben.
Victoire expresses the same opinion in her letter to her
friend. She sees "Eitelkeit" as Schach's biggest problem,

and the fact that he is so dependent on the opinion of

others. She also sees this dependency as a weakness.

Despite this weakness she admires him. It is interesting

that in both instances this declaration of weakness comes

from two of Schach's admirers and supporters. When seen in
the proper light, we can easily see that it is his "Eitelkeit"
that gets him into difficulties. Only after the prince's
comments, does Schach even think about Victoire as accep-

table. If the prince wanted to meet her, and he thought

~169-

that only her heart counted, she must be acceptable. But
once that influence wore off and he was again his old self,
he cannot hear the thought of seeing Victoire alone and
allow any intimate contact. He visits the family only when
it is safe, that is to say, when they are not alone, and
there is a topic of conversation available.

Up to this point Frau von Carayon does not know about
the incident. When she finds out she is confident that
Sohach will do the right thing, because she is convinced
that he has an extraordinary sense of right and wrong, which
will win over his conceit and weakness (F. V, 83). This is
another incident in which Schach is condemned by a friend
and admirer. Frau von Carayon condemns him as being con-
ceited, but then defends him and states that his sense of
right and wrong will prevail. In this case, just as is the
case in many other instances, there is no clear cut con-
demnation, for it is always balanced out with some words of
defense. This is Fontane's way of never tying himself down,
but always leaving himself open with a "but", "however" or
"nevertheless." Both Frau von Carayon and Victoire repeat
the accusation that Schach is weak and vain several times at
different occasions. He himself proves just how dependent
on the opinion of the people he is, when he finds out about
some of the caricatures that have been published about his

relationship with Victoire:

-l70-

Schach zitterte vor Scham und Zorn, alles Blut

stieg ihm in den Kopf und es war ihm, als wﬁrde er

vom Schlag getroffen (F. V, 91).
He is so hurt that he requests leave from his superiors, and
runs away on the same day on which he is supposed to
announce his engagement. Frau von Carayon notwithstanding,
his weakness proved to be greater than his sense of right
and wrong. When he is commanded by his king to marry
Victoire von Carayon, he sees no way out but suicide. He
marries her and shoots himself on the same afternoon. In a
letter to her friend Victoire restates her position con-
cerning Schach and still defends him.‘ She claims that while
the world saw Schach as too weak to face the ridicule of the
world, he went into death out of fear of life itself. She
maintains, however, that Schach could have come to grips
with the scorn of the people, but he could not have won the
battle that raged within himself, for he simply was not
meant to get married. Victoire is very kind to Schach, but
she cannot hide the fact that Schach's death was caused by
his own weakness and his inability to face the demands that
life and the love of a young woman made upon him. In this
he is exactly like Rudin. When the pressure becomes too
great, he runs away.
Just as Schach reminds us of Rudin, so does Victoire of
Natal'ja. .In both of them.we recognize a great soul. Even
after Schach leaves her in the way he does, by committing

suicide right after their marriage, she defends him to the

~171-

last. Much earlier she expresses her willingness to take
upon herself the responsibility of their action and not make
any demands on Schach at all. In comparison to Natal'ja she
does not appear as forceful, because in her case she does
not have to face the possibility or a struggle with a strong
mother, for her own desires coincide with those of her
mother. She is like Natal'ja in her total commitment and in
her willingness to carry the burden, no matter how heavy it
will be. In both instances the heroine stands in the shadow
of her mother to some extent, for as we have seen, both
mothers are strong-willed and wield much power. This might
account for the fact that we can trace the characteristics
of the hero quite readily, as they are developed in dialo-
gues, but that little is given about the heroines. Their
strength is mostly shown at the moment of decision.

We have seen that both Turgenev and Fontane have been
consistent in their goal of trimming the narrator's part in
developing the characters and the plot. In this endeavor
both authors resort to other narrative devices that offer
them opportunities to even more minimize the necessity of
having the narrator give the reader information about the!
characters. As we have considered the use of nature and the
arts in their other works we will investigate their use in

Rudin and Schach von WuthenOW in particular. At the outset

 

it is important to clarify that in the nature descriptions

the narrator has an important part, since the narrator

-172-

relates these descriptions to us. But in the process the
narrator will not emerge and tell other details about the
hero. The reader has to draw the conclusions himself as to
how this particular nature scene reflects the mood of the
hero. Neither one of these works has many nature descrip-
tions. In Rudig nature is used three times to reflect the
mood of the people. One time nature reflects Natal'ja's
feeling after she had a conversation with Rudin. Rudin
talked to her about love and in the process upset her con-
siderably, so that on her return to her room she cries. But
next morning she feels better and goes into the garden. It
has rained off and on all morning, which can be seen as a
reflection of her own tears, but when she enters the garden
the rain has ceased, and the air is fresh and all is quiet
(T. 11, 71). This calmness reflects Natal'ja's own soul.
The tears had come and gone and now she is composed. The
second instance nature is used is just before Rudin and
Natal'ja are to meet in the garden, where he confesses his
love to her. Rudin is in the garden waiting for her. The
evening is described as quiet and calm. Not even one leaf
‘moves.

Die obersten Zweige des Flieders und

der Akazien schienen auf irg ndetwas zu lauschen

und reckten sich in die warme Luft. Das Haus

dunkelte in der Nahe; als Flecken rﬁtlichen Lichts

zeichneten sich die beleuchteten langen Fenster ab.

