Young Törless by Robert Musil

First published:Die Verwirrungen des Zöglings Törless, 1906 (English translation, 1955)

Type of work: Philosophical realism

Time of work: The mid-or late nineteenth century

Locale: A celebrated boarding school in a small town in the eastern territories of the Austrian empire

Principal Characters:

• Torless, a boy on the verge of adolescence in his first year at boarding school
• Basini, a weak and unintelligent classmate
• Reiting, one of Torless’ friends
• Beineberg, another friend

The Novel

One afternoon, young Torless, a boarding school student, and some friends accompany Hofrat and Frau Torless to the railway station. The Torlesses are returning home after a visit to their son’s boarding school. The prestigious reputation of the school has been the determining factor in sending Torless there, in spite of the considerable distance involved. Indeed, Torless readily adapts to his new surroundings: An early case of what seems to be homesickness soon disappears, and he finds friends such as Prince H., a sensitive and delicate boy, and, later, the more rough and masculine Reiting and Beineberg. Acknowledging the other boys’ superiority of size and age, Hofrat Torless commends his son to their vigilance before he boards the train with his wife.

On the way back to school, Torless and Beineberg, the only two of the group who have permission to stay out longer, stop off at a cake shop and then visit Bozena, a prostitute at a tavern of ill repute. When they arrive at school, Reiting calls a meeting of himself, Torless, and Beineberg; he has discovered who has been stealing from the lockers. In their secret lair in the attic, they learn the details from Reiting: Basini, another classmate, is in debt to everyone and claims to have only borrowed the money. He must be punished. Torless, who believes the thief should be reported, is taken aback at Reiting’s suggestion that he not be. The boys finally agree simply to keep Basini under close surveillance, at least for the present. Torless is further confused by his parents’ response to the situation; not only do they not express shock and surprise but they also recommend giving Basini a chance to reform. He does not understand and tears up their letter in despair.

One night very late, Beineberg wakes Torless from his sleep and leads him to the attic to talk. Previously, Beineberg had observed Reiting and Basini having sex and explains that now he holds Basini in the palm of his hand, a power he fully intends to use: He will torment Basini in the name of spiritual training. On one hand, Torless does not fully comprehend Beineberg’s meaning. On the other hand, he senses that Basini is destined to play an important part in his own life, and he feels a need to make sure that Basini stays for a while.

The next day, Reiting and Beineberg approach Torless. They have been conspiring and have fixed the time and place of Basini’s moment of reckoning: eleven o’clock that night in the attic. They meet at the appointed time and, as the other two beat the naked, groaning Basini, Torless observes his own reactions. He is dizzy with excitement which turns sexual, making him feel disconcerted and ashamed. They hold an interrogation during which Basini is forced to agree to comply with all of their terms and orders from that point forward.

During the mathematics period the following day, Torless decides that since the subject matter of this class forms part of his so-called preparation for life, it might yield some answers to the strange riddle which has been vexing him ever since entering the school. He makes an appointment with the mathematics master, but to his dissatisfaction, he is discouraged by the master, who determines that the answers to Torless’ questions would be beyond his ability to comprehend. Later, Beineberg confirms the ineptitude of the masters to deal with anything outside the systems that they have studied (although Beineberg himself relies on Eastern models to perceive existence). Some strange dreams about Immanuel Kant conjure Torless’ childhood memories of wanting to be a little girl, and he takes solace in his sensuality, which sets him apart from such clever persons as Kant. Yet the link with Basini (who had referred to himself as a sensualist in a conversation with the prostitute) is reinforced.

There is a four-day holiday from classes, and while most of the other boys visit family or friends, Torless and a few others, including Basini, remain. Almost at once, Torless is possessed by the thought of being alone with Basini. The lust which has been awakened in him grows until it consumes him, and when Basini comes to his bed in the middle of the night, Torless allows himself to be seduced. He enters into a new relationship with Basini, feeling sympathy for this despicable creature and even jealousy toward Reiting and Beineberg. Nevertheless, this tenderness soon develops into disgust as Torless’ former desire seems increasingly senseless and repulsive to him. While Reiting and Beineberg plan more punishment for Basini, Torless becomes altogether indifferent.

Several days after the boys return from their holiday, the three friends convene in the attic. Reiting and Beineberg contrive how they might best humiliate Basini and force him to knuckle under completely. Reiting envisions handing him over to the class, instigating a mass movement that will tear him to pieces. Beineberg plans to carry out a spiritual experiment: He will hypnotize Basini in an effort to reestablish lost contact with the soul. (The experiment ends with the furious lashing of Basini, who has tricked the other into believing he has been under hypnosis all along.) Conditions become intolerable for Basini, and, when the first opportunity arises, he approaches Torless, pleading for his protection. Torless refuses. Just at that moment, Reiting finds them together talking, and he tries to intimidate Tor-less (who has insulted him in front of Basini) but to no avail: Torless has with-drawn from the entire affair. Even when Reiting and Beineberg both threaten to expose him as Basini’s accomplice, Torless remains uncooperative.

