Obscure Conceptions: The Origins of E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Das Gelübde and Kleist’s Die Marquise von O… Eleanor ter Horst University of South Alabama Abstract: Kleist’s “Die Marquise von O…” (1808) and E. T. A. Hoffmann’s “Das Gelübde” (1817) feature similar plots involving an unexplained pregnancy, yet the two texts have had surprisingly different critical receptions: Hoffmann’s has generated relatively little critical response while Kleist’s continues to attract the attention of interpreters� Indeed, critics have generally thought “Das Gelübde” to be an inferior version of Kleist’s original concept. I argue in contrast that the Hoffmann text anticipates its reception as derivative of Kleist’s and reverses this judgment, displacing “Die Marquise von O…” as the originary text and obscuring the “conception” or origin of both texts. Ovid’s notion of the “auctor ambiguus” (ambiguous messenger / author / father), deployed by Hoffmann, allows his text to reverse the generational chronology of patriarchal succession and introduce a feminine challenge to the system. “Das Gelübde” thus reconfigures the two texts as siblings (sisters) competing on a more equal footing. Keywords: Heinrich von Kleist, E. T. A. Hoffmann, “Das Gelübde,” “Die Marquise von O…,” paternity, sisterhood, conception, succession, origin Despite significant narrative overlap, Kleist’s Die Marquise von O… (1808) and E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Das Gelübde (1817) have had surprisingly divergent critical receptions, with Hoffmann’s tale generating relatively little response from the time of its publication to the present, 1 and Kleist’s continuing to attract the attention of readers and critics� 2 Both tales narrate a mysterious and at first apparently immaculate conception, confronting the reader with the puzzle of an unexplained pregnancy, and centering on the solution to the question of the paternity involved� In each tale, family ties and obligations are key elements in the unfolding of the narrative, with paternity forming the central riddle and 44 Eleanor ter Horst patriarchal authority forming the structure against which both female protagonists struggle� When critics have noted the parallels between Kleist’s novella and Hoffmann’s tale, they have generally received Das Gelübde as an inferior version of Kleist’s original concept, without particular value on its own. 3 I would argue that they have missed a significant feature of Hoffmann’s work: in fact, Hoffmann anticipates the reception of his tale as derivative of Kleist’s and challenges this idea, displacing Die Marquise von O… as the originary text. Kleist’s focus on uncertain paternity, and his masking of the moment when the conception of the Marquise’s child occurs, reappear in Hoffmann, not simply as elements of the plot, but as models for the way in which Hoffmann’s text relates to Kleist’s. Hoffmann challenges the status of Die Marquise von O… as the “father” text that gives rise to Das Gelübde by obscuring the “conception” or origin of both texts through temporal and spatial displacements, and through expansion of plot elements that are not fully articulated in Kleist’s text. More than a derivative of Die Marquise von O… , Das Gelübde revises Kleist’s interpretation of the female protagonist, emphasizing the challenge that she poses to patriarchal succession� The contests over ownership and the right to interpret the female body within a patriarchal system are connected, in Hoffmann’s schema, to the textual struggle for primacy between Die Marquise von O… and Das Gelübde , two male-authored texts featuring a female protagonist. Hoffmann links struggles over patriarchal and literary succession to political and territorial struggles; this link is indicated by the setting of his text as well as Kleist’s during a time of war. While the connection between the contested territory of the female body and disputed national or political boundaries is present in Kleist’s novella, Hoffmann’s adds another layer of complexity by connecting these two struggles with a battle for literary primacy� Hoffmann’s relationship to Kleist as literary predecessor suggests an “anxiety of influence” as described by Harold Bloom; yet Bloom configures the relationship with the predecessor as congruent with the father-son relationship (11). 4 Hoffmann’s struggle with Kleist does engage with Die Marquise von O… as “father” text; yet it does so from a multiplicity of familial perspectives, and the question of primacy cannot be reduced to one of patriarchal succession� In some ways, Hoffmann’s text relates to Kleist’s as a daughter to a father: the characters who rebel against the father and jeopardize the patriarchal systems of authority and inheritance in both Kleist and Hoffmann are daughters, not sons. Furthermore, the rivalry between the texts is also reminiscent of a sibling rivalry, in which Das Gelübde is configured as the first-born son or daughter, reversing the birth order of the texts. In Kleist, the Marquise’s as yet unborn son, though third in birth order, receives much more attention than his older half sisters because The Origins of E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Das Gelübde and Kleist’s Die Marquise von O… 45 of the mysterious circumstances of his conception. Hoffmann’s text positions itself much like this son: by obscuring its origins, it assumes priority over the older “sister” text by Kleist. The sister’s displacement is thematized in both texts by the sexual violence to which the female protagonists are subjected� In Hoffmann’s text, a further suppression of the sister or daughter occurs when the protagonist assumes the role of nun (“Laienschwester” [316]), concealing her sexuality, her identity and her history beneath the mask and the habit that she wears� In Kleist’s Die Marquise von O… the violation of the female protagonist’s body is linked with territorial aggression through the novella’s war-time setting. While the narrator specifies a locale in northern Italy during an unidentified conflict, most likely the War of the Second Coalition against Napoleon, the novella’s subtitle suggests a spatial displacement of the action that casts the specificity of place into question: “Nach einer wahren Begebenheit, deren Schauplatz vom Norden nach dem Süden verlegt worden” (104). 5 The opening of the novella refers to the invasion of this northern Italian territory by Russian troops, who take possession of the citadel where the Marquise’s father is serving as commander� The attempted rape of the Marquise by the soldiers, her rescue by Graf F…, her loss of consciousness, and her subsequent discovery that she is pregnant link the violation of her body with the incursion of Russian troops into the space commanded by her father� In Das Gelübde as in Die Marquise von O… ,the violation of a woman’s body occurs in tandem with political and territorial disputes. As the subtitle of Kleist’s novella suggests, the site of the action has been changed from north to south� Hoffmann’s tale reverses the displacement effected by Kleist as it situates the action in northern Europe, on the border between Poland and Prussia: Am Michaelistage, eben als bei den Karmelitern die Abendhora eingeläutet wurde, fuhr ein mit vier Postpferden bespannter stattlicher Reisewagen donnernd und rasselnd durch die Gassen des kleinen polnischen Grenzstädtchens L� und hielt endlich still vor der Haustür des alten deutschen Bürgermeisters. (285) Like Kleist, Hoffmann chooses contested territory as the setting for his novella. The border between Prussia and Poland calls to mind the territorial aggressivity of the Germans, just as Kleist’s novella’s setting in northern Italy suggests Napoleon’s territorial ambitions. Hoffmann introduces another, authorial dimension to the territorial struggle. While Kleist indicates that he has shifted the action of his tale from the north (perhaps Germany) to the south (Italy), Hoffmann sets his tale in northern Europe (Poland at the German / Prussian border), moving the action back to German territory. Hoffmann lays claim to the site that Kleist had indicated as the originary space for his text and challenges 46 Eleanor ter Horst the primacy of Kleist’s tale by suggesting that Hoffmann’s literary creation is in fact the originary text that precedes Kleist’s. Hoffmann’s claim to the literary territory occupied by Kleist finds its political analogue in the successive partitioning of Poland by Prussia, Russia and Austria, which, although it is only hinted at in the opening sentence, plays a key role in the action of the tale� 6 What is immediately apparent is that the “stattlicher Reisewagen” with its tumultuous approach represents an intrusion and a disruption of established