Friedlich und still war der Abend; doch ein ver-

haltener, leidenschaftlicher Seufzer verbarg sich
in dieser Stille.

-l73-

Rudin stand da, die Arme auf der Brust gekreuzt,

und lauschte mit gespannter Aufmerksamkeit. Sein

Herz pochte heftig, und er hielt unwillkﬁrlich

den Atem an. Endlich vernahm er leichte, eilige

Schritte, und in die Laube trat Natalja (T. 11, 79).
The description of nature and that of Rudin seem to coincide.
Nature is quiet and calm, but waiting with a passionate
sigh. So is Rudin, he is standing in the arbor with his arms
folded across his chest. He appears calm, but his heart
pounds in anticipation. Nature also has the appearance of
calmness, but underneath it is that passionate sigh. And
just as nature seems to be listening for something, so is
Rudin. Nature is a reflection of man and helps us to get a
better understanding of man's emotions and feeling . In the
third instance we have a description of Ardjuxin's pond,
where Rudin and Natal'ja are to meet for their final en-
counter. The area is almost bare of life. The pond has
disappeared, as well as the farm that used to be here.
Superstition has it that a young girl was killed here by a
falling tree:

Der ganze Ort um den Teich galt als unrein; leer

und nackt, dumpf und dﬁster auch an sonnigen Tagen,

schien er durch die Nahe des langst abestorbenen

und verdorrten altersschwachen Eichenwaldes noch

dﬁsterer und dumpfer zu sein. Vereinzelte graue

Uberreste riesiger Bﬁume ragten wie traurige,

verzagte Gespenster ﬁber das niedrige Buschwerk

empor. Unheimlich war es, sie zu betrachten: es

war als hatten sich bﬁse alte Manner versammelt,

um etwas Schlechtes auszuhecken (T. II, 87).
This certainly is a peculiar place for two lovers to meet,

and not even the argument that not many people come here and

it was chosen for that reason, can convince us. Rather than

-174-

being just a place which reflects man's feelings, this place
seems to foreshadow things to come. It is barren and
associated with it are prophesies of doom. In regards to
the two lovers, it seems to have foreshadowed the situation
correctly, for their relationship is barren and doomed as
the area. In addition, the wind howls and the sky is
covered with clouds, which adds even more to this feeling of
trouble. Just as unsettled as the nature around him is the
mind of Rudin. He is confused in mind and soul. After the
meeting it also is the reflection of Natal'ja's mind, for
she came with the firm conviction to go with Rudin and
leaves disillusioned and confused. It is as if superstition
was right, and she is the one hit by the dying tree.

In Schach von wuthenow we also find three instances in which

 

nature is used to reflect the feelings of man. But here all
three occasions are used to show Schach's inner struggle to
free himself. The first incident occurs right after Schach
leaves Berlin and goes to his estate after he has seen the
caricatures. He arrives late at his castle and sleeps on

a couch. The servant had left the light on and the window
open, which gave some giant moths an opportunity to come in
through the window, but they could not find their way out.
The similarity to Schach's situation is apparent. He, too,
was attracted for a moment, and now can not find a way out.
In the morning he walks through the garden and in the

process walks in a circle at the foot of the hill. As he

:175-

becomes aware of this, he mmmbles to himself: "Kﬁnnt ich
nur heraus" (F. V, 100). This, again, is a reference to his
perception of his own situation, where he feels that he is
walking in a circle without any way out.

The third incident which reflects his own frame of mind is
shortly thereafter. He gets into a boat and lets himself
drift in the current. Suddenly he wakes up and realizes
that he has passed his turn-off and corrects his mistake
only with great difficulty and extra effort. Just as Schach
drifted in the boat, so he drifted through life. He got
into this difficulty because he listened to other people.
Without the comments by the prince the whole incident might
not have happened. Then comes the pressure from Frau von
Carayon and ultimately from the king. Schach always gives
in and drifts. When he receives the caricature, he is
influenced the other way and drifts again. Only a supreme
effort can rectify all this. Suicide is his way out. All
three scenes deal with his inability to find his way out of
the difficulty he is in, and also with his inability to act
decisively and forthright. He is a "Halber" and that is
reflected in the drifting in the boat. Were he a Don
Quixote type instead of a Hamlet type, he would be acting
instead of drifting.

In the works of both authors we have only three noteworthy
uses of nature. In Rudin a short nature description serves

as the beginning for the work, but besides giving a

-176-

description of locality, it serves no other purpose. Both
authors could have included other nature descriptions, but
did so only when nature could be used to give insight to the
character's frame of mind or to predict some future event.
In this fashion the function of the narrator is affected in
two ways. The narrated time is cut short and the necessity
for the narrator to make extensive comment is also lessened.
For the same reasons the two authors used the arts exten-
sively in their works. They helped to characterize the
characters, to influence the action of the play, and to pre-
dict future actions. In Rudin Turgenev uses music and lit-
erature especially to characterize two people, Pigassov,
Rudin's antagonist, and Rudin himself. Early in the work
Pandalevskij plays an etude by Thalberg, after which Pigassov
spouts forth about three categories of egotists, whereupon
Lusanskaja asks him what that has to do with the music.
Nothing at all, he replies, and I didn't even listen to it.
She then asks him.what he likes, if he does not like music.
Maybe he likes literature? He loves literature, but not the
contemporary (T. II, 23), If Turgenev were to tell us
through his narrator that in Rudin there are few redeeming
qualities, if any at all, we would not be surprised after
this revelation. He does not like music, and literature
only to an extent. This confession from his own lips
condemns Pigassov almost as much as the words he later