Now Reiting’s plot regarding Basini is set in motion as he and Beineberg start spreading rumors among the other boys at school. Torless had left a note warning Basini that he was to be handed over to the class but apparently not in time to spare him from a preliminary, brutal bullying by a crowd of boys. Basini then turns himself in to the headmaster, and a very strict investigation ensues. Panic-stricken by the thought of having to explain himself to his teachers, Torless runs away from school, only to be picked up shortly thereafter in the next town. He is still in a state of agitation and near exhaustion when he is called before the masters and the chaplain. In one critical instant, Torless is suddenly able to see the solution to the riddle and can articulate it to the menacing assembly of masters. He tells them that things are just things, but sometimes they are seen with the eyes of reason and sometimes with the eyes of the soul.

Basini is expelled, and Torless decides to leave the school. Silence and skepticism have replaced his feelings of despair, and his mother is slightly surprised to find a composed, not overwrought, son waiting for her to take him home. Torless is now able to understand the life that his parents lead.

The Characters

The duality of existence that is postulated in Young Torless is expressed, among other ways, through the characters. They symbolize certain concepts and, like the protagonist himself, who exists only as an inner man, they are somewhat less than human. There are at least two groups—Reiting and Beineberg on one hand and Basini, Bozena, and Prince H. on the other hand—that form dichotomies through their inclusion in the novel. First, Reiting and Beineberg represent two great tendencies in the history of civilization: Western thought versus Eastern thought. Reiting admires Napoleon Bonaparte and dreams of coups d’etat and high politics. He knows no greater pleasure than setting people against one another through complicated intrigues and reveling in his victims’ hate. In this way and by boxing almost daily, he claims to be practicing for life. Beineberg, however, feels an affinity with the philosophers and holy men of India. His interest is the legacy of his father, who was a general in the British Service there and brought home with him a feeling for esoteric Buddhism. The general dreamed that he might achieve dominion over others through the exercise of certain spiritual powers. Whereas Reiting sacrifices other human beings to be able to observe the process, Beineberg’s object is the furtherance of a profound inner knowledge. Nevertheless, both subordinate humanity to an abstract conceptualizing which, if originally beneficial to humanity, ultimately enlists humankind in its own service.

Reiting and Beineberg operate within guidelines established by society. Torless’ class is like a small state, complete with laws, mass movements, and wars, and his two friends have assumed the role of leaders, each in his unique way. Yet there is another world, dark and mysterious, which exists apart from the solid everyday world of respectable citizens. Torless intuits it, mainly in the form of an ineffable longing that torments him and which will find an object in Prince H. (who has an idyllic aura), Bozena (who provides a refuge from incomprehensible social order), and Basini (who cultivates Torless’ desire which then grows into some new and aimless craving). It is these dark, inner forces which Torless associates most closely with life itself. That association is made clear when he notes that all seemed dead at the school after the expulsion of Basini. Torless’ final discovery is the necessity of the coexistence of these worlds.

Critical Context

Robert Musil’s novella displays many features of the Bildungsroman (novel of self-development), Germany’s greatest contribution to world literature. An American counterpart of this late eighteenth or early nineteenth century literary form can be found in the works of Mark Twain, several of which deal with the process of maturity and integration of the individual into society. Generally, the protagonist makes the transition from child to young adult as he wanders along a path of adventure and misadventure, which finally brings out his best qualities. He is on his way toward fulfillment of his calling or potential within society, although first he rebels against it in order to gain a sense of his inner mission.

That society is a stable and controllable entity is a discovery that Torless will eventually make. By the close of the novel, Torless is on the threshold of a new life. Having gained confidence in his innate abilities, he is now free to grow, like a plant unfolding. Overall, there is optimism stemming from the belief in the inherent ability of man to better himself and improve his world.

In Young Torless, two events prove to be critical to Torless’ development: the separation from his parents and his sexual adventures with Basini (an unusual choice of episode, putting Musil ahead of his time as a writer). Torless’ growth is triggered by the one and completed as a result of the other. His rebellion is less an act of defiance than a disassociation from Reiting and Beineberg and from the school. As his confidence builds to the point at which he can talk above the heads of his teachers, he also achieves a certain type of independence; while he will return to his family, he is self-reliant in the sense that his experience—problem and solution—is his own rather than anything borrowed. On the way home, he sees things differently. He recalls his former bewildered self in contrast to his new attitude of quiet contemplation, secure in the knowledge that he has taken a step forward in his personhood. There is a hint of promise as he prepares to enter the adult world.

Bibliography

Luft, David S. Robert Musil and the Crisis of European Culture, 1880-1942, 1980.

Lukacs, Georg. “The World of the Novel of Education and the Romanticism of Reality,” in The Theory of the Novel, 1971.

Pascal, Roy. “Johann Wolfgang von Goethe—Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship,” in The German Novel, 1956.

Peters, Frederick G. Robert Musil, Master of the Hovering Life: A Study of the Major Fiction, 1978.

Sanford, Nevitt. “Action to Promote Personality Development: Some Basic Concepts,” in Self and Society: Social Change and Individual Development, 1966.