Jacques is trying to warn David. He seems to sympathize with with David, and understands what he is going through, because he too went through the same thing during his youth. Jacques has made it clear to David that his greatest regret within his love life is ever having hidden from the world that he was gay. He pretty much explains that he could have taken the risk and know what would have happened as opposed to getting old, living life with regrets, and coming out when it was too late to enjoy youthful love. This conversation makes it seem as though taking the risk would be the better choice. I agree with this, if it gives you a shot at happiness, and you’re unhappy, you literally have nothing to lose. To me, this would foreshadow what David’s life would be like, if he doesn’t learn to accept his identity in it’s entirety, and explore it and grow as a person in this time. I compare him to Jacques, and I imagine Jacques does the same every time he looks at David. It’s almost how a parent looks at their kid, and hopes that their kid can avoid the mistakes they made, and learn to live happily.
Professor Laura Westengard
Email: lwestengard@citytech.cuny.edu
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I agree with you that he has to accept his identity, but it’s not all about him. He still has a father and we all know that he loves him. He even cried out loud “daddy” in chapter one and this shows how much he loves his father. He hesitates to accept himself because he doesn’t want his father to feel ashamed. Let’s think about his situation during that time period. It is not that easy to accept his true identity.
I agree with your interpretation of the conversation. I feel as if this conversation was everything David was longing for. Jacques was giving David a interpretation of life as a gay man and David was finally being warned about wasted time. I just love this “your father or mine, should have told us that not many people ever died of love. But multitudes have perished and are perishing every hour- and is the oddest places!- for the lack of it.”
I personally think that Jacques, treated him with more of a fatherly love in this conversation. To think of it like this, when he was younger his father was not around to teach him and nurture him. His aunt wasn’t making this any better either, and they both neglected to speak of his mother. Which in my opinion the reacquiring dream he had may have scared him from women. I do believe that Jacques was trying to teach him from his own mistakes, and basically telling David you only live once
You all make such great points! David clearly uses his father as a reason to avoid his own “dirty” desires, but Jacques also points out that avoiding his desires actually *makes* them dirty and ugly. If David just allowed himself to love, Jacques implies, it could be beautiful. Even though David is highly conflicted, I believe he listened to Jacques in that moment or he wouldn’t have started his relationship with Giovanni at all.