Arthur Schnitzler: biography, creativity, plays

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Arthur Schnitzler is a famous Austrian writer and playwright, famous for his famous plays and short stories, which have long become classics of world literature. His work is very multifaceted, so that many researchers find it difficult to determine the direction to which he belongs. The author's works are extremely interesting in that they can be used to determine the state of literature at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Career start

Arthur Schnitzler was born in Vienna in 1862 to a Jewish family. His father was a doctor, and the young man, following the example of his parent, entered the medical faculty of the capital's university. For several years he worked as a psychoanalyst, worked in his father's clinic and even engaged in scientific work. However, feeling an interest in literature and the theater, he soon abandoned his medical practice and took up writing. Glory did not come to him immediately. At first, his works either went unnoticed or caused sharp discontent among a number of critics and literary scholars.

However, by the beginning of the First World War, Arthur Schnitzler became quite famous among the creative intelligentsia. His work initially bore the features of modernism. The writer began by creating one-act plays, which were quitepopular at the turn of the century. "Anatole" (1893) is the story of a poet, a dandy, who is in constant search of himself and his own creative path. He leads a rather idle life, which is a series of love adventures and adventures. He is opposed to the image of his friend Max - a sane and sober-minded person who tries to settle down his friend and periodically helps him in his conflicts with women. Anatole constantly deceives his beloved, but at the same time he himself often turns out to be deceived - a motif characteristic of the writer's work.

Modern Society Theme

Arthur Schnitzler paid great attention to the image of contemporary society. At the turn of the century, an atmosphere of despondency and melancholy reigned among the intelligentsia in connection with the crisis of cultural life. The accumulated contradictions in the empire, which was a motley conglomeration of peoples united only by territory, made themselves felt more and more clearly. The tense socio-political situation affected literature. Young writers increasingly began to depict the degradation of high society, the decay of the morality of its representatives. At the same time, love began to play an important role. Schnitzler Arthur paid her quite a lot of attention. In the plays "Fairy Tale" and "Flirt" he again returned to the theme of deceived love, showing this tragedy on the example of the fate of an actress and a simple village girl.

Popularity in Russia

The writer became famous in our country after the publication of his story"Lieutenant Gustl" (1901). This work is fundamentally different from what he wrote before: this short story is an internal monologue of the protagonist, who, due to an empty collision with a baker in the dressing room of a concert hall, experiences a whole storm of emotions. He perceives this as an insult, which became the impetus for a whole chain of reasoning for this character.

Unlike the previous works of the author, this story does not have a clearly defined plot structure and plot. Since the writer was very fond of the psychoanalytic theory of Z. Freud, he paid great attention to describing the emotional experiences of his heroes. Therefore, the author in our country was often compared with Dostoevsky and Chekhov, which, perhaps, explains the reason for his popularity in Russia. Many critics, poets wrote articles and reviews of his works, which indicates the serious interest of the domestic intelligentsia in his work (A. Blok, M. Tsvetaeva, L. Trotsky).

Prose blossoms

In the last decade of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century, the writer became known as a talented prose writer thanks to the release of short stories. One of them, "The Wise Man's Wife", tells of an unusual love story that happened between the hero and a young woman, who, however, was older than him. The story begins from the moment a few years have passed since this event. The hero arrives at the resort and unexpectedly meets a woman whom he once loved, but was forced to flee for fear of getting caught by her husband. In a conversation with her, he learns that her husband has forgiven her, but she herself does not understand this and continues to live a dream of love. Little by little, he begins to perceive everything that happens as a dream - the main motive in the writer's work, formed under the influence of Freud's theories. In this respect, the author is close to the Viennese Impressionists. Among his most famous prose works are Teresa, Frau Beate and her son.

Main theme

One of the most famous writers of the 20th century was Arthur Schnitzler. "Round dance" is a work that has become the quintessence of all his work. However, the love problem, which he solves in the spirit of Freud and impressionism, runs through all his writings as a running theme. All heroes, as a rule, go through the test of this feeling. Sentimental, romantic and naturalistic motifs are intricately intertwined in the writers' works, the latter clearly predominating. The author pays great attention to a detailed description of the luxury of high society, which sets off the spiritual decline of influential nobles and fashionable beauties.