speaks, when he tries to defend himself by saying that he

-l77-

does not just dislike women but is not a great admirer of
the human race on the whole (T. II, 35). The impression we
have received from his first statement which we consider in
the light of Turgenev's high regard for music is supported
by the second statement. Both are given in conversations
without any comment by the narrator.
Pigassov's opponent, Rudin, on the other hand, seems to like
music. At one point in the event he approaches Natal'ja and
asks her if she plays the piano, which is standing in the
room. She plays, but claims not to play well. He then asks
her if she could play "Erlkbnig" by Schubert. Pandalevskij
ends up playing "Erlkﬁnig," but Natal'ja stands next to the
piano directly opposite of Rudin:

Mit dem ersten Klang nahm sein Gesicht einen

wundersamen Ausdruck an. Seine dunkelbraunen

Augen irrten langsam durch dan Raum and blieben

mitunter an Natalja thgen. Pandalewskuj hBrte auf.

Rudin sagte nichts und trat ans offene Fenster.

Duftiger Nebel lag als weiche Decke ﬁber dem Garten;

in schlummernder Frische atmeten die nahen Baume.

Die Sterne funkelten weich und warm. Die Sommernacht

war zartlich und machte zﬂrtlich. Rudin blickte in

den dunklen Garten und wandte sich ab (T. V, 37).
It is clear that Rudin's apparent love of music is con-
trasted with Pigassow's lack of interest in music. Both of
them are characterized by their attitude toward music. But
this scene has an additional purpose besides characteriza-
tion. This is the first time Rudin takes notice of Natal'ja,

and they stand facing each other as the romantic music is

played. From time to time his eyes would meet hers. The

-178-

short nature description gives us an indication of his frame
of mind. The romantic music and the evening serve to create
atmosphere. There is no doubt left here that both, Rudin
and Natal'ja, are affected by the music and the evening, and
that in fact they help to bring them together. In this
fashion music contributes to the action of the novel and
serves at the same time as an epic prediction. The reader
certainly looks forward to finding out what happens to those
two.

What started with music is continued with literature. One
might say that there is nothing new under the sun, for we
find Rudin reading EEEEE and other German classics to
Natal'ja, just as Pawel Alexandrowitsch had readFau§E to
Priimkova in Turgenev's EEEEE.and caused her to fall in love
with him. Similar results are attained here by Rudin:

VorlHufig rauchte ihr nur das Kﬁpfchen. . . aber

ein junges Kﬁpfchen raucht nicht lange allein. Was
fﬁr sﬁsse Augenblicke doch Natalja erlebte, wenn ihr
Rudin im Garten beiseiten auf einer Bank im leichten,
schﬁtteren Schatten einer Esche Goethe's Faust,
Hoffman, Bettinas Briefe oder Novalis vorlas und

sich dabei stﬂndig unterbrach und ihr erlerte, was
ihr dunkel vorkam, Sie sprach schlecht Deutsch wie
fast alle unsre adeligen Fraulein, verstand aber
ziemlich viel, wﬁhrend Rudin ganz in die deutsche
Poesie, in die deutsche Romantik und Philosophie
vertieft war und sie hinter sich in jene verbotenen
Lander nachzog. Unbekannt und herrlich breiteten sie
sich vor ihrem aufmerksamen Blick aus; von den Seiten
der Bﬁcher, die Rudin in der Hand hielt, ergossen sich
wunderliche Bilder, neue und lichte Gedanken in tﬁnenden
Strﬁmen in ihre Seele- und in ihrem Herzen, das von der
edlen Freude grosser Em findungen erschﬁttert wurde,
erglﬁhte und erbrannte eise der heilige Funke der
Begeisterung. . .(T. 11, 58).

-l79-

Rudin lures her with him into those forbidden fields of
romanticism and philosophy, and in the process sparks a fire
and enthusiasm in her which later leads to her total devo-
tion to him. Natal'ja learns quickly about literature and
its hidden meanings, and shows herself capable of enthusiasm
and, we suspect, even capable of passion. This gives us an
inkling of things to come. Leznev confirms in his con-
versation with Lipina that Natal'ja is full of passion (T.
II, 71). Literature plays a major role in bringing out this
passion in her and prepares her to be willing to forsake her
family and friends and follow Rudin. All this time the nar-
rator has not interfered in the development of this aspect
of Natal'ja's character, but simply lets the facts speak for
themselves. Most of the information is given in conversa-
tions.

Mirabeau and Zacharias Werner are two authors that are

mentioned in Schach von wuthenow, and their works have a

 

profound influence on Fontane's work. Weihe der Kraft, a

 

work by Werner, is discussed passionately by the people
attending the salon of Frau von Carayon. In the process of
the discussion people are characterized in two ways, in
their attitude about the play and in their ability to
debate. Schach, Victoire, Frau von Carayon, and Alvensleben
think that the reformer Martin Luther should not be the
subject of a play, because they have too many memories and

look to him with devotion and reverence. Bﬁlow does not

~180-

want to see the play either, but his reasoning is that the
play is a distortion of facts and therefore he does not want
to see it. For him.there is no such thing as reverence and
devotion. We have already indicated above that Schach
clearly comes out the loser in these debates.

