SOURCE: Keller, R. E. “Language and Style in Jeremias Gotthelf's Die Schwarze Spinne.” German Life and Letters 10 (1956): 2-13.

[In the following essay, Keller provides an analysis of “The Black Spider,” focusing on Gotthelf's use of language and metaphor in the story.]

It is the use of dialect which has denied Gotthelf's work the international recognition as great epic writing which the profundity of his thought and his broad, creative understanding of human life and behaviour would undoubtedly have assured. In his native Switzerland it is his language in particular which has endeared Gotthelf to a wide public—not because his work is written in dialect, as is sometimes believed, for it is not, and in spite of the fact that mixing dialect with standard as Gotthelf does is otherwise generally condemned and ridiculed.¹ That Gotthelf's language is, paradoxically, nevertheless one of the main reasons for his rising fame is due to the fact that it is recognized as a unique, personal creation which it is worth while to grapple with. As a vehicle for his poetic vision it is inimitably apt and poignant. But being personal it is not easy to understand for anybody not familiar with the sources from which he drew the raw material for his creation. The language which he fashioned for his expression is not uniform. There are a few stories almost entirely in Bernese dialect, others in standard German with but few provincialisms. His great novels, Geld und Geist, Anne Bäbi Jowäger, and the Uli novels are most characteristically Gotthelf, if by characteristic we mean that which distinguishes his language most definitely. To show in detail some of the features of his language the following passage may serve as an example:

Felix fühlte sich schwer getroffen, hätte indessen doch wahrscheinlich aufbegehrt und die Haare gesträubt wie eine Katze vor der Nase eines Hundes, wenn eben nicht der Nägelibodenbauer vor ihm gestanden wäre, vor dem er doch eine Art Respekt hatte, und wenn die Angst nicht gewesen wäre, welche nun auch ihm das Herz zusammenklemmte. So arg hatte er es doch nicht machen wollen, so wenig als der, welcher jemanden einen verflucht Braven versetzen wollte und, wenn er zum Schaden sieht, den Schädel eingeschlagen, jemanden totgeschlagen hat. Endlich sagt er: ‘Es ist mir leid, aber es wird öppe nüt sy; es wird morn wieder zweg sy. Ich habe nicht Böses gesagt und noch weniger es bös gemeint. Es ist mir wegem Meitschi selber gsi, es het mih taub gemacht, dass es nüt übercho het, dass ihm dä Hung nüt het müsse gä. Han ih gfehlt, su will ih ja gutmache, u was dr Dokter koste sött, will ih gern über mih näh.’ ‘Davon habe ich dir nichts gesagt’, antwortete Sepp, ‘und darum ists mir nicht. Aber ds Meitschi duret mich; vor dem Wybergschwätz und dem Verleumden möchte ich doch endlich sicher sein. Du weisst wie das Lumpenpack uns hasset ohne Grund, und wie sie es meiner Frau machen hinterrücks, und dass nun auch du ins gleiche Horn blasest, und zwar unter meiner Haustüre, selb kam mir in die Nase, und ich will es dir geradeheraus sagen: von dir erwartete ich es nicht!’²

