Focus Spring 1994.tif


. A Jakobsonian Reading of the 
EsplStolary Strategies of Communication 

in Fontane's EjJi Briest 

Maria Losada 

I na 1979 interview John Banh explaining lb r . r h' , e process 0 cre-
ation 0 IS novel Letters, said: 

(AJ neader of [~e ni~eteenth<entury continental fiction is 
~ot. really. dealmg wnh Anna Karenina or Emma Bovary. 
e I~ deal~ng with a sentence on a page. When I was r~ 

~eadlng Rlc~ardson, Fielding, Smollet and the rest, I was 
.m
b 

pressed WIth that spooki ly ~modern" awareness they had 
t at each nO\'e1 "';IS a document Thev 'f 1 

b 
. . mam est y were 

aware t . at a novel wasll't life itself. It was an imitation 
convent. Ion for imitating life and, especial I), in tb-·.c " r... ,,,,",,ase,a 
convention lor mutatmg life's documents. (3) 

In this context of i.mitating "life's documents" we place Theodor 
Fontane, who for Ius novel Err, Bnest (1895) took d r rul'f d il' a OCumelll rom ;t I ~ e:: scan. al that 3I:pe.3J'ed ~n. the press, involving adultery and a 
r ~e T onn '.n 18~6. FIclIO~la"2.l!lg this real evem, he portrays lhe 
I . e a a P russl3n girl reOectmg all social conventions that reduced 
nlfleteen~-century .women's scope for freedom and self.expression 
~o an enc osed ,Publ:,c.realm. Among Fontane's Illany devices to CO/l-

b
ey the p~n:-lI[ of life," the use of the epistolarv technique within 

t e novel IS III m .. h" b . 
. ,y ~~I ? ~On, IS est contribution to the realist novel 

as It excels t.he pOSSIbil ItIes of a simple literary too/. 
L~tters III E/fz Bnest form a motif that recurs in one way or an­

other IIlt.wenty-f,ve of .the thirty-six chapters of the novel. However 
the mention of letters In Effi Briese has tradjtional/y be "d' 
_~f . n __ 

v am? us appea~nc~ III chapter twenty-six of"ein kleines Kon. 
olut von Bf1e~;I1 ... mit el~lem rotell Seiclenfaden umwicke!t" (505). 

Innstellen, Effl s husband, flllds by accident this written proof of the 
adulterous relation that Effi and Major Crampas had six years before. 

FOCU$otJ Litn'dlllrVol. I, No. I (1994) 

Epistolary Strategies 01 Commurucation 10 1:.)/1 I1rzeJl :)/ 

Stanley Radcliffe ill his chapter "Effi Briesl and the Crampas Let­
ters" considers th is the most important turning po int in the novel 
that re-evaluates all characters' attitudes and precipitates the end o f 
the Story. And th us it happens: IJUlSleuen challenges Crampas to a 
duel and kills him. EHi, outcast and aba ndoned by everyone, goes to 
Berlin, until her parents decide to forgive her and let her return home 
where, sick with disease and loneliness, she dies. Although there is no 
question that those letters have a relevant and strategic narrative func­
tion with in the novel, the use of the epistolary genre cannot simply 
be evaluated by that punctual event or its implications. In my opin­
ion, Effi's correspondence stands alit with more significance than the 
rest or the letters in the novel; her letters withstand independently as 
a crucial self-contained entity to the extent that it is possible to follow 
the main confl ict with Effi's letters as a guideline to the story. My 
study observes her letters as an example of a complex linguist ic pro­
cess that reflects in its form and content Effi's physical and spiritual 
downfall; it proves that the communicative process she attempts to 
establish with the exterior public world progressively shatters, the 
linguistic ractors of the process being clear indicators of her loss of 
speech. 

