Content area
Full Text
'The Lady of the Lake' is more complex than 'The Magic Barrel' and is better placed at the end of the 2nd third of the course or a bit later. Where 'The Magic Barrel' has several structural features that are clearly related to one another and reinforce one another, 'The Lady of the Lake' has two very different set of elaborate structural features. Even though they are quite different, they too reinforce each other as they converge on the same interpretation of the story.
The basic structures in 'The Lady of the Lake' were first suggested in a class by Grimes. Her work on the Lady of the Lake/Arthurian legend structure is not included here.
The story line is always the first step in the class.
Bernard Malamud's The Lady of the Lake' tells of Harry Levin of New York who inherits money, changes his name to Harry Freeman to escape the 'limitations of his past', and travels to Italy to find 'romance'. He becomes intrigued with Lake Maggiore and rows a boat out to see one of its islands. On the Isola del Dongo, he sees a young woman who interests him and he plans a return trip. The island rises in terraces with hedged gardens on the levels and the main garden on the top. Later, Freeman is rowed back to the island by the young woman's father and the young woman, Isabella, begins to talk to Freeman. He 'pursues' her but she remains distant until the ending, when she rejects him after giving him a series of chances to admit his Jewishness.
Freeman had several chances to build a friendship with her which was based on truth. When she first sees him, she asks if he is American and then studies him and asks 'Are you perhaps Jewish?' He lies about his background. Later, after they tour the house and she shows him the tapestries, some with scenes from Dante's Inferno, she asks him to swim after her to a raft. He strips and follows her. Perhaps she wanted to see if he was circumcised, which would further add to her thought that he is Jewish. Back on shore, she spreads picnic including 'salami, prosciutto, cheese, bread, and red wine'. Although the...