Melanie Adley | The Letter, Non-Place and Urban Space in Fräulein Else
In this paper, I will consider Arthur Schnitzler’s Fräulein Else and studythe male-coded, paternal urban space versus the fantasy, hotel refuge. I will argue the importance and centrality of the express letter, which seems to not only link these realms, but also enables the worlds to collide, acting as a catalyst for Else’s downfall.
Marc Augé, in his book Non-Places: An Introduction to the Anthropology of Supermodernity, discusses the existence of non-places in contrast to places. Non-places do not possess identity and they can be labeled as neither relational nor historical. These are spaces that serve specific purposes: commerce, transit, trade, free time. The existence of these spaces depends upon the individual who entertains a relationship with the space. Yet, despite the freedom acquired upon entering such a space, no identity or relation is gained; the non-place engenders instead both solitude and affinity. A perfect example of such a place is a hotel. The hotel serves various functions: it is a place of refuge, a fantasy place, a place in which one can project a different self. This non-place hotel, which, considering Michel Foucault’s essay “Of Other Spaces”, can also be categorized as a heterotopia, stands in opposition to an everyday existence. The benefit of the non-place is exactly that the everyday existence cannot penetrate it.
Arthur Schnitzler’s title figure Fräulein Else finds such refuge in a hotel. Leaving Vienna and her familial problems behind, Else plays the role of a privileged young women whilst a guest of her aunt in an elegant hotel amidst stately guests. This game does not last long, however, as the urban, paternal space of Vienna invades her fantasy, hotel world via an express letter sent by her mother. Although written by the mother, the letter’s content reveals the perversion and tragedy of the corrupt, male urban space. The letter violates Else (one could see it as a sort of symbolic rape), forcing the two opposed spaces to clash. Else is left to consider her options as daughter and female; she realizes her role as a sexual object with economic, but not moral, value. The letter acts as catalyst, and from the moment Else receives the letter, she begins to turn inward and consider leaving the world behind. The penetration of her father’s urban world into her refuge results in Else’s demise.