While Gottfried von Strassburg’s Tristan and Isolde and Don DeLillo’s The Body Artist were written eight centuries apart, the narratives have a common theme. Both texts focus on the evolving relationship of two couples, and this relationship is embedded in the notion of distance. In each case, distance is a physical variable, as well as a psychological one. Gottfried’s Tristan and Isolde and Don DeLillo’s Lauren Hartke and Rey Robles undertake a similar journey, with regards to separation from one another and in their reactions to such separation.
We will look at the texts’ language, grammar, narrative structure and use of symbolism to analyze the relationship between distance, technology and communication in Tristan and Isolde and The Body Artist.
In both instances, this tri-fold relationship represents a chain of events around which the narrative is structured. Initially, communication between the characters establishes their relationship to one-another, and distance is the defining parameter of that relationship. Then, we observe how technology impacts this initial distance, as the relationship is altered. In the case of Tristan and Isolde, technology brings the couple together. When it comes to Lauren and Rey, technology tears them apart. Communication is used to convey the symbolism of that technology to the reader. Finally, through communication between the characters, or in reference to another character, a new relationship to distance is established, as each protagonist attempts to redefine-and make peace with- reality.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
II. Communication and Initial Distance: Isolation from the Other, and from the World
The Body Artist
In the first chapter of The Body Artist, the characters’ relationship to one another is paradoxal. Physical closeness is described, but psychologically, both protagonists reside in a different world. Lauren, the narrator, and her elderly husband, Rey, are operating within the same physical space and time frame: the kitchen at breakfast time. Yet there is no sense of cohesion, as they go about their tasks. This division, unusual for a married couple, is conveyed through DeLillo’s language and grammar. In multiple instances, the author emphasizes the divide between his protagonists, with regards to possessions. He writes, about the couple: “it was his coffee and his cup. They shared the newspaper, but was actually, unspokenly, hers” (DeLillo, 8). Then, later: “the phone was his. The birds were hers…”(20). These sentences serve to divide the common sphere, the kitchen, into separate entities, representing two differentiated inhabitants. In so doing, distance between these inhabitants is accentuated.
Similarly, when Lauren and Rey exchange words, these are as incoherent as they are infrequent, which further accentuates the impression of division, or distance, between the characters. The grammatical structure in such dialogues is particularly important. The short, incomplete sentences indicate nonchalance, even annoyance, furthering the already-established distance between Lauren and Rey. It is as if the protagonists, who are supposed to share a bond, by virtue of their marital status, have nothing to say to one another, or even care about what the other has to say. As an example of this incongruity, DeLillo shares the following exchange with the reader, as Rey is getting ready to leave the house:
“She saw him standing in the doorway.
‘Have you seen my keys?’
She said, ‘what…which keys?’
He looked at her.
She said, ‘I bought some lotion yesterday…’
‘All my keys are on one ring,’ he said’” (25).
Though both protagonists are exchanging words, and responding to those words on cue, the conversation is randomized, through lack of understanding (‘what…which keys?’) and consistency (at one moment, keys are being discussed. The next, lotion). It is almost as if two strangers, who do not know each others’ patterns and habits, were having a conversation. Thus, Lauren and Rey’s relationship of husband and wife is heavily distorted, as even greater distance between them is forged.
Despite these observations, there is an underlying sense of connection between Lauren and Rey, but that connection divides the couple further. “Every time [Lauren] had to bend down and reach into the lower…parts of the refrigerator she let out a groan…She was too trim and limber to feel the strain and was only echoing Rey, identifying, groaning his groan, but in a manner so seamless and deep it was her discomfort too” (DeLillo, 9). Instead of dissipating the great divide between Lauren and Rey, bringing them closer together, this connection serves to amplify the divide. While Lauren feels connected to her husband, she is incapable of truly identifying with him, or feeling what he feels, by virtue of her age. He, at 64, will feel pain when bending down, but Lauren, being under half his age and a body artist, experiences no pain at all. Through an attempted psychological connection, the real, physical division is blatantly exposed, in all of its painful rawness.
Through language and grammatical structure, the paradoxal nature of Lauren and Rey’s relationship, the clear-cut division of the protagonists’ identity and their relationship’s lack of consistency becomes evident, as does Lauren’s attempted ersatz of a connection, which only serves to further the great divide.
On another level, it is worth noting that Lauren and Rey, while they are mentally separated from one another, are also secluded from the rest of the world. In Lauren’s words to Rey, the couple is “out of the city…off the calendar” (21). Lauren further goes to describe that they live so far out of town, that even their newspaper was “an old newspaper, Sunday’s, from town, because they were no deliveries [where they lived]” (14). The couple is physically and temporally removed from ‘civilization’, a distance that becomes apparent through Lauren’s use of language, as she describes this isolation to her husband and the reader.