A first glance shows that dialect (italicized in the specimen) occurs mostly in direct speech. Indirect speech, too, which is much more frequent than direct speech, is heavily coloured by dialect. But to place Gotthelf alongside those nineteenth-century realist writers who made their characters speak as they would do in real life according to their social background would be misleading. Bernese farmers, or, for that matter, any Swiss people, do not drop from dialect into standard and from standard into dialect as Gotthelf's characters do. Gotthelf does not use dialect with his reader in view. He does not want to impress the reader with the faithfulness of his reproduction of natural fact. He uses dialect in order to express himself. It is his own vivid epic vision which forces him against his will³ to resort to dialect, the language of everyday life, the language of everything except written communication and formal speech (lectures, sermons).⁴ All other Swiss writers, however, except the deliberate dialect writers, have accepted the fact that standard German is the medium of writing. But this entails abstraction from reality and creation in a medium at the same time more conceptual and less affective. Gotthelf, however, can only create from the earth which surrounds him. Everything assumes symbolic value and significance in his vision, but the objects which carry his vision must belong to the concrete material world in which he lived. The dung heap, the harness of the cart-horse and the fritters fried by the farmer's wife are the raw material in which he is able to express his genius most forcefully and convincingly. It is this inability to abstract himself from the most earthbound and sensuous level which forced dialect upon him and which is at the same time his unique greatness. Dialect is therefore never an end in itself and it is almost impossible to say where it will occur in his work.⁵ It is found wherever his impulsive nature expressed itself most spontaneously. Apart from dialogue, direct or reported, it is the world of everyday things which is designated in dialect. Many of these words are almost proper names, e.g. in “Die schwarze Spinne”: Meyen ‘spray of flowers’, Bysluft ‘north wind’, Meitschi ‘girl’, Schlärpli ‘ninny’, Ätti ‘grandfather’, Heuet ‘hay harvest’, Säet ‘sowing time’, Kegelte ‘skittles match’, spretzeln ‘crackling of fire’, stürmen ‘natter’, Kachel ‘earthenware cup’, Küchli ‘fritters’, Kilbi ‘fair’, Nidle ‘cream’, Drucke ‘box’.

Swiss German locutions or idioms are often given in dialect form: es wird öppe nüt sy ‘it is surely not worth talking about’ and frequently translated into standard, e.g. selb kam mir in die Nase ‘that got under my skin’; “Schwarze Spinne”:⁶mache nicht Schneckentänze (p. 24) ‘don't beat about the bush’, so sei es austubaket (p. 21) ‘you have had it’. Translation into standard is one of the most characteristic features of Gotthelf's language. He makes little or no attempt to spell his dialect adequately and often chooses a standard spelling for dialect sounds, e.g. in the above passage taub—Bernese toub ‘angry’, müsse—müesse, gut—guet, koste—choschte, gern—gärn. In dialect sentences we find standard words (ist mir for isch mer; gemacht for gmacht) and in standard sentences we find dialect words (Wybergschwätz for Weibergeschwätz). Altogether the range of his language embraces pure standard, dialect words or sentences in standard spelling, dialect words or phrases in half dialect half standard spelling, pure dialect words, and occasionally whole dialect sentences. Sometimes dialect words are translated in parenthesis, e.g. Götti (Pate) in “Schwarze Spinne.”

One may well wonder what this hotch-potch sounds like. Here we have to remember that in Gotthelf's day standard German was pronounced in Switzerland with wholesale sound substitution. In this way some measure of acoustic unity is possessed even by this mixed language. Modern recitals usually content themselves with some modified, provincialized Bühnenaussprache and Bernese dialect where it is obviously intended. The effect is strangely fascinating and forms on the whole a homogeneous acoustic expression of the earthy and racy diction itself.

Where the dialect is largely suppressed as in “Die schwarze Spinne” it makes itself felt mainly in the vocabulary (about five dozen dialect words, almost all standardized in spelling) and above all in syntax. Some seemingly standard words are nevertheless used in their dialect meanings, e.g. ein grausam handlich Weib (p. 32) ‘a very deft woman’, anständig ‘welcome’ (p. 15). Dialect morphology sometimes crops up, e.g. die ledigen Bursche (p. 20), die Bauren, Göttene (plural of Götti); the diminutive in -li (Pantöffeli); the formations in -et(e) designating seasonal activities, e.g. Heuet, Säet, or festivities Kegelte, Schiessete; the accusative of es: ihns, e.g. ihns allein hatte die Spinne verschont (das Bübchen, p. 87). Feminine Christian names have the neuter gender in Bernese even if they are not used in the diminutive. Thus when referring to Christine Gotthelf wrote usually first es, ihns, seine, ihm. In the MS, which shows few traces of corrections, the neuter pronoun is crossed out no fewer than twenty-eight times and replaced by the feminine, which is a clear proof of how Gotthelf tried to reduce the dialect features, especially in his legends.

