Antionette's Default

In this semester, we have encountered various characters who were living by default - not doing anything productive, simply living because that was the state they were in. Many of these characters either grow out of this state or wither into it. Both Meursault and Milkman would be classic examples of switching off autopilot setting and switching on manual.

Meursault has no goal in life, living simply according to his whims. He wastes a Sunday away on a balcony, jumps on a truck with his friend like grade school boys, and interacts with Marie with no intent of pursuing any relationship. His desire to live is stirred only after he takes a life, when he realizes that the life he squandered away will soon be cut short.

Milkman's transformation is slightly different. A thirty-three year old man stuck with the mentality of a teenager, as his life has been planned out for him, his change is catalyzed by this bestowed quest (by his father) to find a sack of gold. However, Milkman has no immediate change like Meursault - his transformation is being gradually revealed during his quest, turning the eternal teenager into an adult who can fend for himself.

Both Meursault and Milkman had experiences which caused them to fight for their lives, reinforcing their will to live. On the other hand, Antionette is one who is forced into living by default - a bug in the system, of sorts. At the beginning, although estranged from most and a bit apathetic, she has various goals - wanting to be closer to Christophine, being friends with Tia, making her mother not hate her. She blossoms after meeting Rochester, becoming a lively, vivacious young woman who has a plethora of things she wants to do - get to know Rochester, introduce him to the island, and maintain her relationship with Christophine. However, her will to live seems to break after numerous misunderstandings and conflicts with her husband, setting her into a strange cycle of doing nothing (default living state) and going crazy.

Or is Antionette living by default, even before, and is forced into a cycle of madness by Rochester? Both Meursault and Milkman, even upon death's door (literally for Milkman), seem to hold little regard for their lives. Antionette is the same, yet different. There is the scene with Tia at the pool; she certainly cares then, but when later Tia throws the rock, Antionette seems to shut down or be indifferent. Or is Antionette's living by default different from Meursault and Milkman?

Annette and Little Annette

In Wide Sargasso Sea, many parallels are drawn between Antoinette and her mother, Annette, possibly showing the inherent aspect of madness but also the unfortunate treatment of women of this time.

We first start clearly seeing similarities between Antoinette and Annette after Antoinette grows up. For instance, both women rely heavily on Christophine - they go to her for advice and seem to respect her more than the other residents of Coulibri. She is their emotional support; especially after Annette's marriage to old man Cosway and Antoinette's marriage to Rochester, we see how much the two women rely on Christophine as their confidante.

The author draws direct similarities between Antoinette and Annette especially after Antoinette seems to start her descent into madness. The beginning of Part I mentions Annette's furrowed brow as seen by Antoinette, with a crease so sharp it seems it was cut by a knife. Later, in Part II, Rochester sees Antoinette's brow with the same sharp crease, allowing the reader to immediately associate Antoinette with her mother, not-incidentally at the same time that Rochester had been avoiding Antoinette after learning of how her mother was mad.

On that note, madness is the strongest link between Antoinette and Annette. Although it was believed at the time of the novel that madness was inherent through the maternal line, we can see that both women were driven to madness because of external factors - namely, their husbands. Because Mason refused to let Annette leave with Pierre, ignorant of the danger, Pierre died and left Annette with Mason to blame. Rochester essentially betrayed Antoinette, breaking a promise made on their wedding day, driving her to despair as she loved/relied on him too much.

Are there any other similarities between Annette and little Annette?

Alexithymia and Meursault's Relationships

In a panel presentation yesterday, we were introduced to the idea that Meursault suffered from Alexithymia, an personality construct where the afflicted has a strong dissociation of feeling. Under stressful situations, the afflicted will have a physical reaction to the perceptions that cause emotion. Yet at the same time, people with Alexithymia crave emotional contact, on a higher level than unafflicted people.

With the various conditions presented in the previous paragraph and the fact that alexithymia usually results from childhood trauma (father dies/leaves, mother emotionally unavailable), I think that Meursault has Alexithymia and that his condition spills over into his relationships. This is especially evident with his romance(?) with Marie and friendship with Raymond.

The book briefly mentions the awkwardness of Meursault and Maman living together, as Maman would just follow his motions with her eyes, and how their relationship wasn't the best. This is possible evidence that Maman was an emotionally unavailable mother for Meursault, becoming a factor in his desire to have a relationship with Marie. Not saying that Meursault sees Marie as a mother, but simply that he subconsciously wanted more emotional contact, as a basic human being. But because of his emotionlessness, it difficult to say if he truly loves Marie or if he is simply using her to satisfy his emotional needs.

As for Raymond, I would consider this as Meursault having found a more fatherly figure. Not that Raymond is older or that they consider each other family, but that Meursault wanted his father's acknowledgment and approval when he was young, but was never able to receive it. So when Raymond asks him to help write a letter, Meursault agrees because he wants Raymond's - someone's - acknowledgement. Because he does not feel or care that Raymond is a little sketchy, he is able to help Raymond and become his friend.

Dream-like qualities of The Metamorphosis

When we first started The Metamorphosis, we noted several discrepancies between the story and reality. For one, Gregor's room apparently has three doors. Gregor is working to pay off his father's debt, while his father lounges around and eats breakfast all morning. The family can afford to maintain a lavish lifestyle although Gregor wakes up at four in the morning and thinks of nothing but work. And, most obviously, Gregor turns into a giant bug. Many of these odd points make no sense in reality, but would make a lot of sense in a dream.

We realize that the story is not a dream since we finished the book - Gregor dies as a bug, and doesn't wake up back in his human form. But there are many dream-like qualities in the stories that relate to the story-reality discrepancies. For example, with Gregor's three doors, there are instances when multiple people will be talking to Gregor from outside the room, but all through different doors, which relates to dreams of sound echoing all around you. 

