SOURCE: "Tonio Krdger, Death in Venice," in The German Tradition in Literature, 1871-1945, Cambridge at the University Press, 1965, pp. 137-45.

Gray is an English educator and critic specializing in German literature. In the following excerpt, he maintains that Tonio Kröger dramatizes the artist's attempts to reconcile himself with society.

The structure of Tonio Kröger divides cleanly into three movements, the argument proceeding almost as though it were a syllogism. First, Tonio's childhood isolation and yearning for acceptance by the 'Burger' is shown; then, as a young writer, he is seen discussing in Munich with his friend Lisaveta Ivanovna the relationships of the artist with society; lastly, he returns north to his home and makes the journey to Elsinore, where his reconciliation is realized. In the course of all this, a good deal of entertainment is provided: the teenagers' dancing-class, the orangehaired American boys who drink hot...