The South Carolina Modern Language Review

Volume 2, Number 1

 

 

Naturalism or Realism: A Reexamination of Genre

in Theodor Fontane’s Effi Briest

 

 

 

 

by Ana-Isabel Aliaga-Buchenau

UNC Charlotte

 

 

 

 

 

[Effi schrieb] . . .  die Zwicker sei reizend, etwas frei, wahrscheinlich sogar mit einer Vergangen­heit, aber höchst amüsant, und man könne viel, sehr viel von ihr lernen; nie habe sie sich, trotz ihrer Fünfundzwanzig, so als Kind gefühlt, wie nach der Bekanntschaft mit dieser Dame.  Dabei sei sie so belesen, auch in fremder Literatur, und als sie Effi, beispielsweise neulich von Nana gespro­chen und dabei gefragt habe, "ob es denn wirklich so schrecklich sei", habe die Zwicker geant­wortet: "Ach, meine liebe Baronin, was heißt schreck­lich?  Da gibt es noch ganz anderes" (Fontane 268).

 

 

 

 

This quote introduces the twenty-sixth chapter of Fontane's Effi Briest, which begins the sequence of events that lead to the dis­covery of Effi's adultery and her fall from grace and the life she has known.  Frau Zwicker, Effi's companion on a trip to a bath, seems to be older and more experienced.  She is well read, and she announces, upon the mention of Zola's work Nana—almost ominously for Effi Briest—that there are fates much worse than that of Nana.  Having followed the development of Effi's marriage at the young age of seven­teen, her two years spent in the lonely and bleak Kessin, and her subsequent adultery, the reader is almost forced to read this state­ment as referring to Effi's own fate.  A fate that the reader might deem worse than that of even Nana, Zola’s prostitute who rises to fame and success in the Paris “demi-monde.”  The link between Effi and the "terrible" Nana is further emphasized in Effi's comments that follow the passage cited above.  She indicates that Frau Zwicker has offered to introduce her to "regions" that are even more terrible than Nana but she writes to her husband, Geert von Instetten, that she did not accept this offer since she knows his strict opinions of such matters: "Leicht ist es mir aber nicht geworden" (268).  Effi thus admits that she is fascinated by the “terrible” as represented by Nana, a Parisian prostitute that embodies dangerous female sexuality, whose excesses, coupled with the desire and the overindulgence of her lovers lead to the destruction of the moral structures of society and finally of her own life.  Is Fontane suggesting that Effi's fate, although described in more muted tones, is worse than that of Nana?  The reference and comparison to Nana links Effi Briest to Zola's naturalist novel.  This essay examines whether Effi Briest can be considered a naturalist novel; a notion that contrasts with most literary criticism, which has long classified it as work of poetic realism (Toprak 105-9; Wittig-Davis; Müller; Martini).

Naturalism and realism are very slippery terms and both have been defined in many different ways: as periods immedi­ately fol­lowing one after the other, as two distinct genres, as two dif­ferent philo­sophical outlooks transformed into art, as two dif­ferent methods of art, and as two forms of theories.  At times, naturalism has been called a more radi­cal continuation of realism, and the question is complicated by the different development of both realism and naturalism in different European countries.  German forms of naturalism developed much later than those in France and England.  In Germany, naturalism was first con­ceived of as a theory with two schools of thought in Berlin and München.  Arno Holz is one of the most prominent representa­tives of German naturalism.  He exaggerates naturalist thought by inventing a formula for art which equates it with nature minus "x" (art=nature-x) where "x" stands for the flaws and sub­jectivity of the author.  He wholehartedly embraces the idea that nature can be transformed into art, and that this transformation must take place with as little subjectivity as possible.  His "Sekundenstil"--a moment-by-moment mimesis of nature practiced in Papa Hamlet--could hardly be farther removed from Fontane's art (Jurt 99-119), and it is indeed impossible to classify Fontane and Effi Briest as naturalist in a German framework such as Holz's.