The letters provide a linear sequence that reorders the reconstruc­
tion of reality, re-evaluating incidents or telling facts unknown to the 
reader. They trace Effi's growth from the energet ic adolescent who 
happ ily exercises at the beginning of the novel to the woman who 
dies at the end of the boo k, an outcast from all social contact and self­
aware of her change. Letters become direct evidence of her enclosure 
withi n a rigid society where all of Effi's movements depend upon her 
husband. The only two actiyities that her husband cannot control are 
EHi's attempts to creatc an alternative life as a rejection of her social 
enclosure-in the fonn of the Crampas affair-and the outburst of 
self-expression in the letters she writes. The letters become her source 
of self-expression: a movement of freedom from the inside to the Out­

side in the attempt to manifest her private self in the public realm. 
However, this communicative process-her mother being the main 

receiver of the letters-progressIvely weakens and stumbles along the 
novel to the extent that, ultimately, the communicative elements are 
destroyed along with EHi's voice. The changes t.hat occur in her life­
her arrival at Ke~sin, her isolation in a big house, her exposure to the 



roms on LlCeralUr 

go~ .. ip and superficial society-are given visible and tcxtual form in 
the changes that similarly aHe1:t the linguistic elements of the letters, 
as I try to prove in my analysi'i. 

Roman Jakobson in FUlIdnmenlttls o[LAngulfge analyzes some laws 
~at comrol .the science of language through the study of language 
disturbance, U1 tbe form of aphasia. -To stud r adequately any break­
down i.o communications," he says, "we must understand the Il:ltm·e 
and struCture of the particular mode of communicuion that has ceased 
to function" (55). The structure of the particular mode of communi­
calion that concerns us-the letters-is supported by the six elements 
that Jakobsen uses to define any verbal act of communitauon, de­
scribed in the following pattern: the addresser sends a mes(age to the 
addressee;. tillS message requires a COntext comprehended by the ad­
dressee, ellh rr verbal or capable of being verbalized; addresser and 
addressee need to fully or partially share the code, and use a physical 
?r psycho l o.gic~ cOlllactthat enables both of them to enter and stay 
In commUnication. 

In the letters Erfi writes to her mother or receives from other 
characters at the beginning of the novel, these constiltlti ve elements 
are in place and produce a dynalll.ic process of conununicatlon. Yet, a 
progressive transformation of the linguislic elements becomes the tex­
tualtestimony of the change that is taking place lit Effi's inner self. In 
his study, Jakobson concentrates on the consequences o f similarity 
and contiguity disorders to e\· ... luate the effects of what he calls -bn­
guage in dissolutiOIl" (56). T he study of EHi's letters con firms the 
presence of another "language in dissolution" that we could label "wnl­
~ng in dissolution." The role of Effi as encoder, addresser, and writer 
IS affected by external circumstances, that precipitate the downfall of 
the whole communicative process. EHi's final lelters represent-using 
Jakobson's words-"the lOlaJ loss of the power to use or apprehend 
speech ~ (74) .. But whe~eas Jak?bson is studying a physically and psy­
chologically IIIherent IIlcapaclty of the decoder and codifier that he 
~1I.s np/:uma Imiwrsa/u, I will analyze how the impossibility of com­
mUll.icali.on through EHi's leaers responds more to the pressure of 
outsIde circumstances than to an i.oherent deficiency. Thus, Jakobson's 
pattern of linguistic similarity and cOlltiguity disordertak('s place at a 
metaphorical level in Effi's failed attempt to communicate. Once more 
linguistic and poetic paradigms prove to be deeply entwined. ' 

