Themes of Death and Sexuality in “Love and Exile” by Isaac Bashevis Singer. Isaac Bashevis Singer, born July 24 th 1904 as Ice-Her sz Zenger in Leon cin, Poland, went on to win the Nobel Prize in 1978 as a result of his great talent for writing short stories and his in debt and heart touching depictions of traditional Polish life throughout various periods of history. Prominent in this great Yiddish writers works, however, are themes and images of death and sexuality, sometimes so vivid and startling that one can’t but note them as extraordinary. It poses the question; is the presence of such controversial themes usual for Yiddish writers producing literature at the time of the holocaust, or did it all stem solely from the most inner and individual part of Isaac Bashevis Singer’s great and somewhat melancholic mind? Love and Exile, the autobiographical trilogy by Singer, arguably provides us with the priest examples of these themes, at the same time lending to us the strongest probabilities as to their sources.
Throughout the memoir Singer juxtaposes images of morbidity and sexuality constantly like a juggler with two different balls. In the first chapter he confesses to being careless in his many love affairs and to not being proud of his behaviour; “I did things of which I was ashamed. I waged love affairs on several fronts… I stole love, but I was always caught in the act, entangled in my lies… .” This confession quite early on in the book serves as a type of warning to the reader that an innocent tale of idealized and pure love in the life of an honest but unfortunate writer is not what we are about to embark upon. Almost immediately, as though on cue following the metaphorical warning in chapter one, we are introduced to the controversial character of Lena; fugitive from prison, with an unusually masculine like body and character, partaking in pre-marital sex with Singer and, as it turns out, pregnant with his illegitimate child.
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This theme of reckless sexual affairs and promiscuity is continued as the story, or as his life moves on, as we learn of his affairs with married woman Stef a Treitler and, at the same time with his cousin Esther. He was castigated by a reader for writing too much of sex, that reader saying it was not in the tradition of Yiddish Literature to do so, so again we are asking ourselves, why does he continue to do so? Is he trying to break free from the restraints enforced upon him by traditional Yiddish literature or is he trying to bring Yiddish literature forward, into a new era where the write can express his true desires and beliefs, however controversial or unacceptable they may appear to be? Singer’s juxtaposed images and thoughts on death appear just as often, if not more, than his sexual based ones. His first most vivid thoughts on death we encounter at the beginning of the memoir also. By the end of this work the reader becomes quite accustomed to Singers frequent desires, or apparent desires, to commit suicide, however, without knowing that this is basically how he is, how he works, when he declares, as he is leaving Lena to go to Warsaw to check for letters, that he is a corpse, not that he feels like a corpse but that he is a corpse and he is .”.. dead, dead, dead!” It does create quite an impression on the reader, revealing his strikingly dramatic morbid side. These later confessions to suicidal desires appear genuine and heartfelt by Singer, however, taking all the facts into account, one cannot but wonder if it is in fact he himself who creates the surroundings or circumstances that push him to experience such deeply depressive and melancholic thoughts, and not the doings of the world around him in which he discovers so many faults and corruptions.
And if it is Singer himself who, by his own actions, invites melancholy upon himself, does he do so intentionally or not? It has been suggested in literature, time and time again over the years that certain people welcome feelings of melancholy, extracting types of joy from the experience, most obviously these thoughts have been aired in, and in relation to Thomas Warton’s “The Pleasures of Melancholy.” With this in mind it seems possible that Singer too could have been one of these characters that joyed in despairing and who inadvertently manoeuvred his circumstances to impose this upon himself. For example, still in “Love and Exile”, on his trip to America, on the boat he requests a cabin alone, immediately isolating him from others and imposing loneliness, as when he keeps the single table assigned to him, then asks for vegetarian food, then finally resorts to eating alone in his lone dark cabin and feeling like a prisoner. Yes certainly, the blame for his unhappiness could fall upon the shoulders of the unfriendly cabin crew, but some of that blame has to fall upon Singer for purposely creating his surroundings so. It is Singers arrival in America however that truly gives us insight into his deeply unhappy side, not leaving behind the regular references to sex that tend to accompany his morbid thoughts throughout.
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John Keats' life was filled with the loss of loved ones from a very young age. Watching those around him die and knowing that he himself was going to die from the same disease that plagued most of his family, the thought of death consumed Keats' entire being. Due to this horrible reality that he was forced to face, Keats became obsessed with immortality. Instead of facing his own impending death, ...
He doesn’t take to the strange and unconventional differences that America introduces to him for a long time. Even on his first night in the new land that has promised him endless opportunities and an escape from the looming invasion of Hitler’s troops into Poland, Singer for a split second contemplates killing himself as he gazes out upon the American ocean; “Maybe simply walk into the sea and put an end to the whole thing?” He feels again as he did at the beginning of the memoir in Poland when he had nothing going for him, despite all that as happened in favour for him since, he sees himself as a corpse.
He tells himself he is a corpse. Another example of his strange obsession with suicide appears in his meeting with Nesha, the woman with whom he proceeds to have a love affair. Strangely, in this reference to wilful death, he incorporates a somewhat sexual opportunity also. Not considered as normal in the minds of anyone but Singer, he expresses admiration for Nesha’s dead husband, as he was “brave” enough to go through with killing himself. But also, as a result of him having killed himself he decides not to try anything sexual with her as he doesn’t want to worry her with another suicidal lover; “That Boris had had courage.
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To be or Not to be 'To be or not to be, that is the question.' ; Hamlet is eager to escape a life of calamity and disaster. He sees his life as a terrible burden, something he yearns to escape. The problem, however, is that death brings one into territory uncharted by tse still alive. It is not death that he fears for he perceives death as a release; the problem is death through suicide. Hamlet ...
He wasn’t the coward I was. I wont try anything with her, I resolved… She needs someone who would support her and her child, not another potential suicide… .” Despite the fact that Singers career comes surprisingly easily to him in America, what with being a Polish immigrant, and he obtains a permanent visa which is more than a lot of immigrants succeed in doing, his unhappiness grows. By the end of the memoir, instead of being the successful, talented and somewhat happy Yiddish writer he should be, we see Singer still holding suicide in the back of his mind as an option if things don’t work out, we even see him, one could say, at an all time low. He appears to have nothing, and he ends this ever drowning in sadness memoir with a most despairing line; “I am lost in America, lost forever.” Returning to my previous point, I have to ask myself- did Isaac Bashevis Singer ever want happiness for himself? Yes he went through the motions of all that is supposed to create happiness in life, he emigrated, he worked, he obtained a visa, he met people, when forced to, but not doing any of these things did he seem to be happy.
Constantly resorting to images of death as the solution to everything, and if not death, some sexually based thought was running through his head. What did he want? Did he want to die? We know that sex wasn’t always what he wanted; this is proven in the case of Zosima. Or was he simply happy being unhappy? The answer to this question of course is debatable. However, I think I know how I’d answer it.
