著者

鵜木 奎治郎

出版者

信州大学教養部

雑誌

信州大学教養部紀要 第1部 人文科学 (ISSN:05830605)

巻号頁・発行日

no.7, pp.69-104, 1973-03

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The thesis I am going to deal with is about the outward resemblance between the way of living of a Japanese middle-aged widow (Kosuke, the hero in Y. Yamamoto's famous novel: The Waves) and that of an American middle-aged widow (Charlie, the hero in F. S. Fitzgerald's famous short story: Babylon Revisited). Just as these two heroes in fiction were men of strict moral consciousness, so were they created by the two authors of equally strict moral consciousness. Again, just as in these two stories, two motherless children (a boy called Susumu by name and a girl called Honoria by name) played very important parts, so in the authors' real lives their own two children (a boy called Yuichi, probably named after the author's own name, and a girl called Frances, probably named after the author's own name), were their matters of utmost concern. Therefore, in this case, I think there is something of authenticity in explaining these two pieces as a rare example reflecting their authors' internal mental lives. From this point of view, I want to call readers' attention both to the heroes' Faust-like attitudes and to the motherless children's own reserved attitudes toward their fathers' affectionate sympathies. A Kosuke Faust, displaying in his own charater something of a Goethe-like Faust who had abandoned Gretchen after availing her credulity, seeked eagerly for his son's rising in the world. Susumu shall follow his may-be father's success in the world at any cost. While a Charlie Faust, always repenting of his having done many a decadent youthful follies, only expected his daughter Honoria to select her own way of living with a code of hers. She shall never follow her might-have-been father's failures in the world. Thus it becomes evident these strict (in Yamamoto's case) and elegant (in Fitzgerald's case) ties of father and child make almost contrary charms in these two pieces. "Like father, like son". is only applicable to The Waves and not to Babylon Revisited. Or, to quote Kazin's words, "Fitzgerald did not worship riches or the rich; he merely lived in their golden eye"., while Yamamoto did worship success or the successful men; he couldn't solely content himself with living in their golden eye.