At the beginning of the novel, E£fi is an :addresser with the re-

Epistolary Strategies of Communication in £JJi Briese ]9 

quired qualifications. Her acti ve and open deSIre for commulllcatioll 
is revealed in the details and comments of the reie,'anl group of leners 
in chapter six. EHi recounts to her parents the first e~el1ls that take 
place duriJlg her honeymoon. The first bit of news arnves only three 
days aher the wedding, indicating E£fi's need to share ber overwhelm­
ing impressions. On a linguistic level,. all fa~tors are present for the 
success of communication: the message IS received, the addresserlwnler 
expresses her stale of mind referring to a third element; the encoder 
wants to i.nfluence the decoder, and there IS comment on the meanlllg 
of what is being said. The sincere letter shows Effi's mixed fee1l1lgs of 
rear and adnur.l.tion towards Innstelten as she is already aware of IllS 

superiority: "Er iSl iiberhaupt sehr aufmerk~am: Freilich ichm~fi es 
atlch ~elll, namentlich wenn er was sagt oder erklart. Er weJflllbngen~ 
alles so gut, daB er nicht einmal nachzuschlagen brauclll'"' (~24). 

Up to this point, her mother-receiver of the letters-Is III good 
standing as a competent decoder. The "speec.b. evem" descnbed by 
Jakobson is only efficient as long as both partiCIpants share the sam.e 
code. In this case the letters, the "written e,·ent," pro,-e their effi­
ciency: Effi's mother IS nOl only able.tO decode .tl~e essenttallnforma­
tion of the letter-a list of the tounst spots \'Islted by the. mamed 
couple-but she also can detect her daughter's lack of happmess and 
freedom. Her comments, once the letter has been read, represent the 
correct response to what Effi has expressed. With these qualifications 
Effi's mother has avoided the recepti,·e aphasia studied by Jakobson 
as "similarity disorder" which causes incommunication as the ~tu~y 
of Goldstein's patients proved when they "grasped the words III II.t­
er.l.l meaning but could not be brought to unde.rst~nd t?~ metapbonc 
charncter of the same word" (69). Frau von Bnest s ablhty to decode 
EHi's letter on twO levels :assureS the success of the communication. 
In this sense, it is easy to understand how Effi's use of lette~ becomes 
a need when she arrives in Kessin, as the placr provokes III her sad 
feel ings of dullness and displacement, recalling in a way a ~imi~ar silll­
ation in other realist protagonists, such as Emma al Yon ville-l Abbay 
in Madame Bavnry or Ana Ozores at Velusta in LA Regetlta. Like them, 
Ef£j needs an escape from her state of anxiety, an~ letters b~come a 
source of communication as well as a way to retalll memones from 
her childhood and past happiJless. 111 fact, not onl~ does she ~'rite 
letters but she re-reads them in a clear attempt to rediscover her Iden­
tity, o'net' she realizes thal in Kessin's milieu, her identity has been 



, I/\,IU UII LUtHUlfr 

reduced to her being the wife of the governor. The code used in the 
letters openly reveals this situation: letters by EHi's 1ll00her have a 
simple, familiar, and warm tone, whereas the invitation she receives 
from Gieshi.ibler to meet the singer Maria T ripell i, addressed in ex­
tremely formal terms, pbces EHi in a majestic and isolated context of 
dependence on her husband. 

I ler alienauon is ob\·ious in the next letter to her mother 
which appears in chapter tweh'e. This leuer can be considered th~ 
turmng pomt in E(fi's evohilion. II indicates the incipient difficulties 
that Effi is confronting in expressing herself, marked by the temporal 
distance of several weeks since she last wrote her mother (382)_ Nev­
ertheless, the mere act of recOIlStructing events is set aside in favor of 
an open dedaration of her sufferings. The length of the leuer-the 
longest in the book-indicates how Kessin's pressure is affect ing EHi. 
The context that surrounds the writing of the letter is highly indica­
tive: she writes it on New Year's Eve, before leaving for the Club 
Bdll. where, as the narrator of the story ironically poims Out, it was 
possible "endlich emma! die G:Ulze StadtOora beisammen zu sehen" 
(382). Her disenchantmem is ohvious; she writes: "iibtrhaupt, soviel 
Ursache ich habe, z.u danken und froh und gliicklich zu sein, ich kann 
ein Gefiihl des Alleinseins nicht ganz los werden" (382). The letter 
gives evidence of Innstettcn's innuence on her. I ler pregnancy, one 
of the ma in themes in the leller, is viewed as an escape from her dull 
life and as a reason for her inferiority towards her husband: 

