Chess from Wuthenow

When the mother learns that Vioctoire is expecting a child, all her efforts are directed toward legitimizing the relationship. Chess, a man of honor and duty, in his vanity shrinks from marrying the "beauty who has passed through a purgatory." The end comes quickly. After the marriage, ordered by the king himself, Chess leaves his wife once again with the words "Until tomorrow. But there is no tomorrow for him. He shoots himself before he has reached his apartment. The immediate alternation of happiness and despair, inner peace and outer destruction creates a drama of oppressive relentlessness.