«The house in Dorotheenstrasse» is one novella from Hartmut Langethe 2013 appeared in the anthology of the same name and belongs to the epoch of contemporary literature. She is about Gottfried Klausenwho with his wife Xenia lives in a villa in the south of Berlin and lives primarily for his work as a business journalist. When he is transferred to London, he suspects that his wife might be cheating on him.
One novella is an epic tale of medium length. Novels usually have only a limited number of characters and only one story line. According to some definitions, novellas must also have a so-called «unheard-of event» from which the action unfolds or which causes the action.
«The house on Dorotheenstrasse” – summary
Hartmut Lange is considered a master of the novella. In his works, the dramatist and writer primarily illuminates the moral issues of everyday life. «Das Haus in der Dorotheenstraße» is also about a dignified married couple. Gottfried and Xenia Klausen have known each other since they were at school together and live together in a large house, which is showing signs of wear and tear in some places, but overall makes an impressive impression.
Gottfried Klausen goes to London
Klausen is Correspondent for a national daily newspaper and deals primarily with economic issues. He is described as a very conscientious and meticulous man, for whom his work is the most important part of his life.
In February 2011, Klausen received the news that he had a Colleagues represented in London should and accepts the job offer. Xenia would like to stay in the house they shared in Berlin for the time being and Gottfried plans for Xenia to move to London as soon as he has found a suitable apartment.
After six weeks alone in England, Gottfried began to have doubts about his decision. He lives in a small apartment and the bad weather is getting on his nerves. Nevertheless, he continues to find fulfillment in his job.
Gottfried is watching a performance of in the theater Shakespeare’s «The Tragedy of Othello» on. In the process, he develops one strong dislike for the protagonist of the play. In the play, the protagonist Othello is convinced that his wife is cheating on him. Othello gets so worked up in the supposed certainty that he first kills his wife and then himself. Gottfried finds Othello’s action irrational. He doesn’t understand why Othello let himself be convinced so quickly and didn’t do his own research.
Gottfried cannot reach Xenia
On the evening of the theater visit, Gottfried tries to call Xenia, but she doesn’t answer the phone. At first Gottfried doesn’t worry too much, but in the night he wakes up bathed in sweat. He is completely disoriented and wonders why Xenia isn’t calling him back.
The spouses still manage to make a phone call and agree that Xenia visiting her husband in London becomes. Gottfried has found an apartment that they can visit together. He is looking forward to the long-awaited visit. As he waits for her at the airport with a bouquet of violets, however, Xenia does not appear.
Gottfried is upset that his wife hasn’t turned up and tries to call her first. When a man’s voice is heard on the other end of the line, he doesn’t know how to react and hangs up. When Xenia calls him back, he doesn’t answer his phone and so Xenia and Gottfried keep missing each other.
Gottfried blames Xenia for staying with himself. He suspects that he pushed her too hard to come to London, but at the same time is still disappointed with the outcome of the situation.
Gottfried’s assumption becomes stronger
Gottfried asks his boss for a week’s vacation and books a flight to Berlin. Arriving at the airport, however, he learns that the Icelandic Grimsvötn volcano erupted and the airspace over Europe is covered by an ash cloud. No planes can take off and Gottfried remains in London for the time being.
Of the Grimsvotn volcano is located in Iceland and is about 1700 m high. It last erupted on May 24, 2011.
When Gottfried tries to reach Xenia again, a strange male voice answers her phone again. Gottfried is shocked, but this time demands to speak to his wife. He hears laughter in the background and thinks it’s Xenia’s. He suspects that the man is having an affair with his wife.
As if remotely controlled, Gottfried goes to the theater again and finds himself in «The Tragedy of Othello», which he himself is shocked about, since he himself was not aware of his plot. He leaves the play so as not to have to watch the murder of Othello’s wife again. At the same time, he does not investigate to refute or confirm his suspicions.
The climax of the novel
Gottfried can hardly concentrate on his work and Othello’s quote «Put out the Light!» he can’t get it out of his head. The quote is the phrase Othello says just before he murders his wife. The quote drives Gottfried insane and his boss complains to him about his poorly researched articles. Gottfried asks for a transfersince he can’t stand London anymore and finally leaves the city.
