In his literary work, Janko Leskovar was preoccupied with psychological analysis of characters who are uninterested or unable to fight for life. His Pavao Petrović from Propali dvori and Marcel Bušinski from Sjene ljubavi are modern, decadent intellectuals who are prone to self-analysis. They are passive and have no power for anything. They are burdened by the past, and the present only distract them and in the end there is no realization of love. In the novels, the work does not run chronologically, but interrupts the descriptions of landscapes that appear in the function of shaping the character, as it is also present in Nehajev's novel Bijeg, which proves how authors excellent impressionists are. Bijeg is characterized by pronounced defabularization and there are internal and external monologue and form of diary. Nehajev's Đuro Andrijašević abandoned the schooling and eventually the fiancee. He was broken by a provincialism surrounding, and the view of this provincialism surrounding is just a framework for his psychological analysis. In the end he left himself out of the alcohol and the exit found in the depths of the sea. Although decadent intellectuals have all the predispositions for success in life, they have no power for that last step because of their own indecision and the inability of that psychic burden and they end up either with no strength to struggle or tragic.