Sometimes what is dialect strikes the reader primarily as archaic, e.g. dornicht, graulicht, Zimmet; the past participle in -et (geplaget); the endingless neuter adjective (ein pfiffig Gesicht, p. 31); syntactical constructions such as zeugma (‘bis an den Kilchstalden konnten sie die Buchen führen, ohne dass ihre Landarbeit darüber versäumt und sie zugrunde gingen’, p. 31) or anacoluthon (‘wohin seine Arme nicht reichen mochten, trug er andern das Schenkamt auf …’ p. 20).

Gotthelf's language has been compared with that of the Swiss writers in the sixteenth century and Thomas Murner.⁷ Their language was a similar mixture of local Alemannic dialect, South German chancellory usage and features of the newly rising East Central German standard language. In forthrightness, forcefulness and robust vigour Gotthelf has no doubt much in common with those writers. However, theirs was a tradition of linguistic fusion. Whilst they could not have written in any other form of German, Gotthelf went against the trend of his time. His language is entirely personal, not a stage in an historical development.

If it is true to say that Gotthelf's use of dialect is entirely dictated by the need of self-expression it becomes clear that the outward aspect of his language is relatively unimportant. It is merely an instrument. There is therefore little point in looking for the sources of his Standard German. Naturally it is the diction of the Bible and that of the German authors whom he knew best which sounded in his ear and flowed from his pen, especially when he stopped to think and to compose. From Schiller, Bürger, Voss and other writers of romantic idylls he derived most of his literary tricks.⁸ Not infrequently they are deliberately employed to achieve what he believed were poetic effects and consequently they add a false and artificial note to parts of his work.⁹

The introductory paragraphs of “Die schwarze Spinne” show us Gotthelf, the Swiss dialect speaker, imitating the literary style of his favourite German authors:

Über die Berge hob sich die Sonne, leuchtete in klarer Majestät in ein freundliches, aber enges Tal und weckte zu fröhlichem Leben die Geschöpfe, die geschaffen sind, an der Sonne ihres Lebens sich zu freuen. Aus vergoldetem Waldessaume schmetterte die Amsel ihr Morgenlied, zwischen funkelnden Blumen in perlendem Grase tönte der sehnsüchtigen Wachtel eintönend Minnelied, über dunkeln Tannen tanzten brünstige Krähen ihre Hochzeitsreigen oder krächzten zärtliche Weigenlieder über die dornichten Bettchen ihrer ungefiederten Jungen.

The romantic-sentimental epithets and the inverted genitive betray clearly the imitation of what he believed to be fashionable literary style. Here we have Gotthelf the learner and the result is uninspiring. If the outer garb is stale the inner meaning, the imagery, is original and shows Gotthelf the creator. In typical gradation we progress from background (time: Morgenlied) which, the reader soon realizes, symbolizes a new beginning. A new-born human being, in the morning of his life, is set on his course in relation to God and his fellow beings. It is his christening-day. Human experiences follow in ordered sequence (Minnelied, Hochzeitsreigen, Wiegenlied). These are echoed as key-notes at important places through the Novelle. The Minne-motif alludes to the erotic tension that surrounds and exists between Götti and Gotte and is reflected in the perverted fascination of the Grüne for Christine (lüstern, zärtlich, holdselig, pp. 36-8). The Hochzeitsreigen is taken up in the argument about marriage prospects (pp. 20ff) and, almost literally forms the climax of Christine's pact and union with the Grüne (‘In Lüften und Klüften heulte und toste es, als ob die Geister der Nacht Hochzeit hielten in den schwarzen Wolken, die Winde die wilden Reigen spielten zu ihrem grausen Tanze, die Blitze die Hochzeitsfackeln wären und der Donner der Hochzeitssegen’, p. 39). Wiegenlieder conjure up the cradles of the infants to be christened (in the Rahmengeschichte; the new-born babies to be handed to the Devil). The offspring of Christine's relationship with the Grüne, the monstrous brood of black spiders, is clearly indicated as an antithetical analogy to the new-born babies, although no Wiegenlieder are sung: ‘in ihrem Gesichte begannen Wehen zu kreissen, wie sie noch keine Wöchnerin erfahren auf Erden’; ‘Da war es Christine … als ob glühende Kohlen geboren würden …’; ‘schaute … ihrer Höllenbrut nach, die sie geboren hatte …’ ‘Matt, einer Wöchnerin gleich schlich Christine nach Hause’ (p. 53).

