Acknowledgments - University of Puget Sound

vi
Acknowledgments
Vol. 33, No. 3/4, 2000
We would like to thank the editorial board and the following colleagues for
evaluating recent manuscripts.
Susan Anderson, University of Oregon
Peter Arnds, Kansas State University
Adrian Del Caro, University of Colorado
Paul Dvorak, Virginia Commonwealth University
Konstanze Fliedl, Universitiit Wien
Ingrid Gjestvang, Rock Valley College
Jerry Glenn, University of Cincinnati
Brigid Haines, University of Wales, Swansea
Ingeborg Hoesterey, Indiana University
Nele Hempel, University of Tennessee
Julie Johnson, Utah State University
Maria-Regina Kecht, Rice University
Lynda King, Oregon State University
Florian Krobb, National Univ. of Ireland, St. Patrick's College
Dagmar C. G. Lorenz, University of Illinois at Chicago
Wolfgang Nehring, University of California, Los Angeles
.
Michael Ossar, Kansas State University
Michael O' Pecko, Towson University
Renate Posthofen, Utah State University
William Reeve, Queen's University
Clemens Ruthner, Austrian Center, University of Antwerp
Ronald Salter, Tufts University
Helga Schreckenberger, University of Vermont
Francis Michael Sharp, University of the Pacific
Karin Sieg, University of Indiana
Johann Sonnleitner, Universitdt Wien
Reinhild Steingrdver, Eastman School of Music, Univ. of Rochestcr
Martin Swales, University of London
Sabine Wilke, University of Washington
Barbara Zeisl Schoenberg, Pomona College
From Bourgeois Daughter to Prostitute:
Representations of the,,Wiener Frflulein' in
Kraus's "Prozess Veith" and Schnitzler's Frtiulein Else
Eva Ludwiga Szalay
It is often asserted that no themes occupy a more cental place in the art of
early twentieth-century vienna than those of sexuality and the effects of
civilization's repressive moralism on sexuality, especially on female sexuality.
unarguably, the shattering of conventions with respect to the representation of
femininity by many Viennese writers and artists stimulated artistic and cultural
production, as well as intense intellectual and social interest. In an era seemingly
dominated by representations like rhe femme fragite and femme fatale, the
"wiener Frliulein" remains a little-examined, though integrar figure. unlike the
aestheticized femme fragile and femme fatale, the image of the viennese bourgeois daughter, or "wiener Friiulein," constitutes a more realistic representation
of that determinate social milieu: the nubile "Btirgerstochter" coming of age in a
metropolis consumed as much with sexuality as with the suppression of sexual
life in its "civilized classes." An analysis of this figure reveals much about this
era's evolving value system, for this image-construction recalls previous incarnations of the bourgeois daughter popularized in eighteenth- and nineteenthcentury narratives, including Emilia Galotti, Kabale und Liebe, and Maria
Magdalena, in which the daughter-figure represents the ethical humanism of a
developing bourgeois culture. The "wiener Frdulein's" representation also discloses significant disruptions that highlight the loss of idealism in middle-class
morals and an accretion in the ideological aspect, as the bourgeois daughter
embodies her class's preoccupation with reputation and appearances, as well as
the surrender of its legitimizing basis in genuine moral values.
In many respects, the "Friiulein"-image most closely approximates that
better-known viennese archetype "das siiBe M!idel," in that her natural wholesomeness and inherent vitality-and not the unnatural, enervated look characteristic of thefemme fatale orfemme fragile-draw the male gaze.r of marriageable age, the "Friiulein" serves as the object of desire for men of social
standing, young and old: her increasingly sexualized status may afford the
former with an outlet prior to marrying'Just the right girl," and, in cases where
Modern Austrian Literoture,Vol. 33, No. 3/4, 2000
@2001 by The International Arthur Schnitzler Research Association
EVA LUDWIGA SZALAY
her family's solid social standing is compromised, she becomes a prime target
for the prosperous older gentleman. In contrast to the "siiBes Miidel" of prole-
a
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;
:
tarian or petit bourgeois background, a socially inferior figure largely
circumscribed by her short-lived, bittersweet trysts with upper-class and, often,
married men, the "Wiener Fr5ulein" is of middle- or upper middle-class extraction, and for her, the expectation of a good marriage demands she remain
chaste.2 With her virtue intact, the "Friiulein" embodies the bourgeoisie's aspirations for social enhancement while also being encumbered with her class's
contemporary failures, be they moral, ethical, and/or economic. It is significant
that the "Frdulein" is positioned in an urban setting, where the differentiation of
the bourgeoisie vis-d-vis other socio-economic strata involves this figure in the
struggle over new values emerging with the changing cityscape and times.
Hence, the young unmarried woman is often represented in confrontation with
diverging expectations, a function of her commodity status and exploitable
sexual drive (largely concealed in bourgeois family life), and her role as preserve of certain moral and ethical expectations historically anchored in the
middle class. These bourgeois standards are placed under exceptional strain
when this daughter is called upon to demonstrate loyalty to family and middleclass mores in times of crisis. In depictions of the "Wiener Frziulein," pressure
appears exerted simultaneously from the public and private spheres in the
increasing representability of this figure as the sexualized feminine subject of
property, and it is in this respect that her familial ties are decisive in shaping her
fate. Indeed, that which perhaps most sets the "Wiener Frliulein" apart from the
highly aestheticized femininity of the era is her explicit positioning in a familial
context, where the father-with the mother absent or ineffectual-decisively
influences his daughter's future by compelling her to place her virtue in the
service of familial interests.
An analysis of the "Wiener Friiulein" proves illuminating when considered
in the context of two early twentieth-century narratives that expose the artificial
propriety of the bourgeoisie and examine its impact on the middle-class
daughter. A comparison of Karl Kraus's journal essay "Prozess Veith" (1908)
and Arthur Schnitzler's novella Frciulein EIse (1924) reveals how these narratives convey central anxieties and ambiguities associated with the repositioning
of the bourgeois daughter within the patriarchal familial alliance during the
transformation of the Western capitalist social order. Each text, in different
ways, engages in the subjective transmutation of historical processes, whereby
historical events concerning modernization and its impact on the middle class
are first displaced into the subjective view of the author, and then undergo
further diffraction in the shaping of perception into literature.3 In the journal
essay and novella, subjective perspectives intended to provoke reflection on the
era's "Doppelmoral" are presented: in "Prozess Veith," it is Kraus's polemic-
The "Wiener Fr6ulein" in Kraus and Schnitzler
satiric positioning with respect to the legislation of social values and sexuality,
and its profound consequences for a guileless female victim; and in Frdulein
Else , it is Schnitzler's creation of the highly interiorized world-view of a young
woman trapped in a conflict of shifting mores.o
Both narratives, furthermore, present compelling instances for analysis
because their portrayals point to the broader social tensions that characterize the
fin-de-sibcle representation of femininity. One such tension asserts itself in the
reality that the chaste daughters of the bourgeoisie had to repress sexual desire
until a marriage could be arranged, yet these subjects were also lured to sexual
expression and were sexualized by the dominant discourse, including that of the
bohemian demi-monde, which was-unlike the middle class-sexually liberated. Another fundamental tension is expressed through the economic, cultural,
and social forces shaping femininity during this era, which entail the overt
deployment of this figure's repressed sexuality: a new emphasis devolves upon
the productive female body, which, traditionally conceptualized as a reproductive potentiality (e.g., to give birth), becomes commodified as manipulable
exchange value in the contexts of the destabilized patriarchal family during the
shift to monopoly capitalism. Constrained largely by the economic forces
associated with this destabilization, the daughter, in some cases, "prostitutes"
herself (in the general sense of the term) by engaging in sexual activity on a
promiscuous and mercenary basis (Flowers 5-10). It is this theme, the literary
depiction of the unmarried bourgeois daughter, compelled to barter sexual
services for remuneration, which constitutes the primary focus of this
discussion.
In Kraus's representation of a "Wiener Frdulein," the role the author creates
for the young, bourgeois daughter reveals how his emancipatory stance toward
women in certain aspects is inconsistent with, even contradictory to, and to an
extent undermined by a romanticized view of feminine capacities. Certainly,
Kraus's attack on the pervasive "brutale Miinnermoral" (Die Fackel115: 22)5 is
emancipatory; he perceives this brutal male morality as maintaining an
institutionalized hypocrisy, extending to the Viennese court system, which
denies women the sexual freedoms readily conceded to men. Incited by judicial
attempts to enforce this moral code, Kraus targets diverse aspects and
representatives of the court system, beginning in 1902 with the essay
"sittlichkeit und KriminalitAt." In that piece, the attempts to regulate sexuality
and prosecute prostitution offer the polemist an ideal opportunity to campaign
against the unhealthy "Doppelmoral" that allowed males all sorts of sexual
freedoms, but ensured that only the females involved would, if caught, be
EVA LUDWIGA SZALAY
The "Wiener Friiulein" in Kraus and Schnitzler
disciplined. The taboo themes of the young female engaging in prostitution, and
the madame managing a brothel, provide the substance of several Kraus essays
that deal with actual events, including: "Der Fall Riehl," "Die Ara nach dem
Prozess Riehl," "Eine Prostituierte ist ermordet worden," and "Das Ehrenkreuz."
already passed judgment on Veith approximately four months earlier.
