Deficit Spending and Fiscal Restraint: Balancing the Budget in Die Wahlverwandtschaften

ASTRIDA ORLE TANTILLO Deficit Spending and Fiscal Restraint: Balancing the Budget in Die Wahlverwandtschaften Ohne meine Bemühungen in den Naturwissenschaften hätte ich jedoch die Menschen nie kennen gelernt, wie sie sind.1 Unlike Jane Austen, who tells us exactly how many pounds each of her characters receives per annum, Goethe is not specific about the fiscal standings of his characters. Money and money concerns, however, are just as central to the characters in Goethe's novels as in Austen's. Indeed, we know the relative standing of almost every character in Die Wahlverwandtschaften. Eduard had rich parents and a rich first wife. Charlotte, as Eduard's current wife, is very wealthy. Ottilie is a poor orphan whose "path" in life is to economize. The Captain and the Architect, despite their numerous talents, must search for positions to insure their livelihood. Mittler struck it rich in the lottery. Luciane is to marry an affluent baron. The Schoolmaster, if he marries, will inherit a great deal. Throughout Die Wahlverwandtschaften, all four of the main characters have difficulties, at one time or another, in balancing their fiscal budgets, and strikingly, this failure to achieve balance monetarily is mirrored in their spiritual lives: the success or failure of the four main characters in balancing a fiscal budget is analogous to their success or failure in balancing a spiritual budget. Goethe's focus on budgets is not unique to Die Wahlverwandtschaften, but can also be found in his scientific writings, his poetry, and his prose works. Throughout this essay, I will argue that Goethe's theory of compensation, a theory he Goethe Yearbook 41 discusses most fully in his morphological studies, is an important key to reading and understanding Die Wahlverwandtschaften. While many scholars have noted the relevance of Goethe's natural philosophy to this novel when discussing polarity and Steigerung? the theory of compensation has been largely ignored. A few commentators have noted the philosophical importance of the theory of compensation and "Ökonomie" in some of Goethe's works,3 but to my knowledge no one has thoroughly addressed the philosophical link between the everyday economic propensities of the characters in Die Wahlverwandtschaften and Goethe's scientific theory of compensation. Not only does the theory of compensation provide insight into the peculiar flaws of each character, but it also helps elucidate Goethe's views of freedom—both in nature and for human beings. The theory of compensation , whether applied to human beings or natural organisms, demonstrates that freedom arises when one creatively works within limits to achieve balance. Human beings, like nature as a whole, can only find freedom by accepting some limits while challenging others. As Goethe's poem "Natur und Kunst" suggests: Wer Großes will, muß sich zusammenraffen; In der Beschränkung zeigt sich erst der Meister, Und das Gesetz nur kann uns Freiheit geben. Nature's Balance Sheet Surprisingly, when Goethe discusses nature's almost limitless abilities to create new forms, he uses economic language to describe the creative processes of organic development and variations. Goethe speaks of each species as having a budget for its formation, a budget which it must balance. Everything—every feature, every appendage— has a price, and the "cost" of each such feature must be deducted from the budget, leaving less funds available for the other parts. The lion's posterior, with its insignificant tail, for example, is the price paid for its splendid anterior. This theory of compensation, which traces its roots back to Aristotle,6 accounts for inter-species differences, as well as evolutionary development within one species. Goethe discusses his compensation theory in the essay "Erster Entwurf einer allgemeinen Einleitung in die vergleichende Anatomie, ausgehend von der Osteologie (1795)." In this essay he suggests comparing various animals not with each other, but rather with an artificial (theoretical), very general animal type {Typus, GA 17:233). According to Goethe, if one wishes to study specific animal species, one must first consider how they deviate from the general type. At this point he 42 Astrida Orle Tantillo begins to use economic language to describe animal differences. The general type functions like a budgetary system in which animals receive the amount needed for...