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Chapter 6: Vienna, 1975
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Maestro, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Music and Mastery
Mentorship and Learning
The Impact of World War II
Coming of Age and Sexuality
Guilt and Redemption
Summary
Analysis
In late 1977, Paul receives a letter from a hospice nurse at Darwin Hospital, informing him of Keller’s deteriorating health and asking for information about his next of kin. Paul, who has corresponded with Keller intermittently since his return from Europe, is shocked to hear of his illness, as Keller had never mentioned it in his letters. Deciding to fly to Darwin, Paul feels compelled to return not only because of the letter but also because of a growing nostalgia for his years in the North. Upon arriving, Paul finds Keller in a hospital ward, frail and almost unrecognizable, sharing a room with other dying men.
Keller’s deteriorating health gives Paul one final chance to reconnect with his mentor and seek the closure he is looking for. Keller’s frail condition represents the end of an era for Paul, as the once-strong and enigmatic mentor has been reduced to a shadow of his former self. Still, Paul’s decision to visit Keller despite their infrequent correspondence reveals the deep emotional bond that persists between them.
Active
Themes
Paul visits Keller every day for a week, sitting by his side, trying to comfort him, but Keller is often unresponsive or too sedated to engage in conversation. Paul reads to him from newspapers and books of German poetry, though he questions whether Keller would have appreciated the sentiment in his full consciousness. As he watches Keller decline, Paul reflects on the man’s mysterious life, his wisdom, and the fate of the precious scrapbooks Keller had once treasured. The sense of helplessness intensifies, with Paul struggling to know how to grieve properly or what to do. On the sixth day, Paul wakes up to a call informing him that Keller has passed away. When Paul arrives at the hospital, he finds Keller’s body unchanged, but he knows something vital has finally left.
The act of reading to Keller is Paul’s attempt to satisfy Keller’s intellectual and artistic interests, though Paul doubts whether this gesture truly connects with Keller in his sedated state. The recurring image of Keller’s scrapbooks, filled with stories of human cruelty and folly, remains an ambivalent symbol, as it is unclear whether these morbid stories ever helped Keller make sense of his past or prepare him for the future. As Paul watches Keller decline, he confronts the limits of his ability to help, mirroring his earlier frustrations with his own musical limitations.
Active
Themes
In the aftermath of Keller’s death, Paul makes futile attempts to inform others of the loss. He tries to contact friends and local papers, but his efforts to spread the news about the passing of a “Great Man” feel pointless. He spends the day wandering the rebuilt streets of Darwin, confronting the changes in the town and in himself. He realizes that Keller had been a figure who represented both the unattainable perfection of music and the painful knowledge that Paul could never fully reach it. Now that Keller is gone, Paul faces his own limitations, trapped in a life he no longer loves, though he still thinks fondly of the time he spent with Keller. As Paul reflects on the past, he mourns not only Keller but also the lost possibilities of his own life, sensing that certain decisions, once made, cannot be undone.
