Essay on "Babylon Revisited: The Inability"

Essay 4 pages (1261 words) Sources: 4 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Within a relatively short span of time, he has lost everything -- child, wife, and fortune. And although he has regained the latter, this feels meaningless in light of his loss of the people he once cared most about. Even though Marion and Lincoln have less money, they still have his child and the ability to 'imprint' upon her in a way he cannot, despite his many financial advantages.

Though he is once again wealthy, Charlie is shown to have very normal desires, like the desire to parent his own child and have an influence over her. "She was already an individual with a code of her own, and Charlie was more and more absorbed by the desire of putting a little of himself into her before she crystallized utterly" (Fitzgerald II). Also despite his wealth, Charlie is faced with his own sense of ordinariness. Just like many men with less money, he fought with his wife, had problems with alcohol, and has a difficult time making a case for his 'reform.'

Charlie is also unable to escape his past: not only does he run into friends from his old days of dissipation while in France; Marion continually reminds him of his failure as a husband. Charlie feels he has begun a new life now that he only has one drink a day and is rich again, but his displacement from his daughter is a daily reminder that he is still being punished for being the man he was.

While daughter evidently wants to live with him, Charlie feels guilty for being a bad father, for his alcoholism, and for the resentment of his in-laws. All of the money in the world cannot 'buy' the things Charlie wants to buy, namely the ability to make amends for what he did as an alcoholic husband to Helen (which included locking Helen out of her own house at one point). His money cannot change the past. At the end of the story Marion claims to be sick, causing Lincoln (a weak man who likes Charlie but who is unable to resist his wife's will) to be dissuaded in giving up Honoria. Charlie realizes the only thing he can give his daughter is 'things' -- not an example to follow, a home, or something substantial. "There wasn't much he could do now except send Honoria some things; he would send her a lot of things tomorrow. He thought rather angrily that this was just money -- he had given so many people money. . . ." (Fitzgerald V).

All of the protagonists of the story are unhappy -- even Marion and Lincoln who keep Honoria. The Peters are filled with class resentment and Marion is vaguely 'ill' or at least uses her health as leverage against her husband to get her way and to revenge herself upon Charlie. Although the Peters likely want more money and resent Charlie's greater wealth, Fitzgerald does not suggest that money would really buy their greater happiness. The same is true of Charlie -- he has only recovered his fortune but has an unstable living situation and life. His recovery from alcoholism likewise seems very fragile.

In "Babylon Revisited," the wealthy thus worry about the same things as 'you and I' -- the value of love and wanting a connection with other human beings. Because of the barriers the protagonists have created between themselves and the haunting specter of the past, however, they are unable to overcome the emotional obstacles they have created for themselves. Although Lincoln and Marion keep Honoria at the end, there are no winners given the pervasive resentment that infiltrates all of the lives of the characters.

Works Cited

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. "Babylon Revisited." Saturday Evening Post. 21 Feb 1931. 1 Jan 2014.… READ MORE

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