The principle of ambivalence that, according to Goethe, expresses the essence of the demonic, controls the elemental dimension in "Wahlverwandtschaften". Man ought to face the physiological unpredictability of the elements that interests the totality of the natural forces by opposing it with a pragmatic conduct based on prudence and discretion, so as to absorb the ambivalence within a balanced design of humanity. While in "Wahlverwandtschaften" the characters reveal their incapability to dominate the ambiguity implied in the language of love (that dooms them to perish from the pervasiveness of the elements), in the short novel 'Der Mann von fünfzig Jahren' the elemental constitutes precisely the necessary context for the accomplishment of their relationship.
