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The Germanic Revien
166
tragedy pandemonium suddenly sets in. Members of the
audience and even characters from other plays join in the
action, and the legitimate marionettes of the cast invent their
own lines, even poking fun at their author, so that the latter
in his consternation exclaims:
Das Spiel ist aus! Was für ein toller Spuk!
Wer schützt mich vor den eigenen Scheingestalten?
Hinweg mit euch! es ist genug!
Wagt nicht, selbständig hier im Raum zu walten!
Und wenn ich so viel Seel' euch eingeblasen,
Daß ihr nun euer eignes Dasein führt,
Ist dies höchst frech und unvernünft’ge Rasen
Der Dank, der meiner Schönferkraft gebührt?“ 20
There is also connected with this theme of the artist at the
mercy of his own creations the motif of the borderline between
appearance and reality, dreaming and waking, which later
becomes prominent in a number of Schnitzler’s works, notably
in Paracelsus and Der grüne Kakadu, and of more recent works,
in Traumnovelle.
In all the works so far considered woman plays no part
whatever. Only in Mein Freund Ypsilon'' is a woman
introduced, but here she serves merely as a foil to show Vpsilon’s
lack of interest in her as compared with the lovely Türkisa
of his fancy. It would no doubt be a mistake to conclude
from this that the relations between man and woman did not
interest our author at this time. But in view of the fact that
he has often been charged with an excessive or even exclusive
absorption in erotic subjects, it is worth noting that in these
early works of his nothing of the kind is evident. In the
remaining works to be discussed this subject, to be sure, takes
on considerable importance.
The first of these, named Amerika,)' is a harmless little
feuilleton, not at all inappropriate for a family journal. The
narrator has just landed in the New World, but this merely
evokes reminiscences of a former sweetheart:
Wir haben aufgehört zu plaudern; der Abend schreitet weiter,
und stille ist’s im Gemach. Draußen beginnt es zu regnen,
20 Ges. W., Theaterstücke, III, 2651.
wir
Ich
h
steame
rti
an adve
of Columbus in a play, they
As pointed out by both Re
rence in Schnitzler’s works o
fact a striking resemblance b
Amerika“ and the roon of
describes to Gabriele in“ We
the rcom is pictured as foll
mit dem grünen Schirm, der
Kupferstiche hängen an der
im Schatten. Anatol gives
of his sweetheart’s room:
mit gemalten Wänden—un
paar alte, schlechte Kupfer
hängen da und dort.—Eine
And Anna might very well b
as characterized by Anatol
sie ist nicht besonders ele
geistreich .. aber sie hat
abends .. und die Grazie
und den Geist eines Mädche
What really makes this
phases of Schnitzler’s later
which he at once creates an
us. There is a touch ofn
21 Reik, Arthur Schnitzler vor
n Ges. W., Theaterstäcke, I, 34-
2 lbid., 331.