Effi Briest: Analysis of Setting
"Effi Briest: Analysis of Setting" examines the significant locations in Theodor Fontane's novel, highlighting how these environments shape the protagonist's experiences and reflect broader societal themes. The narrative unfolds across distinct places, starting with Hohen-Cremmen, the Briest family's ancestral estate, which symbolizes the comfort and stability of the landed gentry, contrasted sharply by the encroaching modernity indicated by the nearby train. The second setting, Kessin, presents a small port town that embodies provincial narrow-mindedness and supernatural unease, as Effi grapples with her sense of vulnerability amidst ghostly legends and haunting surroundings. The final locale, Berlin, represents a bustling yet impersonal urban life, where Effi's hopes for renewal are ultimately overshadowed by societal expectations and personal isolation following her divorce. Each setting not only provides a backdrop for Effi's emotional journey but also critiques the shifting values of society during the late 19th century in Germany. Through these locations, Fontane explores themes of tradition, change, and the individual's struggle against societal constraints.
Effi Briest: Analysis of Setting
First published: 1895 (English translation, 1914)
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Domestic realism
Time of work: Second half of the nineteenth century
Asterisk denotes entries on real places.
Places Discussed
Hohen-Cremmen
Hohen-Cremmen (HOH-uhn KREHM-uhn). Large country estate in the Mark Brandenburg region of northeastern Germany whose manor house has belonged to the Briest family since the early seventeenth century. The manor house is covered in ivy, has parklike grounds, a pond, a swing, and colorful flowerbeds. It borders on the churchyard wall, and its pastor is an important mentor to young Effi von Briest. The Briests live securely in the comfort of inherited wealth. Effi’s father need only concern himself with grain prices and can otherwise take long walks through the fields and enjoy his magnificent surroundings.
An early sign that modern life is passing the Briests by is the sound of a modern through-train half a mile away. A change in the grounds at the end of the novel sends a similar message. When Effi dies, her parents remove the sundial from the circular flowerbed and replace it with her gravestone. Her time has run out, as has the time of the landed gentry with their large country estates.
Kessin
Kessin. Small German port in Pomerania on the Baltic Sea. Elements of the fictional town of Kessin are modeled on Theodor Fontane’s memories of Swinemünde, where he lived as a boy. The lodgings that Effi’s new husband, Baron von Innstetten, rents are nothing more than two rooms on the main floor of an old-fashioned framework house formerly owned by a sea captain. In some ways, it seems as if the former inhabitants are still present. Hanging from the ceiling in the front hall are the captain’s model ship in full sail, a stuffed shark, and a crocodile. However, the effect of these unusual objects is negligible in comparison with the apparent presence of restless spirits who make the upper floor uninhabitable for Effi, who hears sounds of gowns sweeping across the floor and learns that the captain’s niece disappeared from there on her wedding night.
Kessin is a port of call that is busy with tourists in the summer season and all but deserted in the winter. In contrast to Hohen-Cremmen, Kessin does not have an influential and respected pastor. The provincial narrow-mindedness of the place is illustrated by its residents’ treatment of their last pastor, who was harassed to an early death for suggesting that the sea captain’s Chinese servant be granted a churchyard burial. Now it seems that the ghost of the Chinese man, who danced with the niece, remains in the house.
Natural and supernatural dangers abound in Effi’s Kessin home. The upper floor of the house is haunted, and the lower floor houses a crazed coachman’s wife with a black hen on her lap. There is a shipwreck off the coast, and carriages narrowly avert getting sucked into a type of quicksand. Effi feels so vulnerable and threatened in Kessin that she wishes she were hidden by a protective wall of snow. The place leaves its mark on her.
*Berlin
*Berlin. Capital of Germany to which Baron von Innstetten takes Effi when he is promoted to section head of a ministry department. There, they choose to live in one of the tall new Keith Street houses that is divided into several apartments. The still-damp plaster they find when they move in seems to signify an auspicious new beginning. However, six years later the past resurfaces to ruin Effi’s marriage. Fontane portrays Berlin as a fickle society in which friendships are superficial and contingent on a rigid moral code. After Effi is divorced, only her elderly physician and her maidservant attend to her, and her church is of no help. Furthermore, as Effi’s husband discovers, the famous Berlin opera and other cultural diversions are inadequate substitutes for meaningful human contact. It is an interesting coincidence that Koniggratzer Street, where Effi lives in ignominy after her divorce, not only effectively allows her to disappear within the large metropolis, but also itself has disappeared from the map of Berlin.
Fontane himself lived in Berlin, and his descriptions of the central part of the city are still accurate, thanks to the Germans’ restoration of the re-united Berlin as closely as possible to its pre-1945 configuration. Dorotheen Street, for example, which the East Germans renamed Clara Zetkin Street, is once again Dorotheen Street. It is easy to trace Effi’s route from the Friedrichs Street train station to Dorotheen Street to Schadow Street, and to locate Keith Street just southwest of the Tiergarten. It remains one of the better areas of the city.
Bibliography
Greenberg, Valerie D. “The Resistance of Effi Briest: An (Un)told Tale.” PMLA 103, no. 5 (October, 1988): 770-782. A revisionist interpretation of the novel as Effi’s struggle for liberation. A close reading of Effi’s last remarks to her mother reveals that each point can be read in opposition to its surface meaning.
Riechel, Donald C. “Effi Briest and the Calendar of Fate.” Germanic Review 48, no. 3 (May, 1973): 189-211. Points out that the narrative structure and content of Effi Briest are informed by Fontane’s autumnal sense of the existence and influence of an order inaccessible to reason.
Subiotto, Frances M. “The Ghost in Effi Briest.” Forum for Modern Language Studies 21 (1985): 137-150. Analyzes the ghost as a metaphor for all that is absent: suitable living quarters, action, love, and opportunities for women in Prussian society. Sees Effi Briest as a paradigm of the solitary state of the individual.
Turner, David. “Theodor Fontane: Effi Briest.” In The Monster in the Mirror, edited by D. A. Williams. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1978. Examines Effi Briest in the context of contemporary European literature. Discusses what makes Fontane’s treatment of the subject matter realistic, as well as his accurate detail and skillful use of leitmotivs and symbols.
Zwiebel, William L. Theodor Fontane. New York: Twayne, 1992. Contains a concise summary of important critical observations on the genesis of Effi Briest, the four narrative sections, the role of predestination, Fontane’s criticism of Prussian society, and the function of the ghost.