MOSES-MADELINE AFFAIR NOVEL HARZOG BY SAUL BELLOW
Introduction
In a way, Madeline-Moses affair is the main episode of the novel. The problem is introduced with the remark that Madeline too, had great charm, and beauty of person, and a minds.... Herzog himself had no small amount of charm. But his sexual powers had been damaged by Madeline. And without the ability to attract women, how was he to recover." It was in this respect that he felt most of his life as a convalescent".
Infatuation for Madeline brilliant
Moses was fascinated by physical and intellectual beauty of Madeline. He loved her passionately, ready to do her bidding instantly "There was a flavour of subjugation in his love for Madeline. Since she was domineering, and since he loved her, he had to accept the flavour that was given." Therefore, it was Madeline's writ that ran in almost every case and Herzog was always to yield before her "In this confrontation in the untidy parlour, two kinds of egotism were present-hers in triumph (she had prepared a great moment, she was about to do what she longed most to do, strike a blow) and his egotism in abeyance all converted into passivity." She had told Moses that Daisy was to give him divorce though Herzog didn't want to ask Daisy to do it-he wanted Daisy to give divorce of her own choice and will. He said, "It would be easier if Daisy would divorce me." He had a regard if not love for Daisy. He remembered that Daisy was forced by him to endure a freezing winter in eastern Connecticut while he was writing 'Romticism and Christianity', in a cottage where the pipes had to be thawed with candles, and the sound of oboe that he played must have oppressed Daisy even more than the months of cold fog. As he had so much of consideration for Daisy, he did not want to make an unpleasant gesture by forcing divorce upon her.
After a struggle with Daisy and her lawyers and his own, and under pressure from Tennie and Madeline, Moses Herzog was divorced and married with Madeline. Phoebe Gersbach cooked the wedding supper with spirit and enthusiasm. She baked excellent banana cakes, with light, moist icing. Gersbach was boisterous. He poured wine, and danced with the bride.
Luxury Loving
Moses Herzog bought house in Ludeyville when Madeline became pregnant. His twenty thousand dollar legacy from his father was spent on it. He turned himself into its caretaker since the house required extensive repairs and alterations, which required an investment of twenty thousand and more. Herzog had written the cheque for payment of the price of the house with trembling hands since he was conscious that the money he was spending was 'Papa's savings, representing forty years of misery in America'. After the papers had been signed, he inspected the house as if he was inspecting it for the first time. He was not careful to see before-hand that the house would require huge expenditure to make it liveable-the plaster was coming down, the knob and tube wiring was dangerous, the bricks were dropping from the foundation and the windows leaked. Herzog learnt masonry, glazing, plumbing from Do-It-Yourself Encyclopaedia. A year of work saved house from getting collapsed. Herzog worked night and day in the rusty slime while Madeline brought luxurious fixtures, silver soap dishes, thick and Turkish towels. Herzog had a touch of arthritis in the neck, yet he had to pull the rubber fitting in the tank to release water, He read-
Dissonance
Need not say, that Madeline's dog he virtually was Nevertheless, there were many things which made Madeline angry. She had to slam the screen-door, the car-door, and west, down the slope to get away from Herzog's music. Herzog was rather upset by Madeline's spending spree. He had to ask Madeline to stop shopping, She shot back that she wouldn't stand those empty rooms. She spent five hundred bucks on maternity outfits. On being questioned, she said pungently that his mother, she knew, wore flour sacks. The unrestrained spending made him regret that he was spending his father's earnings recklessly. Madeline had to snub him for such blabberings, saying, "Well, he was your father. I don't ask you to share my horrible father. So don't try to force your old man down my throat".
Not a Household Lady
Madeline was not household, lady as Daisy was. She was ambitious, would have her own way as 'she considered herself too young, too intelligent, too vital, too sociable to be buried in the remote Berkshires'. Herzog being hen-pecked, had to leave Ludeyville estate which he had furnished richly with books and furniture "The house near Ludeyville was closed up-twenty thousand dollars' worth of house, with books and English bone china and new appliances abandoned to spiders, the moles, and the field mice-papa's hard-earned money!".
Pontritter's View
Madeline's parents also held the view that Madeline was uncompromising and unpredictable. She belonged to a broken family-her father had deserted her mother. Moses went to meet her father, Pontritter, because Madeline informed him about her father's insistence on meeting him. Pontritter hoped that Moses might do a great deal of good to his daughter and retrieve her from the strange company. He said, "Well, it's about time she quit hanging around with queers. She is like a lot of bluestocking college girls-all her friends are homosexuals. She has got more faggots at her feet than Joan of Arc. It's a good sign that she's interested in you." Her father believed that Madeline would pull herself out of the company of the perverted fellows if she married Moses. But he added in no uncertain terms that Moses was not doing good for his health in marrying with his daughter. When Moses failed to catch the import of his remark, he went to say plainly, "He is laying (loving) my daughter. I thought I'd never live to see the day. Well, congratulations... Hope Sleeping Beauty will wake up." He almost sounded a warning to Moses against his desire to marry his daughter.
Tennie's Concern
Moses met a Madeline's mother, Tennie, as well. She had signs of long-suffering on her face. She was 'slightly tearful even when she smiled, and most mournful when you meet her by chance'. She told Moses, "I don't have much influence on my daughter. I love her dearly, of course. It hasn't been easy. I had to stand by Fitz. He was black-listed for years. I couldn't be disloyal. After all, he is a great artist...." So Tennie had a very difficult life-a deserted wife and a deserted mother she was. Madeline thought in her modern way that it was wrong of her mother to remain stuck with her husband who cheated women and stage-struck suckers. She told Moses "So Mady thinks I let her down. She doesn't understand-hates her father, I can tell you this, Moses, I think people must trust you instinctively. I see that Mady does, and she's not a trusting girl. So I think she must be in love with you." The picture that emerges from this conversation shows that Madeline was free from emotional tangles in all relations, be it with her father or mother. She would leave anybody if he/she failed to respond to her concepts of life and morality.Carnality and Religiosity Combined
Tennie could extract a promise from Moses by her tearful appeals that he would never hurt or desert her daughter. Moses being an emotional sucker said promptly, "I adore Madeline, Tennie. You don't have to worry. I'll do everything possible." Madeline, in contrast, would not fall a victim even to loving caresses of the whole night-"Moses pressed her body all night with fervour, exaltation. She was not so fervent, but then she was a' recent convert. Moreover, one lover was more moved than the other." Obviously, she had religious inhibitions, and never-to-be- satisfied passion. In the morning, while coming out of the bed with a jerk in anticipation of the alarm clock, saying 'damn' with suffocated anger. A strange case of ambivalence she was "Sometimes she had tears of anger and misery in her eyes and complained of her sinfulness. Still, she wanted it, too." Hers was a case of split-personality, torn between religious and biological dictates. Naturally, she had no interest in day-time either to look at the naked body of Moses on showing her body- parts "She did not look at him while making her preparations. Over her brassière and slip she put a high-necked sweater, and to protect the shoulders of the sweater, she wore a plastic cape." She would wear a tweed-sprit long enough to hide her legs. In short, "she wanted him there at night. She would even, half with raincour, take his hand and put it on her breast as they were falling asleep. But in the morning she would have liked him to disappear." It was one of the causes for differences between Madeline and Herzog. Herzog admitted a hundred times that Madeline was a bewitching beauty but he knew he would never win her completely and finally. He as 'a fatherly, graying, patient seducer' whom she accepted and rejected at the same time.
Comments
Post a Comment