5385: Response Two, "A Room with a View."

I worry that my reading of this text simplifies it in some way; that I'm missing some integral part of this story that opens it up to wider possibilities, like the secret entrances that Miss Bartlett searches for her in room. My initial reaction, though, is that the story does not deal with Italy at all, really. This first section of the text offers Italy only as a large, unmanageable, baggy concept; we get little of the scenery, other than the rain, and the characters discuss it as an idea even while inhabiting it (on the rare occasion that the narrator offers any other description, it does not travel past "dirty," depicting a scene that could fit into any country at any time). Italy appears in a variety of ways, seeming to function in whatever way is necessary for that particular character on that particular page. Repeatedly, they tie the location to abstractions: "One doesn't come to Italy for niceness" or "she hopes to find the true Italy." When the narrator asks, "Who would suppose this is Italy?" we realize that, as of yet, there is no central Italy to describe. From the very beginning--the title, even--we understand that Italy is something to be seen, not experienced. In one moment, it has supreme agency--"For one ravishing moment, Italy appeared," and later "receded"-- only to devolve not long after into something conquerable, possessable, owned by Miss Lavish ("My Italy," she claims). In the end, we get the sense that as "Mr. Emerson look[s] for his son, Miss Bartlett look[s] for Miss Lavish, [and] Miss Lavish look[s] for her cigarette-case," Lucy--and perhaps the text as a whole--looks for Italy.

Quick side note (again): the supernaturalization element is rather interesting, too, though also potentially obvious. That Italians are a people who "see everything, and know what we want before we know it ourselves," able to "read out thoughts, and foretell our desires," thus giving them a power that leaves the characters "at their mercy" is arguably one of the most interesting elements of the text. It's unexpected (though understandable because it functions rather simply as an othering element), but that the story glosses over this fact, implying easy acceptance, heightens it to intrigue.