routines� Just as in Die Marquise von O… , Russian troops invade the territory of northern Italy and the citadel occupied by the Marquise and her parents, so does the coach with its mysterious occupants transform the established order of the Polish border town in Das Gelübde , disrupting for a time the cycle of religious observances that have structured it. The temporal specification of “Michaelistage” (Michaelmas, September 29) is itself suggestive, with its evocation of the archangel Michael who battled Satan and was considered the patron saint of soldiers� The appeal to religious authority is further elaborated with the reference to the Carmelites, a Catholic religious order, whose calendar and daily schedule of prayer (“Abendhora”) mark the passage of time in the surrounding area� The intruders into this tranquil scene enact a reversal of the Prussian invasion of Poland: among the coach’s occupants is the daughter of a Polish aristocratic family, who enters the home of the German Bürgermeister accompanied by an abbess, thus bringing Catholic Poland into the (Polish) territory occupied by the Germans� In another reversal of Kleist’s tale, the invaders are not men, but rather two women: the abbess and Hermengilda (or Cölestine, as she is renamed). This young woman arrives dressed as a nun, visibly pregnant, and eventually gives birth to a son while a guest there, although the circumstances of her pregnancy remain mysterious to the German family sheltering her� The German, Polish and religious groupings, though distinguished in the novella’s opening sentences, are nonetheless interrelated� The Bürgermeister takes in Hermengilda during her pregnancy because he is requested to do so by “Fürst Z�,” who is Hermengilda’s uncle and also the benefactor (“Gönner”) of the Bürgermeister. The wife of the Bürgermeister is persuaded to accept the pregnant young woman into her house after being told about a payment (“tüchtigen Beutel mit Dukaten” [288]) sent by Fürst Z� The monk, Pater Cyprianus, who is responsible for Hermengilda’s vow to cover her face with a veil and her decision to enter the convent, is also the family’s confessor (“Beichtvater” [315]), who is summoned in place of a doctor when Hermengilda experiences a mental breakdown� A close, quasi-familial relationship between Hermengilda / Cölestine and the abbess is also suggested: the abbess takes on a maternal role towards the young woman, referring to her as “meinem armen Kinde” (286), and implying that the religious family The Origins of E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Das Gelübde and Kleist’s Die Marquise von O… 47 replaces Hermengilda’s family of origin; however, the structure of the convent, with its emphasis on seclusion and purity, functions not as a true alternative to the aristocratic or bourgeois family, but rather as a parody of its most extreme traits� The dual identity of the female protagonist as an aristocratic daughter (Hermengilda) and as a religious “sister” (Cölestine) reveals the duplicity of sexual mores, and the difficulties involved in regulating sexuality within both religious and civil contexts. The protagonist’s aristocratic Polish family of origin and the religious “family” that she later joins enforce similar restrictions, while the German bourgeois family appears to offer a more welcoming attitude to the stranger who bursts into their established routines and territory� The close social and economic relations among the three familial groups are reflected in the geographical and temporal designations used in the novella’s first sentence which, as we have seen, suggests contested, but also shifting and overlapping spaces� Similarly, Das Gelübde and Die Marquise von O… overlap thematically and structurally, even as Hoffmann differentiates his tale from Kleist’s through reversal and displacement� The first section of Das Gelübde elaborates on the situation suggested in its opening sentence: it narrates the intrusion of Hermengilda (Polish nobility) and the abbess (representative of religious authority) into the house of the town’s representative of civil authority (the German Bürgermeister). Like Kleist’s Die Marquise von O…. which suggests a displacement of the setting of the story from north to south, and thus conceals certain circumstances while purporting to reveal the truth (“nach einer wahren Begebenheit”), Das Gelübde emphasizes concealment of actions and motivations� The Bürgermeister does not inform his wife of his agreement to take in Hermengilda until after the young woman has arrived, and the visitors both conceal their identity: Hermengilda wears a thick veil that she refuses to remove, and her status is only gradually revealed over the course of the novella, as she first requests to be called “Cölestine” in accordance with her role as a nun, but is later revealed as Hermengilda, the descendant of Polish nobility� The identity of the abbess is also uncertain, until she removes her outer garment to reveal her nun’s habit and the cross that indicate her role within the religious hierarchy, as a Cistercian abbess� The Bürgermeister also emphasizes his official role, as he puts on his ceremonial clothing (“Ehrenkleid” [285]) to receive his visitors� The three characters are thus depicted initially not as individuals but as representatives of their roles within religious and civil structures� The authority of these structures is contested and, though not overturned, called into question by the events of the subsequent narration, which also challenges the preeminence of the “father” text, Die Marquise von O… � The challenge to paternal authority within the narration comes from the daughter reinvented as “sister,” Hermengilda / Cölestine� 48 Eleanor ter Horst Despite its reversal of Kleist’s setting, the narrative structure of Das Gelübde echoes that of Die Marquise von O… , both of which open with the mystery of an unexplained pregnancy, then, in extended flashbacks, work towards an explanation of its origin. Kleist’s tale begins with the Marquise’s placement of a newspaper announcement, which makes public her predicament: “Daß sie, ohne ihr Wissen, in andre Umstände gekommen sei, daß der Vater zu dem Kinde, das sie gebären würde, sich melden solle; und daß sie, aus Familienrücksichten, entschlossen wäre, ihn zu heiraten” (104). That the Marquise is prepared to marry the unknown father of her child distinguishes her from Hoffmann’s Hermengilda, a point to which I will return later. Hoffmann’s tale, however, opens similarly, with the female protagonist’s arrival in the Polish border town, the revelation that she is pregnant, and the birth of her child depicted before the flashback that uncovers the circumstances of her pregnancy. The second section of Das Gelübde explains the events that led up to the mysterious occurrences of the first part, and the paternity of Hermengilda’s child is slowly revealed, just as, in Die Marquise von O… , the father of the child eventually makes an appearance. This second section of Hoffmann’s tale receives a more precise temporal setting than the first, “zu jener Zeit, als nach der ersten Teilung Polens die Insurrektion vorbereitet wurde” (295), presumably at the time of the Polish uprising in defense of the proposed constitution of 1791, which was crushed by Prussian and Russian troops and led to the second partition of Poland in 1793� 7 Another failed uprising, led by Kościuszko in 1794, was followed by the disappearance of Poland from the map after the third partition (1795). Hoffmann, writing in 1817, would have had in mind these events, as well as the subsequent Napoleonic Wars in which some of the Polish nobility participated. Hermengilda’s family of origin is deeply involved in politics, with her father supporting the uprising and Hermengilda displaying political astuteness and participating in discussions of strategy from a early age. For Hoffmann, the Polish struggle for political autonomy is tied to conflicts within the family over patriarchal dominance, as well as to the challenge that his own text presents to the authority of Kleist’s. Within the setting of the family, this dedication to politics is shown to be linked to a patriarchal structure, which is detrimental to its members’ personal autonomy, particularly in the case of Hermengilda. Her father’s dominant position within the family, and the absence of her mother, who died when Hermengilda was young, allow the father’s devotion to a nationalistic cause to devolve into an excessive emphasis on conventional behavior and appearance at the expense of inner, emotional life� This patriarchal, authoritarian family culture contributes to the daughter’s mental confusion, and her eventual deception and rape. The young Hermengilda, though, seems at first to thrive in the