Analysis of Babylon Revisited: Redemption Denied Short Story - Essay Example

“Babylon Revisited Redemption Denied. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story, “Babylon Revisited,” is set in Paris in the aftermath of the Stock Market Crash of 1929, which followed the ‘Roaring Twenties.’ The decade was characterized by conspicuous consumption and flamboyant lifestyles focused on the pursuit of pleasure. Fitzgerald coined the phrase, ‘the Jazz Age,’ to refer to the twenties, and the “joy-riding, extravagant, and irresponsible society, and the spiritual desperation and sterility that it represented” (American Literature Since the Civil War, 224). “Babylon Revisited,” is Fitzgerald’s criticism of the ‘Jazz Age,’ of which he was a participant. The protagonist, Charlie Wales, returns to Paris, the scene of his earlier debauchery. Charlie hopes to regain his nine year old daughter, Honoria, who is presently in the custody of his sister-in-law, Marion. The story narrates his attempt to convince Marion to hand over Honoria and his failure to move her. Charlie Wales attempts to redeem himself, but finds that he must continue to pay the price for his past dissipation. Charlie lives a life of dissipation in Paris three years ago. He thinks back on the group of friends with whom he shared a routine which consisted of a continuous round of partying, drinking and expensive dinners. The reader gets a glimpse into Charlie’s past life through his reminiscences, as he visits the scenes of his former debauchery: the Ritz bar; the erotic dances of Josephine Baker at the Casino; the Bricktop nightclub, “where he had parted with so many hours and so much money” (Fitzgerald, 229); wine bars and cabarets; “champagne dinners and long luncheons that began at two and ended in a blurred and vague twilight” (Fitzgerald, 230). Having got lucky on the stock market, Charlie gives up his job and lives it up in Paris, indulging in moments of wild profligacy, in which “ thousand-franc notes (were) given to an orchestra for playing a single number, hundred-franc notes tossed to a doorman for calling a cab” (Fitzgerald, 229); Charlie and his wife, Helen, are usually drunk and promiscuous. Their relationship reaches its nadir when Charlie locks Helen out of their home on a snowy winter night, after a quarrel at a nightclub. Charlie finds himself “flat on my back in a sanitarium, and the market had cleaned me out” (Fitzgerald, 234). Shortly before Helen dies of heart failure, Charlie accedes to her wish and gives Marion guardianship of Honoria. Over the next eighteen months, Charlie gives up his dissipated lifestyle and now wants to start over again with his daughter. Charlie categorically rejects his past life of dissipation. He realizes the utter waste of his life and resources in the past, and bitterly regrets it: “All the catering to vice and waste was on an utterly childish scale, and he suddenly realized the meaning of the word “dissipate”—to dissipate into thin air; to make nothing out of something” (Fitzgerald, 229). He overcomes his addiction to alcohol, confining himself to a single drink every afternoon. He has a steady business in Prague and is a wealthy man once more. As he revisits his old haunts, he experience a sense of revulsion and views the scenes of his depredation “with clearer and more judicious eyes than those of other days (Fitzgerald, 229). His very perspective on life is different: Lorraine, who is very attractive to him earlier, now seems trite, blurred, worn away (Fitzgerald, 236). Charlie acknowledges his mistakes and is determined to make amends. He tells Marion, “three years ago I was acting badly --- But all that’s over,” and assures her that he has “changed radically” (Fitzgerald, 233). He has moved from “months of dissipation” and “utter responsibility” (Fitzgerald, 236) and is focused on becoming a responsible father and providing a home for his daughter, whom he loves deeply. He asks his sister to keep house for him and plans to hire a French governess for Honoria. However, his plans do not work out. Marion refuses to set aside her legal guardianship and give Honoria to Charlie. Charlie presents his case strongly, and pleads with the Peters’ “But if we wait much longer I’ll lose Honoria’s childhood and my chance for a home” (Fitzgerald, 233). Even Marion, who sees him as a “tangible villain” (Fitzgerald, 233), is forced to admit that Charlie has a valid claim on his daughter and she has no grounds to reject his appeal, in the face of his apparent regret and new life. She reluctantly accepts the inevitable and agrees to relinquish her guardianship and send Honoria with him. Charlie is overjoyed and sees his redemption within reach. He exults that “The door of the world was open again” (Fitzgerald, 235). But nemesis catches up with him in the guise of “Sudden ghosts out of the past: Duncan Schaeffer, and Lorraine Quarles” (Fitzgerald, 231). These drunken comrades of Charlie’s dissipated past gate-crash the Peters’ dinner and Lorraine tipsily refers to an episode when Charlie hammered on her door at 4 a.m. for a drink. Marion’s distrust of his character and morals returns in full force and she decides to retain her guardianship of her niece. The tragic irony of Charlie’s plight is the fact that it is he who, in a moment of nostalgia for past friends, asks the barman to give Schaeffer the Peters’ address. Before he can enter, the door to redemption and a new life is shut in Charlie’s face. Charlie sincerely repents of his past dissipation and is a reformed man. He affirms that character is the only worthy, unalterable aspect of an individual. He seeks to find true redemption in his role as a father to Honoria. However, all his new-found rectitude and responsibility do not give him the reward he desires: a home with his beloved daughter. He must continue to pay the price for his past folly. He is forced to leave his daughter with a woman who is intensely hostile to him. He is denied a chance at redemption. Charlie poignantly says, “They couldn’t make him pay forever” and resolves that “He would come back some day” (Fitzgerald, 239). The reader empathizes with the protagonist of “Babylon Revisited,” and hopes that, one day in the future, Charlie is finally able to leave behind the sins of his past, and embark on a new life. Works Cited. Fitzgerald Scott, F. “Babylon Revisited.” American Literature Since the Civil War. Create edition. McGraw-Hill, 2011. 226-239. e-Book. 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