The external life of Franz Serafikus Grillparzer was rather quiet and lonely. Following a colorless childhood, he matriculated at the University of Vienna, where he studied law with little enthusiasm. When his father died in 1809, he was forced to go to work to help support his mother and three brothers. A close relationship with his overly sensitive mother contributed to the development of a personality that caused him to have extreme difficulty in adapting to normal public life and basic human associations. Experience as a tutor and unpaid assistant in the court library preceded his entry into a full-time civil service career in 1814. Between those beginnings and 1856, when he retired from his official duties with the title of Privy Councilor, he worked variously in the customs department, the finance ministry, and the state archives, of which he became director in 1832. In 1861, he was elected to the Herrenhaus, where he continued to participate in political affairs for a number of years.

While still a student, Grillparzer wrote his first play, Blanca von Kastilien. Although it was rejected when he submitted it to the Burgtheater, he continued to cultivate his interest in the stage. A turning point in his life occurred in 1816, when he became acquainted with Josef Schreyvogel, who was then director of the Burgtheater. Schreyvogel encouraged his literary efforts, giving him the stimulus that he needed to write The Ancestress. Embittered by the criticism of the play as a fate tragedy following its sensational premier, Grillparzer looked for less controversial substance for his next work. Sappho, which he completed in the summer of 1817, was well received, and he was appointed theater dramatist at the Burgtheater.

A relatively intense period of creativity was interrupted in 1819, when Grillparzer’s mother committed suicide. His recovery from the brink of nervous collapse was facilitated by a trip to Italy, where he was enthralled by the architectural wonders of major cultural centers. On his return home, however, a poem that he had written about Rome was interpreted as an attack on the Catholic Church, and he found himself in trouble with the imperial court. This incident set the pattern for subsequent encounters with censorship. The fact that he was out of favor also made it impossible for him to advance in the civil service as he wished to do.

On his return from Italy, Grillparzer completed the powerful trilogy The Golden Fleece. Its immediate failure in the theater caused Grillparzer to lose confidence in his creative ability, but within a year he had become engrossed in a new project. Performance of King Otakar’s Rise and Fall was delayed for more than two years after he finished it. The portrayal of racial conflicts within the empire and unfavorable treatment of the Bohemians caused it to be banned until the empress read it and arranged for it to be staged.

During the next fifteen years, Grillparzer’s literary endeavors met with spotty success. To relieve tensions that arose when a club to which he belonged was raided on suspicion of subversive activity, he traveled to Germany in 1826. There he met Goethe and other writers. When he returned to Vienna, he began work on A Faithful Servant of His Master, which enjoyed an enthusiastic reception at its premier in 1828. A period of isolation from the theater and the public in the early 1830’s was followed by travel abroad to Paris and London in 1836. After Thou Shalt Not Lie! failed to measure up to audience expectations in 1838, Grillparzer ceased to publish his writings, although he completed three additional dramas before his death on January 21, 1872.

Personal loneliness throughout his life played an important role in Grillparzer’s development of specific literary themes. He never wed, although he continued a courtship of Katharina Fröhlich for more than fifty years. His inability to commit himself to a permanent relationship was a deeply personal problem equaled only by the tragic situations in his plays. When, on his eightieth birthday, he finally asked Kathi to marry him, she turned him down, placing a final seal on his failure to find any degree of lasting happiness in a melancholy life.