atmosphere The Origins of E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Das Gelübde and Kleist’s Die Marquise von O… 49 of political discussion, and is described as making many astute contributions to discussions of strategy� A hint that things are not as they seem comes when she is described as appearing “wie ein Engelsbild vom Himmel gesendet zur heiligen Weihe” (295), a phrase that emphasizes her physical beauty and otherworldliness, suggesting that she is a visitor from another realm� The phrase is also an echo of the Marquise’s first impression of Graf F… in Kleist’s Die Marquise von O… : “Der Marquise schien er ein Engel des Himmels zu sein” (105). The Marquise’s first impression of the count is later proven to be false, as his subsequent behavior is far from angelic. Hoffmann, in describing Hermengilda as “ein Engelsbild,” the image of an angel, also emphasizes the danger of relying on appearances in order to determine someone’s role or judge her behavior. Hermengilda’s father fails to take into account her complex emotional life when he arranges her engagement to Graf Stanislaus von R�, another young revolutionary, on the basis of politics and familial alliances, as was common in aristocratic households� A closer connection between the two families was considered politically expedient (“politisch wichtig” [295]), and the insightfulness of both Stanislaus and Hermengilda into political strategies was seen as vital to national interests� Their engagement celebration is described as “patriotische Zusammenkünfte” (295), a phrase that reveals the close connection between patriarchal family structures and national interests� This connection is also shown in the emphasis on the word “Vaterland,” first as a reason for Hermengilda’s acceptance of the engagement with Stanislaus - she sees him as “ein Geschenk des Vaterlandes” (295) - then as the explanation for her rejection of him after the uprising has failed: she claims that she will only marry him “wenn die Fremden aus dem Vaterlande vertrieben sein würden” (296), revealing the dependence of her proposed marriage on political outcomes, such as the autonomy of the “Fatherland�” Her subordination to patriarchal and patriotic structures is further expressed in Stanislaus’s battle cry, “Vaterland - Hermengilda! ” (297), which subsumes her to a concept of patriotism� The narrator even explains her reversal in attitude, from rejection of Stanislaus to realization that she loves him, by appealing to national stereotypes: Polish women supposedly exhibit emotional instability, ranging from “glühende Leidenschaft” to “todstarre Kälte” (296). The emphasis on Hermengilda as an image, both of ideal femininity and of national characteristics, makes clear that there is no room for an inner, emotional life within this patriotic / patriarchal structure� At the same time, Hermengilda attempts to reclaim her image, and challenges the patriarchal interpretation of feminine activitites, such as conception and pregnancy, through her own use of images, created to explain the origin of her child� Kleist’s Die Marquise von O… also introduces a female protagonist who is ruled by patriarchal images and norms of conduct� Although she had left her family 50 Eleanor ter Horst of origin in order to marry, the Marquise returns to the paternal abode after the death of her husband: “Hier hatte sie die nächsten Jahre mit Kunst, Lektüre, mit Erziehung, und ihrer Eltern Pflege beschäftigt, in der größten Eingezogenheit zugebracht” (104). Her isolation from the world outside the family resembles the life of a nun or an unmarried, dependent daughter, both roles that are taken up by Hermengilda in Hoffmann’s Das Gelübde. When the Marquise’s father learns of her pregnancy, which she herself is unable to explain, he banishes her from the home� The Marquise does, however, assert herself to the extent that she refuses to leave the two daughters from her previous marriage with her father, as he demands, and instead takes them with her in defiance of her brother, who attempts to reinforce the father’s orders. This challenge, a revolt of mothers and daughters / sisters against the authority of husbands and fathers is, however, short-lived on the part of the Marquise as well as her mother, who intitally acts against the wishes of her husband by visiting the Marquise and subjecting her to a test, a false announcement that Leopardo, the hunter, is the father of her child. As the Marquise’s shocked reaction to this announcement reveals her innocence, her mother is able to convince the father to let his daughter return to the family residence� 8 The father-daughter reconciliation is narrated as a scene of quasi-incestuous tenderness, which is witnessed by the mother but does not appear to disturb either her or her daughter� 9 The mother sees the Marquise sitting on her father’s lap: Drauf endlich öffnete sie die Tür, und sah nun - und das Herz quoll ihr vor Freuden empor: die Tochter still, mit zurückgebeugtem Nacken, die Augen fest geschlossen, in des Vaters Armen liegen; indessen dieser, auf dem Lehnstuhl sitzend, lange, heiße und lechzende Küsse, das große Auge voll glänzender Tränen, auf ihren Mund drückte: gerade wie ein Verliebter! (138) This scene reveals an extreme version of patriarchal dominance, as the father displaces the Marquise’s husband and reclaims possession of his daughter as his own lover� That the mother reacts not with shock but with approval shows her to be as much subjected to patriarchal strictures as her daughter� While Die Marquise von O… features a female protagonist who is already a widow and a mother at the time the tale begins, her return to the familial abode after the death of her first husband signifies the reversal of her role to a state of dependence and subjection to the rule of the father� Her subsequent banishment from the residence and second return to the father, after her mother establishes her innocence, simply underlines her inability to break away from this extreme form of subjection to the father� 10 The protagonist of Das Gelübde , by contrast, is a young, never-married woman whose father arranges her engagement to Stanislaus for political reasons. Hoffmann’s tale reveals the dominance of men The Origins of E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Das Gelübde and Kleist’s Die Marquise von O… 51 within the family structure and the diminishment of women’s experience as contributing factors to Hermengilda’s mental and physical illness. Despite the structural similarities of Die Marquise von O… and Das Gelübde , and their common emphasis on the rule of the father, the narration of the actions that bring about the pregnancies is widely divergent. The Marquise’s impregnation occurs in the text at the site of the infamous “Gedankenstrich” (dash) 11 which indicates a break between as well as a conjoining of two phrases: Graf F… has rescued the Marquise from the soldiers and has taken her into an area of the building untouched by the fire that has broken out, whereupon the Marquise falls into a faint: “Hier - traf er, da bald darauf ihre erschrockenen Frauen erschienen, Anstalten, einen Arzt zu rufen; versicherte, indem er sich den Hut aufsetzte, daß sie sich bald erholen würde; und kehrte in den Kampf zurück” (106). The dash joins the two spaces mentioned, the domestic space (“Hier”) with the site of battle, and also suggests the conjoining of Graf F… with the Marquise, but at the same time indicates a break in the narrative’s flow, shrouding Graf F…’s actions and casting doubt on the paternity of the Marquise’s child. The fracturing of the narrative is also indicated by the separation within the phrase, “traf er… Anstalten.” This phrase, taken as a whole, means that the count made preparations to do something, in this case call a doctor� The verb “treffen” is, however, separated from the noun, “Anstalten,” by an entire clause and, appearing alone, it means “to strike,” “to come together,” or “to encounter�” The idea that the count had a violent sexual encounter with the Marquise is initially suggested by the use of the verb “treffen,” then subverted by the later appearance of the noun, “Anstalten�” The structure of the sentence echoes the structure of the narrative: the sex act occurs during the break in Graf F…’s combat activities, but it is not until much later in the narrative that he identifies himself as the father of her child� The Marquise reluctantly consents to marry him, under the condition that he assume the financial obligations of marriage while renouncing the right to live with her� It is only after her child is born that she consents to a second marriage, which appears to repair the damage that he inflicted on her. 12 The Gedankenstrich thus represents several kinds of fracture: the violation of the Marquise’s body, the break that it produces between herself and Graf F…, the separation of the financial from the physical expectations of marriage, and the obviously inadequate resolution of this damage through the second marriage of the Marquise and Graf F…, which recuperates the patriarchal system of reproduction and inheritance while revealing its deepest flaws. What Kleist indicates with a dash, however, Hoffmann fills in with an entire narration told from two perspectives, that of Hermengilda and that of her rapist, Xaver, who, like Graf F…, later reveals himself as the father of her child. Kleist’s tale includes a suggestion, elaborated by Hoffmann, that what is lacking in the 52 Eleanor ter Horst narration - what is indicated by a dash - must be supplied by the imagination, or fantasy. When the Marquise indicates that her physical symptoms were similar to those she experienced when pregnant with her second daughter, her mother jokes that the Marquise “würde vielleicht den Phantasus gebären, und lachte� Morpheus wenigstens, versetzte die Marquise, oder einer der Träume aus seinem Gefolge, würde sein Vater sein; und scherzte gleichfalls” (109). Phantasos and Morpheus are both mythological figures who appear in Ovid’s Metamorphoses as the sons of Somnus (Sleep). Morpheus has the power to assume the image of any person, imitating his or her speech, clothing and appearance, while Phantasos takes on the form of inanimate objects ( XI 633-45). Ovid narrates how Morpheus assumed the form of Ceyx, the husband of Alcyone, in order to inform her of her husband’s death at sea. A deceptive image is used to reveal the truth. The Marquise’s joke that the shape-shifting Morpheus is the father of her child receives further elaboration in Hoffmann’s tale, which emphasizes the deceptive quality of images, as well as their revelatory potential, and narrates a pregnancy that comes about when one man (Xaver) usurps the image of another (Stanislaus), just as Ovid’s Morpheus assumes the shape of Ceyx. Xaver’s purpose is, however, deceptive, while Morpheus’s is revelatory of truth. What are we then to make of the Morpheus-like move of Hoffmann’s Das Gelübde , which assumes the form (plot and structure) of Kleist’s tale, while claiming preeminent status as originary text or father? The suggestion is that the act of appropriating an image or narrative form does not necessarily degrade the appropriator; rather, truth or greater narrative vitality can sometimes be found not in the first but in the second iteration or image; however, the deceptive behavior of Xaver with respect to Hermengilda does give rise to some doubt as to the advisability of physical or literary appropriation� The conception of Hermengilda’s child comes about as a result of the substitution of one man’s image for another, much as Morpheus assumes the shape of Ceyx in the Metamorphoses � After Hermengilda has rejected Stanslaus and he has enlisted in the French military, she is overcome by regret to the point that she becomes mentally unbalanced� It is in this state of longing for the absent Stanislaus that she first encounters Xaver, whom she mistakes for her fiancé: “Sie schaute sich um, erblickte einen Offizier in voller Uniform der französischen Jägergarde, der den linken Arm in der Binde trug, und stürzte mit dem lauten Ruf: ‘Stanislaus, mein Stanislaus! ’ ihm ohnmächtig in die Arme” (298). The period of unconsciousness recalls the Marquise’s fainting spell after Graf F… has rescued her from the soldiers. In Das Gelübde , however, this first loss of consciousness anticipates the more elaborate deception that follows� The encounter looks like a reunion of lovers, but once Hermengilda awakens, Xaver reveals that the basis of this passion is an error (“Irrtum” [299]) that is founded The Origins of E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Das Gelübde and Kleist’s Die Marquise von O… 53 on externalities (a family resemblance between Xaver and his cousin, Stanislaus, as well as Xaver’s appearance in the apparel of a French officer, a uniform that Stanislaus had also taken up after Hermengilda rejected him). Hermengilda’s father is deceived by the same physical resemblance, and further encourages the substitution of one suitor for another� 13 Described as a person completely preoccupied with superficial images (“keines Blickes in die Tiefe fähig” [303]), the father soon forgets Stanislaus and considers Xaver to be his daughter’s fiancé. Meanwhile, Xaver confuses Hermengilda by reassuring her of Stanislaus’s devotion, while at the same time substituting his own image for that of his cousin: “[er wußte] geschickt sein eigenes Bild durchschimmern zu lassen” (303). This deliberate process of deception through the substitution of one image for another culminates in the garden scene, where Xaver manipulates Hermengilda’s image of Stanislaus to take advantage of her sexually. Like Ovid’s Morpheus, he takes on the identity of Hermengilda’s husband, elaborating on Kleist’s suggestion that Morpheus is the father of the Marquise’s child. When Xaver comes upon Hermengilda, who, in a kind of trance, believes that she is being married to Stanislaus, he inserts himself into the fantasy and plays the role of Stanislaus, with the result that Hermengilda becomes pregnant and believes Stanislaus to be the father of her child. Xaver’s actions are not revealed until later, after the discovery of Hermengilda’s mysterious pregnancy. Hermengilda has her own interpretation of the actions that led to the conception of her child, and describes her marriage to Stanislaus and his subsequent death in battle in great detail to her father, as an explanation for the widow’s clothing that she is wearing: “Damit du in mir die Witwe des Grafen Stanislaus von R. erkennst” (305). She seeks to counteract her father’s image of her as a young woman predisposed to mental instability with the image of a grieving widow� This is precisely the image that Ovid’s Morpheus, in the guise of Ceyx, wishes to impress upon Alcyone, who is still waiting for her husband to return from the sea voyage during which he drowned� Morpheus as Ceyx emphasizes the truth of what he is revealing to Alcyone: “Non haec tibi nuntiat auctor ambiguus, non ista vagis rumoribus audis: ipse ego fata tibi praesens mea naufragus edo� Surge, age, da lacrimas lugubriaque indue nec me indeploratum sub inania Tartara mitte.” ( XI 666-70) “And this tale no uncertain messenger brings to you, nor do you hear it in the words of vague report; but I myself, wrecked as you see me, tell you of my fate� Get you up, then, and weep for me; put on your mourning garments and let me not go unlamented to the cheerless land of shades.” (167) 54 Eleanor ter Horst Ovid’s “auctor ambiguus,” translated here as “uncertain messenger,” is etymologically related to the English and German words for “author; ” but “auctor” also means “father” or “progenitor�” Morpheus denies that he is this uncertain messenger / author / progenitor, but his claim to be Ceyx is false, as the preceding description of his ability to assume the appearance of any person makes clear; however, it is only through this deceptive image that Alcyone learns the truth about her husband’s fate. Hoffmann’s reference to Ovid through Kleist thus juxtaposes the deceptiveness of images and the ambiguity of paternity with the truth-telling potential of an image that is judged by others to be false: Hermengilda perceives herself as a widow and Stanislaus as the legitimate father of her child, while Xaver and her father believe Xaver to be the progenitor and the child to be illegitimate. Hoffmann thus casts Kleist and himself in the role of “auctor ambiguus,” whose authority as author and progenitor of tales is both validated and called into question� Hoffmann’s Das Gelübde casts into doubt one of the premises of Kleist’s novella, which depicts the Marquise as a respectable widow trying to solve the mystery of her own pregnancy� In Das Gelübde , it is Hermengilda’s very identity as a widow that is called into question, when her father dismisses the narrative of her marriage to Stanislaus as a “vision” (306), which merely reflects his daughter’s disturbed mental state. The arrival of Fürstin Z. allows for a different interpretation of Hermengilda’s experience. The Fürstin, who is the sister of Hermengilda’s father, Graf Nepomuk von C., and thus Hermengilda’s aunt, challenges the patriarchal version of reality, looking beneath the surface at Hermengilda’s complex emotional life. The role of the Fürstin as both sister to Graf Nepomuk and substitute mother to Hermengilda - we learn that she stands in for Hermengilda’s mother, who died when she was young (307) - is crucial to understanding the challenge that she poses to the