Kraus's positioning with respect to Mizzi's case is evident from the start: a
In October 1908, galvanized into action by significant legal incursions into
the private sphere, Kraus censured key figures in what all of Vienna had come to
know as "the Veith case." The case's litigation had created a sensation because
,,entrepreneur" Marcell Veith had apparently set up his stepdaughter as a
prostitute. The particulars of the case and the trial in July of that year were
iamiliar territory to Kraus's readers by the time his essay appeared: Mizzi Veith
drowned herself after learning that her stepfather had been arrested for soliciting
on her behalf, and Marcell Veith was subsequently sentenced to a year in prison.
Neither the young woman's exact age, nor the Veiths' social background is
detailed by Kraus, and the newspapers he cites offer only indeterminate clues,
referring to Mizzi as "Comtesse Mizzi," ancl to Marcell as "Conte Marccll
Veith" (Kraus, "Prozess Veith" 9). These facts constitute merely the skeleton of
the "Veith case," since, for the better part of the piece, Kraus inveighs against
the religious, legal, and class-basecl moralisms charactet'izing the repressive,
debilitating close-mindedness about sex'
With "Prozess Veith" Kraus portrays a situation somewhat similar to
Schnitzler's prose fiction Frdulein Else,in that a bourgeois daughter assumes
financial responsibility by offering herself for economic gain. But where that
fictional account primarily thematizes a young woman's confusion and devastation in feeling compelled to make restitution for the money her father owes'
"Prozess Veith" draws on the daughter's tragic suicide and expends equal, if not
more critical energy on her father's arrest and trial in order to launch a defense
of the female's sensuous energy against the "phantom of morality" (Die Fackel
211: 18). Hence, what the rea{ers learn about Mizzi Veith stems not so much
from the facts of the proceedings and the case's aftermath, but from Kraus's
culturally critical perspective, which c.lecisively shapes understanding of the case
by means of amplification: "Ich mufi mir cten Fall erhdhen' [...] Ich mLrB den Fall
dlr kleinen Mizzi Veith vergrciRern, clenn die moralische Welt'hat eine grundsiitzliche Gebiircle cler Bestialitiit und statuiert Exempel, wo kaum ein Beispiel
geschah" ("Prozess" l5). Kraus magnifies Mizzi's case, presumably to unmask a
ialse moralism that seeks to make an example where there is none to be made,
and he grants his main figures, the Veiths, emblematic status as he selectively
retains and excludes elements of the case' Kraus's strategy, ostensibly, is to use
Mizzi's situation as a means to wage war on socially/legally imposed moral
he
ideals, and, moreover, by airing the case in Die Fctckel in Octobe; of 1908,
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young, unmarried woman who exploits her appearance to please men by
becoming a prostitute can only be a "natural being." His line of reasoning,
apparently motivated by his version of female emancipation, emphasizing
emotional spontaneity, sensuous self-expression and woman's polygamous
nature (Die Fackel 142: l7), sets woman ("Weib") against the rationalistic social
and economic goals of an impoverished, increasingly technocratic contemporary
society.
In Kraus's most general formulation, "Frau"/"Frdulein" represent woman as
social being, and "Weib" refers to the sensual, sexual being.6
Veith,"
In
"Prozess
however, Kraus uses "Frau"/"Frliulein" and "Weib" interchangeably. Hence, we see characterizations of Mizzi-as-woman, victimizedby
a hypocritical double standard, and simultaneously of Mizzi-asJ'Weib," where
she embodies the elemental forces of nature with a capacity for an all-giving
sensual and sexual nature, devoid of"Geist."
Kraus's treatment of a young bourgeois female, while conveying certain
emancipatory elements, generally reinstates the discourse of femininity-asnature,T primarily through.continual recourse to woman as sexualized body, and
secondly, through the conflation of these biological-sexual functions with social
characteristics. While the retreat to the female body is intended, as Kraus would
have it, to counterbalance the technocratic and dehumanizing dimensions of
modern civilization and to revalue both woman's and "Vy'eib's" way-of-being in
the world, the effect is to keep woman from transcending definition in terms of
purely biological capacities via the use of her rational faculties. "Weib's" sexuality and her superabundant sensuality make her the natural liberator of the
emotions, and, importantly, renewer of man's intellectual vitality: "Des Weibes
Sinnlichkeit ist der Urquell, an dem sich des Mannes Geistigkeit Erneuerung
holf' (Die Fackel 229: 14).8 Kraus's construction of a classic oppositional relation between nature/woman and society/man results in a dichotomy whereby the
as elsewhere,
feminine/female are continually reinscribed as principles belonging to the
unselfconscious, innocent world of children, animals, and Nature.e Neither in
"Prozess Veith" nor in his public writings elsewhere does Kraus actually allow
for a transcendence of polarities inasmuch as he claims to value a "bisexual
universe" in which oppositions are harmonized, as, for example, mind/body,
constraint/flow, culture/nature, male/female (Die Fackel 285-86: 14; 351-53:
l).ro For the female at least, any such syntheses are impossible, particularly
between woman/"Weib" and "Geist."
Several dimensions of Kraus's discourse on femininity illustrate why he has
been referred to as "Befreier der Frauen,"rr and it is crucial to appreciate his
broader position on the relationship between the sexes for its revaluation of
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The "Wiener Friiulein" in Kraus and Schnitzler
EVA LUDWIGA SZALAY
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feminine qualities. Undoubtedly, if Kraus is to be understood, it must be recognized that he often assumes in many respects two opposing stances, without
attempting to reconcile the inherent incongruities. Specifically, with respect to
"the woman question," this means that both his pro-feminine and his antifeminist tendencies are so apparent in his position as to be constitutive of it.
Kraus's pro-feminine stance posits that the harnessing of female labor to the
service of a competitive, technocratic society eliminates the important counterweight of innocence and sensuality (Die Fackel 229: 14-75;275-76: 26;345:
l-4). Indeed, his emphatic praise tending towards the mythologization of
feminine qualities-often attributed to both "Weib" and "Frau"-is designed to
provide the inspiration for a qualitatively different society, and to suggest a
solution to the impersonal technological civilization displacing humanistic
culture. Accordingly, in his anti-feminist stance, emancipation for women (e.g.,
equality of access to all institutions) is self-defeating, since the social and
economic goals of contemporary society are too impoverished to be worth
aspiring to. But while the liberating intent of Kraus's construction of femininity
has received attention, including the critical notice of feminist scholarship with
respect to Kraus's other writings in Die Fackel,L2 certain aspects of this
construction in "Prozess Veith" remain unexplored.
