CHARACTER OF TENNIE IN HARZOG BY SAUL BELLOW
Introduction
Tennie is a typical wife and mother. She was wife of the actor, Pontritter and mother of Madeline. Tennie and her husband were divorced. Both were living separately. Pontritter was lived on 57th street, where he ran a school for actors, while Tennie had her own two rooms on 31st, which were filled with mementos of her ex-husband's triumphs.
Though Tennie and Pontritter were no longer husband and wife, they had a relationship still. They attended inaugurations, dinners, together. Tennie was a slender woman of fifty-five, slightly taller than Pontritter. She led a Bohemian life for thirty five years while living with Pontritter-"She remained a kindly, elder-sister sort of woman with long legs." But after some time her long legs went bad, her hair turned stiff like quills and wore abstract jewellery. Herzog wrote to her that her daughter Madeline had the same wrong with him as Pontritter had done to her. But she still prepared old man's income-tax returns, kept all his records, washed his socks. She told Herzog that she was happy to have been divorced, free as she was to go her own way and develop her own personality. It implied that Pontritter a domineering husband, not allowing freedom that his wife wanted.
Herzog's Impression About Her
Herzog went to meet Pontritter and Tennie before his marriage with Madeline because Madeline had told him that her father wanted to have a talk with him. He went to meet Tennie also on his own. Herzog observed that Tennie had tears in her eyes when she spoke of her daughter. Otherwise too she was sad and mournful, because she had none-neither husband, nor daughter-"she had a smooth, long suffering countenance, slightly tearful even when she smiled and most mournful when you met her by chance." She was above the average height of woman, with permanent creases of suffering on her face.
Her Frankness
Tennie told Herzog in her first meeting that she didn't have much influence on her daughter, yet she loved her. It was in her nature to be kind and good. She told Herzog, "I had to stand by Fitz. He was blacklisted for years. I couldn't be disloyal. After all, he is a great artist......" Herzog felt that only a Jewish woman of good culture and respectable background was capable of making sacrifice for her life for a great artist. She said such things with the conviction of a lover of art and artists. She criticized the society because in her opinion, it had become money-minded, and had little regard for the artist. Herzog was bewildered to hear such great ideas from Tennie because Madeline had spoken derogatorily about her father. Madeline had said that her father needed fifty thousand a year, which he got from 'women and stage-struck suckers'. Tennie made it clear to Herzog that there was no love lost between Madeline and her father.
A Good Mother
Tennie further told Herzog that Madeline was against her also since she thought that she had let her down. She said that Madeline was in love with him. Like a loving mother she hoped that he would not hurt her daughter whatever the circumstances be. Explaining her position, she said crying, "I am always between two of them. I know we haven't been conventional parents. She feels I just turned her out into the world. And there's nothing I can do. It's up to you. You will have to give the child the only thing that can help her." Tennie took off her glasses, made no effort to canceal her weeping. Her nose, reddened and her eyes full of tears made her pathetic.
Her Cleverness
But Herzog thought there was 'a crooked appeal, darkened blindly with tears'. Herzog found that there was 'hypocrisy and calculation' in the speech of Tennie. She wanted like a good mother that Herzog should remain a good husband to her daughter, but her appeal was not without a mixture of true and genuine sentiments for her daughter. Herzog observed that Tennie's protestations had "layers upon layers of reality-loathsomeness, arrogance, deceit, and then-God help us all-truth, as well. She was using all her resources to make Herzog believe her and act accordingly-"He understood he was being manipulated by Madeline's worried mother." Herzog could see and analyse Tennie's personality. She had lived a Bohemian life for thirty years, and was well-versed in different aspects of that life; she was exploited by her husband, yet she remained faithful to him for the good living that she had been enjoying- "Thirty years the bohemian wife, the platitudes of that ideology threadbare, cynically exploited by old Pontritter, Tennie remained faithful, chained in the dull silver 'abstract' jewellery that she wore." Tennie was certainly an unfortunate woman, having 'no husband, no daughter'.
Extracted Promise from Herzog
As a good mother, she tried all the mechanism to extract a promise from Herzog that he would never treat her daughter harshly or desert her in any case. Herzog fully understood that "Tennie was setting him up, and that he was a sucker for just the sort of appeal she made'. In spite of this awareness, and being on guard against Tennie's machinations, he could not help yielding to the emotional appeal made by Tennie-"He had a weakness for good deeds, and she flattered this weakness, asking him to save this headstrong deluded child of hers. Patience, loving, kindness, and virility would accomplish this." She recognized the latent goodness of Herzog, appealed and exploited it dexterously She told him frankly that her daughter was against her and hated her father, implying that Madeline was headstrong and stubborn by nature, yet she made very clever moves to exploit the goodness in Herzog. She required of him to be patient, loving and kind, I without giving him hope that his loving conduct would be responded in the same measure. Tennie succeeded well in presenting her hopes and desires before Herzog without being resisted or opposed in the least. But it was not enough, since Herzog had not so far made implicit promise to remain a lover of her daughter ever and always. Therefore she proceeded further subtly and cleverly. She told Moses that he could bring stability into the life of her neurotic daughter. Herzog observed, "Among this crowd of aged, dying and crippled, Tennie making her appeal to Moses for help, stirred his impure sympathies intensely. Repulsively." His heart felt sick, and made the statement, "I adore Madeline, Tennie, you don't have to worry. I'll do everything possible." This was the promise that she wanted to elicit from him; she succeeded like success.
Herzog's Fascination
The question that arises in the minds of the readers is whether it was solely due to machinations of Tennie that Herzog made the promise of remaining a lover of Madeline, or that he was a victim of his own fascination for Madeline. Tennie, indeed, was too clever for young and love-sick Herzog. He was not satisfied with his homely first wife, Daisy, who was neither crooked, not glamorous and sensual as Herzog had looked for. Daisy was not intellectual either. Madeline, on the other hand, was beautiful, intellectual, and sensual. He had already fallen a prey to Madeline's beauty and intellect, and remained her admirer till the end, though he had bouts of sexual pleasure with other women like Ramona, Sono Oguki, etc. etc. Tennie had, in a way, completely vanquished Herzog who was already ensuared by her daughter. He went to meet Madeline's father and mother with a mind to marry with Madeline. He made no secret of his desire when he met Pontritter. He told Pontritter that he was in love with his daughter. The fascination was so strong that he did not feel disenchanted even when Pontritter told him that his daughter had been in bad company. He said plainly, "Well, it's about time she quit hanging around with queers. She is like a lot of blue-stocking college girls-all her friends are homosexuals. She's got more faggots at her feet than Joan of Arc. It's a good sign that she's interested in you." It was a strong warning for anybody, but Herzog was so deep in love of Madeline that he ignored the damning report of her father. Tennie also told him that Madeline was headstrong but nothing on earth could disenchant him. Naturally, it will not be right to say that Tennie had spread the net and caught the poor fish. Yet there is no denying the fact that Tennie was a sincere mother to her daughter and she did everything that was in her power to let her daughter divour the kill.
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