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Ironies and Characterization in “The Silver Crown” Seen from the Viewpoint of Color Images and Numbers

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Ironies and Characterization in “The Silver Crown” Seen from the Viewpoint of Color Images and Numbers Kobe University Repository : Kernel タイトル Ironies and Characterization in "The Silver Crown" Seen from the Title Viewpoint of Color Images 著者 Shimazu, Atsuhisa Author(s) 掲載誌・巻号・ページ 神戸大学国際コミュニケーションセンター論集,5:47-54 Citation 刊行日 2008 Issue date 資源タイプ Departmental Bulletin Paper / 紀要論文 Resource Type 版区分 publisher Resource Version 権利 Rights DOI JaLCDOI 10.24546/81000974 URL http://www.lib.kobe-u.ac.jp/handle_kernel/81000974 PDF issue: 2021-10-03 Ironies and Characterization in “The Silver Crown” Seen from the Viewpoint of Color Images and Numbers Atsuhisa Shimazu1 Introduction As for the stories by Bernard Malamud (1914-1986), it is often said that those in the earlier collections, The Magic Barrel (1958) and Idiots First (1963), are “richer, more arresting” (Solotaroff xiv) than those collected in the later one Rembrandt’s Hat (1973). But at the same time, “The Silver Crown” (1972), the story that the reader first encounters in Rembrandt’s Hat, is highly evaluated. Robert Solotaroff comments that it is “one of Malamud’s best stories” (124); Edward A. Abramson’s view is that it is “one of the best stories in Rembrandt’s Hat” (134); Kathleen G. Ochshorn states that it “ranks among Malamud’s best” (220). Also about the theme of the story, critics seem to agree that it is the “incomplete communication” (Solotaroff 122), or “the ultimate and inevitable failure to communicate” (Ochshorn 221). Admitting that such evaluation and interpretation of the story are appropriate, I would like to point out the existence of ironies in it, which play the role of making its theme more impressive. Furthermore, I will show that in order to produce ironies, original usage of color images is employed. Finally, I will consider the characterization in the story which is associated with its ironic pattern mainly by comparing it with “The Magic Barrel” (1954). I. Ironies and the Role of Color Images Color images are often seen in “The Silver Crown.” The title itself includes a color image and besides that, a dozen of similar images appear almost more than once in the text. These images seem not to be used purposelessly and my own idea is that the appearance of color images prefigures Albert Gans’s commitment to, and trust in the fantastic world of Rabbi Jonas Lifschitz as “a faith healer” (536) although he cannot entirely relieve himself of his doubts about the rabbi. This is the expressive pattern inherent in the story and it is repeated many times so that the irony in the climax may be all the more emphasized. In the following, I would like to observe individual cases of the pattern one by one. Gans is “naturally empiric and objective” and “non-mystical” (539) and what is more, a 1 School of Languages and Communication, Kobe University. [email protected] - 45 - biology teacher, and so there is no room in his temperament for faith healing. In fact, when his fellow English teacher recommends this, he only listens and “laugh[s] mirthlessly” (536) and never gives any active response to her suggestion. Concerning this, it should be noted that no color imagery appears in the scene. This relates to Gans’s indifference to faith healing. Next, in a street in Bronx, he again comes across faith healing when Lifschitz’s idiotic daughter Rifkele thrusts to him a card advertising the healing of the sick through the medium of a silver crown. For a moment, he tries to avoid this, which response is no different from that to his colleague’s advice. But afterward, in this scene, color images like “green,” “brown” (colors of Rifkele’s eyes), “red” (that of Rifkele’s skirt), and “brown” (that of Rifkele’s sweater, 537) ensue and Gans comes to take the card in spite of his former intention; “The teacher’s impulse was to pass by her outthrust plump baby hand. Instead he took the card from her” (537). Thus the appearance of color images causes Gans as a rationalist to get over his indifference or distrust to faith feeling and to be drawn a step more to Lifschitz’s world as “nonrational or irrational” (Solotaroff 123), or “supernatural” (Ochshorn 220). This pattern can be seen also in the following development of the plot. It is also important that no color image is rendered to Gans himself except the one used as an exaggeration (“Till I was blue in the face” 544). This aims to show that Gans’s behavior is influenced by color images occurring outside of himself. Although he finds out that the card advertizes faith feeling he has laughed at before, after the color image “silver” occurs