Jan
Even as she does so, she moves toward a moment in which the self she has idealized merges with the discontented self she experiences. That She never mentions her husband as itself believed to indicate unhappiness in her marriage. Through this process, she internalizes qualities that she has externalized in the portrait. With the writing of this play, she exerted a kind of agency within the limited confines of her situation By visualizing her unwitnessed self And creating a series of witnesses for it. Not only the portrait but also the implied audience of the play provides a witness for that part of herself—the literary talent—That has not been sufficiently acknowledged. Lacking A disciple, she concludes that she will have to summon her own soul. “Among the ancients, There were those…who wrote eulogies for themselves… I sing the “summons to the soul” and drink pine wine. Her Rhapsody to the portrait, then, is an attempt to summon her own soul back, An attempt that concludes with the portrait merging with her own body.
Dec 30, 2023 11:21 AM