Mann says of Amra that she is not “sensitive enough to betray herself because of a guilty conscience.” The disillusionment, in fact, has little to do with the beloved. Such is the case, for example, with Amra in “Luischen” (“Little Lizzy”), who obliviously orchestrates her husband’s destruction and stares vacantly at him while he dies of grief over her mistreatment of him. Simultaneously, the disillusioned romantic usually comes face to face with his own superfluity, as does Mann’s dilettante, in the story “Der Bajazzo” (“The Dilettante”), when he recognizes himself as “a perfectly useless human being.” Though the sense of superfluity is quite often triggered by unrequited love, the object of the love, the beloved, is treated only superficially.
To avoid the pain and disappointment of love, these protagonists retreat to art and nature, but in midlife, usually when they reach thirty years of age, they are suddenly overwhelmed by passion, usually for an unworthy and superficial beloved. They are often burghers turned artist, often physically deformed, further isolating them from life around them and traditional courtship. The protagonists are artists, disillusioned romantics with an ironic view of the cost of their art, which is an isolation from others. Thomas Mann’s (6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) early stories are set in late nineteenth century and early twentieth century Europe, primarily in Germany and Italy.
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