views of her brother and her husband. While her father and uncle believe that Hermengilda is practicing deceit with her story of being Stanislaus’s widow, her aunt finds that she is sincere in this belief, and even proposes the idea that a psychic connection (“geistige Zusammenkunft” [311]) between Hermengilda and Stanislaus might have given rise to a physical pregnancy. The men’s reaction to this idea is laughter, but the supposition is no more ridiculous than the religious narrative of the Virgin Mary impregnated by the Holy Spirit, and in fact could be seen as a reworking of religious dogma� 14 Although the aunt’s / sister’s theory is later challenged by Xaver’s account of events, her intuition about a psychic connection proves to be correct, since it is later discovered that Stanislaus died on the same day that Hermengilda had perceived his death while in her tracelike state. When the Fürstin learns this fact, she exclaims, “‘Hermengilda - armes Kind! - Welches unerforschliche Geheimnis! ’” (312), emphasizing the resistance of the events The Origins of E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Das Gelübde and Kleist’s Die Marquise von O… 55 narrated by Hermengilda to rational interpretation� The suggestion that Das Gelübde , rather than Die Marquise von O… , is the originary tale is equally counterintuitive, a reversal of the “natural” order� A parallel inversion of natural processes related to the origins of life is to be found in Kleist’s tale, and is broached during the Marquise’s conversation with the midwife, whom she calls in to disprove the pregnancy diagnosed by the male doctor� The Marquise asks the midwife: wie denn die Natur auf ihren Wegen walte? Und ob die Möglichkeit einer unwissentlichen Empfängnis sei? - Die Hebamme lächelte, machte ihr das Tuch los, und sagte, das würde ja doch der Frau Marquise Fall nicht sein� Nein, nein, antwortete die Marquise, sie habe wissentlich empfangen, sie wolle nur im allgemeinen wissen, ob diese Erscheinung im Reiche der Natur sei? Die Hebamme versetzte, daß dies, außer der heiligen Jungfrau, noch keinem Weibe auf Erden zugestoßen wäre. (124) Although the idea that the Marquise has conceived in the same manner as the Virgin Mary is negated by Graf F…’s claim to be the father of her child, 15 the suggestion of another explanation for the pregnancy, however improbable, cannot be entirely dismissed� 16 Indeed, Kleist emphasizes the Marquise’s conviction that the mystery surrounding the conception of her child suggests a divine origin: Nur der Gedanke war ihr unerträglich, daß dem jungen Wesen, das sie in der größten Unschuld und Reinheit empfangen hatte, und dessen Ursprung, eben weil er geheimnisvoller war, auch göttlicher zu sein schien, als der anderer Menschen, ein Schandfleck in der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft ankleben sollte. (126-27) The emphasis on “Unschuld” and “Reinheit” connects the mysterious conception of the Marquise’s child to the immaculate conception of Jesus. Her conviction that the origin of her son is divine puts her at odds with society, which judges her actions to be shameful and will consign her son to the status of a bastard� This realization prompts her to place the newspaper announcement, mentioned at the beginning of the novella, that asks the father of the child to reveal himself� Though profoundly unconventional in its revelation of something that would normally be kept secret, the newspaper announcement sets in motion the process that leads the Marquise to marry Graf F… and produce other, legitimate children with him (“eine ganze Reihe von jungen Russen” [143]), thus leading to her reintegration into patriarchal society� The mystery surrounding the conception of the Marquise’s child is, however, never fully resolved in Kleist’s tale: the “auctor” remains “ambiguus.” Hoffmann expands on the notions of secrecy and mystery related to conception, broadening these ideas to pertain to the obscure origins of both his and Kleist’s texts. In Das Gelübde , the presence of two, competing explanations for the origin of 56 Eleanor ter Horst Hermengilda’s child precludes the possibility of a resolution through marriage between Hermengilda and Xaver; instead, the religious vow of the title replaces the marriage vows that were anticipated for Hermengilda� In Die Marquise von O… , however, the threat to the social order implicit in the mysterious pregnancy is resolved through marriage, even as the mystery itself is far from adequately clarified. Das Gelübde goes further in giving the female protagonist a claim that vies with the men’s interpretation of the pregnancy: Hermengilda insists that Stanislaus, not Xaver, is the father of her child, and even claims to have proof, “die überzeugendsten Beweise” (307), for her claim. The use of the word “überzeugen” is remarkable here, since its root is “zeugen,” meaning both to bear witness and to conceive� 17 The suggestion then is that some process beyond or above (“über”) the biological act of reproduction has led to the child’s conception� Xaver, however, along with the other male characters, including Hermengilda’s father and uncle, adheres to a biological explanation for paternity, and appeals to patriarchal notions of propriety and female honor in an attempt to persuade Hermengilda to marry him: “‘ meine Buhlschaft warst du und bleibst du, wenn ich dich nicht erhebe zu meiner Gattin’” (314). Hermengilda’s refusal to conform to patriarchal expectations that she marry her rapist make her into an exile within her own family and allow an opening for another “father,” the monk Pater Cyprianus, to take control of her external appearance, if not of her inner life� He presents Hermengilda to her biological family in her new role as nun, but this role is in many ways a continuation of her role within her male-dominated family, since the monk, like her father, places more emphasis on her physical appearance than on her spiritual or emotional life: “Nie wird die Welt mehr das Antlitz schauen, dessen Schönheit den Teufel anlockte� - Schaut her - ! So beginnt und vollendet Cölestine ihre Buße! ” Damit hob der Mönch Hermengildas Schleier auf, und schneidendes Weh durchfuhr alle, da sie die blasse Totenlarve erblickten, in die Hermengildas engelschönes Antlitz auf immer verschlossen! (316) Not only is Hermengilda’s face hidden, but her inner life is completely concealed behind the double covering of the veil and the mask� Pater Cyprianus thus displaces the mystery surrounding Hermengilda’s pregnancy onto Hermengilda herself� The contrast between his interpretation of her beauty as an enticement for the devil and her family’s memory of her angelic beauty (“Engelschönes Antlitz”) brings to the fore the mystery of Hermengilda’s inner life, which remains unexplored, despite the evidence of her mental illness, as manifested in her spells of unconsciousness and automaton-like behavior� 18 This emphasis on the resistance of appearance to interpretation is in many ways a reversal and an The Origins of E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Das Gelübde and Kleist’s Die Marquise von O… 57 extension of Kleist’s suggestions about the Marquise’s perceptions of Graf F… . As we have seen, Graf F… appears to the Marquise as “ein Engel des Himmels; ” however, this perception proves to be false� The Marquise uses this reversal of perception to explain her initial refusal to marry Graf F…, after his appearance at her father’s house, following the newspaper announcement, reveals him to be a rapist: “er würde ihr damals nicht wie ein Teufel erschienen sein, wenn er ihr nicht, bei seiner ersten Erscheinung, wie ein Engel vorgekommen wäre” (143). Hoffmann displaces the Marquise’s dualistic perception of Graf F… onto Hermengilda, whose family interprets her beauty as angelic, of divine origin, while the religious establishment considers it to be associated with the devil� This conflict over the interpretation of an image, Hermengilda’s appearance, parallels the conflict surrounding interpretations of Hermengilda’s pregnancy: she considers her child to have been conceived within a divinely sanctioned marriage to Stanislaus, while her family and Xaver believe that the child was illegitimately conceived, as a result of Xaver’s deception. This conflict cannot be resolved, as it is in Die Marquise von O… , since Hermengilda refuses to consent to a marriage to Xaver. Her father’s solution, then, is simply to conceal his daughter’s pregnancy by sending her away with her aunt: “wenn da Hermengilda selbst gar kein Geheimnis aus ihrem Zustande machte, so mußte sie, sollte ihr Ruf verschont bleiben, freilich aus dem Kreise der Bekannten entfernt werden” (311). The solution of concealing what cannot be resolved through the process of marriage and