Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1922-12-09

formed and lowly lawyers clerk, a
model employee. a faithful ssou. the
very acme of cIerkly rectituue. He
sees in the street what is to his
repressed and tortured imagination q
division of divine loneliness, in gold
en-haired child, the daughter OF a,
wealthy tradesman. The war brought
forth many cases Of shell-shock which.
deranged men as complete ly as Lor-
enz Lubota, as the young clerk is call
ed, became deranged. Apparently his
whole character undergoes a sea-
change. With ali his waking con-
seriousness fixed about the image OF
the beloved child, other decisions be-.
come fixed in his mind. He believes
! himself to be a successful poet ana
poses as q literary giant about to
come into his true kingdom. tie
drifts into practising what would be,
in a normal being, fraud. Later, he
even engages in thievery. Wander
/ ing into the low cafes Of the city III
search of solace, he falls in with al
infamous underworld character.
Gradually he is drawn into connivlng
with criminals, believing all the time
/ in a beneiicent purpose in this wrong,
doing. More than that he is seduced
by weirdly erotic girl. VINO hoYers
! in society somewhere between the
haut-moade and demi-monde, in whom
he fancies' he sees likeness to the
beautiful child who drew HIM INTO
/ mis- deHiented state.
The story is told in Autobiography
cal form and perfectly eXtraordl-
nary effect is given Of the writer as
! telling an artless tale, without inter-
ary skill or artifce. Hauptmann has
! Thoroughly concealed his technique by
! his complete command Of 1t.
The narrative steadily develops,
with an almost insidious unpreten-
tiousness, a grim dramatic tension,
STRANGE quality Of emotional ten
! sitv. The crime which this former
! w virtuous and timid clerk is drawn
into plotting is buagled and the Grim
| inals are caught in the nets of their
own scheme.
After having been convicted as the
accessory in loaths0me murder, and
sentenced to a term in prison, Lubo-
ia comes to>his normal senses again.
He works out>hs social and moral re-
6emption through the love of sim
ple. beautiful woman and her father,
an aged book-binder. The real under
standing of the whole situation comes
to Lubota through his reflections on
the madness that had him in its clutch
es and the mire through which he was
forced to drag himself by the dream
that possessed him.
There is no Interpretation in the
terms of the psychoanalysts implied
by Eauptmann in the manner IN
which he has told his story. But he
puts before us situation IRON
which the reader must make conclu-
siors which coincide with the discov-
cries of Freud and his school.
"Phantom" is study in what is
thought of as abnomality, yet 1t is
first of all work worthy of the
great Russians in its revelations OF
spiritual crisis. 1t is realistic in style
but there is a thread Of symbolism
woven through the fabric Of the whole
narrative. The symbolism is easily
perceptible and lights with a pervas-
i've beauty his story Of soul com
lnc to it's own through sin.
Every incident in the book IS ex-
pressive of humanistic philosophy:
Here again is one more affirmative OF
the belief in redemption through the
travail Of sorrow, a vision OF hu-
mau;ty impaled on the cross OF ITS
own inhumanity. and of the asplra--
tons OF the lowly everywhere toward
the light and beauty of spiritual I'M
ity.