SOURCE: "Motivating Silence: The Recreation of the 'Eternal Feminine' in Robert Musil's Tonka" in Monatshefte, Vol. 79, No. 2, Summer, 1987, pp. 161-71.

In the following excerpt, Kontje analyzes the elements of power and domination in the relationship between the unnamed narrator and the eponymous character in Musil's Tonka.

Robert Musil's Tonka is a blatantly mysterious story. Like Joseph in the Gospel according to Matthew, or like the Marquise von O . . . in Kleist's novella, the unnamed male protagonist of Musil's work is confronted with an enigmatic pregnancy. Midway through the tale we learn that Tonka has become pregnant at a time when her lover was out of town. Tonka nevertheless insists until her death that she has not been unfaithful. In all probability she is lying, either consciously or unconsciously, but it is at least conceivable that a modern miracle has occurred. Whatever the correct explanation of Tonka's pregnancy may be...