2. Guttings box 37/7
Tun Texas Ruvizw
300
tragedy of death—which brings an end tothe“Living Hlours?'
of love—find expression, as it were, in ever-recurrent minor
chords, and it is only in the lighter moments between that he
allows himself, with a half plarful air of cynical aloofness,
to strike a major note, I do not wish to convey the impres¬
sion that the dominant tone of his style is oppressively melan¬
cholz—quite to the contrary, it is replete with the tripping
melody of wit and sarcasm—but, behind all his levity, we
can sense the tell-tale note of pessimistic fatalism that his
philosophy of“ Living Hours?’ has left him.
The eyele of one-act plays, Anutot, was the creation for
which Schnitzler first received recognition as a playwright,
and, in spite of the fact that he has since produced plays
of much greater merit, it is probably by this cyeie of plays
that he is best known even tochy. Anatol consists of seven
scenes, the same man figuring in sach one of them with a dif¬
ferent woman. Anatol, the hero, is a wealthy and loose
young man of the upper class of Viennese aristocracy, one
of those idle and harried creatures who exhaust themselves
in an effort to find amusement, seeking refuge in a multi¬
plieitg of mistresses from the ennui which pursues the wealthy
idler. In each scene, the amour is at a certain well-defined
stage in its short-lived existence, either the infatuation of
both parties is just being born and the hero is enjoying the
noveltg of a new mistress, or the passion of love is at its
height and the two are wrapped up in each other, oblivious of
the world, orthe old love is waning, and the separation that
has been inevitable from the first is taking place. The third
character is Max, the cynical, worldly, and incredulous friend
of the hero, who is ever present to laugh at his friend's foibles
—although he himself is guilty of the same folly—and to say
the things that Sehnitzler himself would probably have said.
Inthe first scene, we Aind Anatol enjoying his infatuation for
Cora, but, at the same time, knowing that she is unfaithful to
him. When ploced in a position where he can learn the real
truth, however, Anatol refuses to read the answer of the
oracle, and Max leaves them Pclasped in a passionate em¬
Tun Texas Ruvizw
300
tragedy of death—which brings an end tothe“Living Hlours?'
of love—find expression, as it were, in ever-recurrent minor
chords, and it is only in the lighter moments between that he
allows himself, with a half plarful air of cynical aloofness,
to strike a major note, I do not wish to convey the impres¬
sion that the dominant tone of his style is oppressively melan¬
cholz—quite to the contrary, it is replete with the tripping
melody of wit and sarcasm—but, behind all his levity, we
can sense the tell-tale note of pessimistic fatalism that his
philosophy of“ Living Hours?’ has left him.
The eyele of one-act plays, Anutot, was the creation for
which Schnitzler first received recognition as a playwright,
and, in spite of the fact that he has since produced plays
of much greater merit, it is probably by this cyeie of plays
that he is best known even tochy. Anatol consists of seven
scenes, the same man figuring in sach one of them with a dif¬
ferent woman. Anatol, the hero, is a wealthy and loose
young man of the upper class of Viennese aristocracy, one
of those idle and harried creatures who exhaust themselves
in an effort to find amusement, seeking refuge in a multi¬
plieitg of mistresses from the ennui which pursues the wealthy
idler. In each scene, the amour is at a certain well-defined
stage in its short-lived existence, either the infatuation of
both parties is just being born and the hero is enjoying the
noveltg of a new mistress, or the passion of love is at its
height and the two are wrapped up in each other, oblivious of
the world, orthe old love is waning, and the separation that
has been inevitable from the first is taking place. The third
character is Max, the cynical, worldly, and incredulous friend
of the hero, who is ever present to laugh at his friend's foibles
—although he himself is guilty of the same folly—and to say
the things that Sehnitzler himself would probably have said.
Inthe first scene, we Aind Anatol enjoying his infatuation for
Cora, but, at the same time, knowing that she is unfaithful to
him. When ploced in a position where he can learn the real
truth, however, Anatol refuses to read the answer of the
oracle, and Max leaves them Pclasped in a passionate em¬