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2. Guftings

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Tun TExas Ruvizw
And se, with his" Wir sind ja nur Menschen“', Schnitzler
gives his estimate of humanity, and leaves his characters to
struggle against the odds which are pitted against them. The
same spirit of resignation and melancholy hovers over the
Schnitzler in all his creations. There is Freueils, with the
pathos of woman's sad lot and the folly of mankind destroying
itself in obedience to a barbarie code of duelling; Das Ver¬
machtnis, with its tragedy of prejudice and death; Komtesse
Mizei, with its demonstration of the cventual equality of man¬
kind, the leveling of the barriers between cab-men and count,
between countess and soubrette. There are times when the
convictions of the artist assume the form of a delicate cynie¬
ism, but, in his more serions moments, Schnitzler has no heart
for the smirk of the cynic; the heart overflowing with sym¬
pathy and the spirit hearkening to the#turbid ebb and flow
of human misery'’ banish the leer of the scoffer.
Der Finsame Weg is, perhaps, Schnitzler’s most powerful
work. In this play, he rises to the height of his power in the
depieting of human emotion. The inter-play of psychological
reaction is so delicately subtle, the situation“ so realistic and
lifelike in spite of the compression which is essentis! to the
dramatie form, the appeal to the emotions of pity and regret
so universal, that the play may be said to have ensured
Schnitzler’s reputation as a dramatist of the first order. The
theme is still the samenthe eternal tragedies of love and
death, with the addition, as the title indicates, of the tragedy
of loneliness, that twin shade and prelude to the final con¬
queror, Death-the unutterable pathos of continning to
breathe and to see when the passage of years has despoiled
one's heart of all that life beld dear. The plot is very simple,
and there is very little action in it. Julian Fichtner, artis¬
tically inelined bachelor, is the father of Felix, who believes
himself to be the son of Professor Wegrat. The latter has
been a dutiful, kind parent to his daughter, Johanna, and to
his supposed son, Felix. The play reconnts the pitiful efforts
of Fichtner, now growing old and lonesome after a lurid