An analysis of key contradictions might well begin with Kraus's systematically ambiguous and inconsistent stance with respect to Mizzi. Although
Mizzi as "Friiulein" (i.e., nubile, bourgeois young lady) is shown as instinctively
knowing her place in the world for the reason that, as "'Weib," she is governed
entirely by innate sexual urges, she is also represented as requiring the guidance
of masculine authority in the person of Marcell Veith to find expression for
these instinctive, spontaneous, and inherent sensual drives. Consequently,
Kraus's portrayal of this father-daughter relationship implies that a vital function
of "Erziehung" is to compel and instruct daughters in assuming the role of the
polygamous sexual being, the prostitute. We see this "Erziehungsfunktion" in
the manner in which Mizzi Veith is portrayed as having undergone a change in
her life(style): from "Frdulein" to prostitute. Kraus details this "Lebenswandel"
in terms that are instructive, not only for their satirical style, which tends to
effect an understatement-and, at worst, a misstatement-of the sexual exploitation that defines prostitution, but also for their depiction of young, feminine
subjectivity as inherently sensual, and yet dependent upon masculine authority
for instruction and guidance in expressing that sensuality and beauty:
Denn sie hat in der Tat einen Lebenswandel gefiihrt. Selbststiindig,
heiBt es, war sie darin nicht. Ein rauher Stiefvater hat sie frtihzeitig
verhindert, Telephonistin zu werden. Nicht einmal in eine Ziindhdlzchenfabrik einzutreten oder sich zur Tabakarbeiterin auszu-
bilden, hat er ihr erlaubt. Im Gegenteil wurde sie von Jugend an
strenge dazu angehalten, das Leben von seiner heitern Seite zu
nehmen und einen Trieb zu entwickeln, der dem Weib als schlimmer
Makel anhaftet: den M[nnern zu gefallen. Ihr Stiefvater verlangte
von ihr, daB sie hiibsch sei und es einmal nicht verberge. Er erniedrigte sie also dazu, aus einem Ktirperfehler, dessen Triigerinnen die
menschliche Gesellschaft einen Bettelpfennig und ihre Verachtung
hinwirft, Gewinn zu ziehen. ("Prozess" 13)
With "rauher Stiefvater," Kraus at once mocks and sardonically characterizes
the inhumane legal system he holds responsible for Mizzi's death. Its police,
especially the morals division ("Sittenpolizei"), prosecutors, and commissioner
are guilty of comrpt practices, of procedures that shelter upper-class clients from
implication in any such activities. Marcell Veith, the satirist submits, is anything
but the coarse, immoral, and manipulating figure the press, legal system, and
Fackel readers have made him out to be. Kraus proceeds to note how this father
in fact
saved Mizzi from a fate of routine work in a factory or offtce: "Der
Vater, der diese Hcinde nicht dazu zwang, sich in einem Kontor oder einer
Fabrik zuschanden zu arbeiten, handelte verbrecherisch an ihr. Sie sank so tief,
daB ihre Formen allmiihlich in einer Toilette zur Geltung kamen, anstatt sich von
einem Kittel verhiillen zu lassen" ("Prozess" 13, emphasis mine). It is Marcell
Veith who should be credited with guiding Mizzi in living out certain instincts,
drives, and urges, and it is he who should be commended for enabling these
erotic proclivities to be given their full expression in prostitution: "So wie ich
das arme Geschdpf in Erinnerung habe, war Mizzi Veith unter Larven ein
Llirvchen und kein Diimon trieb sie auf den Kriegspfad. Sonst hiitte wohl ilrre
Natur auch nicht so lange dem Ziigel des Vaters gehorcht.Immerhin war
hinreichend Lust da, zu leben und zu lachen, um den Sporn des Vaters nicht als
Druck zu empfinden" ("Prozess" 15, emphasis mine).
Kraus seems to find the prototypical naturalness that has been destroyed by
civilization in the young, sensual child-woman here.r3 This dimension of
Kraus's "Wiener Frliulein" is underscored in references to Mizzi as "die Schwache," "kleine Mizzi," "Ldrvchen," and "Kind," in effect downplaying her stature
as woman, as potentially autonomous sexual subject and social being, while
playing up her dependency, innocence, and naivet6.ro Whereas his highlighting
her guiltless and childlike status usefully serves to underscore Mizzi's suffering
as an unimpeachable victim of the inhumane legal system, this characterization
of Mizzi as "the innocent" undermines the satirist's claim about Mizzi as the
willing, independent, and knowing sexual subject. In seeming contradiction,
then, Kraus suggests Mizzi, as an instinctively sexual creature, was "raised" in
the manner of a prostitute to earn the contempt of society: "Mizzi Veith war
EVA LUDWIGA SZALAY
dazu erzogen worden, sich das Wohlgefallen und somit die Verachtung der
biirgerlichen Gesellschaft zu verdienen" ("Prozess" 14, emphasis mine). Indeed,
in this passage as in those above, Kraus points to Marcell Veith's decisive role
in determining the "natural" inclinations of his daughter through this mode of
"Erziehung" ("[...] dem Ziigel des Vaters gehorcht," "den Sporn des Vaters nicht
als Druck zu empfinden," l"Prozess" 15]).
Even this Friiulein's "natural beauty," for which, Kraus claims, Mizzi Veith
could do nothing, arouses society's disapproval. In several places, Kraus suggests that women/"Weib"/prostitutes do nothing to draw men to them, as if
merely their "natural" state were sufficient to make them attractive to their
customers. Kraus disregards the tyrannies of those turn-of-the-century feminine
norms through which the technologies of gender and femininity assured a steady
stream of real women imitating art, stylizing themselves as the femme fragile or
femme fatale: as alabaster-teinted, ethereal creatures recalling Mona Lisa,
Beatrice, the Venus and Madonna of Botticelli, or as sensual reincarnations of
the Sphinx and Vampire, Judith, and Salom6, among others.rs The notion that
"natural beauty" exists, but is actually covered up and treated by society as a
negative, an evil, seems pure hyperbole. In other writings, Kraus demonstrates
exceptional awareness of what he terms the "sartorial language" of AustriaHungary, that is, "die Kleidersprache des Landes," whether this concerns the
hats and beards of men, or the pants worn by emancipated women; in every
case, the satirist's keen fashion sense parallels his supreme consciousness of
language, wherein hierarchical Viennese society, hairstyles, clothing, and
uniforms signal a highly differentiated semiotic system (Die Fackel319-20: 1l;
331-32: 22-23;389-90: 42). Yet here, Kraus relates this originary, natural
version of feminine beauty to the "Weib" and overlooks those regimens to
which women and prostitutes subject themselves to enhance their attiactiveness
and draw the desire of men-those technologies exemplified in the tightlydrawn whalebone corsets, bustles, and bustiers of the era, which were as
constricting and unnatural as they were admired in fin-de-sibcle Vienna. Kraus
suggests that "Weib" qua nature is engaged in an eternal battle with culture,
where there exist only the myriad mantles in which beauty must be shrouded:
"Die Entschuldigung, daB ein Weib fiir seine Schdnheit nichts kann, liBt die
Kultur nicht gelten, weil sie tausend Hiillen bereit hiilt, das Ubel zu bergen"
("Prozess" l4). He ignores that western European societies have by the turn of
the century created a thousand artifices by which woman, the bourgeois lady in
particular, is to enhance "nature," her beauty, her sexuality, the primary effect of
which is to make her (more) pleasing to men.
Kraus engages in additional subterfuge when he veils Mizzi Veith's prostitute existence in terms that refer to whoredom as "normal" and "honest" when
compared with other social institutions:
The "Wiener Frliulein" in Kraus and Schnitzler
DaB der einzige wiirdige Betrieb im Staate die Prostitution sei,
normal neben der Perversitiit des geistigen, planvoll neben der
Wirrnis des politischen, reell neben dem Schwindel des gesellschaftlichen Lebens. Der Freudenmarkt mag seine Auswiichse haben
und seine Unordnung, MiBbriiuche und irdische Miingel, Ekel und
VerdruB, Aber er ist die einzige Einrichtung der biirgerlichen Gesellschaft, die nicht von Grund aus verkommen ist! ("Prozess" 33)
Of course, this is classic polemic, and the double-standard morality that makes
prostitution illicit while condoning men's promiscuity and insisting on women's
virginity until marriage proves a worthy target. This false moraliry threatens the
healthy sexuality of humanity (Die Fackel2ll: 27-28),yet Kraus's disregard of
the deleterious effects of prostitution on women conspires with dimensions of
the dominant patriarchal position on sexuality here, inasmuch as his treatment
suppresses the grave risks identified in contemporary scientific and social
studies known to him.r6 lgnored are the rampant infectious diseases (e.g.,
gonorrhea and syphilis, whose spread and treatment would be little improved
with the regulation Kraus proposes)r7 and the radical divergence between theory
and praxis with respect to child prostitution, where sexual intercourse with a girl
under the age of consent was punishable by twenty years of hard labor, yet
flourished in practice.rs Where Kraus is clear about the dangers of prostitution
in other writings and argues for an open, vigorous strategy in dealing with
venereal disease and for legislation to make its conscious transmission a
criminal offence (Die Fackel2ll:26-27; "Der Fall Riehl" 248), in "Prozess
Veith," he falls silent, suggesting perhaps that the containment of the Veiths'
transgressions within familial arrangements does much to counter any potentially adverse effect. In briefly alluding to certain less favorable dimensions of
her life as a prostitute, Kraus does note: "Vielleicht hatMizzi zu den vielen
gehcirt, die man bedauern, und nicht zu den wenigen, die man bewundern soll"
("Prozess" 14), but he relativizes this concession with the perfunctory: "Dann
hat sie doch einem Zweck gelebt, der so reell und lauter, so praktisch und
ethisch berechtigt ist, wie die Aufgabe, die Ansprtiche des Publikums am Postschalter zu befriedigen" ("Prozess" l4).
