Effi Briest
Reading a textbook quickly turns into a tedious and repetitive process. Even though a textbook provides us with important factual events and dates, it fails to enlighten us on the actual morality and functioning of society at a specific period. Filling those gaps are authors and other historians who have written more pleasurable novels that emphasize societal structures, morals, manners. An example of such would be the admired and highly looked upon novel by many historians, Effi Briest, by Theodor Fontane. In this novel, Fontane exhibits societal pressures and its loss of morals due to expectations and beliefs. Through Theodor’s use of language, style and most importantly content of the novel, we are given a clearer perspective of what
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In his novel, he attempts to show the tensions between following social norms and fulfilling one’s desires, in this case those of a young aristocratic woman. Placing her into higher class society as the wife of an important Prussian diplomat is meant to show the hardships and societal expectations one feels obligated to follow. The authors aim justifies his use of Effi Briest as the main character. Effi, being as young and free spirited as she is, is faced with a decision when her boredom and lack of spontaneity tempt her towards adultery which society finds unforgivable and abominable. Effi’s problem was that she was unable to undergo the social shift from her former self because in doing so she would deny her true, natural self and her desire for risk-loving nature. After Effi commits adultery she is shut away from society forcing her to lead a life of isolation and shame. Innstetten divorces Effi, leaving her to live and provide for herself with the little resources she had. Fontane’s use of age difference too plays an important role. The age gap between the married couple represents a society in the process of change in which the old values have lost their ethical validity but not to an extent to which they can not nullify the approaching generation. The age difference also represents the political status which questions the hold of the old age over the
In his novel, he attempts to show the tensions between following social norms and fulfilling one’s desires, in this case those of a young aristocratic woman. Placing her into higher class society as the wife of an important Prussian diplomat is meant to show the hardships and societal expectations one feels obligated to follow. The authors aim justifies his use of Effi Briest as the main character. Effi, being as young and free spirited as she is, is faced with a decision when her boredom and lack of spontaneity tempt her towards adultery which society finds unforgivable and abominable. Effi’s problem was that she was unable to undergo the social shift from her former self because in doing so she would deny her true, natural self and her desire for risk-loving nature. After Effi commits adultery she is shut away from society forcing her to lead a life of isolation and shame. Innstetten divorces Effi, leaving her to live and provide for herself with the little resources she had. Fontane’s use of age difference too plays an important role. The age gap between the married couple represents a society in the process of change in which the old values have lost their ethical validity but not to an extent to which they can not nullify the approaching generation. The age difference also represents the political status which questions the hold of the old age over the