Literary Analysis: “The Compulsion to Be Profound”
Patrick Süskind’s 1986 short story “The Compulsion to Be Profound”
explores the potentially devastating consequences of criticism
delivered by an authority figure to a particularly impressionable
individual. The protagonist is a promising young artist who attaches
excessive importance to an art critic’s judgement and ultimately
brings about her own death. The text illustrates how criticism,
whether well-intentioned or malicious, can give rise to self-doubt,
profound despair and, ultimately, death.
At the beginning of the literary work, the protagonist, a young artist,
receives a critical assessment at her first exhibition from an art critic
who claims that her paintings are not sufficiently profound. For
several weeks, she dwells on the expert’s words, visits museums,
studies the works of other artists and reads books about art. None of
this helps, however, and her growing self-doubt leaves her unable to
summon the confidence to produce any further drawings. Her
misgivings cause her to rebuff both a prospective customer and a
man who might have become her future partner. Thereafter, she
deteriorates increasingly, both mentally and physically, and
eventually takes her own life. Only then does the critic who first
passed judgement on her recognise that the young woman’s
creations possessed depth after all.
The story’s central character is a young artist from Stuttgart who
draws beautifully (l. 1). The very fact that she has already been
granted her first exhibition suggests that she must be a talented
artist; moreover, she receives only a single criticism, namely that her
Patrick Süskind’s 1986 short story “The Compulsion to Be Profound”
explores the potentially devastating consequences of criticism
delivered by an authority figure to a particularly impressionable
individual. The protagonist is a promising young artist who attaches
excessive importance to an art critic’s judgement and ultimately
brings about her own death. The text illustrates how criticism,
whether well-intentioned or malicious, can give rise to self-doubt,
profound despair and, ultimately, death.
At the beginning of the literary work, the protagonist, a young artist,
receives a critical assessment at her first exhibition from an art critic
who claims that her paintings are not sufficiently profound. For
several weeks, she dwells on the expert’s words, visits museums,
studies the works of other artists and reads books about art. None of
this helps, however, and her growing self-doubt leaves her unable to
summon the confidence to produce any further drawings. Her
misgivings cause her to rebuff both a prospective customer and a
man who might have become her future partner. Thereafter, she
deteriorates increasingly, both mentally and physically, and
eventually takes her own life. Only then does the critic who first
passed judgement on her recognise that the young woman’s
creations possessed depth after all.
The story’s central character is a young artist from Stuttgart who
draws beautifully (l. 1). The very fact that she has already been
granted her first exhibition suggests that she must be a talented
artist; moreover, she receives only a single criticism, namely that her