reintegration into the social order is heightened by Pater Cyprianus’s action of concealing Hermengilda’s face behind a mask and a veil. Although Hermengilda’s biological family reacts with horror at the death mask (“Totenlarve”) that conceals her face, this mask is nothing more than the physical manifestation of the repression that has been required of her as a member of this family� As a girl and young woman, Hermengilda was taught to value her father’s desire for propriety, the requirements of the “Vaterland,” and finally her religious duties to “father” Cyprianus over her own emotional life. The mask’s purpose is to hide her face, now reinterpreted in a religious context as associated with the devil, but it in fact reveals the death of Hermengilda’s emotional life and the abnegation of self imposed on her by her family as well as by religion. Hermengilda’s new identity as a religious “sister” removes the subversive potential of sisterhood that is latent in Kleist’s novella and that is suggested in the challenges to male authority posed by her father’s sister, Fürstin Z�, and by Hermengilda herself as rebellious daughter� The emotional dimension of Hermengilda’s existence and the young woman’s sexuality cannot remain completely hidden, however, since the birth of her healthy son belies this mask of piety and death. The son’s mysterious, seemingly immaculate conception suggests a connection to a Christ figure, and Hermen- 58 Eleanor ter Horst gilda’s aunt’s remarks also raise the possibility of a spiritual cause for the pregnancy, with the result that the child’s role as Christ-like mediator is emphasized: “Der Knabe schien, wie ein sühnender Mittler, Cölestinen dem Menschlichen wieder näher zu bringen” (291). The boy effects a rapprochement between humanity and divinity, creating sympathy for the remote and pious Cölestine, just as Christ made God more accessible to humanity� On the model of Christ, this boy is sacrificed by his father, Xaver, who in reality bears little resemblance to a divine father and whose carelessness causes the child to die of cold� The child’s birth emphasizes the dual identities of both mother and father. The nun, Cölestine, whose veiled and masked face denies the possibility of emotion and sexuality, contrasts with the vigorous young woman, Hermengilda, whose initial acceptance of her father’s values - an emphasis on appearance and a subordination of individual desires to the demands of family and fatherland - develops into resistance to patriarchal control: her insistence that Stanislaus is the father of her child and her refusal to marry Xaver in order to conform to male notions of female honor� A continuity between her two identities is in fact suggested by her religious name, “Cölestine,” suggesting a celestial or spiritual existence, which she takes on in an effort to efface her physical beauty but which draws attention to the initial description of her as “ein Engelsbild vom Himmel gesendet.” Hermengilda’s family of origin and the religious “family” which she later joins both have the tendency to associate women with a certain image - physical beauty and purity - that requires a sacrifice of inner life and autonomy� Xaver is likewise presented under a dual aspect, as the reincarnation of the heroic Stanislaus, who sacrificed himself for the fatherland and the woman he loved; and as the deceitful young man who uses seductive language and a physical resemblance to the heroic ideal in order to gain access to Hermengilda� The tendency of both Hermengilda and Xaver to hide their past and disguise their sexuality and emotional life has the opposing effect of drawing attention to their murky origins, as well as to the mysterious “conceptions” central to both Kleist’s and Hoffmann’s narration. Just as Hermengilda has difficulty distinguishing Xaver from Stanislaus, and the reader has difficulty sorting out the identitities of Hermengilda, who appears both in the guise of a nun and that of a young Polish aristocrat, Hoffmann presents his tale and Kleist’s as two images, calling into question which one of them is the original or “real” version and which is a fantasy or “vision.” Is his tale merely a copy of Kleist’s, or is it an image that, like Ovid’s Morpheus, reveals some truths even as it assumes the form of another? Hoffmann’s tale emphasizes both resemblance and difference in relation to Kleist’s, as it focuses on interaction with and accommodation to an other who is at times a twin (brother or sister) and at times a diametrical opposite� The Origins of E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Das Gelübde and Kleist’s Die Marquise von O… 59 Hoffmann establishes a similarly ambiguious interplay between resemblance and difference with the relationship of his tale’s female protagonist to Kleist’s. Like Kleist’s Marquise, Hermengilda is banished from her father’s house, but unlike the Marquise, she does not return there, nor does she reconcile with her father� Instead, she takes up residence in the house of strangers, the German Bürgermeister and his family� The reactions of the family to the young woman range from sympathy and respect (“inniges Mitleid und tiefe Ehrfurcht” [289]) for her nun-like existence of deprivation and solitude, to revulsion at the sinister impression created by her veil and the face (or mask, as it turns out) beneath it� The wife and the daughter of the Bürgermeister both catch a glimpse of the countenance hidden by the veil, which is described by the mother as “totenbleich” and the daughter as “marmorweiß” (290), both adjectives suggesting an existence on the border between life and death, art and reality� 19 Hermengilda, it is suggested, has been transformed into an image of herself, in a way that reveals the artifice constraining her existence in patriarchal society. The eventual birth of a healthy son (“ein gesundes, holdes Knäblein” [291]), however, contradicts the impression of artifice and morbidity created by the mask and veil� The emergence of healthy life from an apparently sinister source allows for the possibility of reconciliation and integration of mother and child into the German family� The birth “vernichtete in seinen Folgen das drückende unheimliche Verhältnis mit der Fremden” (291). The young mother is no longer a foreign presence in the family� The Bürgermeister even acts as if the child were his grandson; however, the veil continues to function as a barrier between the young woman and the German family until the arrival of the child’s father, who violently removes the child from the household and, in the struggle, tears the veil from Cölestine’s face, revealing a white mask beneath. This second facial covering is not removed narratively until the following section of the tale, which reveals the identity of Cölestine as Hermengilda and also peels back the layers of masks hiding the identity of the child’s father, who is revealed as Xaver, the double of Hermengilda’s fiancé, Stanislaus, as well as his polar opposite. Hermengilda’s existence as a “Fremde,” a foreign presence, in the house of the German Bürgermeister is even more striking in light of the fact that she had refused to marry Stanislaus until the “foreign” occupying forces were expelled from Poland (“wenn die Fremden aus dem Vaterlande vertrieben sein würden” [296])� Her initial attitude of resistance to foreignness proves to be equally disastrous for her personal happiness and for Poland as a whole� Set during the period of a failed revolution, Das Gelübde shows the Polish nobility’s futile attempt to liberate itself from the influence of the “foreign” occupying forces (Prussian, Russian and Austrian). By the same token, Hermengilda’s father’s attempt to remove a rebellious and scandalous daughter from his family, and her entry 60 Eleanor ter Horst into the family of the German Bürgermeister, where she herself becomes a foreigner or stranger (“Fremde”), leads not to a renewal of the family’s reputation but rather to the end of the family line: after Hermengilda’s death, her father is obliged to transfer his estate to his nephews, since he has no direct descendants� By contrast, Graf F… in Die Marquise von O… gives the Marquise two documents after the birth of her son, the first a deed of a gift (20,000 rubles) to the boy, the second a will in which he leaves her his entire estate in the event of his death� It is only after receiving these two documents that the Marquise allows Graf F… to court her for a second time, and consents to a second marriage, leading to further legitimate children� The contrast is clear: Die Marquise von O… shows the reintegration of the female protagonist into the patriarchal social order by means of a monetary and legal transaction which forms the basis for marriage, while revealing