Charlie and Marion in Babylon Revisited Essay

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Charlie



In Fitzgerald's "Babylon Revisited" Charlie is an American in Paris, estranged from his in-laws and desperate to be re-united with his daughter Honoria. Throughout his stay in the city, the narrative allows glimpses of Charlie's decadent past lifestyle -- during the hey-day of the riotous Jazz Age prior to the 1929 market crash and the ensuing Great Depression. It is in that period of loss that Charlie's life begins to change -- but not without a cost. Charlie's sister-in-law Marion cannot forgive Charlie for what he did to her sister, his wife: he locked her out of their home in the middle of winter after he saw her kiss another man. That night wandering in the cold was the "beginning of the end" for her and she later died. Marion and her husband Lincoln now look after Charlie's daughter Honoria, who also wants to be re-united with her father. Charlie's past lifestyle -- the drunken nights -- continues to haunt him, both literally (as it serves as the pretext for Marion refusing to give custody of Honoria over to Charlie) and figuratively (as "friends" from his past continuously pop up to tempt him back to his old ways). However, Charlie shows no signs of going back or of wanting to go back. The past for him is as dead as his wife. He has sworn off drinking and is sober for more than a year. It is a condition he hopes to maintain "permanently" as he says Marion during one particularly unpleasant inquisition. This paper will show that because of Charlie's clear turning of a new leaf, the remorse he feels for having locked his wife out, and the love that still bonds him and his daughter together, Charlie is not as "bad" as Marion makes him out to be and deserves custody of his daughter.

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One of the most compelling reasons that the reader should recognize as sign of Charlie's good-nature is his rapport with his daughter Honoria. When the two have reconnected, she is so happy to see him and he her. They go out together yet Charlie recognizes that the time away has created a distance in their relationship. She has grown while he has been in Prague and he feels compelled to make up the lost time by buying her gifts -- yet she is mature enough to understand that everyone is hurting from the Depression and that there is no need for gifts. Besides, he has already bought her a doll. Yet even this doll becomes a symbol of how much older Honoria is getting: Charlie sees that he needs to bridge the gap between them (an indication that he is not only good-natured but also astute and emotionally intelligent) so he pretends to just be meeting his daughter for the first time. It is a playful but very heartfelt gesture that allows them to instantly fill the gap of time and space that has arisen between them. He sees the doll and after asking if Honoria is married (still pretending to be getting to know her for the first time) he says, "But I see you have a….....

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Works Cited


Fitzgerald, F. Scott. "Babylon Revisited." Gutenberg. Web. 30 Oct 2016.

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