I was glad that the group who discussed “The Vine-Leaf” brought up the different layers of narration in the story. I was impressed by the way Mena did this and how it made for such an enjoyable story. First we have the narrator telling the entire story, then the doctor telling the story of the mysterious patient and lastly, the Marques telling the story of the artist’s death. I really felt like this was a very creative story telling device. The thing that struck me the most was the differences between the narrator’s voice and tone and the doctor’s. The narrator of the story is very funny, for instance, the family secrets that the doctor keeps in his furry hat. The doctor is not as funny as he is arrogant; he reminds me of someone who would laugh at his own jokes. Reading the humorous beginning, I was expecting a much lighter story than we actually were given and I felt that the shock of it really threw me into the mystery. I liked it, I just can’t figure out why Mena would have chosen such a funny narrator for a story like this.
Also, after reading Chopin’s “At the ‘Cadian Ball” and “The Storm” I really felt as though there were some striking similarities between Calixta and Daisy Miller. I think that both of these stories try to represent class and culture differences through the tales of innocent (or maybe not-so-innocent) foreign girls. While Daisy is an American in Europe, Calixta is of Spanish (Cuban?) decent and living in Louisiana. Both girls are described as being looked down upon because of their uniqueness and flirtatiousness. Obviously, both girls in the stories are liked by the men and despised by the women. We have instances of high status men who fall for the “low culture” girls and end up getting burned. Although James never gives his readers a final answer to whether Daisy was innocent or not, his version seems a little less absolute than Chopin’s. We see in “The Storm” that Calixta ultimately does prove herself to be impure in the eyes of the reader. Daisy never does this and it seems to put a more positive spin on her character than on Calixta’s. It is hard to tell though, because knowing Chopin’s work, she does not necessarily see adultery as a bad thing, while her readers probably do, and so she may not be presenting the affair between Calixta and Alcee in the way that she means to.
1 comment:
I think you mentioned a layer (the count) that we didn't even talk about in class, Ruchell. It may be that the funny narrator was used both to contrast with the grim nature of the tale and to provide yet one more twist or trick for the reader.
You're accurately judging Calixta as "impure"; the next question is whether Chopin paints this as a bad thing.
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