the cracks in the structure supposed to ensure seamless succession� Das Gelübde shows the failure of patriarchal society to accommodate a rebellious daughter who refuses marriage, and the end of the family line resulting from this failure� Despite the seemingly dim prospects that Das Gelübde holds out for the liberatory potential of political revolution or personal rebellion, some hope is to be found in the gradual integration of Hermengilda / Cölestine into the German family, even as she is rejected by her own family of origin� The members of the German family at first view her as unapproachably foreign, but come to see through the mask and the veil, and, after witnessing the birth of her son, arrive at an appreciation of her human qualities� The border between Poland and Germany, which E. T. A. Hoffmann himself crossed during the period when he worked in Prussian-occupied Poland and married a Polish woman, is more porous than it might seem. Incursion into another’s territory, and the interaction that results, can have positive consequences, in politics as well as in art� In Das Gelübde , Hoffmann presents the foreign “other” as another, related version of the self, as evidenced in the doubling of the characters, Hermengilda and Xaver / Stanislaus, and in the dual interpretation of Hermengilda’s pregnancy, the possibility that either Xaver or Stanislaus could be the father of her child. The “auctor ambiguus” proves to be a key figure for the understanding of conception and authorship� On the other hand, this ambiguity, related to the assumption of another’s form, is associated with violation and violence. Hoffmann’s incursion into Kleist’s territory, by placing his work at the stated origin of Kleist’s, could be seen as an aggressive move similar to the territorial expansion practiced by the Prussians, Russians and Austrians at the expense of Poland� As we have seen, Hoffmann’s tale begins in the north, the region from which Kleist claims that his tale was displaced� Just as Kleist links the rape of the Marquise with territorial aggression by setting it during the occupation of the citadel by the The Origins of E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Das Gelübde and Kleist’s Die Marquise von O… 61 invading Russians, so Hoffmann appropriates and displaces Kleist’s story and its status as the originary text� This appropriation could be seen as a reenactment of the rapes that form the subject of both tales. Hoffmann claims paternity and displaces the original father of the tale, Kleist, in the same way that, within the narrative, Xaver attempts to displace Stanislaus as Hermengilda’s fiancé and the father of her child� In Das Gelübde , the rape, unlike the one suggested in Die Marquise von O… , does not produce any surviving offspring. Hoffmann implies that an act of aggressive appropriation does not lead to a fruitful outcome, and thus incorporates a critique of his own appropriation of Kleist’s tale into his own narrative� Hoffmann not only appropriates the origin of Kleist’s tale, northern Europe (Prussian-occupied Poland), he also encroaches on its substitute locale, Italy. The final section of Das Gelübde is set in Italy, but not in the war-torn north, as Kleist’s tale is, but rather in a peaceful setting, a monastery near Naples. Naples is also the destination of Kleist’s Graf F…, who is ordered to carry military dispatches to that city, and must therefore reluctantly leave the Marquise, and defer his courtship of her until he returns� His marriage to her is thus delayed significantly, and almost fails to occur, because of his military obligations. Hoffmann’s overlaying of a military campaign, referenced in Kleist, with the peaceful seclusion of a monastery is not only a futher displacement of the setting of Kleist’s tale, but also a reworking of Graf F…’s temporary separation from the Marquise and of the garden scene that occurs when he returns from Naples� Banished from her father’s house, the Marquise has retreated to the estate that she shared with her former husband, and decides to live in monastic seclusion, “in ewig klösterlicher Eingezogenheit” (126). This resolve is, however, broken by the encroachment of Graf F… into the garden of the Marquise’s estate. He enters the garden by devious means, “durch eine hintere Pforte, die ich offen fand” (129), as he himself admits. His entry into a forbidden space reenacts his rape of the Marquise� This time, however, she is not unconscious but fully capable of resisting his advances, sending him away despite his offer to marry her. Hoffmann refers to this scene when he sets the rape of Hermengilda, and the subsequent encounter when Xaver asks to marry her, in a pavillion in the park of her home� These two encounters both constitute violations, as Xaver first takes advantage of her semi-conscious state, then tries to argue that the violation obligates her to marry him� The garden and pavillion scenes are, in turn, reenacted at the end of Hoffmann’s tale in a double violation, as Hoffmann appropriates both the hidden origin (northern Europe) and the destination (Italy) of Kleist’s novella. The ending of Hoffmann’s narrative itself reenacts the violation of a woman that occurred previously in his own tale, as well as in Kleist’s. Boleslaw von Z., who may be one 62 Eleanor ter Horst of the nephews who inherited Hermengilda’s father’s estate, travels to Naples, visits a Camaldolese monastery - the Camaldolese are an eremetical order - and encounters a monk whom he believes to be Xaver� The monk is reading a Polish prayer book, and his features, though distorted by grief (“durch tiefen Gram enstellt” [317]), stir a vague memory (“eine dunkle Erinnerung” [317]), in Boleslaw. The monk flees, and Boleslaw is unable to confirm his impression. The violation of the monk’s tranquility by Boleslaw is a reenactment as well as a reversal of Xaver’s violation of Hermengilda, and Graf F…’s violation of the Marquise. It could also be read as a commentary on the subjugation of Hermengilda and the Marquise to paternal / patriarchal rule: Boleslaw is, after all, heir to the father� On a metaphorical level, the ending of Hoffmann’s tale is both a reenactment of and a commentary on his violation of Kleist’s tale through reappropriation of its content and origin. Appropriating the originary role of paternity, Hoffmann nonetheless emphasizes that obscurity and uncertainty are associated with the father’s role that he takes on: the monk in the garden is not necessarily Xaver and, if he is, he does not wish to be known: he veils his face and flees, just as Hermengilda hid behind the mask of Cölestine. Hoffmann reverses and undermines his own claims to paternity by placing the father of Hermengilda’s child, Xaver, in the role of violated victim and introducing another dominant father figure, Boleslaw, to take on the role of aggressor. The cyclical movement, the displacement of one father figure by another, suggests that this process is far from complete, and that Hoffmann, despite his claim to preeminence, may be its next victim. Hoffmann challenges Kleist and attempts to reverse the laws of succession, by which a later text borrows from its predecessor� Obscuring the origins of his work in relation to Kleist’s, he suggests that art does not follow the laws of biological succession, that from a murky origin, and from confrontation with the other, may emerge a challenging creation� The need for a clear line of succession, demanded by conventional paternity, vies with the obscurity and mystery surrounding conception and birth, both the biological processes and their metaphorical application to the work of art� Vying interpretations of circumstances such as Hermengilda’s pregnancy, as well as the presence of two versions of the same character, shape a text, Das Gelübde , that in some ways resembles Kleist’s Die Marquise von O… , but that also challenges it, not as a son would challenge a father but as a Doppelgänger, a mysterious brother or sister, challenges the very notion of temporal succession, of the distinction between original and copy� The Origins of E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Das Gelübde and Kleist’s Die Marquise von O… 63 Notes 1 Das Gelübde was published as part of the collection, Nachtstücke , whose most well-known story is Der Sandmann � It shares several themes with this tale and others in the collection, including the idea of the human being as automaton, the Doppelgänger, mental illness, and medical discourses more generally. Steinecke’s remark (1022) that Hoffmann’s tale has been neglected in literary criticism still holds true today, with a few exceptions� Recent critical approaches address its connection to medical and psychological discourses (Ferro Milone; Catani), aesthetic theory (Liebrand), and contemporary politics (Połczyńska, Rohde). 