The novella Dream Story raised all kinds of interests. The reason is, that it can be seen from the psychoanalytic perspective as well from the socio-critical one. It's interesting for many researchers due to the fact that it can be connected and compared to Freud's theory of consciousness and unconsciousness, which is one of the topics in the novella. Yet Dream Story also brings up all kinds of taboos of the Austro-Hungarian society during the late 19th and early 20th century. Arthur Schnitzler was one of the most important representatives of the Viennese Modern Age yet also an author who received strong criticism. His work, however, is not only interesting because of the connection to Sigmund Freud and the taboos such as the secret clubs, sexuality and prostitution which are shown in the novella, but it also shows the differences between men and women. It presents how people, in this case, the young married couple Albertine and Fridolin, need to follow rules of the society and act conventional in order to be accepted by others. For example the unwritten rules in relationships, like the suitable age of women to marry, how they should behave within marriage and how the love life between a husband and a wife should be. The aim of the thesis was to determine if criticism could also be directed towards the marriage at a young age, which was still common at the beginning of the 20th century and in some cases could led to the problems with which the young spouses are confronted in the novella. However, the research in the thesis showed that not the young age nor inexperience of Albertine led to their problems, but the rules of the society which made them push down their feelings and desires.
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