Actions vs. Words

            As I read the novel I found myself asking if the Magistrate was any better than the others, such as the Colonel. In the beginning I found his idea of how he “barely scratched the surface” (17) in reference to the ruins, to be a perfect quote when transferred to his place in the situation between the soldiers and the barbarians. The question came up a lot after he took in the girl who had been blinded, for he had let her father and son be killed. While he may have talked about her and praised her in his mind the notion of actions speak louder than words works very well in his dealings with her. He is not trying to understand her or her people (the idea of learning her language is only brought up when they say goodbye) he used her when dealing with his old age, his lack of sexual virility

            I cannot deny that the Magistrate does change, yet it is only after he is locked away and tortured a shift occurs, after dealing with the “humiliations of imprisonment” (99) and being “terror stricken” (110). When he had to get clean to be presentable for the Colonel, I was brought back to when he ordered the prisoners to do so in the beginning. Yet after being freed he turns back to his old wishes, from being a martyr to wanting to be fat, “I want a life of simple satisfactions” (150). While it can be understood, one who has had his life turned upside down would want his old life back with; it seems like a cold wish.

            Altogether I find the characters development to be lacking, while he called the barbarians men when he was defending them from being beaten he continues to call them barbarians after the event, and imagines them raiding and slaughtering them. He thinks barbarians will be won over by “mulberry jam, bread and gooseberry jam” (179).

            The focus goes back on his sexual issues, and the woman he sleeps with tells him of the pain he caused the girl, to which he brushes aside claiming she didn’t tell his side of the story (176), but does his side matter? He considered the blind girl a mere surface, forgot about her, wanting her only when she was leaving. His conquest of her is a disgusting one, and I don’t think his side matters at all.

          

(Side Note: Later in the work when the Magistrate asks his torturer how he can eat with such dirty hands I was reminded of Shakespeare’s play Macbeth when Lady Macbeth cannot scrub off the blood that is staining her hands (146). The question of how one can go on to do regular activities after such horrific acts is a powerful one.)