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Every Man's an Odysseus: an Analysis of the Nostos-Theme in Corelli's Mandolin Emily A

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Every Man's an Odysseus: an Analysis of the Nostos-Theme in Corelli's Mandolin Emily A University of Massachusetts Boston ScholarWorks at UMass Boston Classics Faculty Publication Series Classics 2000 Every Man's an Odysseus: An Analysis of the Nostos-Theme in Corelli's Mandolin Emily A. McDermott University of Massachusetts Boston, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.umb.edu/classics_faculty_pubs Part of the Classical Literature and Philology Commons, and the Poetry Commons Recommended Citation Emily A. McDermott. "Every Man's an Odysseus: an Analysis of the Nostos-Theme in Corelli's Mandolin" Classical and Modern Literature 20.2 (2000): 21-37. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Classics at ScholarWorks at UMass Boston. It has been accepted for inclusion in Classics Faculty Publication Series by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at UMass Boston. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Gassical and Modern Literature, 20/2 (2000): 21-37 Every Man1 s an Odysseus: .· An Analysis of the Nostos Theme in Corelli's Mandolin Emily A. McDermott . ·· . In the sparkling first chapter of Louis de Bernieres' Corelli's Mandolin, · the world of Homer's Odysseus is explicitly invoked: This is hardly Surprising in a historical novel which will detail the Italian occupation of the Greek island of Cephallonia, near neighbor of Odysseus' Ithaca, during Worl~ War 11.1 As Dr. Iannis, the novel's protagonist and the island's self­ appOinted historian, proclaims in the opening paragraph of his "New Personal History of Cephallonia.. : ·· . .... The half-forgotten island of Cephallonia rises improvidendy and inadvisedly from · the Ionian Sea; it is an island so immense in antiquity that the very rocks ·. · themselves exhale nostalgia and the red earth lies stupefied notonlyby.the sun, · but by the impossible weight of memory. The.ships of Odysseus were built of ··. Cephallonian pine, his bOdyguards were Cephallonian giants. and some main.tain that his palace was not in Ithaca but in Cephallonia. · · ·' ·· · · · .. ·· . >cc ~ c< ' . (5)2 . 22 .. EMILY A McDERMOTI · ·paraphrases; 3 the cast of characters even includes a modem Cephallonian giant. · · What is less immediately apparent is that the novel contains a further pattern of inexplicit allusion to the Ot{yssry, along with a pervasive theme of nostos.. Emphasis on "homecoming" helps create the novel's ardent encomium to the Greek homeland that inspires such fierce love of place in its people and promises them peace and regeneration. Odysseus, of course, declines an offer of immortality from Calypso, in order to return to his home on Ithaca (Od. 5.203-224). Dr. Iannis has a similarly · passionate (if. more ambivalent) attachment to his "island filled with gods" .. (5); he speaks as much for himself as for his daughter when he says: ".•. I • ./don'tthinkthat Pelagia could live in Italy. She is a Greek. She would die p.ke a flower deprived of light" (288). As the novel progresses, however, the ·•. continuotl5,if. shadowy,·. juxtaposition of the alterity of the original .•··•···•·•· ... ··. Odysseus,;.epic world with the modernity of Dr. Iannis' island home both y ~bVe~. the nostos theme and reinterprets it in light of the cataclysmic 4 ··e£f~.of:WoddVfarli~ . ·· •.. ·•· .· . · . \ Tb.e nostos theme first becomes prominent in the narration of the ····.·.· .... ·return from the front of the soldier Mandras. the ill-fated betrothed of Dr. lannis.' ~trically independent daughter. Left at home immediately after \·\l'.~andras' Plro~osal by this ~man who jumbled a marriage together with ,i;vvhi1tebait•andc.'~., (90), Pelagia consoles herself by pouring forth her .enioti:onfiiii ~UIV letters to the front.· •When .more than a hundred of these. ;unans~red. ~ ~or cools, and reflection gradually convinces her that beeiFaph)'sical irifatuatioll only, that-in her focus on .. MandraS. so ..•.bea\l1tiflllli?lllll!liri.ous;· and .. young; Mandras, a$· exquisite as Apollo" . .. which. "assailed her like an invasion of tiny .:;jt\visiibl4:.m~.s.. l"·.···· (83) and ploWed forward despite a half-realization that she '2J~"4tiOCs ri4tlt lmow.\1· mat kind ofa man herJover really is~ By the time MandraS ;doc:Sarnve ~tornef.. tll .. us. Penelope will be ready to call it quits. .. •. •· .· .· .. heiautll\oi~. ~any doubts:whetherwe are mmntto read tNr[d400tll\ed ro111Ul!t\tt.in..te:·ir... is.· oflU\ Odysseus and afailed Penelope. ln \,J!~~~~~~~~~~:t·efftlsi.ons~ ~ learn that.•itl an .unusual onset of i~ IW begun .. to crochet a big cover for our marriage ~~~~Jt~~~~=;~,~~~ · ·· · · rudimentaty; she is thus t't1 "'lafriage •..• orodttted ( 108). The unpicking ........,~blgia':s; .~~ CQ'Iterl~~.