Central to Kraus's creating mythic, Rousseauean dimensions of the prostitute-pimp-customer relationship (which is, essentially, a financial alliance) is his
emphasis on its naturalness, particularly as part of a defensible/cmilial arrange-
ment, where Marcell Veith-with caring, fatherly concern-is justified in
warding off the "real" hazard, the competing attentions of other pimps, while
acting as procurer himself:
t0
The "Wiener Fr:iulein" in Kraus and Schnitzler
EVA LUDWIGA SZALAY
Die Beziehung des Adoptivvaters zurMizzi Veith ist vielleicht mehr
Familienangelegenheit als erotisches Mysterium. Wer Geschiiftsbi.icher fiihrt, ist ein Administrator, kein R[uber; dieser Beschiitzer hat
sein Mddchen auch vor dem Zuhiilter beschiitzt. Die Gesellschaft
mag den Geschmack miBbilligen, der ihn bei der Wahl des Berufes
ftir seine Tochter geleitet hat: in der Konzequenz des Schrittes ist er
allen Anforderungen der Familienmoral gerecht worden. ("Prozess"
3l)
In framing the relationship of Mizzi to father Veith as "perhaps more family
matter" than erotic mystery-in effect, out of the public sphere of scrutiny-and
transferring it to the privacy of inter-familial relations, Kraus suppresses the
social constraints that make this daughter economically, as well as emotionally
beholden to paterlpalriarchy. Even though Kraus lends Mizzi the voice of an
autonomous sexual subject (e.g., by having her say, "Gib mir nicht fi.infzig
Mark, gib sechzig!" ["Prozess" l8]), any substantive evidence of the economic
enfranchisement gained through the sale of her body is offset by what is
represented as her unmistakable financial and economic dependence upon her
stepfather. Marcell Veith, after all, determines all the assignations, manages the
finances, and thus regulates his step-daughter's productivity.
Once Mizzi's position is rearticulated
in the socially analytical Marxist
terms Kraus eschews, Mizzi's lack of autonomy and sexual agency become apparent. With her relationship to capital mediated by male worker Marcell Veith,
this form of labor (sexual service) falls within the private sector and ideologically operates in contradistinction to the public sector of wage labor.re
Historically, throughout the nineteenth and into the twentieth century, this
"sexual imperialism"2o typically supported the extraction of greater and greater
surplus value from the labor acquired through women's unpaid affective labor,
alongside the extraction of value from the appropriation and maintenance of real
(i.e., currency-based) labor economies.2rThat Mizzi's services qualify as unpaid affective labor is revealed in the construction of her sexual agency in
Kraus's discourse so as to appear "natural," "personal," and motivated by
"love."22 His assertions to the contrary, his presentation underscores prostitution's status as exploitable, non-wage affective labor; as such, it has historically
been vulnerable to abuse for reasons well-documented by several studies of the
time.23 As a stand-in for capital, Kraus's own ideological recourse to affect and
to the notion of "personal services" sewes de facto to mask the socially sanctioned exploitation of this type of women's labor: prostitution's deleterious effects are rendered invisible.
Hence, despite Kraus's liberating intent to produce woman/"Weib" as a
sexually autonomous being, the effect of his construction is to suture Mizzi
t1
veith
as "wiener Frdulein," as bourgeois daughter serving her kin through her
newly sexualized status, firmly to that quintessential bourgeois institution: the
family. As master of ironic juxtapositions, Kraus was surely aware of the satiric
effect of this particular disruption of bourgeois tradition, yet he seems unaware
of its social implications in contributing to the very Liberalist ideologies he
perceived to be far more corrupting-because hidden and insidious-than the
reactionary ideologies he so vigorously and articulately opposed (Die Fackel
156: l8). There can be no doubt as to the powerful hold exerted by Liberal
ideals of freedom, progress, and equality on the minds of (middle-class) educated Austrians, ideals which by 1900 had increasingly become a fagade for the
property interests of capitalist entrepreneurs. But while Kraus expertly effects a
critique of certain dimensions of this Liberalist ideology, particularly its association with a sexist, double-standard bourgeois morality, the connections and
systemic considerations that would relate this hypocrisy to an exploitative socioeconomic order remain occluded, since Kraus outright dismisses social (i.e.,
Marxist) analysis.
A similar elision occurs in Kraus's defense of the veith paterfamilias,
where any potential threat posed by the individualized, single, middle-class
daughter to the dominant order is managed by reinstalling her within patriarchal
control in the family-romance narrative (Hennessy and Mohan 194). Throughout
"Prozess veith," Kraus constructs Marcell's role as pimp as that of protector
("Beschiitzer") and, alternately, as "Ziehvater" (9), ,.hagerer Alter" (ll), and
"christliche[r] Miirtyrer des christentums" (15). veith's four-year stint as procurer for his stepdaughter is read as Kraus tends to read certain social afflictions
relating to female sexuality: namely, through the lens of the family romance. He
asserts that Mizzi, once rescued from her stepfather's control and free to pursue
work as "Tabakarbeiterin" (13), committed suicide only after Marcell was taken
into custody. He produces Mizzi here as the dutiful, self-sacrificing daughter,
the sentimental heroine who loves her father above all. Her death at the point of
Marcell's apprehension proves sufficient enough for Kraus to assert that it was
father veith's arrest (at the hands of an overzealous legal system disposed to
conducting inquisitionJike protocols), and not the "Freudenleben," that killed
Mizzi:
Sie sehen nur einen Leichnam und ein Nachtcaf6. Aber Mizzi Veith
hat sich nach der Verhaftung ihres Vaters ertrlnkt und nicht eine
Stunde friiher; sie war frei, von dem Zwang eines Kupplers erliist,
konnte endlich Tabakarbeiterin werden, und hat sich dennoch errankt. Nein, die Freude h?itte sie noch lange gefreut, und man kann
nicht einmal sagen, daB sie das Familienleben satt hatte. Das Laster
mag ja im allgemeinen von den Moralbegriffen der biirgerlichen
t2
i,
il
*
illr
F
pr
h
F
h,
p
b
Y
l
b
I
EVA LUDWIGA SZALAY
Gesellschaft angefressen sein [...]. ("Prozess" 32, emphasis mine)
Even if the dead girl were to come back to life and assert before the court that
she drowned herself out of love for her father, Kraus contends, the bourgeois
mentality would never accept this kind of morality, obsessed as this mind-set is
with sexual regulation and repression. That Mizzi is explicitly presented by
Kraus as having been "free" prior to the arrest of her father suggests how the
discourses of liberation in this narrative (e.g., "von dem Zwang eines Kupplers
erliist") tend to mystify the ways in which this construction of feminine
subjectivity harkens back to the patriarchal order Kraus effectively critiques in
other sections of this essay and his oeuvre.
ll
I
t
Flagrant social hypocrisy is also put on trial in Schnitzler's novella Frdulein
E/se, which depicts a day in the life of "Friiulein" Else T., a young lady of upper
middle-class upbringing. The narrative is presented from Else's perspective and,
like many works by Schnitzler, demonstrates an explicitly pro-feminine positioning. Through an inner monologue, the reader apprehends Else's uncensored
thoughts first-hand, from her petty class and ethnic prejudices, her preoccupation with sexuality and her attractiveness, to her disclosures of the alienation
she feels both within her family and in Viennese society.2a This figure's subjectivity is artistically and psychologically realized through this literary technique
which has the reader experiencing a single perceptible "reality," made more
reliably authentic through the incorporation of interpersonal situations and dia-
logues. The narrative creates distance to this highly subjective interiority
through the integration of the valuations and reactions of other figures, which
are included and at times blended in with Else's own perceptions. Through this
distancing, bridges are created to a more objectively determinable outer world,
to Else's milieu, which allows the reader to ascertain moments of distortion in
Else's projections and subjectivity and to make sense of her situation. '
As the story commences, Else T., the 19-year-old daughter of a prominent
and seemingly well-to-do Viennese lawyer and "Hausfrau," is vacationing in
San Marino in the Dolomite mountains with her wealthy aunt Emma and her
cousin Paul. Else describes herself as "[d]ie arme Verwandte, von der reichen
Tante eingeladen" (Frdulein Else 246). With this scenario, a certain problematic
is established that proves significant for Else's actions and motivations throughout the narrative: she feels herself to be the poor relative, although her family is
perceived by the rest of society as being very well situated financially. These
feelings of inferiority and insecurity point to the crumbling fagade upheld by
Else's family, to ttre precarious reality behind the carefully maintained exterior:
The "Wiener Friiulein" in Kraus and Schnitzler
l3
for at least seven years her family has suffered through various crises due to the
father's gambling and frivolous spending habits (.immer diese Geschichten!
Seit sieben Jahren! Nein- liingerl', 252).
