In this blog post, we examine how passion and homosexuality intertwine between Roland and his teacher in Zweig’s short story ‘Confusion of Feelings’, creating emotional turmoil.
Work Analysis
“Confusion of Feelings (Verwirrung der Gefühle),” published in 1926 by the Austrian author Stefan Zweig (1881–1942), is one of the most widely recognized works in Austria. This short story adopts a narrative structure in which a first-person narrator presents events from two perspectives: that of an English literature professor who has received a commemorative collection of essays for his sixtieth birthday, and that of the professor’s naive student from his youth. The subtitle, “The Private Memoirs of Privy Councilor R. v. D.,” reveals that the story aims to convey to the reader not the protagonist’s public life, but his private, intimate life.
The two central themes explored in this work are “passion (Leidenschaft)” and “homosexuality (Homosexualität).” Passion was a theme that Zweig pursued throughout his life; in his other works as well, he repeatedly uses expressions such as “passion,” “ecstasy,” and “intoxication” to explore the intense emotional dynamics between people and art. In his autobiography, written in his later years, Zweig recalls how, amidst the narrow-mindedness of school education at the time, many young people poured their passion into philosophy, literature, art, and collecting—subjects beyond the scope of textbooks—and describes himself as a person for whom creative passion was the center of his life. In ‘Confusion of Feelings’, the passionate dispositions displayed by Roland and his teacher are repeatedly evident throughout the work.
The issue of homosexuality reflects the influence of psychoanalytic thought that Zweig encountered through his long correspondence and friendship with Sigmund Freud (1856–1939). Zweig perceived the era in which he lived as a “world of uncertainty” and sought to explain that uncertainty through the destructive power of the unconscious, as described by Freud. Freud believed that the unconscious and its destructive tendencies operate deeply within culture and civilization, and he specifically pointed out that unconscious homosexuality could lie at the heart of paranoia. Furthermore, he did not view homosexual tendencies as mere moral taboos or incurable diseases; instead, he saw them as problems stemming from family relationships or relationships with parents, and he even mentioned the possibility of treatment.
Based on Freud’s perspective, when Zweig addressed the issue of homosexuality in ‘Confusion of Feelings’, the work faced significant contemporary criticism despite achieving commercial and critical success. As social taboos and psychological interpretations intertwined at the time, the work sparked controversy, and Zweig, drawing on personal experience and psychological insight, delicately portrayed human inner conflict.
Roland: Passion
Roland, who later became a professor of English literature, harbored resentment toward his father, a university president, during his childhood and had no interest in the humanities. However, unable to defy his father’s wishes, he eventually enrolled in university, where he spent his days neglecting his studies and immersing himself in romantic relationships amid the atmosphere of Berlin. Then, through a chance conversation with his father, he shook off his negative image of him and went on to study at a university in a small town.
On the day he enrolled at the new university, Roland attended a professor’s lecture and was intensely captivated.
The professor’s lecture explained a literary world imbued with human emotions such as “ecstasy,” “longing,” and “passionate excess,” and his tone and demeanor were filled with overwhelming passion. The professor emphasized the importance of the concepts of “passion” and “exaltation” to his students, arguing that all spirit, thought, and the vitality of great figures stem directly from passion.
Moved by the professor’s passionate lecture, Roland becomes so engrossed that he feels as if he were under a spell, waiting for the lectures to continue nonstop to the point where he can barely sleep. He interprets this feeling as the passion of youth or respect for his mentor and immerses himself in his studies. As he becomes deeply absorbed in his studies, even the professor’s physical contact is not immediately interpreted by Roland as having sexual connotations.
Toward the end of the novel, Roland recognizes his mentor’s presence as a decisive turning point in his life. He confesses that before meeting his mentor, he had a father and mother, and after meeting him, he gained a wife and children, yet he felt no gratitude toward anyone and could no longer love anyone. This statement maximizes the absolute position the mentor occupies in Roland’s identity and emotional world.
Roland’s Emotional Turmoil
The “emotional turmoil” implied by the title refers to the emotional upheaval experienced by the protagonist, Roland, though it is not the sole or absolute theme of the work. Nevertheless, Roland experiences emotional turmoil on multiple occasions, both before and after learning his mentor’s secret. Deeply moved by his mentor, he wants to help him, yet he constantly experiences emotional turmoil due to the mentor’s sudden and unpredictable behavior.
At times, the mentor displays deep intimacy, seemingly dispelling any awkwardness, only to confuse Roland the next moment with gestures that seem to sever a relationship he felt was very close. These erratic behaviors gradually poison Roland’s emotions, and though he struggles to calm himself, he feels it is all in vain. As the cycle of growing close and drifting apart repeats day after day, Roland is swept into a severe emotional maelstrom, oscillating between excitement and numbness.
On the night the book he was working on with his mentor was completed, the mentor visits Roland’s home and bewilders him with strange behavior and speech. He suddenly approaches with a wicked, lecherous laugh, his face stiff as if wearing a strange mask; at times he gently places a hand on Roland’s shoulder, only to immediately force distance with his words. All the while, the professor emphasized the distance between teacher and student, repeating that people must maintain their distance. These contradictory actions and words left Roland with even deeper inner turmoil.