Rather, Fontane's work should be analyzed in terms of Zolaesque—that is, French—naturalism.  A starting point for this examination lies in the reception of Nana and Zola's other naturalist novels in Germany (Jurt 99-119).  Between 1883 and 1888, Zola had reached the high point of fame in Ger­many--a fame not necessarily positive since his work was severely criticized on moral grounds.  Fontane joined in this critique, albeit on a different note: in 1883 two years after the publication of Nana, he wrote a letter to his wife in which he criticized Zola not on moral grounds but more importantly for his vision of reality.

 

Life is not like that [how Zola depicts it] . . . . There is beauty in it; one needs only to open one's eyes and not to shut oneself off from this obvious truth.  Realism will always be full of beauty.  For Beauty, thanks be to God, belongs as much to life as does what is ugly.  Perhaps it has not even proven that ugliness predomi­nates (quoted in Jurt 111).

Fontane links himself to realism here and denies the ugli­ness of life as depicted by Zola.  However, this statement dates from 1883 whereas Effi Briest was not published until 1895.  Did Fontane's opinion change over the years?  How could one think of beauty if Effi’s fate is even worse than that of Nana, who dies a terrible death from small pox?  Or does Fontane's writing in Effi Briest show a fundamentally ambivalent attitude towards natural­ism?  Does the novel incorporate and follow naturalist themes and techniques while at the same time presenting a form of art that has been called poetic realism?

Both Michael Minden's article "Realism versus Poetry: Theodor Fontane, Effi Briest" and Wilhelm Solms’s piece "Effi und Instetten ein Musterpaar: Zum poetischen Realismus Fon­tanes" may be cited as good examples of the traditional view that con­siders Effi Briest a representative work of poetic realism.  Min­den argues that Fontane masters reality poetically by defending poetic value against the "prose of modern circum­stance."  These very vague observa­tions are followed by the more coherent insight that Effi Briest tells two stories: one realis­tic story of a wasted life, and the transformation of a real Berlin anecdote into art, a piece of gossip.  In the realistic version of the story, Effi’s fall is an accident and happens by pure chance, according to Minden.  At the same time, a poetic strain suggests that another story runs parallel.  It is a senti­mentally evasive poetic plot that centers around a poetic fall after which the heroine accepts death; which Minden sees as a "truly poetic" end.  Minden's arguments are not very convincing in that he does not define his labels very clearly.  One can only infer that "realistic" means to him that the story was based on a real incident in Berlin society.  His notion of "poetic," how­ever, remains obscure.  What is poetic about someone accepting death?  Where is the difference between an accidental and a poetic fall (Minden 18-29)?

Similarly to Minden, Wilhelm Solms sees a "Verbindung von Poesie und Realität" in this work.  The poetic lies in Effi's characteristic of being a "Naturkind" that cannot live without society, however.  In Solms's view, Instetten represents society and is therefore the more realist count­erpart to Effi's poetic self.  Solms concludes that the marriage between Effi and Instetten is the combination of poetic and realistic aspects and could be a model marriage at the end of the novel in which Effi seems to understand Instetten's nature and he seems to be more understanding of her. However, the truly happy unit between reality and poetry found in the plot cannot be achieved, and the poetic part dies.  Solms nevertheless sees Fontane as writing poetic realism since he criticizes reality for being too prosaic and criticizes poetry for being too romantic.  According to Solms, he tries to achieve a balance and unity of the two (Solms 189-209).

The problem with Solms's article is the lack of a clear definition of realism.  Effi seems just as real as Instetten, and some of the minor characters could also be called representations of the real (such as Roswitha for example.)  To be sure, one cannot dismiss a tradition of understanding Fontane as a poetic realist by citing two articles which do not define their terms very convincingly and therefore do not make a strong argument.  Nonetheless, as examples, these articles do serve to underscore my arguments that the question needs to be examined more closely, and that the link to Nana invites a foray into the field of naturalism.

First and foremost, it will be necessary to examine whether a link or similarity between the female protagonists Effi and Nana exist.  And if it does, the question remains whether that link points to other aspects in the text that mark it as a naturalist one.

