2. guttings
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Viennese“, and those who are qualitied to speak with author¬
ity have said that he has interpreted faithfully the Vien¬
nese life and atmosphere. Ashley Dukes has said that “his
dramatie method is the intellectualization, the refinement of
the Viennese waltz“. This, then, will constitute an important
limitation to the scope of Schnitzler’s work—it is restricted
to city life and to the city life of Vienna in particular.
Whether his scenes are laid in a suburb of Vienna or in
some foreign city, his characters are distinctively urban and
Viennese. In point of character types, he contents himself
with dealing with those classes which he knew best—the cul¬
tured and idle representatives of the upper classes—and he
deals with these only in their extra-official hes of recreation
and love-making. Schnitzler does not concern himself with
the bürgerlich; he is confined altogether to the aristocratic and
artistie circles. His drama is always intensely personal; we
find no suggestion of the social or cconomic problem in its
broader aspects. The relation of sex to sex is his domain,
and he reigns supreme within this province; but he seldom
ventures beyond the limits which he has set for himself. The
German dramatie critic, Rudolph Lothar, in the course of
a not altogether sympathetic appreciation of Schnitzler,
remarks:
•His Weitanschauung! It would be better to say his Frauenan¬
schauung. For at bottom Schnitzler is only a lover, and his world
Is woman.“
The eriticism may be justified, and is certainly true; but, even
so, the imputation of a disproportional evaluation of life and
a niggardliness of material is not warranted. The controversy
between the Freudian and anti-Freudian schools of psychology
over the influence exerted by the sexual function still rages;
but we do know that there is no one of man’s primal instinets,
excepting the instinct for self-preservation, which is so
powerful in determining our manner of living. There is no
note in the whole gamut of human emotions which cannot be
sounded by an appeal to this aspect of man's nature. And
—
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Tnx TExas Ruvixw
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Viennese“, and those who are qualitied to speak with author¬
ity have said that he has interpreted faithfully the Vien¬
nese life and atmosphere. Ashley Dukes has said that “his
dramatie method is the intellectualization, the refinement of
the Viennese waltz“. This, then, will constitute an important
limitation to the scope of Schnitzler’s work—it is restricted
to city life and to the city life of Vienna in particular.
Whether his scenes are laid in a suburb of Vienna or in
some foreign city, his characters are distinctively urban and
Viennese. In point of character types, he contents himself
with dealing with those classes which he knew best—the cul¬
tured and idle representatives of the upper classes—and he
deals with these only in their extra-official hes of recreation
and love-making. Schnitzler does not concern himself with
the bürgerlich; he is confined altogether to the aristocratic and
artistie circles. His drama is always intensely personal; we
find no suggestion of the social or cconomic problem in its
broader aspects. The relation of sex to sex is his domain,
and he reigns supreme within this province; but he seldom
ventures beyond the limits which he has set for himself. The
German dramatie critic, Rudolph Lothar, in the course of
a not altogether sympathetic appreciation of Schnitzler,
remarks:
•His Weitanschauung! It would be better to say his Frauenan¬
schauung. For at bottom Schnitzler is only a lover, and his world
Is woman.“
The eriticism may be justified, and is certainly true; but, even
so, the imputation of a disproportional evaluation of life and
a niggardliness of material is not warranted. The controversy
between the Freudian and anti-Freudian schools of psychology
over the influence exerted by the sexual function still rages;
but we do know that there is no one of man’s primal instinets,
excepting the instinct for self-preservation, which is so
powerful in determining our manner of living. There is no
note in the whole gamut of human emotions which cannot be
sounded by an appeal to this aspect of man's nature. And
—