Rachel Mases
Period 3
Formal Essay: Effi Briest

The classic novel, Effi Briest, by Theodor Fontane follows a young woman’s journey through an arranged marriage, exposed infidelity, and guilt-ridden hardship. Effi Briest, a seventeen-year- old living in nineteenth century Germany, struggles through loneliness, depression, fear, and diminishing health through her planned marriage to a nobleman, Baron Geert von Innstetten, as well as after the troubled marriage comes to an end. Throughout the novel, several metaphors are used to emphasize the underlying hardships Effi faces, including the “Chinaman” ghost, Effi’s diminishing health, and the shooting stars. In her husband’s grandiloquent residence, Effi is continuously tormented by a spectral “Chinaman”, believed to be the ghost of a deceased servant who once served in the old home. She consistently discusses the ghost with others as it begins to consume her thoughts and is constantly fearful of the old house along with its dusty, dark corners and eerie, unexplainable creaking. The Chinaman is used in the novel as a metaphor for two aspects of Effi’s acquired life through her marriage to Innstetten: the overwhelming fear and loneliness she now faces as the wife of an ambitious man of the government, and the creeping thoughts of infidelity that ultimately transform into physical actions. Effi becomes exceedingly distressed by what she believes to be the presence of the Chinaman’s spirit, and seeks comfort and support from her husband, expressing to him that she is “never…completely free from fear…” (Fontane, 133). Rather than providing the solace Effi was so desperately in need of, Innstetten angrily states that her fears are meaningless compared to his career and dreads people learning of her childish feelings, as they would spur public ridicule. Left alone amidst her fears and unable to find consolation, Effi attempts, unsuccessfully, to move forward. As she begins to learn more of the Chinaman’s secret love for his mistress and the possibility of an illicit affair, the notion of infidelity and concealed relationships arises. In this sense, it seems as if though the ghost appears to her in times of fear in order to impel Effi to seek solace in another. In the same way that Effi so desires to be “free” from her constant terror of the phantom, she wishes to be saved from the loneliness she faces in the constant absence of her husband, as well as from the immoralities it may lead her to commit in desperation for the love and attention she is in such need of. Throughout the novel, Effi repeatedly faces health complications that become increasingly serious. Her diminishing health serves as a symbol for the emotional turmoil she undergoes from the moment of her marriage to Innstetten to her eventual tragic death. Forced to abandon a life of youthful, carefree living and desert her imaginative, lighthearted ways, Effi soon comes to a realization that she is but a wax doll, required to be molded into a suitable form for presentation as the wife of a civil servant. Seized from her home at too young of an age and unreadily cast into a position of maturity, Effi struggles to acclimate to this role and undergoes emotional difficulties in attempting to adjust to an unfamiliar world. As a result, her disregarded fears deepen and her loneliness and boredom intensifies. And as the emotional strain burdens Effi, her physical state begins to weaken. First experiencing minimal symptoms, Effi does not initially undergo extreme levels of emotional and physical distress. However, as loneliness, depression, and fear become progressively overwhelming, Effi’s health begins to rapidly deteriorate. And not only does Effie face these toils, but also incredible guilt and pain following the exposure of her infidelity and the abandonment of her husband and daughter. After having been turned away from her family and ‘respectable’ society, including any possibility of having a successful, prosperous future, Effi begins to “[gaze] up at the wonders of the heavens for too long…[putting] her…on her sick-bed” (Fontane, 214). Slowly dying of a terminal illness, Effi reminisces about the past and recalls her consequential decisions. Fontane employs the physical ailments Effi suffers through as a metaphor for the emotional turmoil she has faced and its detrimental effects on her life. As Effie faces her last days on earth, she’s surrounded by “the late summer nights with their shooting stars…” (Fontane, 214). The shooting stars serve as a metaphor for the bereavement of the life she has lost and of her imminent death. The stars brightly shooting across the sky emphasize the life she once had with her family; they symbolize her past hopes of a fairy tale love and the lighthearted, imaginative, content young woman she once was. But just as the stars fade off into darkness, so have these dreams and traits of the past. And as Effi nears the end, she gazes up at the sky and contemplates death, wondering if perhaps humans “…come from up there and go back to [their] heavenly home when it’s all over…” (Fontane, 215). Soon after, similarly to the way in which the radiance of shooting stars ultimately dwindle s, Effi’s life comes to an end. In the novel Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane, metaphors are used to emphasize the underlying hardships Effi faces throughout the novel. The “Chinaman” ghost , Effi’s diminishing health, and the shooting stars are used to convey these inner struggles. These metaphors that contain astonishing depth are just one instance in which an object or occurrence that is seemingly simple, in actuality holds a plethora of meaning.

Note: I was thinking of adding an additional paragraph regarding how Roswitha/Rollo are a metaphor for comfort and friendship – perhaps the only sources that become available to Effi in the novel. I would discuss how she is often the subject of gossip in her new town, the way in which her servants look down on her, and the torment of living in a lonely, rural home while waiting for her husband’s promotion + how the presence of Rollo and Roswitha somewhat counter the emotional turmoil caused in Effi. What do you think? Secondly, should I add more to the third body paragraph? I was attempting to add more detail but was unable to effectively do so.