The Swan Villa: Analysis of Major Characters
"The Swan Villa: Analysis of Major Characters" delves into the intricate dynamics surrounding Gottlieb Zürn, a middle-aged real estate broker facing personal and professional turmoil. Set against the backdrop of southern Germany's Lake Constance, Gottlieb grapples with feelings of inadequacy in both his family life and career, struggling to compete with more successful peers while managing his own turbulent emotions and failed relationships.
The narrative is enriched by his wife, Anna, who embodies resilience and responsibility, balancing her family’s challenges while showcasing her own adeptness in real estate. Their four daughters—Regina, Rosa, Magdalena, and Julia—each face their own trials, from illness to unexpected pregnancies, adding layers of complexity to the family’s struggles. Key figures in the story include rival agents like Jarl F. Kaltammer and Paul Schatz, whose contrasting business styles and ethics significantly impact Gottlieb’s life.
The looming threat of the Swan Villa’s demolition serves as a poignant symbol of Gottlieb's failures and the unraveling of his ambitions. Through these characters, the narrative explores themes of inadequacy, familial obligation, and the relentless pursuit of success, inviting readers to reflect on the human condition amidst societal pressures.
The Swan Villa: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Martin Walser
First published: Das Schwanenhaus, 1980 (English translation, 1982)
Genre: Novel
Locale: Southwestern Germany, near Lake Constance
Plot: Social realism
Time: A summer in the 1970's
Gottlieb Zürn (GOHT-leeb tsewrn), a real estate broker living in the Lake Constance area of southern Germany. He is almost fifty years old and is haunted by a sense of failure and inadequacy in business and family life. He feels harassed by the details of everyday living (such as car insurance) and troubled by inopportune lust. He likes to speculate about the real ages of his acquaintances. People and events in the novel are seen through his eyes, although this is a third-person narrative. His rival real estate agents seem far wealthier and more stylish, enterprising, and successful than he is. He appears less likely than them to obtain the coveted sole agency to sell a magnificent art-nouveau villa on the lake where Gottlieb, who writes poetry, likes to linger in useless melancholy. At parties, he is likely to lose his head in efforts to entertain the company, so that his indiscretions haunt him afterward. On one occasion, he makes extravagant purchases while failing to call on a client through loss of nerve. In family affairs, he believes that he is an inadequate father to his four daughters. He is hot-tempered and impatient in his dealings with them and fails to provide support in their times of need (for example, pregnancy and a wish to “drop out”). He observes that his wife, who bears the brunt of family difficulties, is also more effective than he is at selling real estate. The final discovery that the villa is being demolished at the hands of a rival agent leaves him battered and resigned.
Anna Zürn, Gottlieb's wife, who is burdened with family cares, which include tending a daughter (one of four) who is inexplicably ill. She has a tenacious memory for detail and is perhaps a better agent than her husband. She fends off Gottlieb's amorous advances, often using sobering information for this purpose.
Regina Zürn, their daughter, who is mysteriously ill, often in the hospital. She is a constant worry to her parents.
Rosa Zürn, another daughter, at a university as a student of law. She returns home pregnant by Max, a married man, and decides against an abortion.
Magdalena (Magda) Zürn, another daughter. Approaching her final examinations at school, she is conscientious but not at the top of the class. A vegetarian and a violin player, often listless, she plans, for a time, to drop her studies.
Julia Zürn, another daughter. She plays the piano when her sister plays the violin. She takes the family dog to training classes without success and often seems irritated by her family.
Hortense Leistle (LIST-leh), the wife of a wealthy manufacturer, responsible for the sale of Swan Villa now that her sister has been declared legally incompetent. Gottlieb is eager to get the sole listing, but she refuses to commit herself and ends by allowing the old house to be demolished.
Lissi Reinhold (RIN-hohlt), the wife of a prosperous businessman and a prospective client to Gottlieb, a former tennis partner. She appears everywhere without her husband, accompanied by a bearded young sociologist. She is a formidable woman with a powerful voice. In her presence, Gottlieb is likely to behave foolishly.
Jarl F. Kaltammer (yahrl KAHLT-ahm-mehr), a rival real estate agent. A former student activist with aristocratic pretensions, he finds the local dialect “vulgar.” A constructor of shoddy buildings, he prides himself on dealing only in Burgundian chateaus. He outwits all the other agents by arranging for the demolition of Swan Villa.
Paul Schatz (shatz), Gottlieb's principal rival in the real estate business, an autodidact of Hungarian origins. His life, to the envious Gottlieb, seems carefree, and his advertising seems flamboyant. He is prominent in environmental causes and is a painter whose work Mrs. Reinhold admires.
Rudi W. Eitel (I-tehl), another rival to Gottlieb. Rarely in Germany, he cultivates a surrealist appearance and imitates Southern California business methods.
Helmut Maier (MI-ehr), nicknamed Claims-Maier, a real estate claims consultant and Gottlieb's drinking companion. He proves to be a competent bidder at the final auction and is good at repartee but is of little assistance to Gottlieb.
Baptist Rauh (row), a composer from the Lake Constance region and a prospective purchaser easily moved to enthusiasm. His wife prefers Hamburg.
Max Stöckl (SHTEH-kehl), a cameraman with ambitions to be a director, Rosa's married boyfriend by whom she is pregnant. He talks incessantly in a Bavarian accent, trying to organize Rosa's life (she should drop law studies, he thinks) and preaching a doctrine of self-assertion. Rosa sends him away.
Eberhard Banzin (BAHN-tsihn), the son of the original owner of Swan Villa and a former schoolmate of Gottlieb. Once a brilliant mathematician, he relapsed into eccentricity and was declared legally incompetent.