Nana is a prostitute in Paris, whereas Effi is the daughter of an aristocrat from near Berlin, a woman who is to marry a baron.  The two women could hardly be further apart on the social scale.  Both women die, however, at the end of each novel, due to their sexual­ity.  While Nana's story of pro­stitution is very different from Effi's adultery, a striking similarity exists in the first scenes of both novels.  Nana begins with a description of place, the theater at which the play La blonde Venus with Nana as actress is to be enacted.  Nana does not appear on the scene until the play and the novel have well progressed.  When Nana appears, she acts true to everyone's negative expectations and predictions.  She can neither sing nor act, and for a moment the director seems to have made a mistake by advertising and praising Nana so highly.  However, Nana's presentation does function just as the director had expected.  She appears almost naked, covered only in a sheer length of fabric, and the audience transforms itself into one single moan of desire.  Nana's appearance fasci­nates and chains every man in the room to her.  And indeed, most of the men in the audience will become at one time or another her "protectors" and lovers.

Effi, who is the same age as Nana, is busy playing in the beginning of the novel.  However, the para­dise of play with her three girl friends is all too soon interrupted since she has to get dressed for the reception of Baron von Instetten, an old friend of her mother.  Effi's appearance is supposed to link Instetten even more tightly to her, and Effi's mother is almost upset that her daughter has not changed into a more adult gown when Instetten has already arrived.  However, she changes her mind upon seeing "das jugendlich reizende Geschöpf, das, noch erhitzt von der Aufregung des Spiels, wie ein Bild frischesten Lebens vor ihr stand" and advises Effi:

 

Es ist am Ende das beste, du bleibst wie du bist.  Ja bleibe so. Du siehst gerade sehr gut aus.  Und wenn es auch nicht wäre, du siehst so unvorbe­rei­tet aus, so gar nicht zurechtgemacht, und darauf kommt es in diesem Augenblicke an (21).

Effi's appearance is used here to entice Instetten--although he has already proposed.  Like Nana, Effi is presented to the eyes of a man dressed up in special clothes--in her case her ordinary childlike play clothes--only to please him.  Both women, then, are prostituted in front of men--both of their attires are to represent them: with Nana her near-nakedness brings out her sexu­ality and erotic power, whereas Effi's remaining in the child's clothes func­tions as a reminder of her youth, her childlikeness which implies submission and malleability.  At the same time, her still heated cheeks from the play give her appearance erotic overtones.  Minden goes so far as to call all references to Effi's naturalness and her risktaking when playing evidence of erotic sensibility.

This similarity between the opening scenes in Nana and Effi Briest is only circumstantial evidence for a read­ing of the lat­ter as a naturalist novel.  To prove the legitimacy of such a reading, I will examine whether some character­is­tic features of a naturalist novel can be found in Effi Briest.   I base my analysis on Baguley's as well as Furst and Skrine's visions of naturalism, in particular naturalism as conceived of in France and mainly by Zola (Brown 191-217; Beliveau).  These critics distinguish between a charac­ter­istic method and characteristic themes and symbols.

Baguley sees two tendencies in the method of the naturalist novel: that of observation and that of experimentation.  Zola's Roman experimental is based on Claude Bernard's treatise on experimental medicine and on HippolyteTaine's views of reality—according to Zola, experimentation becomes the metier of the novelist.  Observation—a constituent element of experimentation as well—is on the other hand also the main feature of the realist novel.  Baguley distinguishes between two tendencies: one pre­dominant in the realist novel—observation—and the other existing only in the naturalist novel—experimentation.  He summarizes these ten­dencies in two formulas. For the realist observing mode he says that "events (x) of realistic novel (N) occurred at time (y) in conditions (Z)." (59).  In this category he sees Madame Bovary which is a representation of Emma’s adultery as a unique event shown to have occurred at a certain time and in certain conditions.  For the experimental mode of the naturalist novel, however, he adapts the formula as follows: "novel (N) illustrates that in conditions (Z) at time (Y) events (X) [could, will or did] occur" (59).  Effi's life can be seen as an illustration of what happens when a seven­teen-year-old immature girl is married to an older man less nat­ural and passionate than herself.  The novel illustrates that adultery was bound to occur under certain conditions (including the bleakness of Kessin, the lack of entertainment, the fear produced by the spook, and Effi's and Instetten's natures) at a time in which adultery is seen to be a sin only to be remedied by a duel, and in which mar­ried women had no other legiti­mate way of expressing passion.  The structure of Effi Briest, then, illustrating rather than telling of one particular instance, points to a naturalist tendency.