Gotthelf's language is permeated with symbolic metaphors which give life to his style even where the linguistic means look unpromising. To show how apt and pregnant his style is in “Die schwarze Spinne” only a few instances need be adduced.

If the first paragraph depicts nature and introduces through its imagery the recurring themes of eros, marriage and birth, the second takes us into the abode of human beings:

In der Mitte der sonnenreichen Halde hatte die Natur einen fruchtbaren, beschirmten Boden eingegraben; mittendrin stand stattlich und blank ein schönes Haus, eingefasst von einem prächtigen Baumgarten, in welchem noch einige Hochäpfelbäume prangten in ihrem späten Blumenkleide; halb stund das vom Hausbrunnen bewässerte üppige Gras noch, halb war es bereits dem Futtergange zugewandert. Um das Haus lag ein sonntäglicher Glanz, den man mit einigen Besenstrichen, angebracht Samstag abends zwischen Tag und Nacht, nicht zu erzeugen vermag, der ein Zeugnis ist des köstlichen Erbgutes angestammter Reinlichkeit, die alle Tage gepflegt werden muss, der Familienehre gleich, welcher eine einzige unbewachte Stunde Flecken bringen kann, die Blutflecken gleich unauslöschlich bleiben von Geschlecht zu Geschlecht, jeder Tünche spottend.

It is a clean, well-ordered house, well maintained. On the plane of realism it is just a house. The typifying description and the ‘sonntägliche Glanz’ surrounding it which cannot be produced by some perfunctory cleaning point to a symbolic significance of the house. It represents man's place, his station, his way of life on earth. Three times in the course of the story houses play a decisive and symbolic part. The house of the Rahmengeschichte is new and much admired by all the guests at the christening (p. 23). Materially and spiritually its inhabitants are blessed. The ancient blackened beam incongruously fitted into the new structure excites the guests' curiosity and leads to the telling of the legend which explains its significance. The first to build are the arrogant knights whose castle (p. 26), symbol of their sinful lives contemptuous of God and man, is in ruins, visible when lightning lights up the countryside on dark nights as a reminder of human wickedness. A third time a building goes up when Christen's mother and wife challenge the god-fearing way of life. Their new luxurious house is a symbol of their superbia just as the castle is. It is razed by fire after Christen's self-sacrifice, when the plague is banished and people return to a life of humble piety (p. 93). Houses and lives guided by wicked arrogance perish. Christen's children go back to the old house and the god-fearing way of life. When the old house has eventually to be replaced, the symbol of victory over evil, the blackened beam with the spider is built into the new house to remind its inhabitants for ever of the immanence of evil and the necessity of the good way of life. (‘Nur in der Familie redete man davon [the legend], damit kein Glied derselben vergesse, was ein Haus bauet und ein Haus zerstört, was Segen bringt und Segen vertreibt.’ p. 94.)

From man's place on God's earth we move in the third paragraph to his place in God's universe:

Nicht umsonst glänzte die durch Gottes Hand erbaute Erde und das von Menschenhänden erbaute Haus im reinsten Schmucke … Es war der Tag, an welchem der Sohn wieder zum Vater gegangen war zum Zeugnis, dass die Leiter noch am Himmel stehe, auf welcher Engel auf—und niedersteigen und die Seele des Menschen, wenn sie dem Leibe sich entwindet, und ihr Heil und Augenmerk beim Vater droben war und nicht hier auf Erden.

Starting from the central antithesis of God's creation and man's work Gotthelf unfolds in telling imagery the propositions of his tale of sin and salvation.