In the course of the evening Victoire sings a couple of
songs from the play and Schach accompanies her. The songs
talk about a bloom that is sleeping under the snow until May
comes, at which time it will come forth and join its
brothers which are blooming already. Sanders is asked what
he thinks about these verses, and replies that they must be
beautiful, but he does not understand them, To the reader
these songs seem.to be an indication of things to come.
Schach and Victoire are playing a song about something that
is to bloom in May. we feel that the author here is making
us aware of the coming affair between the performers. Up to
now there is only a slight inkling about a possibility of
such an affair.

The performance of the two songs is also used to character-
ize Bﬁlow and inform the reader that he is not completely
what he claims to be, namely a man without feelings who is
always in opposition. Just like the others he is a product
of his time and likes to romanticize (F. V, 19).

As far as the arts are concerned, the discussion of nghg

der Kraft seems to overpower any other influence, but the

 

central chapter belongs nevertheleSs to the writer and

-181-

revolutionary Mirabeau. On the fateful evening on which
Schach comes to the Carayon residence, he finds Victoire
reading a work by Mirabeau. Victoire is in a very dark mood
and talks about her identifying with the writer Mirabeau and
his fate. Schach tries to make her feel better and in the
process tells her that the soul creates the kind of body it
envisions and causes the body to radiate, with the idea that
this is the case with her. He assures her that she has a
right to live and love. Mirabeau's life and works have lead
to this discussion and are as such responsible for the short
lived romance that blooms forth from this discussion. The
author Mirabeau had influenced Victoire's thinking into a
negative pattern, and in an effort to counteract that,
Schach commits himself to something he can not handle and
eventually leads to his doom.

Before this can come about, Werner's play weihe der Kraft is

 

brought back into the scene because Schach's colleagues
decide to create a travesty of the play. Even before that
event the feelings of the people concerning the play were
separated. In the Carayon family the mother is for the play
and the daughter against it. Tante Margerita is certain
that the main idea of the play is the importance of the
Christian institution of marriage. Interestingly enough she
brings in the name of Schach into her discussion of marriage
and compares his outward appearance to that of Luther (F.

V, 75). Victoire blushes. This allusion to Schach in this

-182-

regard and her relationship to Schach make this whole
discussion of the play personal for Victoire and help us
better understand her reaction to the travesty of the play,
in which several drinking and card playing nuns are shown,
and in another wagon Luther with his wife Catharina von
Bora. Another fact that contributes to her difficulty is
that she is racked with the thought that Schach actually
'might have portrayed Luther. All her anxiety is too much
and she faints. This, in turn, leads to her confession of
her affair to her mother, which, in turn, creates the
confrontation between Schach and Frau von Carayon. What had
started with a work by Mirabeau came to light because of a

travesty of the work Weihe der Kraft. Two authors and their

 

works were used by Fontane to bring about critical actions
in the work.
Music and arts have been shown to play an important role in

Rudin and Schach von wuthenow. The utilization of the arts

 

as narrative devices helped the author characterize per-
sonae, foreshadow future actions, and even influence actions
to a great degree. In this process the narrator was used
only to state observable facts, without commenting on the
meaning of these facts as such. In this regard the use of
the arts fits into the greater scheme of the work, together
with the use of nature as a narrative device, as well as the

polarity of the characters. All these devices, together

-183-

with the expansion of the role of the dialogue, give a
picture of a consistent narrative technique in these two

works.

CONCLUSION

In our discussion we have seen many affinities between the
narrative technique of Fontane and Turgenev. We have
repeatedly pointed to changes that are found between Fontane's

early style in Vor dem Sturm and the style in his later

 

novels. The style in his later novels reflects many aspects
of the style of Turgenev's later works.

Of all the changes that affected Fontane's style most is the
development of the dialogue which brought about a drastic
change in the use of the narrator. A consequence of this
change is a style that is now more dramatic and more vibrant
than it was in the early works. In this regard Fontane
became a direct beneficiary of Turgenev's work with the
drama. The manner of the dialogue used by both authors is
the same and both of them used a series of dialogues to
develop the hero from many points of view. To create these
series of dialogues they usually have their characters get
together in social settings where they converse with each
other and then split up in different groups. These smaller
groups in their discussions give their different views which
usually concern themselves with the hero and the heroine.

It is this versatility in the dialogue that made it possible
to lighten the load of the narrator and develop most of the
plot and the characters in the dialogue. But the similarity

-184-

-185-

that we found in the role that was left to the narrator was
also convincing. Fontane's narrator still has the function
of setting up the stage and taking the reader smoothly from
one episode to another just as Turgenev's narrator has to
do. Even the manner of giving a portrait of the minor
characters so that they in turn can assist in the develop-
ment of the major characters is comparable to the manner of
Turgenev's narrator in this regard.

As we have taken a close look at the major characters in
Fontane's works we have found a polarity of weak men and
strong women that again reminded us of Turgenev's polarity
of the Hamlet and Donquixote types. Both authors used the
love story as a vehicle and both used heroes who were unable
and unwilling to make decisions and take upon themselves the
consequences of such a decision. Their counterparts, on the
other hand, were decisive, strong-willed and ready to
sacrifice all for their beliefs.

we have pointed to the use of narrative devices such as
nature and the arts in Fontane's works to show that in his
later works they are used extensively to help the character-
ization of the main characters. Nature in the later works
usually reflects the mood of the main character. The same
is often true of the literature and the arts. Also the
characters are often judged according to their attitudes

and their knowledge concerning these things. Here again we

have found Fontane's use of these narrative devices identical

-186-

to Turgenev's. They use them to develop their major char-
acters with a minimum of interference on the part of the
narrator.

