Runaway Horse: Analysis of Major Characters
"Runaway Horse: Analysis of Major Characters" delves into the complex dynamics between four main characters, exploring themes of identity, desire, and interpersonal relationships. Helmut Halm, a middle-aged intellectual, values his solitude and privacy, yet struggles with his fading sexual vitality and the intrusion of his former schoolmate, Klaus Buch. Klaus is portrayed as a charismatic yet insecure journalist, embodying a vibrant lifestyle that contrasts sharply with Helmut's more reserved demeanor. His dependence on external validation and his complex relationship with his wife, Helene, reveal layers of dissatisfaction behind his lively facade. Helene, while appearing devoted and supportive, conceals her own unhappiness and unfulfilled aspirations, leading to an unexpected sense of relief at her husband's potential demise. Lastly, Sabina Halm, Helmut's wife, navigates her own evolving desires and ultimately seeks to revitalize their long-stagnant marriage. Together, these characters illustrate the struggle between societal expectations and personal desires, providing a rich narrative about the intricacies of human relationships.
Runaway Horse: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Martin Walser
First published: Ein fliehendes Pferd, 1978 (English translation, 1980)
Genre: Novella
Locale: A resort town on Lake Constance, in Germany
Plot: Psychological realism
Time: The 1970's
Helmut Halm (hahlm), a teacher at a reputable Gymnasium in Stuttgart, now on vacation at Lake Constance. Forty-six years old, with a middle-age paunch, he is an introverted intellectual bourgeois who cherishes his privacy, detests familiarity, and desires to remain incognito as much as possible. He reads Søren Kierkegaard and is fond of heavy red wines, good food, cigars, and, above all, escape and seclusion from the world in the company of his wife of many years, Sabina. He is troubled by his loss of sexual desire only to the extent that he is not entirely sure whether his wife has also reached that stage in her life. In the presence of Helene Buch, he experiences a mild erotic reawakening, but, tired by life, alienated and even repulsed by his own body, and fully resigned to his own inertia, he merely registers these stirrings vaguely and without any active interest in Helene. More an observer of life than a participant in it, he is thoroughly annoyed by Klaus Buch's intrusion into his placid vacation and by the threat that his former schoolmate poses to his way of being and his tranquillity. Most of all, Helmut would like to flee but is pressured by the others into submitting to the heartiness and joviality of a renewed, if imposed, friendship. All the while pretending—something that he has not only learned to do well throughout his life but also thoroughly enjoys—he plays along. Finally, during an outing on the stormy lake, out of either an instinct for self-preservation or murderous fury—he himself does not know which—he causes Klaus to fall overboard and disappear in the waves.
Klaus Buch (klows bewkh), a freelance journalist specializing in ecological topics. Although also forty-six years old, he is slender, athletic, and virile looking, with blond hair, white teeth, and bronzed skin. He is garrulous—full of vitality, enthusiasm for life, and courage in the face of danger—and seems to be the very opposite of Helmut Halm. In conformity with his professional interests and the trend of the times, he is a health enthusiast who abstains from alcohol and tobacco, plays tennis, sails, hikes, runs, and wears blue jeans and shirts unbuttoned to his waist; he also unabashedly boasts of his sexual accomplishments. He energetically undertakes to draw Helmut out, to convert him to his way of life. In reality, however, Klaus is an insecure, frequently sullen, hardworking, and not very successful man who only pretends to be dashing through life with ease and adroitness. He resents his dependency on his publishers and editors and has become bitter and even mean-spirited. In desperate need of confirmation and affection, he clings to his former classmate and does not recognize the latter's rejection of him until the very last moment before falling into the lake.
Helene (Hella) Buch (heh-LEH-neh), the attractive, charming, and vivacious wife of Klaus Buch. She writes books on herbs and is presently collecting old grandmothers' sayings in the region of Lake Constance. Eighteen years younger than her husband, she seems happy in her role of the loving and devoted wife, always ready to support and reassure him and to join him in his adventures. Just as she is the one who in the end discloses her husband's true nature, she also reveals that she is not what she seems to be. Once an aspiring pianist who had to give up her hopes to follow the dictates of her husband, she is in reality unhappy with the existence imposed on her, including her present profession, and has been dissembling all the while. When she believes that her husband has drowned, she is less sad than curiously relieved. At the Halms', she drinks excessively, smokes, and tells of her pitiful lot; in her husband's presence, she abhorred alcohol and tobacco and constantly pointed out his superior qualities. When Klaus miraculously reappears, it is with irritation rather than joy that she welcomes him.
Sabina Halm (zah-BEE-neh), the loving and motherly wife of Helmut Halm. She has no profession, is childless, and is devoted to her husband. Although the same age as he, she has not yet entirely lost her interest in sex and becomes mildly infatuated with Klaus Buch. At the conclusion of the story, it is she who initiates the attempt to rekindle the dormant sex life in her marriage.