Forbidden play

The real master of impressionism was Arthur Schnitzler. "Round dance", the summary of which is rather straightforward, became his most scandalous work. The author again turned to the description of the love affairs of his heroes, but if earlier the love line developed against the background of the description of social reality, which also occupied an important place in the writer's work, now he concentrated exclusively on the analysis of the love affairs of the heroes, and described their adventures in a too naturalistic way.. Here you can see the influence of the famous French novelist Guy deMaupassant. The audience was outraged by a series of frank scenes, which, in fact, were the content of the play. It does not have a clear plot, the author describes several love meetings of heroes of various ranks and classes.

Storyline

Arthur Schnitzler, whose "Love Dance" became the central work in his work, became famous as a subtle psychologist who could very accurately convey the subconscious movements and experiences of his characters. This play reflected the most characteristic features of the playwright's work: the image of the depravity of his contemporary society, the decline of moral values and the swagger of morals. In the work, the characters are an officer, a street girl, a poet, an actress, a young woman, a young man, an influential count. The author has always sought to show representatives of the most diverse estates and classes and to present their behavior in various situations. The first meeting takes place in a city at night, on the banks of the Danube, then the author moves to living quarters, describing dark rooms where couples meet again.

Features

The work "Round Dance" (a play by the Austrian playwright Arthur Schnitzler) received scandalous fame largely due to the fact that the author too frankly showed the promiscuous love affairs of the characters. The public considered this work vulgar and indecent, although some theaters still tried to stage it. This time the playwright focused exclusively on the cynical depiction of love - he did not soften the colors, there is nonot a single hero who would like to empathize or sympathize. There is nothing life-affirming or bright in the composition, there is no moral or ethical idea, which makes the play very pessimistic and dull. It is not surprising that the play "Round Dance" based on the play by Arthur Schnitzler turned out to be scandalous. The audience did not want to accept this story, it even went so far that they threw smoke bombs on the stage. And today this work is perceived extremely ambiguously because of its controversial plot.

War years

The play "Round Dance" by Arthur Schnitzler is a description of the love affairs of heroes of various ranks, classes and ages. This theme is the main one in his prose, in which he tried to explain the motives of love passion through a subtle psychological analysis. However, the war turned out to be a serious shock for him, and it affected his work. The author began to write less and nevertheless created one of his most iconic works - the story "The Return of Casanova", which tells about the old age of a famous lover who did not want to give up his positions and entered into rivalry with a young lieutenant who does not take him seriously. In the following years, his other short stories were published, among which the essay "The Young Lady Elsa" should be noted.

The writer again resorted to his favorite technique - the heroine's internal monologue, through which the reader gets the opportunity to understand her psychology. young girlthe daughter of a successful lawyer, unexpectedly learns about the ruin of her father, and this prompts her to serious mental reflections on how to help a parent who asked her for help. In her mind, she models and constructs various situations, imagines conversations with acquaintances, and thus the story turns into an internal monologue of the heroine.

Recent years

After the war and the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the writer remained true to his favorite themes of depicting the pre-war life of the country. So, in the short story "The Game at Dawn" the main character, a lieutenant, sort of rehabilitates the old Austrian army. However, the author had a hard time accepting the collapse of the empire and the radical breaking of the old foundations and way of life. At the same time, a tragedy occurs in his personal life. His daughter, on marriage, committed suicide at a very young age, which hastened the death of the author. He died of a stroke in 1931.

Meaning

Prose and drama occupy a prominent place in world literature. One-act plays, short stories, novels by Schnitzler became a landmark event in the cultural life of Europe at the turn of the century. Some researchers associate his works with the works of the Impressionists, others with the modernists. One way or another, but his works are interesting because they reflect the life of contemporary Hungarian society, both higher and lower.

In addition, he introduced the concept of "internal monologue" into literature, which had a great influence on the development of the psychological direction inprose. His observations of love relationships are distinguished not only by naturalism, but also by psychological analysis. In many ways, it was thanks to this that Arthur Schnitzler gained European fame. "Round Dance", the content of which is a collection of love scenes between different people, is the most striking example of a play that demonstrates the author's desire to describe the intimate aspects of human life.