Chiaroscuro The English Patient
PRESENTATION ON CHIAROSCURO: The English Patient by M. Ondaatje
I will talk about the use of chiaroscuro in The English Patient. First, I will speak about the character of Caravaggio in connection with the painter. Then, I will make a realistic reading of chiaroscuro, giving concrete examples of chiaroscuro effect in the text. Finally, I will make a more symbolic reading of Chiaroscuro in the novel as a whole.
THE THIEF AND THE PAINTER
According to Bachelar, fire encompasses contradictions: heaven and hell, good and evil, hot and cold, love and hatred, etc. On page 23 of « La Psychanalyse du Feu » it is written: “Parmi tous les phénomènes, il [le feu] est vraiment le seul qui puisse recevoir aussi nettement les deux valorisations: le …show more content…
He also planned to murder a man. Caravaggio answers the English Patient’s critic about his name by saying “’At least I have a name” (116). This seems contradictory to what had happened in chapter two, when instead of telling Hanna his name, Caravaggio just writes down his serial number so that she knows that he is with the Allies. Like Almazy, it is as if he no longer truly has a name or an identity. Because he was a thief, and then he lost his thumbs doing war work, it is as if he is no longer human. The war has taken his name, his identity, and way of …show more content…
The desert is characterized by water: Almazy echoes such a perspective when he speaks of the desert as an "old sea" (22), "Show me a desert, as you would show another man a river, or another man the metropolis of his childhood" (240). The desert is the space without boundaries, nations, or cities. It is a space that resists being divided up artificially and resists being tied down by the points on a map. This is the only space in which Almazy feels comfortable, truly himself, truly "at home". Almazy was obsessed with the purifying space of the desert and the power it had to erase national boundaries and
I will talk about the use of chiaroscuro in The English Patient. First, I will speak about the character of Caravaggio in connection with the painter. Then, I will make a realistic reading of chiaroscuro, giving concrete examples of chiaroscuro effect in the text. Finally, I will make a more symbolic reading of Chiaroscuro in the novel as a whole.
THE THIEF AND THE PAINTER
According to Bachelar, fire encompasses contradictions: heaven and hell, good and evil, hot and cold, love and hatred, etc. On page 23 of « La Psychanalyse du Feu » it is written: “Parmi tous les phénomènes, il [le feu] est vraiment le seul qui puisse recevoir aussi nettement les deux valorisations: le …show more content…
He also planned to murder a man. Caravaggio answers the English Patient’s critic about his name by saying “’At least I have a name” (116). This seems contradictory to what had happened in chapter two, when instead of telling Hanna his name, Caravaggio just writes down his serial number so that she knows that he is with the Allies. Like Almazy, it is as if he no longer truly has a name or an identity. Because he was a thief, and then he lost his thumbs doing war work, it is as if he is no longer human. The war has taken his name, his identity, and way of …show more content…
The desert is characterized by water: Almazy echoes such a perspective when he speaks of the desert as an "old sea" (22), "Show me a desert, as you would show another man a river, or another man the metropolis of his childhood" (240). The desert is the space without boundaries, nations, or cities. It is a space that resists being divided up artificially and resists being tied down by the points on a map. This is the only space in which Almazy feels comfortable, truly himself, truly "at home". Almazy was obsessed with the purifying space of the desert and the power it had to erase national boundaries and