The intensely personal and social ramifications of the young middle-class
daughter having to make herself procurable for male sexual fantasi-es,
largely excluded in Kraus's polemic treatment, are articulatedin Frdulein E/se. These
become manifest when EIse receives a telegram, clearly ordained
by her father
but written by her mother, wherein Else's mother relates the father's latest
scandal involving accusations that he has embezzled from a trust
fund. Else's
mother implores her daughter to approach a certain Herr von Dorsday staying
at
the same resort about a loan. In response, Else's feelings and thougtrts altemate
between despair and planning a way out of this situation. when EIse does
approach von Dorsday for the money, he counters with an ..indecent proposal":
privately, in his hotel room or at a secluded clearing in the forest, she is to
undress and allow him to gaze ather for a quarter of an hour. A great part
of the
inner monologue reveals Else as preoccupied, at times agitated, iisoriented, and
confused, reflecting on how despicable her situation is, how she dreads the
encounter with von Dorsday, and that she is simply no match for these circumstances. This nubile woman's erotic feelings are not reconcilable with
the sexual
demands of von Dorsday, who, at almost 65 and supposedly .,in ziemlich
festen
Banden," with the familiarity of an old family intimate, had once stroked Else's
cheeks when she was 12 or 13, remarking: "Schon ein ganzes Friiulein" (250).
Part of this "Fr:iulein's" acceding to her parents' request and drawing the
conclusion that she must comply with von Dorsday's uftimatum lies in what
Schnitzler effectively shows as her desperate realization ofher lack ofreal status
(economic value) in Viennese society. As "Frliulein," she apparently
has the
same limited resources at her disposal as Mizzi veith when ilaving to
assume
responsibility for her family's financial burdens. Else's situation is further com_
plicated by the fact that, as a Jewish daughter of good upbringing, she has
particular social conventions to which she must adhere and role
to
"ip""tution*
fulfill.2s
Both Kraus and Schnitzler depict a femininity reduced to a commodity, but
whereas Kraus unequivocally represents prostitution as a plausible alternative to
the socially acceptable options open to Mizzi (e.g., bicoming a blue-collar
worker or office drone) and, moreover, as harmonious with woman's/feminine
nature, schnitzler has Else imagine her future in several equally unrealizable and
limiting ways, and clearly represents the option of Else ritm! herself to a man
more than three times her age as practically unthinkable. In each instance, a
critical subtext becomes apparent: the failure of the bourgeoisie to adhere to the
liberal-humanistic ideals that made education a vital legitimizing basis of the
middle class, particularly vis-d-vis the degenerate nobility.
t4
EVA LUDWIGA SZALAY
The "Wiener Frdulein" in Kraus and Schnitzler
l5
To show effectively the relations constricting Else, Schnitzler portrays how
she works through several scenarios that reveal the extent to which the liberal
bourgeoisie's understanding of themselves has eroded, particularly their ability
to deploy education and culture meaningfully to represent and legitimate their
hard-won, economically-based superiority. Each scene implies or speaks explicitly to the influence of the father in determining Else's fate, a destiny reduced
to a transaction value based on her commodifiable sexuality. One scenario consists of an imagined exchange in which she partially addresses von Dorsday in
her thoughts: "Oder soll ich Bonne werden oder Telephonistin oder einen Herrn
Wilomitzer heiraten oder mich von lhnen aushalten lassen? Es ist alles gleich
ekelhaft, und ich komme tiberhaupt gar nicht mit Ihnen auf die Wiese" (278).
This Hen Direktor Wilomitzer, almost fifty, had been considered a potential
match for Else a year earlier, and she distinctly recalls her parents finding it
fitting that she marry him. But then, the thought of his daughter marrying a man
more than twice her age apparently caused at least her father to have second
thoughts: "Da hat sich der Papa doch geniert. Aber die Mama hat ganz deutliche
Anspielungen gemacht" (275).
A second option Else considers involves resisting the conditions von Dorsday proposes. Significantly, what confounds any resistance to the sexual exhibi
tion-for-money scenario is Else's knowledge of her father's role in this situation.
Else repeatedly works through a refusal, but is again and again demoralized by
the realization that her self-assessment has been undermined by her father's
knowledge of just how to manipulate her and by his failure to uphold precisely
those values the middle class has traditionally represented in opposition to the
decadent upper classes and aristocracy, namely honesty and moral authority, all
grounded on the daughter's virtue. Thus, while Kraus, in speaking for Mizzi, has
her unambiguously represent the modern values of the polygamous feminine
nature, guided in its expression by a paternal authority, Schnitzler presents more
the attempted disavowal of any such highly-charged sexual nature through his
depiction of Else's entrapment in this clash between changing mores:
Aber ich verkaufe mich nicht. Ein Luder will ich sein, aber nicfrt eine
Dirne. Sie haben sich verrechnet, Herr von Dorsday. Und der Papa
auch. Ja, verrechnet hat er sich. Er mu8 cs ja vorgesehen haben. Er
kennt ja die.Menschen. Er kennt doch den Herrn von Dorsday. Er hat
sich doch denken kiinnen, daB der Hen von Dorsday nicht ftir nichts
und wieder nichts.
-Sonst hatte er doch telegraphieren oder selber
herreisen kdnnen. Aber so war es bequemer und sicherer, nicht wahr,
Papa? Wenn man so eine hiibsche Tochter hat, wozu braucht man ins
Zuchthaus zu spazieren? Und die Mama, dumm wie sie ist, setzt sich
hin und schreibt den Brief. (269)
In referring to herself as "Luder," as a tease, a little hussy, EIse alludes here, as
in other places, to dimensions of her sexuality which communicate a certain, but
limited eroticism, determined by masculine desires and social conventions. Even
if her father does not very explicitly influence Else in the expression of her
sexuality, he is nonetheless a pervasive presence, firstly, in compelling her-not
by any obvious, coercive means, but rather by merely invoking his authority as
"father"-to submit to von Dorsday to obtain
the money he needs, and secondly,
in influencing her submissive, masochistic attraction to the young rogue types.
It is illuminating to read the expression of Else's desire from the perspective
of feminist psychoanalyst Jessica Benjamin, as even the most radical of Freudians has left untouched the most profound and unexamined psychoanalytic
assumption about domination: the subordination of women to men.26 Benjamin
asserts that females are decisively shaped in their formative years in their worship of their fathers." A young girl's missing desire takes the form of adoring
the man who possesses the desire and subjectivity she lacks, and this admiration
is articulated in relationships of overt or unconscious submission. This appears
evident in Else's attraction to men who are anything but the stable, solid types:
"Ach, Fred ist im Grunde nichts fiir mich. rein ritou!" (256). Although Else
thinks of Fred as the only decent person she has ever known and the only one
she could have loved, he is mainly unacceptable to her because he is so decent
(277). The lack of subjectivity the young femare experiences, furthermore,
engenders a dynamic termed "ideal love," in which she submits to and adores
an other, a subject, who as sexual agent is what she cannot be. At several points,
EIse declares her attraction to disreputable types like the "R6merkopf," .,Apoll
vom Belvedere," and "Filou," who each in different ways recall her father in
their open disregard of decency and respectability and in their potential power to
humiliate her: "wirklich unternehmend war eigentlich mir gegeniiber noch niemand. Hdchstens am wcirthersee vor drei Jahren im Bad. unternehmend? Nein,
unanstdndig wnr er ganz einfach. Aber sch6n" (24849).
In a third situation, Else envisions herself living out her desires. Hers is an
objectified desire, and in instances where she visualizes herself as sexually
expressive, Else communicates not so much her desire as her pleasure in being
desired. what Else enjoys is her capacity to evoke desire in the other, to attract,
yet her power clearly does not reside in her own passion, but in her desirability.
As a result of her inability to visualize herself as subject, she recurrently positions herself as object of male desire, all body:
Allein mrichte ich am Meer liegen auf den Marmorstufen und
warten. Und endlich klime einer oder mehrere, und ich hatte die
Wahl, und die andern, die ich verschmiihe, die stiirzen sich aus
l6
EVA LUDWIGA SZALAY
Verzweiflung alle ins Meer. Oder sie mi.iBten Geduld haben bis zum
niichsten Tag. Ach, was wdre das fi.ir ein kdstliches Leben. Wozu
habe ich denn meine herrlichen Schultern und meine schiinen
schlanken Beine? Und wozu bin ich denn iiberhaupt auf der Welt?
(274, emphasis mine)
Else's gaze is determined by the male gaze, and her look at von Dorsday expresses this central tension, which reveals that her feminine desire is governed
by a patriarchal social order. Where woman is to ascertain her desirability in the
reciprocating gaze of men, Else also assesses her own desirability in reflecting
upon her "look," which communicates a contradiction between what she wishes
to express and what she appears-in his eyes-to communicate to him: "Warum
schau' ich ihn so kokett an? Und schon ldchelt er in der gewissen Weise" (260).
Here von Dorsday's determining gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure,
signifying his reading of Else's looked-at-ness.28 Else initially disavows this
reading: "Nein, wie dumm die M[nner sind" (260), yet von Dorsday clearly
controls the objectified frame in which she appears to him, as he proceeds to
touch her arm and press his knee against hers. Compliantly, she submits: "Ach,
ich lasse es mir gefallen. Was tut's!" (262). As Elsbeth Dangel notes, the gaze of
Schnitzler's female figures is often not even directed towards a masculine object
the female has selected, having its origin usually in the reaction to another's will
(108-09). Else's coquettish look does not express her own inner desire, but is
instead provoked by a desire ascribed to her externally, as it is here by von Dorsday and elsewhere by her cousin Paul.