Wie ghicklich ich sd~r im llinblick dar.loUf hin, brauche 
ich nicht enit zu "ersichern, schon weil ich dann leben und 
Zentreuung urn mich her h;lben lIo'erde oder, wie G«n 
sich ausdriickt, ein "Iieb~ Sptelzeug." Mil diesem Wone 
wird er wohl recht hOlben, alxr er sollte es lieber !licht ge­
brauchen. well es mir tOlmer einen kleinen Stich gibl und 
Illich daran erinnen, wie jung ich bin und daR ich noch 
halb in die KinderSlube gehore. Diese Vorstellung "erlallt 
mich nich, (G~n melllt, es sei krankhaft) und bringt es 
7_uWtge, d:a6 das, w:as mein hOchstes Gluck $ein sollte, doch 
fm noch mehreine bestaru:i1ge Verlegenheit fur mich ist. (383) 

The letter adopts the nature of almost a confession of her fears, 
together with a sense of clandestineness which, from the point of view 
of the communicative act, stili presents EHi's mother with the neces-

EpIstolary Strategies ot Communication in Effi Bnt!l 41 

suy requirements to represent an excellent recipient-confident. Effi is 
~ware of this as she says: "Aber das schreibe ich nur Oir. Innstetten 
darf nicht davon wissen" (383). In this, her first attempt to escape and 
rebel from the world in which she fee ls trapped, Erri indirectly and 
dr:un:uically is reaching out for a concrete way to escape, later incar­
nated in the numerous letters she writes home and in her meeting 
with Major von Crampas, whom she sees as a "Trost- und Rettungs­
b,;nge,' (388). 

EHi's attraction to Crampas is a result of his apparent detachment 
from the world in which she is trapped. Their affair, though not spe­
cifically described, ends by means of a letter. EHi, locked in her room, 
writes an unaddressed, clandestine and very significant leuer: 
"Vergessen Sie das Geschehene, vergessen Sie mich" (475). As a writer, 
she is also aware of her manipulation of the language, as she encodes 
this final message to Crampas With special criteria for the selecuon of 
words that pf'rfectly filS her purpose. This awareness of the choice of 
elements witiun the communicative act is even recorded by the narr.­
tor: "Sie uberOog die Zeilen mxh emmal, am fremdesten war ihr das 
'Sie'; abe:r auch das muBte sein; es sollte ausdriicken, daB keine Smcke 
mehr da sei" (475). 

With this letter, Erri crosses the point of "no return" and no longer 
can be the same. In Berlin, Effi sees her mother, but ironically, the 
direct contact that had been maintained through distant letters bas 
suddenl y disappeared now tim they are together. Frau Briesl i ~ tlll­

aware of the recent changes that ha\'e taken place in Effi, and does not 
realize the tang. hie di~t:lI1ce between them. as pro"en by their dia­
logues: '''EHi, du blst so stiirmisch. Ganz die ahe.' 'Ach nein, Mama. 
Nicht die alte. Ich woilte, es lIo'are so. Man andert sich In der Ehe'" 
(478). Effi's mother, thus, has suddenly been deprind of the skins to 
be the decoder that Effi needs. And so, this lack of a real recipient to 
whom she may send her ieaers isolates her more In Berlin than her 
staying in Kessin had done. 

Alone again in Berlin with Innsteueu, EHi creates a world for 
herself Without connection to the outside. She does not feel the pres­
sure of Kessin an)'more, but neither does she experience any sense of 
freedom. Her voice III the letters is less and less audible as the narrator's 
voice takes control, interpreting her situation: "In jeglichem, was sic 
tat, lag et was Wehllliitiges, wie eine Abbitte, und es haue sic glucklich 
gemachl, dies al les noch deutlicher 7eigen zu konnen. Aber das verbol 



