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The Microcosm in Capodistria's Resurrected Self Philip D Articulāte Volume 6 Article 6 2001 Contradiction Through Opposition: The Microcosm in Capodistria's Resurrected Self Philip D. Miller Denison University Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.denison.edu/articulate Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Miller, Philip D. (2001) "Contradiction Through Opposition: The icrM ocosm in Capodistria's Resurrected Self," Articulāte: Vol. 6 , Article 6. Available at: http://digitalcommons.denison.edu/articulate/vol6/iss1/6 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Denison Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Articulāte by an authorized editor of Denison Digital Commons. 26 27 Contradiction Through Opposition: The Microcosm in Capodistria's Resurrected Self marks. The reference seems especially out of place in should it reveal a dichotomy between good and bad. relation to the "restored" Balthazar, having "rubbed out Rather, the path he follows is a necessary condition for the age" revealed by his hair, becoming "once more, the possibility of Light. We note an explicit tension, Philip D. Miller '01 the old Balthazar, with his sapient dark eyes turned then, between the dualism of light and darkness and ironically on the doings of the city" (197). The "ironic" Capodistria's effort to break down the distinction be- Author's Note: 'I have the express authority of Capodistria himself characterization, is, however, fitting: Balthazar's eyes tween good and evil. The path he follows is that of the The Alexandria Quartet is a series of four novels [Balthazar] explained. 'Indeed he himself always pays are turned ironically on the doings of Capodistria, ironi- Dark, though this does not affirm the polar opposition (Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, and Clea) by Lawrence for the flowers every year'" (Clea 197). The introduc- cally on the actions perpetrated and recorded by a man of Light/Dark and Good/Evil. Durrell set in pre-World War II Alexandria, Egypt. This tion of the letter is thus marked by the absurdity of the already dead. But certainly Balthazar can no longer be The language of Light and Darkness and the ne- paper examines a scene from Clea in which Darley, Clea, situation itself: Darley, Balthazar, and Clea walk to the characterized as melancholy, certainly not in response cessity of one to support the other is reminiscent of and Balthazar visit the gravesite of Capodistria on the anni- grave of the not-so-dead Capodistria to place flowers to Da Capo's letter which he seems to regard with an much of the "mirror-language" that pervades the Quar- versary of his birthday. Darley, the narrator, and himself a there on the anniversary of his (Capodistria's) birth- air of not-so subdued humor. Even in this brief pre- tet. Of the initial romantic encounter between writer, depicts the strangeness of events surrounding their day—flowers that Da Capo has, in fact, paid for. That lude to the letter, then, Durrell indicates the tension Mountolive and Leila, Durrell writes: "But she was "pilgrimage/' as Clea, an artist and Darley's lover, reads this is an absurd pilgrimage to the gravesite of between the old and the new: the alleged melancholy there so close, harmlessly close, smiling and wrinkling from a letter sent to Balthazar, flieir friend, a doctor and prac- Capodistria is noted by Balthazar in a brief introduc- of Balthazar set up against his renewed vigor and ironic up her nose, that he could only take her in his arms, titioner of Cabalism, by none oilier than Capodistria (Da tion to the letter: "His graveside is, now I come to think disposition. Analogously, we contrast the old and new stumbling forward like a man into a mirror" (Mountolive Capo) himself. The first novel, Justine, concluded with the of it, a most appropriate place to read his account of Capodistria: the old, goblin-like, deadDa Capo, against 28). The mirror-reflection is, itself, amoral. We cannot "accidental" death of Capodistria; we come to learn, how- his experiments!" (197). In one sense, the gravesite is his resurrected self. say that the reflection is "good" or "bad," but rather ever, gradually, that Capodistria is, in fact, fully alive, his an appropriate location to reveal Capodistria's recent In some way, then, Balthazar and Capodistria are necessary for the image itself. Similarly, Capodistria's "post-deceased" whereabouts being reported in his letter. In activities for their "Luciferian" nature—Capodistria both "rubbed out of their age." And this reminds us of path through Darkness, he claims, is merely a neces- the essay, I investigate how this seemingly absurd set of cir- having plunged into "Black Magic." Additionally, the the "truth" articulated by Balthazar in the second book sary aspect of the dualism of Light and Darkness. We cumstances (and details revealed in Capodistria's letter) ex- letter seems, on face, an absurd account of, to say the of the Quartet bearing