In the fourth paragraph we return to the objective level of human life. Again we are rather disturbed by the artificiality of the high-flown style to describe a simple scene:

In des Brunnens Nähe wurden mit besonderer Sorgfalt Pferde gestriegelt, stattliche Mütter, umgaukelt von lustigen Füllen; im breiten Brunnentroge stillten behaglich blickende Kühe ihren Durst, und zweimal musste der Bube Besen und Schaufel nehmen, weil er die Spuren ihrer Behaglichkeit nicht sauber genug weggeräumt. Herzhaft wuschen am Brunnen mit einem handlichen Zwilchfetzen stämmige Mägde ihre rotbrächten Gesichter, die Haare in zwei Knäuel über den Ohren zusammengedreht, trugen mit eilfertiger Emsigkeit Wasser durch die geöffnete Türe, und in mächtigen Stössen hob sich gerade und hoch in die blaue Luft empor aus kurzem Schornsteine die dunkle Rauchsäule.

One effect this style has, however; it indicates that the realism of the cowshed and sturdy farm-girls washing their red faces at the fountain in front of the house is not an aim in itself but merely a symbol of an atmosphere, of a way of life. It shows again how Gotthelf creates objective reality to express symbolic values, or, to put it in a different way, he expresses spiritual conceptions in a realistically objective vision. His dung heap is both dung heap and symbol like the black spider and the green huntsman, the boy messengers, the thunderstorms, Hans von Stoffeln, etc. It is objective fact in one moment and assumes symbolic significance without warning or transition in a flash. Such language is typical of prophetic or visionary writing—of the Old Testament and of the Vedic hymns.

Antithesis is the fundamental conceptual principle as well as the structural and stylistic one of “Die schwarze Spinne.” Parallelism and contrast give it infinitely varied expression: Christine: Christen; vigilant priest: negligent priest; ‘treues Weib’: ‘wildes Weib’; bearing children: bearing spiders; idyll of the Rahmengeschichte: apocalyptic horror of the plague. The Taufe-motif linking Rahmengeschichte and legend is travestied in the Knecht-scene: ‘taufte den Hund unterem Ofen’ (p. 86). The style echoes in detail the same features. After the overladen style of the introductory pages we relax in the intimacy of the humorously rambling account of peasant hospitality. The rather painful description of the grandfather taking ‘aus der langen Weste tiefer Tasche das Feuerzeug’ gives way to genuine sounding sentences like:

Die arme Gotte aber, die rauchte wie ein Dampfkessel, verstand den Wink, versorgete den heissen Kaffee so schnell als möglich und sagte zwischen den Absätzen, zu denen der glühende Trank sie zwang: ‘Ich wäre schon lange zweg, wenn ich nicht mehr hätte nehmen müssen als ich hinunterbringen kann, aber ich komme jetzt.’

(p. 12)

The language in its inornate simplicity moves aptly on the level of food and drink and ‘blecherne Löffel, die am Tischtuch abgewischt werden’. In its long winding periods of short clauses of indirect speech it conjures up the tortuous, highly stylized yet simple, unsophisticated hospitality which measures its success by the amount of food and drink the guest manages to consume.

A similar switch occurs immediately after the first appearance of the Grüne when he offered his help and mentioned his price. The word-order which places adverbs and adverbials out of their natural order in specially stressed position creates high tension. Gotthelf's word-order is always dictated by emphasis rather than grammar. ‘Da lachte hellauf der Grüne, dass die Fische im Bache sich bargen, die Vögel das Dickicht suchten, und grausig schwankte die Feder am Hute, und auf und nieder ging das Bärtchen’ (p. 32). The figure of polysyndeton (und … und) draws special attention to the parallelism. This compellingly insistent language with its haunting rhythm makes us forget the story-teller, the grandfather, but with the introduction of Christine we are brought back to reality:

Ein einziges Weib schrie nicht den andern gleich. Das war ein grausam handlich Weib [dialect!], eine Lindauerin soll es gewesen sein, und hier auf dem Hofe hat es gewohnt.