The narrative's presentation of Else's alternatives strikes a tragic note in
revealing the lack of space for young unmarried women of the middle class. And
although these thoughts are only a playing-through of possibilities, and hence
provide for imaginative actions, this bourgeois daughter is consistently depicted
as seeing herself without any options. Telling about this representation is Else's
inability to consider viable alternatives seriously, which include asking her
wealthy aunt, Tante Irene, for money; exposing von Dorsday with the help of
her cousin Paul; or turning to her reliable friend Fred for help. None of these
possibilities is ever presented as extreme or ludicrous, and Else even notes that if
she were to seek help from her aunt, she could count on Tante Irene's assistance:
"Die ist noch die beste, die wiirde alles verstehen" (274). But her inability to
assert herself in any context is mirrored in her repeatedly making herself the
passive-submissive object of male desire. Significantly, the power of her
sexuality ultimately rests with her willingness to exploit herself for economic
purposes. The "voluntary" quality of Else's submission as the good daughter of
good house is linked to a profoundly internalized bourgeois sense of duty, a vital
but more implicit dimension of Schnitzler's social critique.
Interestingly, Kraus, too, invokes the potent influence of bourgeois norming
The "Wiener Frriulein" in Kraus and Schnitzler
t7
on the daughter, but his drawing on the dutiful daughter motif discloses a
different intent. The satirist deploys the good-daughter image when, in depicting
Veith's self-defense in court, Kraus has him praise Mizzi as "brave Tochter, die
keine Mittel scheut, um ihren Eltern zu helfen" ("Prozess" l9). Here, the
transparent effect is that Kraus speaks for Mizzi in order to promote his agenda
on prostitution, which relies on the discourse of sexual liberation. In contrast,
Schnitzler's use of the inner monologue is designed to make Else appear as if
she herself were speaking, communicating at best profound ambivalence about
any so-called erotic "liberation" and a biting critique with respect to suspect
middle-class "standards."
Schnitzler's depiction subtly reveals Else's complicity in this scheme, as
she only half-heartedly resists familial pressure, convinced that her father's
ability to count on his dutiful daughter will triumph in the end: "Aber es soll
euch nicht gliicken. Nein, du hast zu sicher auf meine kindliche ZArtlichkeit
spekuliert, Papa, zu sicher darauf gerechnet, daB ich lieberjede Gemeinheit erdulden wiirde, als dich die Folgen deines verbrecherischen Leichtsinns tragen zu
lassen. Ein Genie bist du ja" (271). She intuits from the start that any attempt on
her part to gain the upper-hand in this situation would be futile, since chances
are that this degrading exchange will merely repeat itself: "Vor wem werde ich
mich das niichste Mal nackt ausziehen miissen?" (268).
In a second telegram aniving just hours later, Else's mother indicates that
the sum required to save her father (and family) from scandal and humiliation
has risen by 20,000 Gulden, from 30,000 to 50000. Once more Else's mother
dutifully records her husband's instructions and thereby is complicit in Else's
exploitation. As significant as the mother's collusion is, it is the father's virtual
invisibility that speaks to his power in shaping Else's fate, a destiny reduced
here to the expression of her sexuality. Nowhere does the father himself have to
appear, speak directly to Else, or even write the letters he "authorizes" in order
for his influence to be pervasive and visible in all of Else's (and her mother's)
thoughts and actions. So thoroughly have these women internalized the
masculine norms, that the explicit use of force and constraints is unnecessary.
We see this in Else's reading herself within very narrow, culturally influenced
images of sexuality and in her submissive posture, determined by an invisible
yet pervasive masculine authority:
ja tun, alles mut3 ich tun, was Herr von
Dorsday verlangt, damit Papa morgen das Geld hat,-damit er nicht
eingesperrt wird, damit er sich nicht umbringt. [...] Wenn es mich
gar, gar zu sehr grausen sollte. Aber warum soll es mich denn
Es mul3
ja sein, ich mufi
es
grausen? Wenn er mich anriihrt, so spucke ich ihm ins Gesicht. (282,
emphasis mine)
l8
EVA LUDWIGA SZALAY
The "Wiener Frlulein" in Kraus and Schnitzler
Else, while appearing to choose, seems in fact more compelled to disrobe, but
not as von Dorsday would have it, privately, but rather in front of all the guests
assembled in Hotel Fratazza's main hall. Else's suicide following this action
constitutes something of a "passive" protest in her furtive movement within the
privacy of her bedroom, an act in its larger frame defined by her submission to
her father and social convention: after fainting in the hall, she is taken to her
room, where she secretly overdoses on the sedative veronal, the valium of the
day. Like other fin-de-sidcle narratives exploring female sexuality and
psychology, Friiulein E/se depicts bourgeois woman reduced to sexual
commodity and finding liberation only in death, as the realization of her desire is
insistently denied.2e
t:t*
Typically, Else's final actions have been read as the attempt, though
doomed to failure, to gain the upper hand by exposing the plight of women in
contemporary Viennese society as objects of pleasure.3o Beyond this, however,
this feminine (self-)exposure can be productively considered in the tradition of
the "biirgerliches Trauerspiel," not merely as an act of moral courage, but as one
also reflecting the inversion of bourgeois values.3r Such a reading is germane in
view of Else's "literary life and death," as Achim Aurnhammer aptly views it in
his article. It is thus worthwhile to ask here: what has become of the daughterfigure, of values, of norms and inter-generational conflicts, given the more than
a century-old legacy of the bourgeois tragedy? Feminine virtue, formally the
mainstay and defining quality of the "Biirgerstochter," was an asset that could
be obtained, if not through marriage, then only by force (as in Lessin g's Emilia
Galotti) or through deception and seduction (in Lenz's Der Hofmeister, oder die
Vorteile der Privaterziehung and Wagner's Die Kindermdrderin).In general, it
could be maintained that the "Trauerspiel" tradition had the daughter submit to
her father's authority in order to protect her virtue-even if it meant her death.
In Frdulein E/se, however, there is an inversion, as the daughter submits to her
father's wishes by publicly exposing her virtue, so to speak, and then pays the
price. As with the earlier role-model bourgeois daughters from Emilia Galotti to
Luise Miller to Klara, a new emotionalism and approach to love and feminine
desire also impel the confrontation between daughter and father in Frdulein
Else. As before, the normative view of female sexuality defines the daughter
through her lack of desire, authorship, and subjectivity. Therefore for Else,
exhibiting her virtue and paying the price publicly become the only means for
her to confront her father and the duplicity the patriarchal social order represents. Else's alienation is underscored in her daydream-like self-transfiguration,
t9
in which she connects reality and imagination to literary roles and life-patterns
which contradict each other. In one instance she even encourages herselfto give
in to self-abandonment by stylizing this self-surrender with arguments expressed
by Carlos in Goethe's tragedy Clavigo (Aurnhammer 507).
while the bourgeois family as the dominant social institution once constituted a locus of unconditional solidarity and trusting intimacy, its gradual
disintegration in the late nineteenth century, when it no longei posed a safe
haven from the instrumentalizing relations of an increasingly iommodified
public sphere, left the daughter to struggle with her virtue. whereas she once
was presented as little suited, with her emotions and progressive thinking, to
defend her virtue adequately and independently, her weaknesses in this regard
were at least countered by the family; in modernity, by contrast, she is, as in
Frdulein E/se, subject to a commodity market.
Interestingly, Kraus's treatment of the "wiener Friiulein" can also be read
as complicating conventions in the bourgeois tragedy tradition. Mizzi is effectively made a daughter of that genre in Kraus's parody of principal eighteenthand nineteenth-century dramas Emilia Galotti,Kabale und Liebe,and Maria
Magdalena. Kraus brilliantly reinterprets the veith-family.,drama" within this
tradition of father-daughter conflicts over feminine virtue when he exhorts
(middle-class) viennese society to look up to Marcell veith for creating a new
prototype for fatherly pathos that openly and honestly peddles what all bourgeois fathers in reality have been hawking all along-and that which the legal
system has been foolish enough to try to regulate-: the virtue of their daughters. Like schnitzler's prose portrait of Friiulein Else's psyche, Kraus's journalistic essayism unmasks the hypocrisy of the bourgeoisie, and his mocking
gestures are aimed at exposing the destructive effects of a duplicitous moral
code enforced by the "sittlichkeitsprozesse." In places, Kraus seems equally, if
not more concerned with the father: in one passage in which he satirizes Meister
Anton's inability to understand the world anymore, he identifies a mode of
thinking remote from lived experience and seis father Veith as an example of
honest, enlightened thinking against a corrupt tradition that had involved
farties
overlooking all kinds of transgressions as long as there was a preserved feminine
virtue to be had by the suitor and sold by the father: "Denn ihre wilden Krieger
kcinnen iiber alles wegkommen, wenn ihnen nur die Hoffnung auf den skalp der
Jungfrau bleibt" ("Prozess" l8). whereas the old father in the bourgeois tragedy
represents the rigid conventions of his era, having self-righteously imposed his
own narrow moralistic demands on an infinitely more complex human context,
it is the suitor in the "bi.irgerliches Trauerspiel" tradition who represents a truly
moral view, because his seduction of the daughter is motivated by genuine, realworld motives: sex.
