Fasching

Fasching, a Novelle by G. Hauptmann, written and published in 1887. The story centres on the sailmaker Kielblock, who is so happily married to a young and robust wife that his inexhaustible gaiety becomes the envy of others. When he spends too much money he consoles himself with the thought of savings which his old mother accumulates in a green box, which one day will belong to him. At the annual village ‘Fasching’ he earns great admiration as a merry-maker by wearing a mask that makes him look like a dead man. But beneath his mask, his gaiety, and his greed, his soul is empty. The night after the ball he tries to cross the frozen lake at night, relying on the light of the moon and on his mother's lamp in his distant home. As both lights are extinguished, nature's forces direct him and his sledge, carrying his wife and child, towards the spot where the water is not frozen. The sledge vanishes with its occupants beneath the surface, and Kielblock experiences the true face of death before he sinks.