(p. 32)

Straightaway the Lindauerin is brought into the present and linked with the house and the way of life of the assembled guests. The knights, their tyranny, the Grüne are but a bad dream but this woman is also part of the present. The language resumes the rambling tone and the indirect speech which characterized the Gotte scene but only until the momentous events continue their course: ‘Des folgenden Tages, als in stilles Gewimmer das Wehgeschrei verglommen war, sassen die Männer zusammen, suchten Rat und fanden keinen’ (p. 33).

The men begin their work. It is a hopeless task. The sentences become shorter and more abrupt as the peasants reach the nadir of fatigue and despair:

Eine fürchterliche Mutlosigkeit erfasste diese, keinen Wagen hatten sie mehr ganz, keinen Zug unbeschädigt, in zwei Tagen nicht drei Buchen zur Stelle gebracht, und alle Kraft war erschöpft.

(p. 34)

Now an arresting word-order presages a change of situation:

Nacht war es geworden, schwarze Wolken stiegen auf, es blitzte zum ersten Mal in diesem Jahre. An den Weg hatten sich die Männer gesetzt. …

(p. 34)

Tripartite sentence structure is typical of the style which describes situations of great tension and momentous decisions. Anaphora often underlines the tripartite construction:

Sie wollten da auf Buchen warten, die von Sumiswald kommen sollten, wollten ungestört sinnen über ihr Elend, wollten ruhen lassen ihre zerschlagenen Glieder.

(p. 35)

or epiphora: ‘So soll auch der Mensch klagen, soll alles klagen, soll dem ersten besten klagen, vielleicht hilft ihm der erste beste’ (p. 30); or mere repetition: ‘War man einmal vorbei, so konnte man ruhig fahren, ruhig abladen, ruhig zu frischer Ladung wieder gehen’ (p. 44). By means of parallelism he produces an effect of retardation and suspense and gives dignity to the language:

schlug mit Keulen, mit Beilen nach ihr, aber alles umsonst, der schwerste Stein erdrückte sie nicht, das schärfste Beil verletzte sie nicht, unversehens sass sie dem Menschen im Gesicht, unversehrt kroch sie an ihn heran.

(p. 72)

Cognate with this figure of style which is particularly characteristic of the Bible, is that of the twin formula. It is biblical and popular at the same time. Small wonder that dozens are found. Many alliterate: Sie möchten weder Dickes noch Dünnes (p. 16), mit Schlägen und Schimpfen (p. 26); others rhyme Dach und Fach, Schritt und Tritt, Gut und Blut; others are synonymous: Weinen und Heulen, Angst und Grauen; yet others are simply conventional: Glück und Segen, in Reih und Glied, Haus und Hof.

As Christine's suffering becomes greater the language becomes quicker, the parallelism runs more smoothly towards some awful climax:

Je näher der Tag der Geburt kam, desto schrecklicher ward der Brand auf ihrer Wange, desto mächtiger dehnte der schwarze Punkt sich aus, deutliche Beine streckte er von sich aus, kurze Haare trieb er empor, glänzende Punkte und Streifen erschienen auf seinem Rücken, und zum Kopfe ward der Höcker, und glänzend und giftig blitzte es aus demselben wie aus zwei Augen hervor. Laut auf schrien alle, wenn sie die giftige Kreuzspinne sahen auf Christines Gesicht und voll Angst und Grauen flohen sie, wenn sie sahen, wie sie fest sass im Gesichte und aus demselben herausgewachsen.

(p. 51)

The intensity of the language grows as Christine reaches her ‘Tag der Geburt’ (the reference is to her as much as to the ‘treue Weib’). Pains of birth are seen by the orthodox as a punishment for Eve's fall. Hardening in sin produces ever-increasing pain, until earthly suffering becomes the suffering of hell:

jedes Bein war ein Höllenbrand, der Spinne Leib die Hölle selbst, und als des Weibes erwartete Stunde kam, da war es Christine, als umwalle sie ein Feuermeer, als wühlten feurige Messer in ihrem Mark, als führen feurige Wirbelwinde durch ihr Gehirn.

