Jitta's Atonement
Jitta's Atonement is an adaptation by George Bernard Shaw of the play Frau Gitta's Sühne by Siegfried Trebitsch. It is about a woman who has to atone to her husband for having an affair with his best friend. The atonement of both Jitta and other characters take unexpected forms. Shaw dramatically rewrote the last part of the play, giving it a more characteristically Shavian tone.
Creation
The Austrian playwright Siegfried Trebitsch was Shaw's translator for German language productions of his works. Shaw believed that Trebitsch had helped to launch his career in Central Europe, which had provided Shaw with a solid income before he was successful in Britain. Shaw offered to translate his play Frau Gitta's Sühne, which was originally an Ibsenesque tragedy. Shaw made a number of significant changes, especially in the last act, which turned it into a tragi-comedy with a more positive ending. Shaw insisted that his changes "affect, not the story itself, but only the key in which it ends". Critic Bernard Dukore says that "The claim is disingenuous. Shaw's 'variations' pervade and alter the entire play."Characters
- Dr. Ernest Fessler
- Professor Alfred Lenkheim
- Mrs. Billiter
- Professor Bruno Haldenstedt
- Edith
- Jitta Lenkheim
- Agnes Haldenstedt
Plot
The main character Jitta Lenkheim is married to a university professor. She has been having an affair with Bruno, a psychologist who is friend and colleague of her husband. She has become alienated from her husband because he has abandoned his ideals to pursue his career. She meets her lover in a sleazy bordello, where he dies of a heart attack. She flees in embarrassment to avoid scandal. Before he died, Bruno, aware of his ill health, had asked her to have his unpublished book published under her husband's name. He hopes that by giving him his book he can atone for taking his wife.When the truth comes out everyone is affected. Bruno's wife and daughter are devastated. Jitta's husband, Alfred Lenkheim, is at first appalled by the idea that he should take someone else's research and publish it as his own, and remains angry about his wife's infidelity. However, he finally demonstrates that he epitomises the very noble ideals to which she aspires. He agrees to edit the book and to get it published, even though he is not convinced that it is as brilliant as its author thought. No longer the bombastic conformist he appeared to be, he accepts that he must do what is right to allow his wife and Bruno to atone for their betrayal. In the end he confesses that he too has had an affair — with a friend of Jitta's.