In our discussion we have given evidence that Fontane had
reason to call Turgenev his Meister, though much more
evidence could be presented. Starting a work with a short
description of the locality and then switching over to the
introduction of the people, for instance, is typical for
both authors. So is their treatment of the erotic element
that is bound to come up in any love story. If we do not
pay close attention we will miss this element completely
because they certainly do not stress it. Fontane is known

for the aspect of Resignation in his works but we have found

 

the same element in Turgenev's works extensively.

In our last chapter we have looked at Turgenev's Rudin_and
compared it to Fontane's Schach von wuthenow and have seen
how surprisingly similar these two works are. We have come
to the conclusion that we could have compared several other
works of these two authors and would have found the similar-
ity in all of them. This is another clear indicator of
Turgenev's influence that permeates all of Fontane's works.
we have also found evidence that Fontane does not simply
borrow the different narrative devices from Turgenev and
uses them just as found in Turgenev but rather changes them
sufficiently to give them his own distinctive nature. This

borrowing does not disparage Fontane as a writer. On the

-187-

contrary, Turgenev's influence on Fontane and Fontane's own
contribution to narrative techniques have resulted in a

style that today we recognize as being typical for Fontane.

FOOTNOTES

1. Even though Turgenev's name is spelled different in
the various sources I will use this spelling throughout
the text.

 

 

 

2. Hans Heinrich Reuter, ed., Theodor FOntane: Von Dreissig

bis Achtzi (Leipzig: Dietrich'sche VerlagsbuEhhandlung,
19595, p. §30.

3. Theodore Fontane, SHmtliche Werke, ed., Kurt Schreinert:

Von Zwan 21 'bis Dreissi (Mﬁnchen: Nymphenburger Verlagsbuch-
an ung, , vo . XV, pp. 90-91.

4. Christa Schultze, "Theodor Fontane und die russische

Literatur", Fontane Blatter vol. 2 (1968), p. 43.
5. Ibid., p. 46.
6. Ibid, p. 47.

 

7. Karl Ernst Laage, "Theodor Storm und Ivan Turgenev,"
Schriften der Theodor Storm Gesellschaft vol. 16 (1967),
p. 20.

8. Tatjana Petrovna Dehn, "Des jungen Turgenev Verhﬁltnis
zu Schiller", I.S. Turgenev und Deutschland, ed. Gerhard
Ziegengeist (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1965), p. 201.

9 Ivan S. Turgenev, "Jakow Pasynkow," Aufzeichnungen eines
l

Jégersi Erthlungen (Mﬁnchen: Win er Dﬁnndruck Ausgabe,71967),
PP- '

I used this German edition of Turgenev's works because it is
based to a great extent on the Mitauer Ausgabe of his works,
which is the one Fontane read.

 

 

10. 1.8. Turgenev, Polnoe sobranie Socinenij i_pisem:
socineni‘a, ed. M.P. Alekseev (Moscow: IzdatelTstvo Akademii
na , ), vol. 8, p. 10.

I will use the abbreviation PSS for this work.

11. Turgenev, "Faust," Aufzeichnungen p. 921.

 

12. Turgenev, "Wilhelm Tell" PSS, vol. 1, pp. 205-211.

-189-
13. Ibid., p. 206.
14. Turgenev, "Faust," PSS, p. 212.

 

15. Mikhail Osipovich Gershenzon, Mechta i mysl' I. S.
Tur eneva (The vision and thought of I. S. TurgeneV) (Providence:
Brown University Press, 1970) pp. 55-62.
16. P88 vol. 1, p, 121.

17. Edgar H. Lehrmann, Turgenev's Letters (New York: Alfred
Knopf, 1961), p. 79.

18. Ibid., p. 244
19. Egg vol. 12, p. 100.

 

20. Rosenkranz, p. 77.
21. Laage, p. 77.

22. Thomas Mann, "Theodor Storm", Gesammelte werke
(Oldenburg: S. Fischer Verlag, 1960), vol. 9, p. 246.

 

23. Gisela Jonas, "Heyses Beitrag zur Rezeption russischer
Novellen," Zeitschrift fﬁr Slawistik vol. 16 (1972) pp. 235-
243.

 

24. Ivan Turgenev, Briefe an Ludwig Pietsch (Berlin: Aufbau
Verlag, 1968) p. 78.

25. Ibid., pp. 77-78.

 

26. Ibid., p. 51.

27. Gerhard Ziegengeist, "Eine unbekannte Handschrift von
Turgenev's Auerbach Vorrede; I. S. Turgenev und Deutschland
(Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1965), pp. 68-75.

 

28. Berthold Auerbach, Briefe an seinen Freund Jakob Auerbach
(Frankfurt: Francke Verlag, 1884) vol. I, p. 371.

 

29. Thomas‘Mann, "Russische Anthologie," Gesammelte werke
(Oldenburg: S. Fischer Verlag, 1960), vol. 10, p. 600.

30. Ibid., p. 592.

 

31. Richard Freeborn, Turgenev: The Novelist's Novelist,
A Study (London: Oxford'Universitwaress, 1970) p. 180i

-190-

32. Erich Hock, Turgenev und die Deutsche Literatur, Ein
Beitrag zur LiteraturgeSCHIChte des 19ten Jahrhunderts'(Ph. D.
dissertation,IUniversity of GBttingen, 1953) p. 79.