his name: "Truth.. .is what most imagine Mountolive stumbling forward, arms ex- ist as part of the larger structure of the Quartet, bringing to least, bizarre occurrences; it seems proper, then, that contradicts itself in time" (Balthazar 23). The truth of tended, prepared to crash into his own mirror-image. light the elements of philosophical opposition that underlie such a tale should be recounted at the apex of such a Capodistria's death is, prima facie, contradicted; In the scene with Leila, this depiction reveals the un- Durrell's work. bizarre journey. Balthazar's age and infirmity are contradicted by ease with which one encounters oneself, and the dread Finally, Da Capo's grave is an appropriate place Mnemjian's "ministrations" (Clea 197). Thus it is ap- of "crashing" into one's own reflection. In the letter to Capodistria.. .how does he fit in? He is more of a gob- to read the letter in that it is, itself, the source of the propriate that Capodistria's letter reveals this connec- Balthazar, Capodistria avoids precisely such an encoun- lin than a man, you would think. polar opposition reflected by the story. Here we stand, tion to the contradiction of truth in time—Balthazar's ter. He recognizes that he follows the path of Darkness, —Justine, 33. at the grave marked "Not Lost But Gone Before"—the sentiment is immediately followed by Pursewarden: but denies this is the ethically evil: his position contra- In somewhat a strange sense, Capodistria's letter place of "eternal rest" for a man not yet dead, marking "If things were always what they seemed, how impov- dicts that which he would have taken earlier. Durrell to Balthazar in Book III of Clea encapsulates elements the anniversary of his birth at his own request; it is con- erished would be the imagination of man!" (Balthazar makes explicit, then, another tension, of the truth with of contradiction pervasive in the Alexandria Quartet. sistent that this physical point of opposition (between 23). Our imagination is made more fruitful by the con- which Capodistria confronts his "new self": he writes ("Strange" because the letter seems so "out of place" life and death) should ultimately reveal the opposition tradiction of Capodistria's death. Likewise our view to Balthazar that in his previous correspondence he had within the narrative of Clea.) The reader is absolutely that underlies the novels. We can imagine the stillness of the Quartet is expanded by the absurdity of Da evaded a substantive account of his new life—yet we taken aback by the letter itself—despite Balthazar's of the deserted cemetery, belied by the "high and Capo's "new-life." The reference to Balthazar's nick- wonder the extent to which he now reveals the "truth." warning about its "fantastic" contents. In presenting bright" sunshine, warm enough to compel Balthazar name coined by Pursewarden thus straightforwardly His sense of the morally good and evil has contradicted the letter, it seems as though Durrell has taken us com- to remove his coat and hat. We stand facing an impos- reveals this level of contradiction. Pursewarden recog- itself in time in an effort to overcome this dichotomy: pletely out of the world of Alexandria to create a ing grave that "had achieved a fearsome vulgarity of nizes that truth contradicts itself in time, and this is he approaches his "new self," however, as if he were pseudo-science fiction story in embryonic form. It is decoration which was almost mind-wounding," (197) what makes meaningful human experience. How dull stumbling into a mirror. The picture he draws for most appropriate, then, that the letter itself should be adorned with cherubs, scrolls, and floral wreaths, all the story would be were it not for the contradictions Balthazar is of the necessary mirror-image, the neces- penned by a character "resurrected" from the dead, and for a man who "sits all day on the terrace of the Bro- revealed! The dichotomy between truth and (the pos- sity of his "resurrected life" in contradiction to his old, situated in a place far from Alexandria. The letter is kers' Club watching the women pass, with the restless sibility of) reality drives the experience detailed in the dead self. The contradiction is thus revealed, yet the ten- remarkable, specifically in relation to the rest of the eye of someone endlessly shuffling through an old Quartet. And this is precisely the point of Balthazar. In sion remains: the truth of Da Capo's past, his death, novel (from which it seems so removed), in that it soiled pack of cards" (Justine 34). The irony, noted by Justine, Darley got it all wrong. Why?—because reflec- has been overturned, but contradiction (between light/ makes explicit the tensions between light and darkness, Darley, is striking; but such a setting prepares us to re- tion from the present does not allow us to capture the dark, good/evil—despite his claim to the contrary) free choice and determined actions, and ethical ambi- alize the force of the letter.
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