The protagonist of this story, Harry, is a classic example
of Hemingway's ability to produce an anti-hero, or a character that appears to be
detached from the world and very disconnected. Notice how he says to his wife, quite
openly and honestly that he has never loved her, saying that now he is dying he doesn't
want "to leave anything behind." He deliberately hurts his wife, using his talents and
intelligence to squabble with her rather than to focus on writing. Note how he insults
her in the following quote:
"You bitch," he said, "You rich bitch. That's
poetry. I'm full of poetry now. Rot and poetry. Rotten
poetry."
Note how he both
attacks her but also equates his artistic talent with the gangrene that is slowly
killing him, linking the two to suggest a connection. After insulting her and telling
her that he does not love her, he then lies to reassure her that he does love her when
in fact he does not.
As we read the story, we also discover
that Harry is characterised by his desire to be a writer but also by the way that he is
struggling to put pen to paper, because of the luxury in which he lives. Note what Harry
concludes about how he destroyed his talent:
He had destroyed his talent by not using it, by
betrayals of himself and what he believed in, by drinking so much that he blunted the
edge of his perceptions, by laziness, by sloth, and by snobbery, by pride and by
prejudice, by hook and by
crook.
Thus what defines
Harry as a character more than anything is his sense of frustration at not being able to
write when he has dedicated his life to this purpose. It is thus highly ironic that the
short story ends with Harry achieving his goal of artistic transcendence in his death
reveries.
No comments:
Post a Comment