The play depicts with unprecendented candour the moral corruption and cycnicism of a group of medical students. For these young people, youth itself is a fatal disease and the idea of death by suicide is always present in their minds.
In Pains of Youth, the spirit of modern youth, disillusioned, tormented and perverse, finds an expression full of tense drama. Bruckner (born Theodor Tagger) revealed what is rotten in latest youth generations -contempt for life, inability to be happy, dissatisfaction, not without an approving accent. His pessimism is destructive and leaves a void that can only be borne by those who are in irremediable despair. We do not find in this play anything of the spontaneity of the salon irony full of useless and gratuitous stereotypes, but the pure despise for the contradictions of life. It is a bitter smile that cancels out any naive pleasure or spontaneous abandonment.
La juventud no puede ser nunca sana. La juventud es un terreno peligroso. La juventud es la proximidad latente de la muerte. La juventud es la única aventura de nuestra vida.
Nekādas vieglās pastaigas. Nekādas. Skaidri nojaušama ekspresionisma dvesma. Zinot, kad uzrakstīta luga - uzreiz pēc 1. Pasaules kara - tas nepārsteidz. Tam laikam - viennozīmīgi drosmīgi uzrakstīts materiāls par jauniem cilvēkiem, kuri netiek galā ar pieaugšanu.