The Jib Door

Author	Marlen Haushofer
Original title	Die Tapetentür
Translator	Jerome Carlton Samuelson
Language	German
Publisher	Paul Zsolnay Verlag, Ariadne Press
Publication date	1957
Published in English	1998
Media type	Print
Pages	140
ISBN	9781572410602
LC Class	PT2617.A425 T313 1998
Website	The Jib Door at Ariadne Press

Die Tapetentür (literally "The Wallpaper Door", but translated as The Jib Door, 1957) is a novel by Austrian author Marlen Haushofer. It depicts the failing relationship between the introverted, sensitive protagonist, Annette, and her professionally successful, extroverted, unfaithful husband Gregory. The novel offers an early example of Haushofer’s exploration of the themes of individual loneliness and alienation, as well as the longing to break free from social conventions.

The novel alternates between the first- and third-person narrative voice; in the former instance, as entries from Annette's journal.

Die Tapetentür was translated into English by Jerome Carlton Samuelson for Ariadne Press in 1998.

Plot summary

Annette is a librarian who was widowed at a young age after a brief marriage, lives alone, and values her privacy. Her past sexual relationships with men have made little emotional impact on her, and she therefore views the departure of her current boyfriend, Alexander, for Paris—where he plans to stay for a year and a half—with nothing but relief.

Annette’s father left the family when she was still a child and has made no effort to contact her. When he dies, Annette meets the lawyer Gregory Xanther at the reading of the will; his personality—completely opposite to her own—both attracts and unsettles her. Despite dark premonitions and a lack of trust in his ability to remain faithful, she enters into a relationship with him, becomes pregnant, and accepts his marriage proposal. This first profound romantic experience rouses her from her previous lethargy and gives her a sense of security, but at the same time it forces her into a state of constant pretense, since the superficial Gregory shows little interest in her inner life, leading Annette to conclude that she cannot fully express any negative emotions—such as fear or anger—to him.

At Gregory’s request, Annette gives up her career to focus entirely on her new role as a housewife and mother. During her pregnancy, Gregory’s evening appointments—supposedly for work—become more frequent. Annette suspects he is having an affair and begins to suffer from insomnia. Her health deteriorates day by day. Complications arise during childbirth. Annette loses the baby and suffers a nervous breakdown. Not wanting to be a burden to Gregory, she leaves him.

Themes and motifs

Invisible Walls

Invisible walls are a recurring motif in Haushofer’s work. They symbolize various forms of separation—between men and women, the individual and the world, childhood and adulthood. Their emotional connotation is always ambivalent: the wall represents isolation, but also a space of freedom, serving both as exclusion and as protection. The wall with the eponymous wallpapered door is perceived as such only by the protagonist. She senses an insurmountable barrier between herself and those around her. Even her relationship with her future husband does nothing to change this—the protagonist sees it as doomed to failure from the outset. However, her realization of her situation leads to no action and no change.

Reading

Annette's reading—primarily Kant and Schopenhauer—is regularly reflected in her musings, for example, when she contemplates the horrors of National Socialism or the legitimacy of having children. Schopenhauer, in particular, proves to be a formative influence on Annette’s pessimistic worldview, according to which security can only be found in death. Annette shares all these reflections in her diary, but never with her husband, who has no interest in intellectual exchange. Gregory uses his intellect only for pragmatic purposes; his conversations with Annette are banal and superficial.

Gender Roles

Annette finds it difficult to conform to the traditional division of gender roles, but accepts them as a fact of nature. Women are loving and self-sacrificing, while men are emotionally cold and self-centered. When Gregory lies to her, she sees no other choice but to come to terms with it. Her acceptance of gender stereotypes allows her to justify her husband’s transgressions and maintain her love for him.

The dynamics of the Goldener couple, who are friends of the protagonists, mirror this situation with reversed gender roles. Here, an intelligent, tolerant man sacrifices himself for a superficial, spiteful woman. Annette sees Mr. Goldener’s love for his wife as his only vice; she cannot understand it and is therefore unable to draw an analogy to her own situation. Otherwise, she would no longer be able to excuse Gregory’s behavior and would have to admit to herself that all his faults are due to his character and not to his nature as a man.

Reception

In the German-speaking world

Male critics of the 1950s and 1960s were largely unimpressed by the novel. They viewed Annette as an oversensitive woman and Gregory as a man with a poorly defined character. An examination of the novel’s early reception reveals a moralizing and pathologizing tendency in the reviews, which can be found even among sympathetic critics. The protagonist of Die Tapetentür is interpreted here as a neurasthenic incapable of coping with life; her suffering at the hands of society is attributed to her hypersensitivity and thus portrayed as a purely private problem. The main character—and often even the author herself—is psychologized; the socially critical element is ignored.

The work received belated recognition in the wake of a feminist reception, which places greater emphasis on Haushofer’s at times radical questioning of the patriarchal system and her approaches critical of rationality.

References

🇩🇪 Content translated from the existing German Wikipedia article Die Tapetentür; see its history for attribution.