Grillparzer and the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

‘No one can remain entirely free from the spirit of the time in which he lives’,² Grillparzer observed about 1825 and writing in 1840 he stated: ‘Who could or would always want to forget the present entirely?’³ The nineteenth century then, in which the poet lived, had a strong impact upon his personality and his art. Generally he maintained a rather negative outlook on the efforts of his own time, whether they were in the realm of politics, art or philosophy, and yet he himself in many ways, though never without originality, seemed to reflect specific attitudes of the era he scorned. But the bonds which link the poet with his own time and impress themselves so characteristically upon his dramas do not have the uplifting effects of the classical heritage, they rather constitute the unresolved element of human and personal tragedy that runs through his life and caused him so much doubt, despair and depression about his work and existence. Where the humanism of Goethe, the restraint of Mozart and the critical analysis of Kant had reinforced his own search for order and design that offered a possibility of contentment, the currents of his own time, the trend toward introspection, determinism and speculation tended to arouse an emotional chaos he desperately tried to control.

La raison sans les passions, serait presque un roi sans sujets.

Diderot 1