The plot is not told to the end, but only hinted at by the narrator. He says that it is possible that Gottfried took the tragic hero Othello as a model. During the night a man broke into the house on Dorotheenstrasse and shouted «Put out the light!» called, whereupon all the lights went out. The assumption is that Gottfried is the intruder and that the lights go out murder of Xenia symbolizes.
«The house on Dorotheenstrasse” – analysis
A novella is mostly stringent constructed, ie they tells a storyline Owithout much subplot and in more chronological rowsepisode. Likewise, there is usually one leitmotifon which the text is based.
A leitmotif is a recurring phrase or one situation, which is intended to trigger a certain feeling in the reader. The leitmotif usually comes from the non-literary field or from another literary work.
«The house on Dorotheenstrasse” – Construction
The novella «The House on Dorotheenstraße» is in six numbered chapters divided. The structure is in itself typical for a novella, as there is only one small number of acting characters there and the story stringently and chronologically told becomes.
What is unusual about Hartmut Lange’s work is that the catastrophe is only hinted at at the end of the work. The narrator says that it is possible that Gottfried broke into the house to kill his wife, but what really happened remains unclear. The narrator hints that something else could have happened in the couple’s villa.
And was it at all possible that Gottfried Klausen, the way things had developed, that he could have turned up there as if nothing had happened, to at least gather his personal belongings?1
«The house on Dorotheenstrasse” – language
The novel «Das Haus in der Dorotheenstrasse» is told linearly. This means that all events are told in chronological order. Most of the time the novella has an authorial narrator, who sometimes only presents Gottfried’s point of view.
He was stunned. It would have been obvious to get clarity, one way or the other. But he didn’t, perhaps because he feared the process might repeat itself
In the quote above, the authorial, i.e. omniscient, narrator can be clearly seen, since he can classify Gottfried’s feelings about his wife’s missing visit.
And who knows, maybe when Xenia laughed at her husband’s call, they weren’t in the hallway or the kitchen, but in the bedroom! And had Klausen’s marriage to this woman been so dishonest for years that he hadn’t noticed her infidelity?1
In the second quote, only Gottfried Klausen’s point of view is presented. The narrator does not classify whether Gottfried’s feelings are appropriate or whether they are unfounded. All in all, in «Das Haus in der Dorotheenstraße» almost exclusively literal speech by Gottfried appears.
Hartmut Lange’s style of writing is characterized by a hypotactic sentence structure out. In addition, the narrative behavior in the novella is not particularly dramatizing, but rather resembles a report. Longing waived as much as possible in his language rhetorical stylistic devices or pictorial language.
The hypotaxis is a form of sentence structure in which subordinate clauses are grammatically subordinate to a main clause. The opposite of a hypotaxe is the parataxe, in which the subordinate clauses are grammatically equal next to each other.
Characterization by Gottfried Klausen
Gottfried Klausen can be as rationalist characterize. He is a correspondent for a national newspaper and has a narrow and strict attitude towards his work, which has occupied most of his life. In addition, careful research and an intensive and factual examination of topics is required of him.
His personal life is marked by his long-term relationship to his wife Xenia. He has known them since school days, which has given rise to a certain Habit and everyday life in married life who recorded Klausen. It is unclear whether it is a fulfilled and happy marriage. For example, both are familiar with their partner’s idiosyncrasies and interests. In addition, both consider the purchase of a property in Dorotheenstraße to be a sensible decision.
One can draw from this, on the one hand, that it is in Gottfried’s life two constants gives: his profession and his Before. On the other hand, there are no conflicts that impression of harmony disturb. The spouses seem to have settled into their lives and are ready to settle down in a permanent place.
«The house on Dorotheenstrasse” – motives
Lange’s novella contains a number of symbols and leitmotifs, some of which appear repeatedly over the course of the novella and influence the plot. The motifs are characterized by the fact that they represent the marriage of Gottfried and Xenia. You let yourself in thing symbols and leitmotifs differentiate.
Object symbols are all symbols that appear in a text as inanimate objects and play a leitmotif role.
The house
The house is one of leitmotifs, which appears throughout the storyline. At the same time, it is a thing icon. The title already makes it clear that the house plays an important role. The meaning of this symbol changes in the course of the novella.
At the beginning of the novel
The house is described as a home that gives the couple the feeling of being in a hermitage security are….