 

 

33. Kbrner, p. 434.

34. Erich Theodor Hock, "Fontanes Vethltnis zur Erzﬂhlkunst
Turgenevs," I. S. Turgenev und Deutschland (Berlin: Akademie
Verlag, 1965), pp. 304-329.

 

35. For a more detailed explanation of Fontane's term
"Verklﬂrung" see: Richard Brinkmann, "Realismus mit Verklﬁrung,‘
Theodor Fontane (Mﬁnchen: Piper und Co., 1967) pp. 39-47.

 

36. Lynn Russell Eliason, The Problem of the Generations in
the Fiction of Turgenev and Theodor Fontane (Ph. D. dissertation,
University of Colorado, 1970) p. 35.

 

 

37. Theodor Fontane, "Rudolf Lindau, ein Besuch," Sﬂmtliche
werke (Mﬁnchen: Nymphenburger Verlag, 1963), vol. 21, p. 326.

 

38. P§§ vol. 12, p. 10.
39. Lehrmann, p. 261.

40. Avram Yarmolinsky, The Vintage Turgenev (New York:
Vintage Books, 1960), p. 20.

 

41. Lehrmann, p. 242.

42. David Magarshack, Turgenev (London: Faber and Faber,
1954), p. 124.

43. William Lyon Phelps, Turgenev, Essays on Russian
Novelists (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1912), p. 123.

 

 

44. Conrad Wandrey, Theodor Fontane (Mﬁnchen: C. H.
Becksche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1919), p. 172.

 

45. Hans Friedrich Rosenfeld, Zur Entstehung Fontanescher
Romane (Den Hag: B. Wolters, U.‘M.,’I926)Fp. 9.

 

46. Ingrid Mittenzwei, Die Sprache als Thema (Berlin: Verlag
Gehlen, 1970), p. 186.

47. Ivan S. Turgenev, Erthlungen und Romane, vol. 1 & 2
(Minchen: Winkler Verlag, 1967), pp. 31-32.
From.here on out the quotes will be identified by T. I or
T. II with the page number after the quote.

 

48. Magarshack, p. 131.

-l9l-
49. Gisela Jonas, "Zum Problem.des Menschenbildes in
I. S. Turgenev," Zeitschrift fﬁr SlaViStik vol. 15 (1972),
p. 334.

50. Ibid., p. 336.

 

51. Ralph Eugene Matlaw, The Composition of Turgenev's Novels
(Ph. D. dissertation, HarvardUniversity, 1954), p. 1.

 

52. Theodor Fontane, Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg,
3 vols. (Berlin: J. G. Cotta'sche Buchhandlung, 1906), p. 171
From now on indicated as W. I, II or III.

 

53. wandrey, p. 109.

54. Theodor Fontane, Gessamelte werke (Mﬁnchen: Nymphenburger
Verlagshandlung, 1969), pp.—11-12.
From here on indicated after quotes as F. I, __

 

55. 'Wandrey, p. 110.

56. Marianne Zerner, "Zur Technik in Fontane's Irrun en
und Wirrungen," Monatshefte vol. 45 (Jan. 1953), p. 30

 

 

57. Peter Demetz, "Der Roman der guten Gesellschaft,"
Theodor FOntane, ed. Wolfgang Preisendanz (Darmstadt:
Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1973), p. 252.

58. Hans Heinrich Reuter, ed., Theodor Fontane: Schriften
zur Literatur (Berlin: Aufbau Verlag, 1960), p. 309i

59. Ibid., p. 669.
60. Lehrmann, p. 115.

 

 

61. ‘Magarshack, p. 30.

62. Kurt Whlfel, "Man ist nicht nur ein einzelner Mensch,"
Theodor FOntane, ed. Wolfgang Preisendanz (Darmstadt:
WissenschaftliEhe Buchgesellschaft, 1973), p. 335.

 

63. Ralph Eugene Matlaw, Tur enev's NoVels (Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 1 , p. .

64. Eduard Spanger, Der Psychologische Perspektivismus im
Roman, POetik des Romans (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche
Buchgesellschaft, 1965), p. 225.

 

 

65. Matlaw, thesis, p. 88.

66. Eberhart Lﬁmmert, Bauformen des Erthlens (Stuttgart:
J. B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1977), p. 32.

 

-192-

67. Guido Vincenz, Fontanes Welt: Eine Interpretation des
Stechlin (Zﬁrich: Jufis Druck, 1966), p. 7.

 

 

68. Zerner, p. 30.

69. Jost Schillemeit, Theodor Fontane: Geist und Kunst
seines Alterswerkes (Zﬁrich: Atlantis Verlag, 1961), p. 29.

 

 

70. Wandrey, p. 113.
71. Mittenzwei, p. 156.

72. Marina Ledkowsky, The other Turgenev: From Romanticism
to Symbolism (Wﬁrzburg: Jal Verlag, 1973), p.28.

 

73. Demetz, p. 141.
74. Mittenzwei, p. 119.
75. Gottfried Kricker, "Theodor Fontane: Von seiner Art

und epischen Technik," Schriften der Literarischen Gesellschaft
Bonn, Neue Folge vol. 4 (Berlin, 1912).