three times, he decides to visit Rabbi Lifschitz in spite of the hatred he felt before; “Although at first repelled by the thought, he made up his mind to visit the rabbi” (537). In addition to this, when he reaches the building that holds Lifschitz’s room, the emergence of color images of “white” and “gold” (colors of letters on the window) helps him to maintain his intention of visiting the rabbi; “Ascending, assailed by doubts . he thought of turning back but at the first floor landing compelled himself to knock loudly on the door” (537). Even after he enters the rabbi’s room, although he warns “himself to depart at once,” after he sees “green” shades and “gray” beard (538), he takes an act of courtesy to him as a Jew by resuming his removed hat, introduces himself, and personally requests an interview of him. During the interview, Gans soon feels as if he were in a therapy room, gets disgusted, and renews “distaste for himself for having come” (539), but after he hears Lifschitz’s explanation about the crown scattered with “silver” (540,541) images and encounters “gold” (the color of the frame of a mirror), “black” (that of Lifschitz’s’s suit-coat), “grayish-blue” (that of Lifschitz’s eyes), “brown” (that of Lifshitz’s eye pouches, 539), and “purple” (the color of the covers of Lifschitz’s book, 540) successively, he takes an affirmative stance toward the crown for the first time by admitting that he is “considering this recourse even though it goes against the grain of some of [his] strongest convictions” (541). Thereafter, with Rifkele’s disgusting behavior, the “doubts of the enterprise” emerge within Gans again and the high price of the crown seems “fantastic” to him, but after all, he gets overwhelmed by Lifschitz’s account which uses the - 46 - “silver” (542) image five times in a row. As a result, he cannot reject Lifshitz’s stuff on the spot and promises that he will consider the possibility of the crown seriously; “I’ll decide the question once and for all tonight” (543). Moreover, his state of mind right then is described as “more inclined than not toward trying the crown,” “relieved,” and “almost euphoric” and he wonders at himself “not resisting strongly” (543). The emergence of color images brings about within Gans such transition from indifference to commitment to the crown. In the same way, when Gans goes to Lifscitz with the money necessary to order the crown the next day, he cannot entirely rid himself of distrust and is “still uncomfortable about parting with it” (543). But after hearing Lifschitz’s account given with color images of “white,” “blue,” “purple,” and “orange,” he soon offers a carte blanche to him about making a special crown; “If you can work it up for the same price, that’s up to you” (545). Special notice should be given to the scene where Gans sees the crown with his own eyes. First of all, the “green window shades” (545) of Lifschitz’s room are drawn and the room gets dark, that is, the green image mentioned above disappears. In this atmosphere, Gans sees “[a] silver candelabrum” in the mirror but he soon suspects that “It’s one of those illusion things [he remembers] from when [he] was a kid” and decides that in that case he is “getting the hell out of” (545) the room. This correspondence between the color imagery and Gans’s behavior seems to be a reversal of the pattern that the appearance of color images influences Gans to commit more to Lifschitz’s fantastic world. What should be considered here is that the color image occurs in the mirror. In consideration of the fact that the direction in movement is reversed in a mirror, it can be thought that the direction in influence the color imagery in the mirror connotes is a reversion of that in the real world. This is true of the scene of Gans’s seeing the crown in the mirror. In it, the crown gives off the “mother-of-pearl,” and then, the “silver” light, but as for the color, its disappearance is more emphasized; “The sight lasted no longer than five short seconds, then the reflecting glass by degrees turned dark and empty” (546). After having experienced the momentary appearance and disappearance of the color, Gans promises to purchase the crown; “I believe I saw. Anyway, I’ll take it” (546). In other words, the rapid disappearance of the color gives more vivid impression to him. Anyway, the disappearance of the color leads to Gans’s acceptance of the crown, which is also the reversion caused by the mirror. Furthermore, the sight of Lifschitz’s room where “the single bulb in a frosted lily fixture on the ceiling [shines] harshly“ while it is “night” (546) outside can be regarded as the reverberation of the fantastic scene of the mirror where color imagery and its obliteration play an important role.
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