(p. 51)

Metaphor and meaning become one. The apocalyptic tale is told in apocalyptic imagery. Fire-symbolism permeates the whole passage: ‘als ob die Flamme aus ihrem Dache schlüge, eilten sie heim …’ (p. 54); here the use of the definite article helps to identify the fire as the fire, the fire of hell.

Occasionally the imagery is of such stark simplicity as, for instance, when the innocent little boy runs for help in the hour of greatest need and ‘Tauben und Hühner liefen ihm um die Füsse, stossend und spielend sprang sein Lamm ihm nach’ (p. 59) that we are reminded of the conventional attributes in medieval painting and sculpture. The alliterative and onomatopoeic language of the description of the storm would sound rhetorical and pompous taken realistically, but as obviously God's divine wrath itself is symbolically meant (‘Es sauste und brauste und tosete, als sollten diese Töne zusammen-schmelzen zur letzten Posaune, die der Welten Untergang verkündet, und feurige Garben fielen über das Dorf …’ p. 63) the style fulfils the function of making a myth out of the storm. The language becomes that of the medieval preacher of penitence and fanatic purger who made the flesh creep and revelled in gruesome detail. The horrific character of the spider is relentlessly driven home by repetition, alliteration and assonance:

Aber auf seinem Kopfe sass gross die Spinne und glotzte um den Rittertisch, aber der Ritter fühlte sie nicht. Da begann die Glut zu strömen durch Gehirn und Blut, grässlich schrie er auf, fuhr mit der Hand nach dem Kopfe, aber die Spinne war nicht mehr dort, war in ihrer schrecklichen Schnelle den Rittern allen über ihre Gesichter gelaufen, keiner konnte es wehren; einer nach dem andern schrie auf, von Glut verzehrt, und von des Pfaffen Glatze nieder glotzte sie in den Greuel hinein, und mit dem Becher, der nicht aus seiner Hand wollte, wollte der Pfaffe den Brand löschen, der loderte vom Kopfe herab durch Mark und Bein. Aber der Waffe trotzte die Spinne und glotzte von ihrem Throne herab in den Greuel, bis der letzte Ritter den letzten Schrei ausgestossen, am letzten Atemzuge geendet.

(p. 71)

Repetition is frequently employed to drum in, in preacher-like fashion, some important fact: ‘dass er wachen solle über Beten und Essen, wehren solle gottlosem Leben, gottlosen Reden und gottlosem Schänden der Gaben Gottes’ (p. 88). To describe the ways of the foreign women who had come to the farm the word Hoffart is mentioned six times in one short paragraph (p. 80). The spider glotzt at practically every appearance and the ‘wilde Weib’ of whom Christen first did not know ‘war es Christine in ihrer ursprünglichen Gestalt’ is referred to as ‘das glotzende Weib’.

Alliteration is mainly used as a stylistic device to give emphasis (‘Und mitten unter ihnen stand mit grinsendem Gesicht der Grüne’ p. 36); sometimes it is onomatopoeic at the same time, e.g. ‘es war ihr als zische Fleisch zwischen glühenden Zangen’ when the Grüne kisses Christine, or ‘sieht er … in schnellstem Laufe, wie gejagt von des Windes wildestem Stosse, daherfliegen eine wilde Gestalt’ (p. 63).

A word must be said about the tempo and structure of the sentences. The rhythm is well marked and responds effectively to the moods of the action and plot. Repetition is skilfully used to indicate the dragging of time: ‘Eine Ewigkeit verstrich, endlich kam er, und wiederum verstrich eine Ewigkeit, endlich ging er langsam auf den langen Weg …’ (p. 59) where language itself seems to be tethered and unable to move on. On the other hand Christen's decision to act and sacrifice himself is reflected in a quickened determined rhythm and an asyndetic accumulation of verbs:

Da zog er herab mit seinen Kindern aus dem neuen Haus ins alte Haus, schnitt zum Loch einen neuen Zapfen, liess ihn weihen mit heiligem Wasser und heiligen Sprüchen, legte zum Zapfen den Hammer, setzte zu den Betten der Kinder sich und harrte der Spinne.