 

76. Reinhold Trautmann, Zu Form und Gehalt der Novellen
Turgenevs (Leipzig: Verlag von S. Hirzel, 1942), p. 40.

77. Phelps, p. 125.
78. Laage, pp. 44-45.

 

 

79. Ledkowsky, p. 98.
80. Matlaw, thesis, p. 145.

81. Heiko Strech, Theodor Fontane, Die Synthese von Alt
und Neu (Berlin: Erich SEhmidt Verlag, 1970), p. 46.

82. Ibid., p. 29.
83. Matlaw, thesis, p. 127.

84. Eugen Zabel, Ivan Turgenev Eine literarische Studie
(Leipzig: Verlag Otto von Wigand, 1884), p. 206.

 

85. Herman Meyer, "Theodor Fontane L'Adultera und Der
Stechlin," Theodor Fontane, ed. wolfgang Preisendanz
(Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1973), p. 233.

 

 

86. Mary Enole Gilbert, Das Gesprﬁch in Fontanes
GeSellSchaftsromen (Leipzig: Mayer und Mﬁller, 1930)
pp. 27-28.

 

-193-

87. Heidi Buscher, Die Funktion der Nebenfiguren in Fontanes
Romanen (Ph. D. dissertatibn, University ofFBonn,—1969), p. 188.

 

88. Fritz Martini, Deutsche Literatur im bﬁrgerlichen
Realismus (Stuttgart: J. B. Metzlersche VérIagsbuChhandlung,
1964), p. 770.

89. Schillemeit, p. 34.

 

 

90. walter Killy, "Abschied vom Jahrhundert," Wirklichkeit
und Kunstcharakter (Mﬁnchen: C. H. Becksche Verlagsbuch-
handlung, 1963), pp. 196-197.

 

 

91. ‘Mittenzwei, p. 186.

92. Wandrey, p. 181.

93. Martini, p. 769.

94. Gilbert, p. 29.

195. E. Reissner, "Ivan Turgenevs Essay Hamlet und Don
ggijote und seine Bedeutung im Schaffen des Dichters,"

e1tsc rift fﬁr Slawistik vol. 11 (1966) p. 146.
The following discussion is based mainly on this article.

 

 

96. Le Comte E. M. Vogueé, The Russian Novel (London:
Chapman and Hall, (1913), pp. 195-1962

 

97. Matlaw, thesis, p. 26.
98. Ibid., p. 26

99. Ibid., p. 25

100. Reissner, p. 147.

101. Matlaw, thesis, p. 137.
102. Reissner, p. 147.

103. Matlaw, thesis, p. 137.

104. Rosemary Parks, "Theodor Fontane' s unheroic heroes,
Germanic Review vol. 14 (1939), p. 32.

 

105. Heinz Eugen Greter, Fontanes Poetik (Bern: Herbert Lang,
1973), P. 25.

106. ‘Wandrey, pp. 117-118.
107. Ibid., pp. 117-118.

 

108. ‘Magarshack, p. 263.

-194-
109. Michael Nierle, Die Naturschilderung_und ihre Funktion
in Versdichtung und Prosa von 1. S. Turgenev (Berlin: Verlag
Gehlen, 1969), p. 128.
110. Ibid., p. 255.

111. Ibid., p. 250

 

 

lll. wandrey, p. 109.

113. Demetz, p. 109.

114. Hubert Ohl, "Bilder, die die Kunst stellt," Theodor
Fontane, ed. Wolfgang Preisendanz (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche
Buchgesellschaft, 1973), p. 254.

115. Martini, p. 742.

116. Ibid., pp. 46-47.

117. Zabel, p. 576.

118. Peter Demetz, Kitsch, Belletristikijunst, Theodor
Fontane (Berlin: Akademie der Kﬁnste, 1970) p. 15.

119. Eugene Koltai, "Untersuchungen zur Erthltechnik von
Theodor Fontane: Dargestellt an den werken Vor dem Sturm,
Irrungen und Wirrungen und Effi Briest," (Ph. D. dissertation,
New York’University, 1969), p. 152-153

 

 

—l95-
Primary Literature
Fontane, Theodor. Gesammelte Werke. Nymphenburger

Taschenbuchausgabe. Mﬁﬁchen: Nymphenburger Verlagsbuch-
handlung, 1969.

 

"Von zwanzig bis dreissig." Samtliche Werke.
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Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1967.

 

wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg. Berlin:
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Turgenev, Ivan. Briefe an Ludwig Pietsch. Berlin: Aufbau
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Erzﬁhlungen und Romane. vol. 1 & 2. Mﬁnchen:
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Polnoe Sobranie Soéinenij i Pisem. Edited by
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-196-

Selected Bibliography

Auerbach, Berthold. Briefe an seinen Freund Jakob Auerbach.
Frankfurt: Francke Verlag, 1884.

 

Brinkmann, Richard. ”Realismus mit Verklﬁrung." Theodor
Fontane. Mﬁnchen: Piper und Co., 1967.

Buscher, Heidi. "Die Funktion der Nebenfiguren in Fontenes
Romanen." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Bonn, 1969.
Dehn, Tatjana Petrovna. "Des jungen Turgenevs Verhﬁltnis

zu Schiller." I. S. Turgenev und Deutschland. Edited by
Gerhard Ziegengeist. Berlin: Akademie’Verlag, 1965.

