Jacques is trying to get David to see the importance of what happened with Giovanni; the beginning of a possible new and happy life that David can have if he only accepts it. “He is very fond of you….already. But this doesn’t make you happy or proud, as it should. IT makes you frightened and ashamed. Why?” (Jacques, 56) Jacques tries to get David to admit to himself that he has feelings for Giovanni and that even though he is scared, it may change him if he admits it to himself, he warns him that he will be miserable if he doesn’t take a risk. “You play it safe long enough….and you’ll end up trapped in your own dirty body, forever…..like me”. (Jacques,57) David thinks he should marry Hella and have kids because this is what is accepted in society. However Jacques warns him that if he continues to lie to himself and tries to ignore his true feelings of what he really wants he will end up being very unhappy just as Jacques is. This part foreshadows the fact that David will hurt Giovanni, when it states “And to that poor boy, yonder, who doesn’t know that when he looks at you the way he does, he is simply putting his head in the lion’s mouth” (Jacques,55), because in the end David doesn’t have the guts to stay with Giovanni but leaves him when Hella came back to Paris.
Professor Laura Westengard
Email: lwestengard@citytech.cuny.edu
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Very good point. I believe this had David feeling trapped in Giovanni’s room which he did not like. so much so that he had to leave and return to Hella
I think that David is lying to himself about his sexuality too. I agree that Jacques is trying to help David realize the mistakes he is making before it is too late, and he ends up miserable, lonely and sad like him. I thought this part of the novel foreshadowed the beginning of the relationship between David and Giovanni and the end of David and Hella, but I agree and see now that it also is foreshadowing the breakup of David and Giovanni.