Fractured Symbolism: Der Stechlin and the Golden Bowl

Abstract

W HEN Maggie Verver painstakingly, yet unsuccessfully, tries to move in one piece the golden bowl that Fanny has just dashed into three, she expresses an impulse that finds its counterpart in Melusine's instinctive revulsion at the thought of disturbing the ice that masks Lake Stechlin's potential turbulence. In these scenes, each woman displays an understanding that the objects are fragile symbols of a precarious sense of completeness she desires. Both women intuit that with the concrete symbol is lost the sense of form and meaning that derived from its presence; they are compelled to protect the integrity of the symbolic orders they have constructed.' This construction is the subject of The Golden Bowl and Der Stechlin. As a subject, the characters' symbolizing activities reflect the narratives' own intentions toward completeness, which are evidenced by the plot structures. The connection between heroine and narrator evolves