42 Foms on LiteralUr 

sich freilich" (493). 
EHi is.3 \iClim no, ... , 111 a metaphorical sense, of what Jakobson 

deno minates Ucontiguity diso rder," a type of encoding aphasia that 
leads to the degenCr2lion of communication . Caused by the inability 
o f individuals to combine si mpler emities into more complex un its, 
the "cont iguity disorder," Jakobson explai ns, di minishes t he extent 
and variet)' of scntences (agrammatism), gi\'es rise to "telegraphical 
style" and produces the deficiency to propositionalize. T his disorder 
o n a linguISt ic level finds its parallel in EHi's loss of words, in the 
impossibility to combine will ingly her fca l feelings into a special code 
to ex press her'Jel f III the ou tside world: EHi 's inner self has co ll apsed 
and Wilh n . her ab lh ty to co mmu ni cate th rough letters; her r~a l 
thought~ will hardly be expressed anymore. In fact, her last letters 
from Ems--gluc kliche, hei n.the iibermuti ge Briefe" (5 1 I)-seal her 
possibil ity of o~nness In ch:lpter t wenty.~ i x. 

Fro m this POUlt on, there are no more letters in th e book wl·ilten 
by Effi. A message is frui tless, Jakobson points out, if regardless of the 
temporal or spat ial distance the symbols are not shared. In Effi's situ­
ation , there is no possi bil ity o f shari ng signs, so the acti on takes a 
r.tpid and radlcal lUm: letters by other characters take com rol of th e 
incidents, prese ntin g lile hypocritical allilUde of the soc iety facing 
Effi's affair. The cont rast between presence and absence of voice at 
the end o f tit t no\'el reaches Its peak with the combinat io n of Effi 's 
silent death at home within the rise of multiple voices from other 
characters. 

The letters, thus, are the pe rfect device to indicate the mO\'ement 
from a voiced to a voiceless character that progressively takes shape 
thro ughout the novel. EidH~ r by eradicati ng the decoder's capacities 
or by having the encoder's abilities shattered, th~ ve rbalizalion o f 
ideas disappears and the communicative process disintegrates . O nce 
Effi loses the one lOol she has for self-affi rmation- Ieu ers as a poss i­
bility to cOl11municate--defense is impossible and at that po int , like 
so man y other heroUles o f the nineteenth-cenlU ry novel , she dies. 

Nevertheless, Effi d~s nOl have lhe traits of a subversi\'~ voice. 
In fact, E£fi only presents facts, but d~s not rebel against them. She 
surrenders to the situation as she bows to th~ "established system ," 
proclaimmg before dymg that h~r husband "in aHem recht gehandelL 
In der Geschichte mit dem an nen Crampas-ja, was SOUL e r am Ende 

Epistolary Strategies of Communication in £jJi BTlest 41 

an ders tun ?" (58 1). The story closes then, adopting dIe comfonahle 
position that Effi 's fa ther has recurrently used to close any argumem 
th rough the novel with his famous sent ence: "das ist ein zu weites 
Feld" (583). So, although Effi's exam ple IS reduced to ponraying the 
anxious desire of self-express ion within a hermetic environment, her 
expressive and complex leiters point her out as one of the Innovators 
in the search of the female vOice wlthLo the epistolary genre, eie"'atlll g 
the "written event" IntO an acti"e and expressi\'e act of dynamJc com­

munication. 

UnIversity 0/ North Carolma at OJapel Hili 

WORKS CITED 

Barth, John. -An Intef\·ie,,· wllhJohn Barth." By Charlie Reilly. Con tempo· 
ral')' L,teratllre 22 (1981): 1·23. 

Fontane. Theodore. Gesamm~itt \Ferke. Ed. Kurt Schreinen. Vol. 2. Giiters­
loh: Sigben Mohn, 1960. 

Jakobson . Roman, and Morris Halle. Fllndamerll.1is o/Lmguage. Gr.avenhage: 
Mouton, 19S6. 

Radcliffe, Stanley. Fontane. Effi BrIm. London: Grant & Cuder, 1986.