PETER BERGER
641
flux of objectivities . Modern subjectivity, as it were, eviscerates
itself.
This perception is sharply developed with two characters in the
novel, one insane to begin with, the other in the process of going in–
sane. The first character is Moosbrugger, a demented simpleton
who is on trial for the apparently senseless murder of a prostitute
and in whose fate Ulrich develops a passing interest . (It may be re–
marked that Musil's lengthy descriptions of Moosbrugger's percep–
tions of himself and of the world are masterpieces of clinical
imagination. Moosbrugger is a simple, friendly man, liked by every–
one (including his jailers), who suddenly erupts into homicidal frenzy .
Who is the true Moosbrugger and what motivates him? The lawyers
at his trial , the consulting psychiatrists, and Ulrich must all ask this
question. At his trial the court tries hard to understand him as an
acting person. The court has no other option, since it must deter–
mine whether, under the law, Moosbrugger can be held accountable
for his actions (it so happens that Ulrich's father wrote his
magnum
opus
on the concept of accountability in the legal thought of Pufen–
dorf). But these efforts at understanding Moosbrugger as an acting
person are in total contrast with Moosbrugger's self-experience, in
which everything, including his own actions, just happens to him
and in which he remains "eternally innocent." The main reason why
Ulrich is interested in this case is his strong suspicion that allegedly
normal people are really not very different from Moosbrugger in this
self-experience. Perhaps there is no "true" Moosbrugger- and no
"true" Ulrich either.
The other character is Clarisse, wife of an old friend of Ulrich's,
a brilliantly gifted musician, who is also strongly drawn to Moos–
brugger (she wants to liberate him from prison because she senses
that he is musical) and who eventually descends into madness her–
self. On one occasion Clarisse visits a mental hospital in which
Moosbrugger is being examined . The narrator observes that many
people are afraid of madness because it would mean losing them–
selves-madness , that is, reminds even normal people of the pre–
cariousness of what they cherish as their self. One of the patients
salutes Clarisse as the seventh son of the Emperor and stubbornly
refuses to accept her denial. In rising panic she discovers that she is
quite prepared to believe him, and she and her companions leave the
hospital without having seen Moosbrugger. The question here is a
variation of the earlier one: Who is the true Clarisse and why is she
going mad?
