Sleep Walking and Moon Walking: A Medico-Literary StudySadger, J.
Science
Sleep Walking and Moon Walking: A Medico-Literary Study
Sadger, J.
Psychoanalysis; Sleepwalking
"Das Sündkind" ("The Sin Child") by Anzengruber (in the first volume of
his "Dorfgänge") tells of an apparently non-sexually colored wandering
by moonlight. There a 45-year-old pitch worker, the mother of twelve
children, who had all died except the narrator, and for three years a
widow, had become pregnant with a "sin child" whose father no one would
acknowledge himself. She had always been a discreet woman, and was
almost equal to her son in her work, although he at thirty years old was
at the height of his manly strength. She had always been as exemplary in
love as in her work, a combination, as we know, not rare to find. Having
matured early she was with her first child at the age of fifteen and
when she was a widow "the people could not wonder enough how long it
would be before she showed her age." Not rarely "love" suddenly overcame
her and even toward her grown son she could occasionally make quite "God
forbidden" eyes. One might almost draw the conclusion from the following
circumstance that he also was more deeply dependent on the mother than
he might acknowledge to himself. Left alone with her during her
confinement, he was not able to look at her but drummed on the window
pane and became more and more confused although "God knows, there was no
call for it." Then he turned around with his face burning red and said,
"You ought to be ashamed, Mother, you ought to be ashamed!" Soon however
not only remorse seized him but he began to curse at the folk, who see
in the infant not his brother but only the "child of sin." "Do you think
for a moment that I would bear a grudge against the little innocent
worm? Curse you, anyone who would separate the children of one mother
from each other!" After he had lost the love of his youth in earlier
years, he had no more interest in women but dwelt with his mother alone
on the land which belonged to the family. Later Martin toiled early and
late for the illegitimate child Poldl, as if he were its true father,
for whom moreover he never might make inquiry.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account