(p. 89)

Gotthelf's sentences have often been called amorphous. At the decisive points in “Die schwarze Spinne,” however, the sentences reflect in their structure the structural principles of the plot itself: parallelism, antithesis and contrast. A few examples may suffice; an arrangement according to structure will illustrate the point:

p. 92.
Die Kraft wollte erstarren, der Atem stocken, [weakness of the flesh].
aber er betete fort und fort, [strength of the soul].
hielt Gott fest vor Augen, hielt aus in der Hölle Glut, [antithesis of God and Hell].
p. 95.
                                                                                                                                                      alt                    wurmstichig
Aber auch das neue Haus ward wiederum und,                    und                                        sein Holz,
                                                                                                                                                      klein          faul
                                                                                                                                                      fest
                                                            nur der Posten hier blieb und
                                                                                                                                                      eisenhart.
p. 92
(Das Weib): Es achtete sich seines Winkens nicht,
                                                  hörte nicht die Worte aus seiner keuchenden Brust,
                                                  stürzte in seine vorgestreckten Hände,
                                                  klammerte an sie sich an,
                                                  in Todesangst musste er die Wütende schleppen zum Hause
                                                            herein,
                                                  muss frei die Arme kämpfen,
                                                                      ehe es ihm gelingt,
                                                  ins alte Loch die Spinne zu drängen,
                                                  mit sterbenden Händen den Zapfen vorzuschlagen.
                                                                      Er vermags mit Gottes Hülfe.

Four clauses describe the woman's action, four the man's reaction. The first four each begin with the verb, the rhythm becoming more and more frenzied. The first two describing Christen's struggle are linked by the use of the same auxiliary plus a main verb, and the last two by being both infinitive clauses. The first two deal with his struggle against the raving woman, the last two with his struggle against the spider. They are separated by the impersonal clause, impersonal because the success rests not on his strength but on what the short final main clause conveys. These two short statements are complementary.

Although some aspects of Gotthelf's language, e.g. his use of hyperbolic metaphors and similes which add such life to his style hardly come to the fore here, “Die schwarze Spinne” is in many ways a unique tour de force and certainly one of Gotthelf's greatest achievements.

Notes

1. It is significant that in the very popular serialized broadcast adaptations Gotthelf's language is always translated into pure Bernese dialect.

2. Die Käserei in der Vehfreude, p. 334, vol. XII of Sämtliche Werke, ed. R. Hunziker u. H. Bloesch, Erlenbach-Zürich, 1922. The Käserei is about average in the mixture of dialect and standard.

3. In a letter, 1845, he says: ‘Ich will nie im Dialekt schreiben, und auf den ersten 20 Seiten wird man wenig davon merken, nachher werde ich dazu gezwungen, ich mag wollen oder nicht …’ (SW. Ergänzungsband, V, 335).

4. On the linguistic situation of German-speaking Switzerland see A. Senn, ‘Verhältnis von Mundart und Schriftsprache in der deutschen Schweiz’, Journal of Eng. and Gmc. Philology, XXXIV, 1935, 42-58; L. Forster, ‘The Language in German Switzerland’, GLL [Germanic Languages and Literature], IV, 1939, 65-73; R. E. Keller, ‘Schweizerdeutsch’, Archivum Linguisticum, IV, 1952, 155-68.

5. In the Käserei there is even a letter in dialect (p. 176), which is quite unrealistic.

6. Page references are to volume XVII of Sämtliche Werke, ed. R. Hunziker u. H. Bloesch, 1936.

7. See W. Muschg, Gotthelf, die Geheimnisse des Erzählers, Munich, 1931, pp. 435f, 495f.

8. See T. Salfinger, Gotthelf und die Romantik, Basle 1945, pp. 90ff; G. T. Hughes, Gotthelf considered as an Epic Writer, typescript diss. Cambridge, 1952, pp. 215ff; F. Grob, Jeremias Gotthelfs ‘Geld und Geist’, Studien zur kü nstlerischen Gestaltung, Olten, 1948, pp. 102ff.

9. This is brought out best by Salfinger, op. cit. pp. 87-106.