Short Story Criticism | Arnim, Achim von - Lawrence M. Washington and Ida H. Washington (essay date 1964)

Lawrence M. Washington and Ida H. Washington (essay date 1964)

SOURCE: "The Several Aspects of Fire in Achim von Arnim's Der tolle Invalide" in German Quarterly, Vol. XXXVII, No. 4, November, 1964, pp. 498-505.

[In the following essay, the Washingtons trace the fire imagery in Der tolle Invalide, noting that Arnim presents both [n]atural and supernatural aspects of fire" in the novella.]

In reading Achim von Arnim's Novelle, Der tolle Invalide, one is soon aware of the frequent occurrence of the word "Feuer" and related expressions. This seems at first to be merely clever word play, but a closer inspection shows that the various aspects of fire are so intimately connected with the events and characters of the story that they reflect the basic structure of the Novelle.

Fire is an unusually complex motif because it is so rich in connotative associations. From the earliest mention in primitive mythology,...

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