Round Dance · A Writer's Last Letter: A Writer's Last Letter

Author: Schnitzler
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-01-01
Features: The language of The Round Dance is colloquial and personalized. Since the characters in the play come from different social classes, their speech is not uniform—some are formal and standard, while others are less so, and it also has the characteristics of Viennese dialect. A Writer's Legacy This is both a letter of suicide and a confessional. A moderately famous writer, already worried about having run out of inspiration, meets a young woman at a ball. The two are instantly attracted to each other, and this could have just been a minor fling for the writer. But the writer learns that the woman suffers from a severe heart condition, making her unsuitable for intense love or the fervor of physical passion. To taste the true pain of separation and to fuel his creativity and passion, the writer takes the innocent and naive woman, lost in the sweetness of love, on a run-away journey. This is a path of love, a path leading to death, and also a path of awakening. As his beloved nears the end of her life, the writer finally realizes the meanness of his intentions. He leaves a letter behind, filled with endless regret, and dies before the one he loves.