Another often cited naturalist method is the note-tak­ing and the basing of texts on real occurrences.  Zola is known to have taken extensive notes on the strike at Anzin and to have visited a mine before beginning to write Germi­nal, his novel about a strike among French miners.  Effi Briest is also based on a real occurrence: Berlin society's Léon von Ardenne's wife had an affair at the fin de siècle.  The duel caused by this extramari­tal liaison occurred with a considerable temporal distance.  Fontane heard this story and based Effi Briest on the account.  However, it is too easy to see this as proof of a naturalist method.  First of all, no note-taking was involved, and secondly realist novelists also took real occurrences as material for their works, i.e., Flaubert in Madame Bovary (Mikoltchak).  In addition, Fonta­ne's own description of the process refutes the claim that this particular aspect of the novel is specifically naturalist.  In 1895, after the final installment of the novel had been printed, Fontane wrote to his publisher Hans Hertz:

Ja, die arme Effi! vielleicht ist es mir so gelun­gen, weil ich das Ganze träumerisch und fast wie mit einem Psychographen geschrieben habe.  Sonst kann ich mich immer der Arbeit, ihrer Mühe, Sorgen und Etappen erin­nern--in diesem Falle gar nicht.  Es ist so wie von selbst gekommen, ohne rechte Überlegung und ohne alle Kritik.  Meine Gönnerin L. erzählte mir auf meine Frage: "Was macht denn der?" . . . die ganze Effi Briest-Geschichte, und . . . [es] stand mir fest: "Das mußt du schreiben." (2)

The notion of writing without being aware of it as if in a dream clashes fundamentally with the naturalist mode of rational prepa­ration before writing a text.

In the area of themes and philosophy, Fontane seems to have come much closer to what could be termed naturalist.  Although in 1883 he mentions the beauty inherent in reality, he certainly does not stop at that to portray a very ugly fate: that of Effi who is abandoned by everyone after break­ing one of society's rules.  Although her parents take her in at the end, the sadness of the story remains.  However, philosophical and the­matic parallels to naturalist texts go further than this superficial similarity of the "ugliness" of events.

One of the main shaping factors for naturalism was the rise of positivism and the developments in the sciences (Furst and Skrine 10-24).  Among the most important influences on naturalist thought was Charles Darwin’s the­ory of evolution.  Although the naturalists adhered to the view of life as a struggle, they inverted Darwin's notion of a posi­tive evolution of humankind towards progress.  More often, they presented a backward evolution, degeneration through the emer­gence of the original animal instincts in man.  Taine's theories synthesize the many devel­opments in natural and medical sciences.  He concludes that "race, milieu, moment" are the determining fac­tors of man's life.   With these new modes of thought, a new con­cept of man emerged: man was a determined observable being, shaped by heredity—including those animal instincts, his envi­ronment and the circumstances of his actions.  If examined with these ideas in mind, Effi Briest appears to be a novel with strong naturalist tendencies.  Heredity, environ­ment and the right moment play important roles in the plot.

