Franz-Josef Murau is brilliant; intellectually gifted, artistic, and passionate about the classics, he is the heir to the fortunes of his wealthy and powerful family who are Austrian land-owners. He does not like his family and is angry that he is related to them, resenting their lack of intellectual creativity and finding it hard to believe that he is related to them at all. He shared these musings with his student, Gambetti, telling him that his family are spiritually, morally and intellectually bankrupt.
Murau lives in exile from his family in Rome, having promised himself that he will never return to the family estate, Wolfsegg. He lives as an Italian, about as differently from his family as he can, but when his parents pass away he is suddenly thrust back into his family again; he is now master of Wolfsegg, and can decide what happens to the family seat.
There is a precedent for a Murau to cut themselves off from the rest of the family; Franz-Josef’s Uncle George also exiled himself in a similar manner and as a result is the only member of his family Franz-Josef-Josef actually likes. Georg is good to him and helps him forge his new life in Italy.
Returning to Wolfsegg, Murau attends his parents’ funeral and then addresses the issue of the estate, which is his to do with as he wants. It is a place he hates but at the same time is a place of imposing beauty. It is also a place that he sees as a tool that has enabled his parents to portray themselves as something they are not. This is pretty ironic given that Murau has been doing this for years himself; by hiding himself in the world of art and also using a love of art to somehow prove that he is a morally and intellectually superior person to his parents, Murau has been just as guilty if deluding himself as they have.
Returning to his hated birthplace is extremely detrimental to Murau, but out of his hatred for the people his parents were comes something good; he donated Wolfsegg to the Jewish community in Vienna, hoping to make recompense for the actions of his family.
