Jagd und Joch, Frau und Pferd: Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach’s Unsühnbar as a Reflection of Nineteenth-Century Human-Animal Bonds

Abstract

The increased attention to animals during the nineteenth century often led to close human-animal bonds, an aspect of life depicted in the work of Austrian author Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach. Indeed, much of Ebner’s oeuvre is characterized by animal representations. Drawing on a developing conception of the animal’s capacity for feeling and emotion, Ebner observes and questions human ethical behavior, fulfilling her reputation as an important Tierfreundin of the nineteenth century. In so doing, she participates in a nineteenth-century tradition of animal representation that urges readers to examine their own humanity. In Unsuhnbar , Ebner’s novel of adultery, the depiction of Maria Dornach’s bonds with animals enriches Ebner’s criticisms of aristocratic social mores such as inheritance and arranged marriages and inspires reader empathy with the novel’s protagonist through her sympathetic identification with animal figures. Ebner’s portrayal of human emotions inspired by, influenced by, and directed at animals and her attribution of emotional capacity to animals themselves reflects a nineteenth-century preoccupation with the bonds between the species, moving readers to sympathy for both.