2 Kleist’s novella has also had resonance in popular culture. Maierhofer and Athreya analyze a contemporary film, Julietta , which sets the Kleistian plot in early 21 st -century Berlin� 3 Steinecke remarks that it has been read as “eine schlechte Weiterführung des kleistschen Motivs” (1023). Weitin, for example, sees it as lacking theoretical sophistication and influence in comparison to Kleist’s works (165). By contrast, Harich advances the idea that Hoffmann’s version is more complex with regard to human motivations than Kleist’s (128). 4 Bloom’s enumeration of the ways in which a poem relates to or revises its predecessor includes “ pophrades , or the return of the dead (15),” a move by which the successor poem gives the impression of preceding its precursor, reversing the temporality of imitation (141-55). 5 Sembdner, in his notes on Die Marquise von O… , suggests that Kleist’s story may derive from an anecdote in Montaigne’s essay, “De L’Yvrognerie,” which recounts the circumstances of a widow with a “chaste” reputation who, finding herself mysteriously pregnant, announces in church that she will marry the father of her child, if he declares himself� A servant confesses to having taken advantage of her when she was unconscious from heavy drinking. They continue to live together as a married couple (11). If Montaigne is indeed the source for Kleist’s story, Kleist has moved the scene of the action from France to Italy and has transposed the tale of a peasant woman and a male servant onto two people of aristocratic status, thus creating a geographical as well as a social displacement� A trace of the Montaigne anecdote may remain in the Marquise’s mother’s suggestion that Leopardo, the hunter, is the father of the Marquise’s child. Another source mentioned by Sembdner (900), citing Alfred Klaar’s 1922 edition of Die Marquise von O… , is the story, “Gerettete Unschuld” from the Berlinisches Archiv der Zeit und ihres Geschmacks � This story, involving a traveling salesman who rapes the innkeeper’s daughter, whom he believes to be dead 64 Eleanor ter Horst but who is in reality unconscious, is more brutal and direct than either Kleist’s or Hoffmann’s novella. Dünnhaupt mentions Cervantes’s novella, La fuerza de la sangre , which also recounts a rape that took place when the woman was unconscious, as a possible source for Kleist (147-57). Some of the other Novelas ejemplares by Cervantes also have scenes involving rape and / or mysterious births� In La ilustre fregona , the noble origins of the scullery maid are obscured when her mother, who was raped, gives birth in secret, and gives the child to the innkeeper and his wife to raise� La señora Cornelia also features a protagonist who gives birth in secret and a child who reunites the parents. Finally, Cervantes’s Don Quijote contains the episode of Dorotea, raped by Don Fernando, who abandons her to marry another woman, Luscinda� Luscinda then faints when she is about to marry Don Fernando (Part I, Chapter 28). These episodes suggest a Cervantine influence on Kleist and Hoffmann. 6 Połczyńska argues that Das Gelübde reflects Hoffmann’s sympathy for Poland, and, at the same time, his critical stance towards certain attitudes characteristic of the Polish nobility (157-59). Rohde reads the character of Hermengilda as an allegory of the fate of Poland (37-41). 7 The first partition of Poland took place 1772; however, the explicit references to the Kościuszko uprising would place the action of the story in the period leading up to the second partition of 1793� 8 Birkhold argues that the Marquise’s mother and father are operating under two different legal codes. The father follows the older, honor-based legal system while the mother operates under the assumptions of Prussia’s more recent legal code, the Allgemeines Landrecht für die Preußischen Staaten (4-5). This divide between male and female characters also applies to Das Gelübde , in which Hermengilda’s father also adheres to an honor-based code, while the mother-figure, Fürstin Z., questions Hermengilda in a manner that recalls the investigation by the Marquise’s mother in Kleist. 9 Weiss points out that this scene could be read as a parody of reunion scenes in popular, sentimental fiction and drama of Kleist’s time (538-41). 10 Abbott reads the Marquise’s trajectory differently. By looking at metaphors of standing in the novella, he traces the Marquise’s journey from subjection to patriarchal order through the rule of the father and the rape to “her decision to stand and assert a different order” (111). 11 The dash has been subject to numerous interpretations� One issue is that the term “rape,” or the German equivalent, “Vergewaltigung,” was not used during this period; rather “Notzucht” was the legal term employed (Maierhof and Athreya 365). Some critics (e.g., McAllister 183) suggest that the Marquise was not raped but rather that she played an active role in the sex- The Origins of E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Das Gelübde and Kleist’s Die Marquise von O… 65 ual encounter� Cohn argues that the Marquise suppressed erotic knowledge from her conscious mind (131). Others emphasize that a rape did occur, and has been suppressed by interpreters of the tale, as it is in the narrative itself (Winnett 68). Dietrich argues that the elided rape reappears, in another form, in the count’s dream of throwing mud at a white swan, which is an androgynous, indeterminate symbol representing not only the rape but also the related sullying of the count’s honor (325-26). Maierhofer and Athreya emphasize that the narrative structure of the novella prevents the rape from being seen as an act of violence (369). Chaouli argues that the dash obliges the reader to imagine a rape, whose psychic effect is to foreclose other readings (171-74). 12 Weineck notes that the seemingly happy ending “resembles a farce” (150). Künzel stresses, similarly, that the ending seems forced and produces irritation in the reader (178). They are perhaps responding to critics such as Borchardt, who maintains that use of the archetype of the androgyne allows for a reconciliation between men and women in Die Marquise von O… , as well as in other works by Kleist (159). 13 Wright notes that the doubling of the figure Stanislaus / Xaver recalls the doubling of Colino / Nicolo in Kleist’s Der Findling (122-28). 14 McGlathery reads Hermengilda’s identification with the Virgin Mary differently, as part of her attempt to “escape from sexual awareness into spritualistic fantasy” (74). 15 In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, a debate was occurring in the medical communities about whether women had to experience sexual pleasure in order to conceive� The mounting evidence that orgasm was not necessary for conception was interpreted as a sign of women’s innate passivity (Laqueur 161-63). The midwife of Die Marquise von O… adheres to an earlier notion that women’s active participation in the sex act was necessary for reproduction, but the circumstances of the story prove her wrong� 16 Weineck suggests that, in addition to Graf F…, there are two other candidates for the father of the Marquise’s child, her own father and Leopardo (150). Similarly, Krüger-Fürhoff indicates that the text provides insufficient proof that Graf F… is the father (77). 17 For Weineck, these meanings of “zeugen” suggest “the need to establish paternity through an act of signification or an oath” (144). 18 Some recent criticism of Das Gelübde has looked at Hoffmann’s interest in medical discourses of his time, as reflected in the tale. Ferro Milone points out the similarity of the tale to medical case studies (68). Catani looks at Hoffmann’s use of medical discourses surrounding madness and sanity, 66 Eleanor ter Horst sickness and health, in order to point out his ambivalence about the privileging of one term over the other (175-76). Critics of Kleist have noted similarities between Kleist’s presentation of unconsciously driven female characters and medical discourses, including Gotthilf Heinrich Schubert’s descriptions of the states of somnambulism and “animal magnetism” (hypnosis)� See for example Paulin, who focuses on concepts of metamorphosis in Schubert, such as transitions between life and death, and the presence of these concepts in Penthesilea (47-49). Thomas argues, however, that Kleist was more likely to have stimulated Schubert’s interest in these topics than Schubert was to have influenced Kleist (259-61). 19 Liebrand interprets Hermengilda’s mask as an inversion of the Pygmalion myth: instead of a statue being brought to life, a living person is made into a statue (175-76). 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