Heredity is primarily represented in the female charac­ters of the novel.  Effi inherited much from her mother, and Anni in turn from Effi.  Effi is described as having "Über­mut" and "Grazie" at the same time (11).  On the one hand, she is wild, "lei­denschaftlich," close to nature, and a "Tochter der Luft," and on the other, she knows that she is part of society.  She recog­nizes the value in marry­ing Instetten rather than Vetter Dagobert.   The latter is only a boy, whereas the former is "ein Mann, ein schöner Mann, mit dem ich Staat machen kann und aus dem was wird in der Welt" (42).  In all her naturalness and wildness, she imagines acceptance in high society and wishes for success in form of "Reichtum und ein vornehmes Haus" (39).  Effi's character combines nature and society. 

Effi's mother is a mixture of the same ingredients.  Effi knows that she has inherited at least the wildness from her mother.  She tells her mother when the latter is worried about Effi's antics "Von wem hab' ich es?  Doch nur von Dir.  Oder meinst du von Papa?" (12).  Hulda stresses this form of heredity by calling Effi "waghalsig" and stating that she has "zuviel von dem Bellingschen in dir, von deiner Mama her" (19).  The wildness now not only comes from the mother, but it is also linked to the whole Belling family.  Nevertheless, Effi is not as aware of the other aspect of her mother's nature that must have also passed to the daughter.  She describes her mother as "immer so sicher und dabei so fein und nie unpassend wie Papa" (15).  Frau Briest seems to be as ori­ented toward and versed in society as Effi.  Both mother and daugh­ter combine wildness with knowledge of society's rules and the capacity of restraint to function according to its tenets.  

Effi's daughter Annie again inherits this combination of wildness and restraint.  When she runs up the stairs and falls, her father tells her "du bist so wild, Annie, das hast du von der Mama.  Immer wie ein Wirbelwind. Aber dabei kommt nichts heraus" (274).  However, Annie is also capable of restraint, which will make her a fine addition to society.  She does not cry after her fall and receives for­giveness for her wildness, because she has been so "brav" in the eyes of her father, the ultimate represen­tative of society.

The three women are wild, tempestuous and affectionate: attributes linked to the primal instincts that are so often presented in characters of naturalist novels.  Effi's natu­ralness and passionate nature can also be seen as her erotic instincts that are always latently present in the form of her wildness.  Many natural novels focus on the point at which these instincts erupt and destroy human lives.  Although the whole scene of seduction and the many scenes of adulterous love are only present in allusions, it is clear that Effi's life is destroyed because she lets that part of her nature reign freely instead of listening to the other half of her nature, i.e., to obey the rules of society.

While the aspect of heredity is strong enough in Effi Briest to lend itself as one proof to read the novel as influ­enced by naturalist thought, the role of environ­ment presents an equally valid argument for such a read­ing.  The places in Effi's life are Hohen-Cremmen, Berlin and Kessin.  To Effi, Hohen-Cremmen is a virtual paradise.  She feels free there, close to nature, and the color of her feel­ings is represented by the brightness of the place, as indicated by the perpetual sunshine (9, 36, 331).  In Hohen-Cremmen, Effi can be a daughter of the air because most of the activities take place outside in nature.  Hohen-Cremmen pre­sents Effi's natural side in the first part of the novel, whereas Berlin, where she goes to buy her wedding attire, represents that aspect of her which adapts itself to society.  In this environment, her conscious­ness of society's rules is high­lighted by her concern about being seen with Aunt Therese, the "unstandesgemäße Verwandtschaft" (31).  She does not act in such an aristocratic and almost cruel manner in Hohen-Cremmen. On a symbolical level, the form of their visit to Berlin with "programmäßig [en]" and "vorgeschrieben[en]" (28) activities mirrors society with its rules and restrictions.  The influence of environment shows itself already in this early part of the novel in that the Hohen-Cremmen environment emphasizes the natu­ral side of Effi, whereas she becomes the "feine Dame" of society in Berlin. 

