Elena can’t or will not ignore all signs that the relationship with Nino is not a healthy one. It reminds me of the line in film The Leopoard spoken by Tancredi “For things to remain the same, things will have to change.” Which for an Italian prince in 1860 Sicily met a modified monachy was better than a republic. For Elena a life with Nino is better than a life with out him. She has dreamt about him since she was a child and now that she has him she will not let go. So who is doing the changing in this relationship? In each step of their relationship it is Elena. She changes her marriage, she changes her relations with her mother, her mother in law, with Lila, she changes locations where to live, she changes her role as a mother to her children by letting her mother in law take care of them, she even goes as far as to accept Nino as her lover even though he’s a notorious liar with a 8 month pregnant wife. But as an intelligent woman she is ready to ignore everything and she justifies it to herself when she says about their relationship “everything is changing, we are inventing new forms of living together’ (pg. 114) Just so that “things remain the same”. If I was a fortune teller I would bet that Elena is due for more emotional pain.
Tag Archives: desire
Now you see her, now you don’t.
“‘Smarginatura’ is a concept that is associated with Ferrante’s novels. In the storyline it’s a physical phenomenon that Lila experiences a number of times in her life, where she feels that she is losing her solid outlines, she is in a way, blurring her boundaries and melting into her surroundings—metaphorically losing her identity.” (Grace Russo Bullaro, co-author of “The Works of Elena Ferrante. Reconfiguring the Margins)
At Professor Galiani’s party we see a Lila remaining within her margins (pg 158). Because regardless of her good station within the rione as Mrs. Carracci she can not break the boundaries of her social standing “she feels voiceless, graceless, depraved of movement, of beauty” “They didn’t want to know anything about her”.(pg 161). “They” are the intellectuals, the educated, the well to do. Lila being soundly rejected tries to turns the table on Lenu’ and all the guest at the party, mocking her and her attempt to “speak like those people” (pg 161). Ferrante gives us a clear view of Lenu’ who is thriving with a great desire to expand and grow beyond her rione and Lila who comes to a brutal understanding that she cannot nor is she welcomed outside of it.