 

Demetz, Peter. "Der Roman der guten Gesellschaft." Theodor
Fontane. Edited by Wolfgang Preisendanz. Darmstadt:
Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1973.

Kitsch, Belletristik, Kunst: Theodor Fontane.
Berlin: Akademie der Kﬁnst, 1970.

 

Eliason, Lynn Russell. "The Problem of the Generations
in the fiction of Turgenev and Theodor Fontane." Ph.D.
dissertation, University of Colorado, 1970.

Freeborn, Richard. Turgenev: The Novelists Novelist. London:
Oxford University, 1970.

Gershenzon, M. O. Mechta i. Mysla I. S. Turgenevs. Providence:
Brown University Press, 1970.

Gilbert, Mary Enole. Das Geserch in Fontanes Gesellschaftsroman.
Leipzig: Mayer und Mﬂller, 1930.

 

Greter, Heinz Egon. Fontanes Poetik. Berne: Herbert Lang,
1973.

 

Hock, Erich Theodor. "Fontanes Verhﬂltnis zur Erthlkunst
Turgenevs." I. S. Turgenev und Deutschland. Edited by
Gerhard Ziegengeist. Berlin: Akademie Vérlag, 1965.

"Turgenev und die Deutsche Literatur." Ph.D.
dissertation, University of Gﬁttingen, 1953.

~197-

Jonas, Gisela. "Heyses Beitrag zur Rezeption russischer
Novellen." Zeitschrift fﬁr Slavistik 16. (1971).

Jonas, Gisela. "Zum.Prob1em des Menschenbildes in I. S.
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Killy, Walter. "Abschied vom Jahrhundert." Fontane: Irrungen
und Wirrungen. "Wirklichkeit und Kunstcharakter. Mﬁnchen:
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Koltai, Eugene. "Untersuchungen zur Erthltechnik von Theodor
Fontane: Dargestellt an den Werken Vor dem.Sturm, Irrungen
und Wirrungen, und Effi Briest." Ph. D. dissertation, New
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Kbrner, Josef. Bibliographisches Handbuch des Deutschen
Schrifttums. Bern: Francke Verlag, 1966.

 

Kricker, Gottfried. "Theodor Fontane. Von seiner Art und
epischen Technik". Schriften der Literarischen Gesellschaft
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Laage, Karl Ernst. "Theodor Storm und Ivan Turgenev."
Schriften der Theodor Storm Gesellschaft. vol. 16.
(’ 19677711-175.

 

 

LHmmert, Eberhard. Bauformen des Erthlens. Stuttgart:
J. B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1972.

Ledkovsky, Marina. The other Turgenev: From Romanticism
to Symbolism. Wﬁrzburg: Jal-Verlag, 1973.

 

Lehrman, Edgar, ed. Turgenev's Letters. New York: Alfred
A. Knopf, 1961.

Magarshack, David. Turgenev. London: Faber and Faber
Ltd., 1954.

Mann, Thomas. Gesammelte Werke. Oldenburg: S. Fischer
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Mann, Thomas. "Russische Antologie". Gesammelte Werke,
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Martini, Fritz. Deutsche Literatur im Bﬁr erlichen Realismus
6e

 

1848-1998. Stuttgart: d. B. Metzlersche flagsbuchhandlung,
1964.
Matlaw, Ralph Eugene. "The Composition of Turgenev's Novels."

Ph. D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1954.

-198-

Matlaw, Ralph Eugene. Turgenev's novels. Cambridge: Harvard
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Meyer, Hermann. "Theodor Fontane: L'Adultera und Der Stechlin."

 

 

Theodor Fontane. Edited by Wolfgang9Preisendanz. Darmstadt:
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Mittenzwei, Ingrid. Die Sprache als Thema- Uhtersuchungen
zu Fontanes Gesellschaftsroman. Berlin: Verlag Gehlen, 1970.

 

 

Nierle, Michael. Die Naturschilderung und ihre Funktionen

in Versdichtung und Prosa Von I. S. Turgenev. Berlin: Verlag
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Ohl, Herbert. "Bilder, die die Kunst stellt." Theodor
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Park, Rosemary. "Theodor Fontane's Unheroic Heroes."
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Preisendanz, Wolfgang, ed. Theodor Fontane. Darmstadt:
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Reissner, E. "Ivan Turgenev's Essay Hamlet und Donquijote
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Reuter, Hans Heinrich, ed. Theodor Fontane: Von Dreissig
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Theodor Fontane: Schriften zur Literatur. Berlin:
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Rosenkranz, Elias. "Turgenev und Goethe". Germanoslavica 2.
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Schultze, Christa. "Theodor Fontane und die Russische
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Spanger, Eduard. "Der Psychologische Perspektivismus im
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Trautmann, Reinhold. Zu Form und Gehalt der Novellen
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Vincenz, Guido. Fontanes Welt: Eine Interpretation des
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Wandrey, Conrad. Theodor Fontane. Mﬁnchen: C. H. Becksche
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WUlfel, Kurt. "Man ist nicht nur ein einzelner Mensch."
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Yarmolinsky, Avrahm. The Vintage Turgenev. New York: Vintage
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Zabel, Eugen. Ivan Turgenev, Eine literarische Studie.
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Zerner, Marianne. "Zur Technik von Fontanes Irrungen und
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Ziegengeist, Gerhard, ed. 1. S. Turgenev und Deutschland.
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