7 - On the “Right Measure” in Effi Briest: Ethics and Aesthetics of the Prosaic

Summary

Practicing Measure in Life and Writing

IN EFFI BRIEST (1895) the term “Maß,” measure, captures a restrained yet enabling kind of behavior exhibited by the novel's main characters, Effi and Innstetten, as well as a restrained yet enabling aesthetic style exhibited by the text. In looking for the right measure, the novel and its characters engage with limitations—social as well as narrative and linguistic limitations—that are not clear cut and pre-established, but rather always in the process of being established relative to given circumstances.

The very first mention of the word measure in the novel may be interpreted as a reference to a figure's behavior as well as to a style of writing. Innstetten writes to Effi during their engagement, and Effi's mother thinks it an advantage “daß er [the letter or Innstetten] in allem das richtige Maß hält,” a pronoun reference whose ambiguity is lost in translation (15:37; the way he always strikes the right balance). Effi half-heartedly agrees with her but does not seem at ease. Concerned by Effi's lack of enthusiasm, Effi's mother presses her, and Effi reveals that she feels tortured by the realization that Innstetten is a man of principles, whereas she generally lacks principles (15:38; PC, 25). What seems like the right measure of tenderness to her mother and presumably to the letter's author, Innstetten, serves for Effi to highlight, by juxtaposition, the dominance of principles in Innstetten's character, and the contrast between his principled approach to life (and to writing) and her need to find the right measure anew in every given situation. This frightens her.

For both of them, behavior is highly determined by social status. Effi, in her social role as a young woman of the upper class, cannot make overt decisions by herself, at least not any that society would recognize as such, without breaking from that role. However, it is Innstetten who refers to his life as a story that has been prescribed to him, once he makes the decision to send Effi away and to kill her former lover, Crampas, in a duel. He debates whether his actions have been “prosaic.”