Arthur Schnitzler's Fräulein Else and the End of the Bourgeois Tragedy

Abstract

Schnitzler's novella Fräulein Else can be read as the last representative and "death-sentence" of the bourgeois tragedy. A comparison with Lessing's Emilia Galotti informs my reading of the later story and shows how new socio-economical realities have a major impact on the way the beautiful female body is treated in late bourgeois society. By ultimately taking possession of her body, the daughter wins her lonely fight against an objectifying male society that mandates a new literary form, the interior monologue. Additionally, striking similarities between Schnitzler's and Lessing's texts suggest that Fräulein Else is a conscious commentary on Emilia Galotti .