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Gustl And Schnitzler's Influence On The Military

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The relationship with and influence of Sigmund Freud and his theory of psychoanalysis is said to play a very important role in the literary works of Schnitzler. In the 20th century, Freud and Schnitzler were in correspondence with one another. In one of the many letters between the two men, Freud even calls Schnitzler his Doppelgänger (Bellettini). Freud kept a narrow focus on the perception of personalities while developing his theories and he never experimented with the possibility of external forces influencing the id, ego, and superego. This is why many modern day theorists discredit some of his theories. "Lieutenant Gustl" and "Fräulein Else" are two very similar literary works written by Arthur Schnitzler, the 19th/20th-century Austrian …show more content…

Expectations of the military are very well understood across all societies. Asch said that the size of the group is a factor that influences conformity (Feist 517). Because the rules of the military society are so well known, it became Gustl's duty to respond and take care of the situation even if it may have seemed that no one saw the incident with the baker. The sheer possibility of someone seeing the event is reason enough to kill (the baker, himself, or his identity as a Viennese citizen). The sense of duty and responsibility that Gustl felt is a direct result to the pressure the military society has on it's participants. The societies of Lieutenant Gustl and Fräulein Else are very different but yet similar in nature. Both societies put enormous pressure on them due to Gustl being a high-ranking officer in the military and Else being a lady in a very conservative time period. In the story, Aunt Emma makes a comment to Else about the fact that she was not wearing stockings (Schnitzler 154). It is seen as a disgrace for a woman to not be wearing her stockings when she is in public. This is just an example of the high standard that society held women to at that

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