Mademoiselle de Scuderi - Plot Analysis

Plot Analysis

For many reasons, Mademoiselle de Scudéri is considered one of Hoffmann's greatest novellas, not the least of which is its splendid and exciting plot. From the midnight knock on the door of the Mademoiselle's house at the beginning of the story until the final resolution of the crimes and the exoneration of Olivier, the reader is held in eerie suspense.

In his introduction to one of the earliest complete editions of Hoffmann's works, Ellinger (1925, 33-34) presents a cogent analysis of the plot of Mademoiselle de Scudéri:

" Wagenseil's report from the realm of the anecdotal. The unusual step taken by the lovers of Paris to appeal directly to the King for protection had to be motivated by an ominous supernatural force, i.e., something that lay completely outside the sphere of ordinary events. While Hoffmann was engaged in this train of thought, the personage of René Cardillac appeared to him. The powerful impression that this character creates can be attributed, in part, to qualities that reflect basic elements of the author's soul: firstly, Cardillac is the artist who can never satisfy himself; secondly, he is both guilty and innocent, his fate having been sealed even before he was born by the unholy demon that drives him from one crime to another.

"Equal to the powerful impression made by the character René Cardillac is that created by the compelling structure of Hoffmann's story. He has Cardillac appear only once in living form; most of the novella takes place after his death. The plot is carried forth by completely different characters, primarily the betrothed couple Olivier and Madelon. The reader's involvement turns around the question of whether Olivier will be successful in proving his innocence in Cardillac's murder. Even though the author uses his story-telling ability to awaken the reader's interest in these characters and that of Mademoiselle de Scudéri, which now stand in the forefront, the overall impression retained by the reader is determined for the most part by the shadow cast by the terrible personage and the cruel fate of René Cardillac. It is precisely before this dark background that the purely human, endearing qualities represented by Mademoiselle de Scudéri and the young couple are made to stand out."

Mademoiselle de Scudéri is less dreamlike and surreal in its construction than most of Hoffmann's other stories. The plot generally is carried forward by sharp, realistic descriptions of people and events rather than by the seemingly irrational occurrences generally associated with Hoffmann's writing in particular and Romanticism in general. Against this realism, however, the relationship between Olivier and Madelon seems stylized and idealistic. This aspect of the plot of the story is certainly its most romantic in the sense of the 19th-century literary movement. For Hoffmann (perhaps the arch romantic of German literature), it may have been impossible to write about love in any other way.