This patriarchal society of vienna, in which the narratives of Mizzi's and
2t
EVA LUDWIGA SZALAY
The "Wiener Frdulein" in Kraus and Schnitzler
for Kraus's and
Else,s lives are played out, constitutes the point of departure
the
tragic consemaking
Schnitzler,
and
Schnitzler's representations. For Kraus
tragedy, the difference here is that in doing so, they subject themselves to their
fathers' very modern objectives-values now espoused by the demi-monde and
other liberated social classes. Consequently, they make themselves commodities
of sexual barter and exchange, "Frdulein" whose virtue no longer guarantees the
middle class an exceptional status within the contexts of early twentieth-century
Vienna.
20
q""i"",
of the sexual duplicity suffered by these middle-class figures manifest
ramifications is of paramount concern' "Prozess
of their socially
"titi"ut
through the repreVeith,, and FrduleinElse address social and sexual hypocrisy
in the fatherpositioning
her
through
sentation of the daughter-specifically,
order by
social
unnatural
an
unmasks
veith
daughter relationship. tvtarcelt
middlesubverting
flagrantly
and
radically
proJtituting his daughter, thereby
to a
daughter
his
subjects
underhandedly
and Else's father
ttur,
in
t"r.,
Weber State University
NOTES
"on*ntions,
situationheapparentlyknowswillcompromiseherinsomeway.Withthe
present the morality that
suicide-deaths-oruotn aaoghter-figures, these authors
with an early
confronted
are
subjects
both
iemininity is compelled tolmuooy:
twentieth-centuryViennesesocietyinwhichhumanityhasbecomeamask'and
interests promulgated in
ethical principles have been subordinated to economic
they represent'32
interests
dominant
the familial sphere by the fathers and the
while Kraus's
dilemma,
Else's
schnitzler,s narrative offers no solution for
constraints on
legal
of
lifting
for
the
satiric chronicling of the veith case argues
prostitution,whichwouldostensiblygoalongwayincorrectingmanyillsof
of the bourgeois daughter'
mooern society and would suit the polygamous nature
of the female
sexualization
the
Thus, where Kraus propor", p'o'iitution and
an unrepreof
quandary
the
presents
subject as a viable solution, Schnitzler
daughter'
seniable self-authored (sexual) agency for the bourgeois
of women in
Both nanativ., poinr-ut least indirectly-to the complicity
notion that
the
articulate
and
patriarchal order,
maintaining the hypocritical
MizziandElseare,asvictims,implicatedinthe..Doppelmoral''oftheirtimes.
mired in that traditional bourThese daughters and their fathers are no longer
them
which initially pitted them against one another only to bring
g"oi,
"onn"i"tit had to Ue, evln in death. Now, the "Frdulein" essentially carry out
iogether-if
.,moral,, demands, which effectively reduces them to (sexual) objects' If
the
these.femalefiguresattempttosupportanything,itistheimagetheyhavecrehad in the past represented
ated of their fathers. Whereas bourgeois daughters
traditional, oft antiquated
the changing mores, often at odds with the fathers'
,tun"","-*tatemergesduringtheearlypartofthetwentiethcenturyinthese
which
a different false morality'
narratives is the daug-hter's pos-itioning vis-ir-vis
.,Friiulein" expose social hypocrisy through the surrender of her virtue'
has the
Whileearlierfathershadstoodforthemaintenanceofvaluesandnorms
their daughters had represented
legitimated by a broad consensus of society, and
(e.g., equality across social classes) in
the new emotional expressions and values
conflictwiththatpaternaltradition,thesemodernconstructionsof..Wiener
change. Although the daughters
Friiulein,, suggest something of a paradigmatic
in the bourgeois
submit to dominant social conventions, as they clid
ultimately
l, For a discussion of principal images of femininity evolving during the
turn-of-the-century (including "das si.iBe Mddel," or "Wiener Midel"; "Wiener
Grisette"; "Cocotte"; Viennese bourgeois daughter, or "Wiener Frliulein"; prostitute, or "Dirne"; virtuous mother; hysteric; liberated woman), see Janz and
Laermann; Janik and Toulmin; Schtinfeld. Stefan Zweig's Die Welt von Gestern
addresses particular problems of socialization for the bourgeois female ("Eros
Matutinis" 86-l 13). For more general discussions of the exceptional investment
of the Viennese in their city's cultural life, including their familiarity with central Viennese images, see Weber; Dietrich. See also notes 19 and24.
2. See Janz and Laermann esp.41-48; Keiser; Mdhrmann; Hausen; Thompson 60; Pelinka 59-66; Field esp. 56-58.
3. Somewhat like Schnitzler's Frdulein Else, a fictional text that has been
investigated for its basis in Viennese reality, Kraus's journalistic writing draws
on actual events. Although the essay and novella may appear at first glance too
disparate to lend themselves to comparison, both concern themselves, explicitly
or implicitly, with historical events. For discussions of the circumstances on
which Schnitzler's narrative is said to draw, see Alexander; Aurnhammer esp.
500-O5; Behaniell. Later in this article I discuss the court case on which Kraus's
essay is based.
4. That Kraus and Schnitzler employ the journal essay and novella, respectively, to express their positions on the socialization of the bourgeois female is
suggestive of several things, one being their view of the narrative mode suited to
explore socially critical themes. Kraus shares with Schnitzler the view that the
analysis of interpersonal gender relations can be extended into a critique of
broader society and civilization-a position that aligns both authors with Freud.
Yet, despite their albeit limited agreement on certain Freudian principles and
theories, Kraus and Schnitzler's criticisms of the discontents of civilization diverge in significant ways. Schnitzler's Fraulein Else manifests a psychoanalytic
influence in its laying bare the innermost thoughts and psyche of its female
subject, whereas Kraus's essayism favors the position of the social critic who, in
EVA LUDWIGA SZALAY
22
deploying satirical wit and ironic juxtaposition, depends on a measure of journalistic accessibility and impartiality to lend his crusades of social reform the
requisite credibility. Although it is beyond the scope of this article to offer a
detailed examination of the relationship between Kraus and Schnitzler, my
analysis will hopefully spark further investigation in related areas. For discussions of the Kraus/Schnitzler relationship, see Urbach; Wagner.
5, Die Fackel references are to the 922 numbers of the journal, followed by
page numbers.
6. Critics have often read Kraus as campaigning on behalf of the sensuous
liberation of "Weib," and against the social emancipation of "Frau." While this
may hold in discrete passages, and then only in general terms, this reduces
Kraus's complex and often contradictory positioning, as my article suggests. See
also Timms 6'7-:ll,81-83, 88-89, 92,263,329.
7. In other works, as in other Fackel essays and the play Traumtheater,
Kraus makes explicit that it is female nature to be able to satisfy the sexual de-
of a variety of admirers. Whether it was the women with whom he had
intimate relationships, including actresses Annie Kalmar and Bertha Maria
sires
Denk, or the young prostitutes and older madams (e.g.,Mizzi Veith and Regine
Riehl) whose causes he champions in Die Fackel, Kraus continually ascribes to
these women the embodiment of the "polygamous nature of woman." See Nike
Wagner 134-36, 157 -7O; Timms 72-85.
8. Also: "Ein Weib, dessen Sinnlichkeit nie aussetzt, und ein Mann, dem
ununterbrochen Gedanken kommen: zwei Ideale der Menschlichkeit, die der
Menschheit krankhaft erscheinen" (Die Fackel272-3: 40).
9. See Field 58.
Timm's discussion of "Pandora and the Prostitute" 63-93.
11. Cf. Brokoph-Mauch, "Salome und Ophelia" 251.
12. See Nike Wagner; Pfabigan esp. 128-30.
10. See also
In most other works, Kraus finds that prototypical "naturalnsss"-nf
nature-in the femme fatale.