And he looked at me with such hatred, as if he were about to slap me, gazing at me maliciously like a wounded man. He was unconsciously clutching my hand. I staggered backward. Was he crazy? Was he drunk? He stood there with his fist clenched, as if he were about to lunge at me and strike my face.
One day, when the professor left on a trip without even telling him, Roland, confused and feeling betrayed, commits adultery with the professor’s wife, who felt unloved by him. Even then, Roland experiences emotional turmoil once again.
Roland longed to accept, as if intoxicated, her angry confession that he was guilty toward him, her, and everyone else, and that he had ignored her. This was similar to my own rejected feelings. That is how it happened. The two of us thought of what we had done—driven by a shared, confused hatred toward him—as though we had done it out of love. And finally, after learning the professor’s secret, when he gave Roland a farewell kiss, he once again experienced emotional turmoil.
As the title of the work is ‘Emotional Turmoil’, the issue of homosexuality is revealed only through hints until the middle of the story and is expressed in a subdued manner. The descriptions of the professor’s wife as having a “boyish” appearance and a “boy’s face” hint at homosexuality, and the professor himself displays a dual appearance, featuring somewhat “feminine” elements like a “round chin” alongside a “masculine” forehead and “fingers that were slightly slender, soft, and delicate for a man’s hands.”
Amid his respect and passion for his mentor, Roland perceives the mentor’s homosexual elements as follows. It was clear that he frequently sensed, through my gaze and my nervous hand movements, that my appearance was moving him; he seemed to recognize, albeit uncertainly, a plea for belief in the shape of my mouth, or a secret passion within my attitude toward him—a desire to take his suffering into my own heart. He would often abruptly interrupt our conversation and look at me as if moved; such gazes were surprisingly warm yet ambiguous. Then he would frequently take my hand, holding it for a long time despite his nervousness.
Roland is described as a “tall, slender, and strikingly handsome student,” while the professor is portrayed as “a man of exceptionally high intellect who, by nature and as naturally as breathing, required the beauty of form.” If, from a Platonic perspective, a worthwhile life is viewed as “a life of contemplating beauty,” then Roland’s appearance is visually observable Eros to the professor, and at the same time, his physical charm arouses libidinal impulses in his mentor.
Yet there was no one to respond to this tormented and anxious heart with the grace of a pure friend or a noble person. The professor had to divide his emotions between the upper and lower worlds: in the upper world was his young colleague at the university with whom he shared a spiritual connection, and in the lower world was the companion he had come to know in the darkness. Yet, come morning, he yearned for the exchange with the companion who had brought him to his senses with even greater shudders.
In Plato’s ‘Symposium’, Socrates emphasizes the importance of spiritual Eros over physical Eros. Based on spiritual eros, the “boy who accepts his suitor” helps him progress in wisdom and other virtues, and the boy, in turn, must possess the aspiration to become wise through instruction. From this perspective, the relationship between the professor, who nurtures his beloved student, and Roland, who grows through guidance, can be interpreted as a positive example of Platonic eros.
Plato also states that Eros is associated with self-restraint, and that self-restraint is the mastery of pleasure and desire. His argument is that since pleasure is weaker than Eros, it comes under the control of Eros; thus, Eros exercises exceptional self-restraint by governing pleasure.
Roland explains the professor’s self-restraint as a rational attitude demonstrated by the professor himself. The professor distances himself from the sexual impulses and temptations he feels and strives to maintain his reason. On the night he finishes his manuscript, the professor visits Roland and exclaims, “That… is not appropriate between a student and a teacher… Do you understand? People must maintain a distance… distance… distance,” emphasizing the need for distance.
Furthermore, the professor strives not to cross moral boundaries. At the end of the work, the professor confesses his most intimate feelings and gives Roland a farewell kiss. He “pressed him as if in longing,” and the kiss was “passionate and desperate, like a death rattle,” revealing his sexual desire and anguish. The author portrays the professor’s homosexual inclinations and the suffering they cause through the works seen in Roland and the professor’s workspace—contrasts such as the image of Ganymede being enjoyed and the tragic beauty of Saint Sebastian.
The professor’s wife also appears without a name, but her role in the work is clear. As a victim of her husband’s homosexual tendencies, she represents the social view that sees homosexuality as a pathological condition, stating, “He is not a man worthy of such things.” At the same time, she is the one who invites Roland—who works tirelessly in his dark study—to the lake on a sunny day, bringing him back to everyday life and reality.
Roland takes the tram to the lake with the professor’s wife, where they eat, chat, and laugh, briefly rediscovering the joys of life. Amid the childlike excitement of the gathering, he escapes his uncertain thoughts, races against a young maiden, feels his muscles again, and experiences a sense of returning to his former carefree youth.
Several scenes in the work are linked to the author’s biographical experiences. The world of homosexuals that the professor encounters on the outskirts of the big city is based on Zweig’s own experiences while briefly studying at the University of Berlin in 1902. In his memoirs, Zweig confesses that he sat at the same table with heavily intoxicated drinkers, morphine addicts, and homosexuals, and that a special love or curiosity for the dangerous people he met there stayed with him for the rest of his life.
These experiences in Berlin evolve into the professor’s confessions in the novel regarding his escapades in the big city and the people and events he encountered.
‘Confusion of Feelings’ was adapted into a film in 1981 as a German-French co-production, with a runtime of approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes. The director was Etienne Périer (1931–2020), a Belgian.