··. ~ronl\6h:as · · .leitmotif ~~~F§~~~~i~~~~~·~ EVERY MAN's AN ODYSSEUS 23 identifying her with Penelope. The facts of the two women's cases are quite different, of course, as are their motivations. Penelope weaves her shroud in anticipation of her father-in-law Laertes' death; she unpicks it nightly as a ruse to deter her unwelcome suit by the impatient Ithacans-in other words, as a means to stay faithful to her absent husband. Pelagia, on the other hand, enters upon the project because it emblemizes her longing for consummation of her physical attraction to her fiance: "I am beginning with things for the bed, because that is where our life will begin" (108). As the novel proceeds, though, it becomes increasingly evident that the unpicking of the coverlet (mentioned further at llO, ll2, 195, 196, 213, 324, 363 and 415) has moved from being simply a sign of the heroine's d~mestic awkwardness to being a delaying tactic of her own, ironically directed at her betrothed himself. More predsely, it is representative of her growing reluctance to marry Mandras: later in the book we will see her handiwork "[burgeon] flawlessly" (363) as she antidpates marriage to her replacement Odysseus, the Italian officer Corelli. But Corelli is still in the future at the time of Mandras' first nostos. The returning Mandras will find Pelagia disenchanted, but faithful· and . dutiful. She has evidently begun to assum~erhaps even to hope-that Mandras is dead (see, e.g;, 84, 88, 119, 364) .. If she is surprised at his return, though, the reader has been awaiting it for quite some time.·· .. ·· .. · .. ·· Like Odysseus, Mandras is unrecognized upon his return•... Pelagia .enters her own kitchen to. find "a stranger seated at the kitchen table, a • tnost horrible and wild stranger· (12f:J), his hair matted and .. [seeming] to · have no form nor colour~ ( 128), wearing "the unidentifiable ~d ragged remains· of a. shirt. and. trousers,. and a. kind ··or surcoat· cut. out ~(animal skins that had been tacked together with thongsofsinew"(128). Pelagia, . assumes he is a stranger come .to seek treatment from her father; she.()Il1y . ··•· •. realizes his .true.identity,when the pet •pine marten Psipsina. jumps .up an~; i. burrows in ·his. pocl<et. and .he knows •. het:.name./Mandras•. aJre;!dy~.~ ·· . by the hardships he.has faced inwar.and _on .hisioUI'lley· is~~~.3.trJ'~'f·~:~::"' . ·•••··.. ~J.~.ha~~·~·~~u~~J'~~.~t'~~·~~;~~ij~~'~f~tfsi~~~0;. T and Jnt:Yer .. forgot.J ren•eDibered ~ SeCond ".,i: .••,and a,UJci>uld ~ l)f~ ... ' ;······· ,;r:rrf~i'~~ii:~~~~~~~~~~y· •. i. • ·: ;·,.: • The parallelS to the Odyss9 are patent.~ Odysseu$ returns home ~ .. , C.\ ·diSguise~ made ()ldbythe,goddess.Atl\ene•wl\0~~~ ...his.skin an~.~~llisc :.:, ,hairofiunatuial •. color:<q~~·f3.43(932);"1}if!t~;.is.dressed···m;~tter«:ti;c'· ,,:;.• • rags •. aitd .. ariimal)kit15' Otl~)3.~4~.4~7):;;;1i~.·.. ~~·.~ ..• ~.·.f"ll-St .. W:.;all•.;] ,''--~t:J, t,:.': ,{-,'- -'6 • ·'''".-'"',• .:,: 1-, ~.~,-. S:'~t~~~ -- ~ ';;-:•>{,-~· .;- 24 EMILY A McDERMOIT animal, the aged dog Argos (Od. 17 .290-327), while escaping recognition by his wife throughout their flrst meeting (Od. 19). •. , .·The differences between the two heroes' situations are also obvious. Most basically, of course, Odysseus returns home to a loving and loyal wife, · while Mandras returns home to the bitter disappointment of a betrothed whose emotions upon seeing him are "despair, unbearable excitement, guilt, pity, revulsion" (130). There will be no happy ending for Mandras, even after he goes away again. determined to do "things so great that even a queen would.beg to be [his] bride" (141). It is also significant that Odysseus is .purposely disguised, .while ·Mandras is .. only disfigured. One . effect·of this distinction is realism: in modem-day Greece, goddesses do not ·. at will make heroes old (as here) or shower them with grace and beauty (as · at Od~ 6.235); .those who leave for war are likely to return home permanently scarred. A second effect is to set Odysseus up as an intellectual standard to which Mandras cannot attain. · The "wily.. Odysseus prudently enters his city in disguise, so that he may reconnoiter and judge the fidelity of those who have remained at home before· revealing himself~· Mandras, on the other hand, . blunders unthinkingly straight into· the arms of a betrothed whose attraction to him, .··bOrn from his physical charms. and already weakened by his·absence, has no ·chance of stirviving his appearance. to her in this repulsive condition. He obliquely recognizes his miscalculation when he says: .. -·.:o- .-,,,':;._;;,/ , -~~"-:c.)_·,_>:, ;-<-;=>t_:,<;.·-~-:~.J>~:,,_.·<-;, :.·· .· ··, ·;·.Oon'ttoucft ri:e. Pdagia.il've got nee. And r stink.iAnd I shat myself when a ·. ·::::>c•; ·bomb fellnext to me..:.l didn't know what to do, and I came here first. All the time :· ·.· I hew I had tO get here first. that's all, and I'm tired and I stink.5 • ··: h' :. ..• ; , , , ,. , . , , . , , , , , ( 130) , -.-_-- ----~,-t~:>}: _. -~~:_,-: ,(<- ~ -~--;::i- -(~s:~{\!~;;:::~t;:~~:~:~'c::::l:l~~}-:A~:,j?\::_~£7is~:§/.~>.;;-( .:Y.~~/'·---- ·~ ,, , <Mllrt~·c~~~~~tti~"ilierit3i·to'lltrasFkt\veenhiiriseif'and. "the man or · Jll3IlY ways~.~e~.heJ:inlents that; ill ~g about him· as if he were not there;· ~elagia; his rnoilier and the doctor treat him as if he were "a body .
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