Fontane gives the influence of Kessin on Effi's life an even greater emphasis in the novel.  From the beginning, Kessin is a stark contrast to both Hohen-Cremmen and Berlin.  It is a place of darkness, cold and lonely.  In contrast to the action in Hohen-Cremmen, life in Kessin plays itself out much more in the interior of houses, which gives the latter greater importance and more description in the novel.  In terms of environment, the house in Kessin is the strong­est influence in Effi's married life.  Upon her arrival, she perceives the house as old-fash­ioned, dark and exotic with the shark and the crocodile hanging from the ceiling (Fontane 60-63).  When she awakes on her first morning, her surroundings appear "halb fremdartig, halb altmodisch" (Fontane 69) to her.  The house immediately becomes associated with fear: as early as in her first night, she hears noises from the top floor.  Although a rational explanation is given, Frau Kruse's and Instetten's stories about a spook and a Chinese only strengthen Effi's superstitions.  Instetten may have indeed used fear as a tactic in educating and controlling his wife, as her future lover Crampas, a rather unreliable source, suggests to Effi.  Whether or not that is true, however, the fear and the darkness of the house contribute to Effi's path toward adultery.  How could a "Naturkind," used to the lightness and airiness of Hohen-Cremmen, survive in the dark, cramped Kessin house? 

Kessin as a location also influences Effi's life.  Before the marriage she conceives of Kessin as "ein halbsi­birischer Ort . . . wo Eis und Schnee nie recht aufhörten" (34).  Effi's mother warns her not to create a poetic illu­sion of some­thing which in reality may turn out to be "statt Licht und Schim­mer" a place of darkness (38).  The warning becomes reality in that Kessin is a place of darkness most of the time.  It is "leer und still" (73) in the fall and winter and it either rains or storms or snows (80, 84, 100, 254, 200).  The coldness influ­ences the inhabitants, and Effi tells Instetten that he is "frostig wie ein Schnee­mann.  Und immer nur die Zigarre" (83).  Instead, she would like him to kiss her.

Very rarely does Kessin have sunny weather.  The few occa­sions are linked to the Crampas scenes in which the affair is either prepared—when Crampas comes to them for the first time on the terrace, it is sunny—or when adultery is taking place.  For example, Effi goes riding first with Crampas and Instetten together, later with Crampas alone on pretty days.  After the adultery has taken place for the first time and the meetings have become a regular occur­rence, Effi goes on her solitary walks to meet the lover whether it rains or the sun shines.  Rather than benevolent, as in Hohen-Cremmen, nature in Kessin is almost threatening and a determin­ing factor in the lives of the characters.  A storm causes the death of many people on the boat that hits bottom on the ocean near Kessin.  It is the "Schloon" that forces the party to take a detour and puts Crampas in the sledge with Effi.  It is here that he first approaches her physically.

The move to Berlin seems to determine the lives of the char­acters again.  Berlin appears light and sunny, as does the new apartment, which has much more space and no spook such as the house in Kessin.  The "newness" of Berlin compared to the "old-fashioned ways of Kessin" allows a new start for Effi and Instetten.  However, they live on borrowed time, and eventually Instetten discovers the adultery.

The power of environment as a determining factor can be seen in the place Effi has to live in after the break with her hus­band.  She still lives in Berlin, but in very different circum­stances.  She has two rooms, which are "durch­schnitts­mäßig und alltäglich" (309) but nevertheless pretty.  However, Effi slowly disintegrates in this environment.  It is too different from her original environment Hohen-Cremmen.  What Effi really needs in a place are the people who approve of her.  She loves Hohen-Cremmen because she hears "freund­liche Worte" there and "die Ver­sicherung, wie liebenswürdig sie sei" (257).  In her new situa­tion, she is lonely, and she does not receive such loving approval except from Roswitha, who is not her equal in status.

Finally, Effi is called back to Hohen-Cremmen after the doctor advises her parents that she would die in the Berlin envi­ronment.  The new "old" environment gives her some of her spirit back, but her death is already programmed.  She seems to be able to breathe again, which was difficult in Kessin where "kaum ein Lüftchen geht" (100).  Shortly before she dies, die "Tochter der Luft" goes to the window one more time "um noch einmal die kühle Nachtluft einzusaugen" (352).  After her death, Effi becomes part of her natural environ­ment; she lies under a grave marker in the "Rondell" sur­rounded by heliotrope.  As a young girl, she had once com­mented that heaven could not be as beautiful as Hohen-Crem­men because there would surely not be such beautiful helio­trope.  The closeness of this flower to her final place of rest indicates that maybe heaven is where she went—a happy ending?

