Faksimile

Text

2. Guttings
box 37/7
302
Tun TExas Ruvixw
amns of a new lover, one from the grave—one from here, an¬
other from there—until they all come—?'; but in the present
there is always te one, and in the future he secs ouly an end¬
less succession of those who aresto be. His“ Weltanschauung?'
is truly only a“ Frauenanschauung“', but his world is an
andro-centric one, and we cannot suppress a feeling of pity
forthe forlorn lot of the countless women who are drawn to
him like moths to a light, and are left to perish in the dark
when his pleasure dims.
Schnitzler’s manner of treatment in these scenes is in¬
tensely naturalistie. All the shades and subtleties of feeling
are recorded, and no external detail is slighted. The action
is given a life-like accuracy, and there is no prudish shying
away from the unconventional intimacy between Anatol and
his mistresses, but, at the same time, we do not find in the
plag angthing that savors of the exploitations of the“ dirty?)
for its own sake. There is nothing that conscionsly panders
tothe baser instinets and no attempt to justify sexual irregu¬
larities. According to the creed of the naturalist, Schnitzler
has attempted to represent faithfully a particularly chosen
aspect of life as it is lived, and leaves the reader to justify or
to condemn. There is no lesson of moral or ethical conduct
to be drawn from the play; the story stands for its own sake
withont point or purpose. The significant thing abeni Anatol
is the prcof it gives of the singular powers of Schnitzler as
anartist: his delicate touch in the creation of an atmosphere,
his supreme ability in the interpretation of emotion, and in
the manufacture of dialogne.
In Reigen, Schnitzler has dealt even more candidly with
the same theme: the amenability of all classes of mankind to
the common passions. Reigen consists of ten scenes, with as
many characters, two of them figuring in each scene, Like
Anatol, Reigen is expressive of the physician in Schnitzler,
and is scientific in spirit as a study of the psyehology of sex.
In the broader signiticance it stresses the common nature of
mankind and the fact that class distinctions are powerless
before the onslaught of the basie passions of all men. On