As Nike Wagner points out, Kraus belongs to that group of male witers (includ13.
least with respect to woman/"Weib's" hyper-scxual
ing Frank Wedekind, Heinrich Mann, and Otto Weininger) characterized by a
strong, emphatic masculine sense of self, influenced still to a degree by
Nietzsche and, even more so, by a psychology whose source of desire and pleasure derives from self-degradation. Their idol is thefemme fatale (140 ff).
14. Here Kraus's rather paternalistic treatment of the innocent girl reproduces aspects of the era's bourgeois marriage convention. These customs dictated that men 40 and older marry young girls whose innocence and childlikeness were fostered under the protection of the father, and then reinforced in
the move to the protection of the father-figure husband (cf. M0hrmann esp.
s15).
The "Wiener Friiulein" in Kraus and Schnitzler
23
15. See weinhold; Brokoph-Mauch; wartmann; Allen; Bade; Bovenschen
esp.43-59, 65-79; Hilmes; and Thomalla.
16. Among these are Heinrich Griin's prostitution in Theorie und wirklichkeit (1907); Ivan Bloch's Das sexualreben unserer zeit (also l90z). The
economic causes are emphasized in several tracts on this issue by August Bebel
in Die Frau und der Sozialismus (first published lg79), and Stjfan Grorsrn"nn
inthe Arbeiter Zeitung. Kraus criticized several Marxist analyses, including
Bebel's and Grossmann's, which had taken the satirist to task for falsifying the
facts of social deprivation to glorify prostitution. Kraus responded to his critics
by reproaching them for what he perceived to be a basic lack of psychological
insight typical of the Marxist dogmatic approach to sex (Die Fackit igo, ts-te;
248: 13). Unacknowledged in such passages in "prozess veith" are the substantial risks, to say nothing of the known deleterious effects, of ..der Freudenmarkt," particularly to the generally naive bourgeois female, hardly streetwise to
the prostitution trade.
17. Abraham Flexner's Publication of the Bureau of Social Hygiene, prostitution in Europe, compiles data on sexually transmitted diseases in Vienna from
1906 to 1910, overlapping therein with the years during which Mizzi veith was
engaged as a prostitute. Flexner indicates that "among the registered prostitutes
of a city there are at every moment many more diseased women than any of the
above figures indicate" (229).He prefaces these statistics by reporting that,,the
overburdened physicians have, however, neither time nor facilities to make
proper observation" (228), and further qualifies the data with the acknowledgement that prostitutes have discovered several ways to defeat the physical examination by "irrigation before examination" and by having ..disriputable physicians perform antiluetic cures" (233). According to Flexner's informed porition,
based on years ofclinical observation and experience, any regulation, even careful open control, has demonstrably very little, if any, impact on the spread of
venereal diseases. These assertions would seem to counter Kraus's contention
that the open regulation of prostitution would correct certain deficiencies with
the established trade.
18. See Bebel 142-68, esp. 160-61; Flexner esp.77_79,152_54; Finger
and Baumgarten 88.
19. As Gayle Rubin asserts in "The Traffic in women," exchange extends
kinship relations, a process that typically excludes women. Historical trafficking
in women inaugurated the gender hierarchy that elevates men to the level of sex-
ual subjects in control of the objects of their exchange: women (cf. Tillotson
303). under capitalism, trafficking assumes more complicated forms, the most
evident being the continued delegitimation of women's labor and the products of
women's labor (cf. Fortunati 20; Truong 9t).
20. This term refers to forms of sexual exploitation shaped by market forces
EVA LUDWIGA SZALAY
The "Wiener Friiulein" in Kraus and Schnitzler
that maximize differences between prostitutes and "other women," and, further,
are cast as economic issues reflecting the exploited status of women under
capitalism (see Truong 56).
21. Unpaid affective labor includes non-wage labor mainly carried out by
women and producing use values necessary to meet human needs, such as
prostitution and housework (cf. Tillotson 292).
22. Kraus's phrasing, "die habituelle Sexualitiit der Frau" ("Der Fall Riehl"
249).He refers to prostitutes as "manches zur Liebe bestimmte Geschdpf' (Die
Fackel 263: 6-7; "Prozess Veith" 14), and creates a romanticized view of prostitution: "Das ist die Hoffnung, die uns erhiilt. Ein Blick aus dem Auge eines
Freudenmiidchens ist siegreicher, als eine Welt in Waffen. Liebe bleibt" ("Der
Fall Riehl" 249).
23. See notes 16, 17, and 18.
24. Ct. Aurnhammer; Sandberg.
25. Aurnhammer points out that Else's ethnicity has entirely escaped the
notice of scholarship (503-04).
26. Several analyses have interpreted Frdulein Else by employing Freudian
dream interpretation and focusing on the psychosexual relationship between sex
and money. See Bareikis; Oswald, Jr., and Mindess; Sandberg.
York: Mayflower,1979.
Bareikis, Robert. "Arthur Schnitzler's Frciulein Else: A Freudian Novella?"
Literature and Psychology 19.1 (1969): 19-32.
Bebel, August. Die Frau und der Sozialismus . 1879. Berlin: Dietz, 1979 .
Benjamin, Jessica. The Bonds of Inve. New York: Pantheon, 1988.
Beharriell, Frederick J. "Arthur Schnitzler's Diaries." Modern Austrian Liters-
24
(7
27. This synopsis draws on Benjamin's analysis in The Bond of Love
esp. 7 9-82 and I I 4-23).
9-132,
28. See Mulvey esp.436.
29. Brokoph-Mauch, "Salome und Ophelia" 249; Knoben-Wauben.
30. Cf. Raymond esp. 179-82; Thompson 45-46.
31. My discussion here is indebted to Axel Fritz's superb analysis of Christine's (Liebelei) evolution in the context of the bourgeois tragedy (303-18), as
well as to Janz and Laermann's incisive, if brief, treatment of similar parallels
between Liebelei and the bourgeois tragedy in "Zi\ge des biirgerlichen Trauerspiels" (Arthur Schnitzler 3440).
32.Cf . Farese 26.
33. See Gail Hart's study of the familial and gender politics in the German
bourgeois tragedy.
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Das weite Landz Schnitzlers kierkegaardsche
Bilanz des Asthetizismus=
Christian Benne
Arthur Schnitzlers meisterhafte Tragikomddie Das weite Land hat, im
Unterschied selbst zu weniger bedeutenden seiner Werke, kaum Interpreten
gefunden. Dabei dtirfte die melancholische Einsicht Aigners
Akt-"die
im
dritten
Land"-zu den beliebtesten SchnitzlerZitaten
gehriren. Immerhin ist Das weite Innd bis heute eines seiner meistgespielten
Stiicke, hinzu kommen Luc Bondys Verfilmung von 1986 und Videodokumentationen legendrirer Auffiihrungen.' Dass es trotz dieser PopularitAt in der
Seele ... ist ein weites
Forschung keine Rolle spielt,2 mag einerseits daran liegen, dass es nicht zum
Schripfer des Anatol und der stiBen Miidel passen will. Andererseits schien es
bisher kaum interpretatorische Herausforderungen zu bieten, die Verhiiltnisse
lagen vermeintlich klar auf der Hand.
Die folgende Lektiire bricht mit den hergebrachten Analysen. Sie tut es
unter dem Verdacht, dass in diesem Drama das Denken S6ren Kierkegaards
reflektiert wird, und zwar im Rahmen einer Abrechnung mit dem Asthetizismus.
Um den Verdacht als plausible Miiglichkeit darzustellen-eine Verbindung
Schnitzlers zu Kierkegaard war bisher nicht bekannt bzw. wurde nur indirekt
angenommen'-, muss zunichst auf sein Verhiiltnis zu Diinemark und insbesondere zu Georg Brandes eingegangen werden. Der Verdacht erhiirtet sich durch
deutliche Ankliinge an Kierkegaards Denken in Aufbau und Figurenkonstellation des Stiickes, schlieBlich erweist er sich als fruchtbar frir die Interpretation.
Das Ziel dieser Arbeit besteht freilich nur an zweiter Stelle darin, einen Einfluss nachzuweisen, das muss im Ergebnis spekulativ bleiben. Vielmehr geht es
um ein besseres Verstiindnis eines wichtigen und vernachliissigten Werkes
-eine kierkegaardsche Lektiire hat sich dafiir zuniichst lediglich als geeignet
angeboten. Die vergleichende Betrachtung des kierkegaardschen und schnitzler-
Kritik der listhetischen Existenzweise, lohnt sich dabei
in historischer Hinsicht, sie verspricht Einsicht in die Dynamik der
schen Anliegens, die
schon
Moderne.
Das weite l-and ahnelt in seinem konventionellen Aufbau formal Schnitzlers
weniger bedeutenden Konversationsstiicken, dies hat wohl zu seiner dominanten
Modern Austrian Literature, Vol. 33, No. 3/4, 2000
02001 by The International Arthur Schnitzler Research Association