Both the aspects of heredity and the role of the environment thus allow a naturalist reading of Effi Briest.  Yet another aspect of the naturalist concept of man is present in this novel: naturalist novels present characters without free will or the possibility to choose.  Their choices are in themselves predeter­mined (Mitchell).  In the realist concept of man, however, characters are moral agents who choose their actions freely.  In Effi Briest, Instetten most clearly resembles the naturalist character.  Although he loves Effi and would like to keep her as his wife, he cannot do so.  His actions are shaped by his nature, which is in harmony with society's rules and regulations.  He cannot go against them.  He rationalizes his decision that after he has told one person, he cannot refrain from seeking honor, because there would always be a witness to his shame of hav­ing been cuck­olded, and not having dueled to save his honor.  However, he himself had chosen to confide in someone.  The duel with his rival, then, is not an action that Instetten particularly wishes to happen, but it follows what society pre­scribes in such cases of honor.

  Effi's actions also seem predetermined, but more so by her hereditary traits of character and the influence of the environ­ment.  Therefore, it is very hard to pass moral judgment on Effi and Instetten.  Indeed, Fontane was not happy that many con­temporary readers (like many of today's readers) blame Instetten for the tragic end of Effi Briest.  Like naturalist writers, Fontane does not himself judge.  He pre­sents characters who are both good and bad.  Their badness does not come from moral depravity, but it is a result of many factors: i.e. heredity, environment, and restricted possi­bilities of choice, among others.

Finally, two categories established by Baguley place Effi Briest in the naturalist tradi­tion.  He distinguishes between two types of naturalist novels.  The first type of naturalist novel dramatizes the fall of a woman due to her sexuality; it entails a plot of decline and ultimate sub­mission to fate, that is, death.  Nana is a representative of this type of naturalist novel.  Banality of reality and the general disillusionment of a male intel­lectual protagonist as in Flaubert’s Education Sentimentale characterize the second type of naturalist novel.  This second type of novel has a circular plot and ends in resignation.  Effi Briest bears characteristics of both of these types of naturalist novels.  Like Nana, it is the dramatiza­tion of the fall of a woman, determined by heredity (as Nana is determined by the alcoholism and brutality of her home) and environment.  The fall is due to sexuality—an instinct or a passion inherent in women that can "break out" under certain circumstances (Baguley 40-120). 

One interpretation focuses on the destructive force of female sexuality even more strongly.  It has been remarked that Effi's age corresponds to the eighteen years of the marriage of her parents.  Therefore, it is possible that Effi's mother's love for Instetten (which she chose not to pursue in order to marry Briest) could have produced the child Effi.  The development of that theme of illicit love and ultimately incest would produce a very characteristic naturalist novel of the first type.  In Effi Briest, how­ever, the issue is only barely alluded to, creating the aura of natural­ism without really delving into the topic.

Effi Briest also resembles the second type of natural­ist novels.  It has a circular plot: Effi leaves and comes back to Berlin and begins and ends her life in Hohen-Cremmen.  The circu­larity is also inherent in the mother-daughter relationship.  Frau von Briest indicates to Effi that she lives the life she herself had chosen with Briest, only with better possiblities.   In addition to being a plot of submission—Instetten submits to the prescriptions of society as he perceives them, and Effi sub­mits to her fate—it is also a plot of resignation.  Effi accepts her death and is even able to resign herself to the fact that Instet­ten was right in his treatment of Crampas as well as in his education of Annie.

Baguley goes on to conclude that these two types of natural­ist novels are linked by a similar vision of reality: the entropic vision.  The entropic vision entails a threat­en­ing of the human order as it exists: in this manner, Effi's nature (her naturalness and passion) as well as her actions threaten the order known to her and Instetten.  Instetten has to act as he does to save that order and Effi has to die, or else the order would be disturbed.