When Gregor finally reveals his bug-self to his family for the first time, they all automatically know that the bug is Gregor, not that it has eaten or disposed of Gregor. This is a great example of 'logic' in dreams - it doesn't make sense in the real world, but it somehow does in dreams. Other examples of dream logic include Gregor's single-minded devotion to his family (even after finding out the money he earned was saved instead of used to pay off the debt), the boss coming to Gregor's house to check on him, and that the mother, who was so frail because of asthma that she couldn't make it across the house in one go, only had her asthma portrayed when Gregor came out, right before he died.

Can you all think of any more discrepancies or examples of dream-logic?



On a side note, here is a cartoon of The Metamorphosis crossed with Peanuts:

https://lithub.com/kafka-meets-charlie-brown/

Jake's Life in Paris v. Spain

In The Sun Also Rises, Jake spends the entirety of the book in either Spain or France. Although he resides in Paris, much of the plot occurs in his vacation spots of the fishing lake and Pamplona. Jake lives very differently in Spain than in Paris, which is reflected in both Hemingway's choice of words and Jake's actions.

In Paris, Jake seems very stressed. Although he and his friends seem to party every night in clubs, Jake is troubled by various things, especially Brett. Although the two of them share a special emotional connection which they interpret as love, they are unable to be with each other as they are unable to satisfy all of the other's needs. Furthermore, Jake seems rather put off by Cohn. There's the entire scene at lunch where Jake tells Cohn to "go to hell" offhandedly but Cohn takes it too seriously, annoying Jake. Adding on to the details and style of speech in the first chapter telling Cohn's backstory, it is clear that Jake does not like Cohn too much. Furthermore, as a narrator, Jake spends a lot of time talking about the actions of his friends and the world around him rather than his role and actions in the novel while he resides in Paris, perhaps another sign of his stress.

His stress in Paris is especially obvious after he comes to Spain. During his fishing trip with Bill, Bill tries to teach Jake 'irony.' It takes Jake quite a while to figure out how this new coping mechanism works, but eventually we see that Jake manages to loosen up in his speech. In addition to that, how Jake describes his surroundings changes. There is more of a focus on himself and less on the others like the Paris section of the novel, perhaps an indication of Jake opening up more. A second cause of Jake relaxing is probably that Brett is not present (at least until Pamplona), and that he can have casual and heart-to-heart chats with Bill, who he clearly considers a close friend, unlike Cohn.

Did you all notice any other differences in Jake's behavior?

Lucrezia: Cause of Septimus’ Death?

In the article we used for panel presentations, the author asks if Rezia’s name was significant, as it was “resonant with past murders.” As I was unsure of what the author was referring to, I did a bit of research on famous Lucrezias. The only Lucrezia that I found connected with murder was Lucrezia Borgia, an Italian Renaissance noblewoman. She was famous as a sister of Cesare Borgia (remember him from Mr. Butler's class?) and for possibly being behind her first husband's death. In popular portrayals, she is a femme fatale. 

I saw very few similarities between our Rezia Warren Smith and Lucrezia Borgia. For one, they are both Italian. However, Rezia is really not that beautiful - she is described as having a "sallow pointed face" and "large eyes," and therefore cannot be described as a femme fatale. Furthermore, she is completely dedicated to Septimus, unlike Borgia, who reportedly had several affairs. But it is true that our Rezia and Lucrezia Borgia both may have had a hand in the death of their husbands.

I am not saying that Holmes was not the trigger of Septimus' suicide or denying that shell-shock was the base cause, but I think Rezia may have contributed to the onset of Septimus' depression and other shell-shock symptoms. Septimus married Rezia as Septimus wanted to be able to feel again, but he was still unable to feel anything although Rezia seemingly loves him. This is especially significant when Rezia cries when Septimus tells her that he does not want children. It is at this moment that Septimus really notices that he still cannot feel anything although his wife is sobbing, which pushes him further down the pit. In short, shell-shock is the illness that robs Septimus of his emotions, Rezia is the self-prescribed cure that ultimately fails to work and in fact hastens the illness, and Holmes is the immediate cause of death.

Thoughts?

"My Elizabeth"

After Peter finally sees Clarissa again and begins to roam London, Peter begins to wonder about Elizabeth, Clarissa's daughter. To be more specific, he wonders about how Clarissa introduced her daughter when Elizabeth came barging into the room. Clarissa said "There's my Elizabeth," and Peter wonders why she simply didn't say, "Here's Elizabeth." He speculates that Elizabeth and Clarissa do not get along, and that Clarissa, like most mothers (according to him) wanted to make it appear that a strong bond existed, when in fact, it actually did not.

I disagreed with Peter's interpretation of that moment. I believed that Clarissa said "my" as an indication of possession. At the moment just before Elizabeth breezes in, Peter is in the midst of interrogating Clarissa about her happiness - if she is truly happy with Richard, which I believe (hope) was in a mostly platonic fashion. Although Clarissa was fantasizing about what life might have been like if she had married adventurous Peter instead of conservative Richard, her loyalty still lies with her real husband. So when she is caught in a slightly compromising position (Peter is holding her shoulders) by her daughter, she introduces Elizabeth with a "my" in an effort to make a distinction about where her place in this world lies, about where she is supposedly happy.

Or perhaps Peter's interpretation concerning the seeming existence of nonexistent bonds is not far off the mark. I read that the 'strong bond' was to be shown between Clarissa and Elizabeth. But perhaps Peter was referring to the bond between Clarissa and Richard, and simply used Elizabeth as an intermediary as she is their daughter. 

I think there are many ways to interpret this scene. Thoughts?