THE THEME OF ADULTERY IN THE NOVELS OF THEODOR FONTANE

In each of Theodor Fontane's five Eheromane, L'Adultera, Cecile, Graf Petofy, Unwiederbringlich, and Effi Briest, the marriage union is complicated by an implicit or explicit act of adultery. A comparison of these novels on the basis of adultery which is undertaken in this dissertation reveals a glaring inconsistency; what Fontane condemns in L'Adultera, Graf Petofy, and Unwiederbringlich, he condones in Cecile and Effi Briest. Unlike his other novels, here Fontane was more concerned with the psychology of adultery than with the social implications of adultery. Adultery thus functions as a common denominator for the ego, reducing superficial diversity between individuals to one mutual impulse. In this way Fontane is able to explore the dimension of the subconscious.;The foundation of personality for Fontane is the interaction between the shadow and the persona which when balanced moderates human behavior in a compromise between presocial urges and the demands of the socialization process. The personalities of his novels of adultery, who are by no means psychotic or neurotic, suffer nevertheless from a psychological imbalance. Melanie van der Straaten, Franziska Franz, Graf Petofy, and Holk intellectualize in terms of the persona the impulses of the shadow, that is, they insist on the social acceptability of that which is antisocial. Cecile and Effi Briest, on the other hand, have no intellectual capacity for such rationalization and are thus abandoned to the impulses of the shadow because the means for self-realization through a persona are denied to them. In all cases Fontane considers the motivation for human behavior to be egoism, a subject on which he expounds in his private correspondence. In the matter of egoism as it relates to adultery Fontane makes an ethical distinction. In those instances when self-gratification (adultery) infringes on the interests of others, Fontane views the act to be one of self-interest which he regards at first in L'Adultera with skepticism and finally in Unwiederbringlich with ridicule. Effi and Cecile, however, inflict no injury on those immediately concerned and engage in adultery only in a desperate attempt to seek by unconventional means the fulfillment conventional means have denied them. This act Fontane determines to be self-defense. The inconsistency in Fontane's novels of adultery is resolved if we view the theme, as Fontane did, from two sides, depending upon the psychological make-up of the characters concerned, be they predominantly governed by the persona or the shadow.;In conclusion Stechlin, the summation of Fontane's work, provides us with Fontane's final thoughts on human personality and its ethical responsibilities. In this last novel Fontane seems to lay the groundwork for a triangle situation in the pattern of his novels of adultery, but the adultery never materializes. Whereas in his novels of adultery Fontane takes a negative approach to the problem of personality, in Stechlin his method is positive. The central characters of Stechlin demonstrate that the individual can achieve self-realization by striving for self-containment, and that the egoistical orientation of human personality can work for the common good. Under these circumstances adultery is a moot point.;The argument for a psychological interpretation of these novels is persuasive if we note the very personal basis which underlies their conception. Fontane drew on his recollections of his father put forth in Meine Kinderjahre and on reflections on his own marital experience for the psychological portraits in his novels of adultery. From his autobiographies and personal correspondence an analysis of personality emerges which informs these novels.