Rechts oder links?: Die Synkrisis des Protagonisten in Arthur Schnitzler’s Traumnovelle

At the center of the interpretation of the controversial conclusion to the Traumnovelle lies the anthropological principle of deciding between Right/Good and Wrong/Evil. It manifests itself aesthetically and symbolically in the syncrisis between the poles Right/Positive and Left/Negative that has been a model since antiquity. Fridolin’s decision process leads to a demonstratively frequent mention of the seemingly simple and purely descriptive directions “right” and “left.” The stringently suggested process of the actual decision in the mysterious “hearse” remains, of course, mysteriously open—an unusual narrative move. His outcome is nevertheless clearly determined through the final play on the biblical (Matthew 7:13f.) but also colloquial dichotomy: The protagonist travels on foot through a narrow passage on his way home, instead of the nearby street. Following the dangerous temptations of the night, he commits himself unquestionably to his marriage. The exegesis offered here attempts to work through the ethical-political functions of the literary elements of the work as opposed to the panoply of primarily psychologically oriented interpretations.