Georgette: no. I don’t like Paris. It’s expensive and dirty.
Frances: really? I find it so extraordinary clean. One of the cleanest cities in all of Europe.
G: I find it dirty.
F: How strange! But perhaps you have not been here very long.
G: I’ve been here long enough
I read this book some years ago but did not get much out of it. I’ve just started rereading it and found this early interaction fascinating. One possible explanation for Frances’ dogged insistence that Paris is clean is that she is clearly very attached to it and to her place in high Parisian society, and sensing the beginnings of Richard’s discontent with his life in Paris does not wish for him to get any ideas about leaving. That may not even be the case here, however, as To my understanding, Frances is an extremely dominating personality who can easily sustain an argument with the sole aim of coming out the “winner” or the person whose perspective is more correct. I think I see Frances’s mentality clearly enough, but Georgette has always somewhat stumped me as a character, as she seems alternately submissive and strong willed, like many of Hemingway female characters. What do you guys think about this interaction?
by aMaZiNg_viola_king
2 Comments
I started with a simple explanation, but I wanted to go little deeper. The conversation you reference just shows us the different lives that Georgette and Francis live. Georgette is a prostitute who knows the seamy underbelly of France, and Francis is a socialite who only sees what the wealthy see. Georgette and Francis are tertiary characters. They give us insight into Jake and Cohn. While we sympathize with Jake because the story is told from his POV, we see a little bit of the shallowness in him here. He brings Georgette out to dinner with him because he thinks it will be entertaining to see his wealthier friends having to interact with a prostitute from the slums. When this entertainment doesn’t pan out he abandons her. Francis is there to give us insight into Cohn, who eventually leaves her to pursue Brett, (who is terrible in her own right). We need to see that Francis is awful too, so we don’t judge Cohn too harshly. Everyone else mocks and judges Cohn, and while he is flawed, he is not at the same level as everyone else.
This is starting to get a little long so I’ll leave things here.
Silly book about silly young drunk people who seemingly never have to go to work.