 

 Is Effi's fate in fact worse than Nana's, as Frau Zwicker implied?  It is hardly possible to judge that.  However, a link between Nana and Effi exists.  Some aspects of their lives are similar, and even if the description of Effi's fate is not as "gory" as that of Nana's fate, it is just as terrible, if not worse.

Is Effi Briest, then, a naturalist novel?  Is there an inherent ambivalence in Fontane's relationship to both real­ism and naturalism?  These are indeed difficult questions to answer since they depend so strongly on the definition of realism and naturalism.  Nevertheless, when one takes into account some of the shaping factors of naturalism such as the new scientific interests in heredity and environment, it is hard to deny that Effi Briest has naturalist characteristics.  These traits are too clear to call Fon­tane's work unambiguously a piece of poetic realism.  But natural­ism has also been praised for its poetic aspects, which raises the question of the very distinction between realism and naturalism: Nana, in particular, is "esteemed nowadays for . . . [its] powerfully poetic vision of the commonplace" (Furst and Skrine 46).  According to this observation, poetics and naturalism are not mutually exclusive.  Maybe the ten­dency to call Effi Briest a work of poetic realism reflects the poetic aspects of the novel, whereas it is possible and legitimate to see it as a naturalist work at the same time.  Although naturalist aspects exist in Effi Briest, a new definition of realism and naturalism and their relationship cannot be undertaken.  That would be—to end with Herrn Briest's words—"ein zu weites Feld" (354).

Works Cited

 

Baguley, David.  Naturalist Fiction: The Entropic Vision.  Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1990.

 

Beliveau, Sara P.D. “Familial Descent: Realism, Naturalism, and the Domestic Solution.” Ph.D. dissertation, Brown University, 2000.

 

Brown, Frederick. “Zola and the Making of Nana.” The Hudson Review 45.2 (Summer 1992): 191-217.

 

Fontane, Theodor.  Effi Briest.  Frankfurt am Main: Insel Taschenbuch, 1976.

 

Furst, Lilian R., and Peter Skrine, Naturalism.  London: Methuen, 1971.

 

Jurt, Joseph.  "The Reception of Naturalism in Germany."  In Brian Nelson, ed., Naturalism in the European Novel: New Critical Perspectives.  New York: Berg, 1992.  99-119.

 

Martini, Fritz.,  "Bürgerlicher Realismus in der deutschsprachigen Literatur."  In Reinhard Lauer, ed., Europäischer Realismus.  Wiesbaden, Germany: Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft Athenaion, 1976.

 

Mikoltchak, Maria.  “A Comparative Analysis of Madame Bovary, Anna Karenina, and Effi Briest: A Feminist Approach.”  Ph.D. dissertation, University of South Carolina, 2000.

 

Minden, Michael.  "Realism versus Poetry: Theodor Fontane, Effi Briest."  In David Midgley, The German Novel in the Twentieth Century Beyond Realism.  New York: St. Martin's Press, 1993. 18-29.

 

Mitchell, Lee Clark.  Determined Fictions: American Literary Naturalism.  New York: Columbia UP, 1989.

 

Müller, Klaus Detlef.  Bürgerlicher Realismus: Grundlagen und Interpretationen.  Königstein, Germany: Athenäum, 1981.

 

Solms, Wilhelm.  "Effi und Instetten: 'ein Musterpaar'?  Zum poetischen Realismus Fontanes." Germanisch-Romanische Monatsschrift 35.2 (1985): 189-208.

 

Toprak, Metin. “Theodor Fontanes Realismuskonzept.”  Journal of the Letter of Letters 19.1 (June 2000): 105-9.

 

Wittig-Davis, Gabriele.  Novel Associations: Theodor Fontane and George Eliot Within the Context of Nineteenth-Century Realism.  New York: Peter Lang, 1983.

 

Zola, Emile.  Nana.  Paris: Garnier-Flammarion, 1968.