Tristan and Isolde
When Tristan and Isolde first meet, they do not immediately fall in love. As in The Body Artist, Gottfried uses language to communicate the distance between the fated-to-be lovers. But unlike with Lauren and Rey, that distance is expected, even encouraged. At this moment, Tristan and Isolde are not lovers, while Lauren and Rey are man and wife. Language is used to formalize this distance. The early promise that Tristan makes to Isolde demonstrates this point: “Lovely woman, do not be downcast. I shall soon give you a king for your lord in whom you will find a good and happy life, wealth, noble excellence and honor for the rest of your days,” he exclaims (Gottfried, 153). Through his vociferous promise, Tristan establishes the appropriate distance between himself and Isolde. He cannot, nor does he desire to be more to her than the man designated to bring her to her future husband, King Mark.
In an even starker contrast, Isolde voices her repugnance for Tristan, while establishing her desired distance from him. When Tristan seeks to comfort Mark’s future bride, the following exchange ensues:
“‘Enough, Captain,’ she said. ‘Keep your distance, take your arm away! What a tiresome man you are! Why do you keep touching me?’
‘But lovely woman, am I offending you?’
‘You are—because I hate you!’” (152).
Through this violent exchange, Isolde blatantly communicates her hated for Tristan, which she justifies with the outcry that he killed her uncle. In so doing, she emotionally and psychologically distances herself from Tristan. More obviously, Isolde doesn’t want him to touch her, even to comfort her, something she communicates to him, primarily through verbalizing her thoughts, which amplifies the physical boundary between the two characters.
Indeed, it is through these above-described dialogues that light is shed on Tristan and Isolde’s relationship and their initial distance from one another, distance created both by Isolde’s repulsion for Tristan and by Tristan’s assigned mission. As with Lauren and Rey, communication, helps to define the relationship between the two young people, and the appropriate distance.
In another parallel to The Body Artist, it is interesting that, when Tristan and Isolde first have a significant exchange, they are isolated from the rest of the world. In The Body Artist, Lauren and Rey live out of town, and in Tristan and Isolde, the characters are on a ship. Evidently, both couples are secluded from the rest of the world. Additionally, Isolde, who has left her family and native Ireland behind, is distanced from everything she knows. Gottfried’s narrative language serves to demonstrate this point: “[Isolde] wept and she lamented mid her tears that she was leaving her homeland, whose people she knew, and all her…and was sailing away with strangers” (152). Once again, language, through Gottfried’s descriptions, is used to communicate Isolde’s feelings to the reader, and through those feelings, distance from the world is manifest.
In the first chapter of The Body Artist, the characters’ relationship to one another is paradoxal. Physical closeness is described, but psychologically, both protagonists reside in a different world. Lauren, the narrator, and her elderly husband, Rey, are operating within the same physical space and time frame: the kitchen at breakfast time. Yet there is no sense of cohesion, as they go about their tasks. This division, unusual for a married couple, is conveyed through DeLillo’s language and grammar. In multiple instances, the author emphasizes the divide between his protagonists, with regards to possessions. He writes, about the couple: “it was his coffee and his cup. They shared the newspaper, but was actually, unspokenly, hers” (DeLillo, 8). Then, later: “the phone was his. The birds were hers…”(20). These sentences serve to divide the common sphere, the kitchen, into separate entities, representing two differentiated inhabitants. In so doing, distance between these inhabitants is accentuated.
Similarly, when Lauren and Rey exchange words, these are as incoherent as they are infrequent, which further accentuates the impression of division, or distance, between the characters. The grammatical structure in such dialogues is particularly important. The short, incomplete sentences indicate nonchalance, even annoyance, furthering the already-established distance between Lauren and Rey. It is as if the protagonists, who are supposed to share a bond, by virtue of their marital status, have nothing to say to one another, or even care about what the other has to say. As an example of this incongruity, DeLillo shares the following exchange with the reader, as Rey is getting ready to leave the house:
“She saw him standing in the doorway.
‘Have you seen my keys?’
She said, ‘what…which keys?’
He looked at her.
She said, ‘I bought some lotion yesterday…’
‘All my keys are on one ring,’ he said’” (25).
Though both protagonists are exchanging words, and responding to those words on cue, the conversation is randomized, through lack of understanding (‘what…which keys?’) and consistency (at one moment, keys are being discussed. The next, lotion). It is almost as if two strangers, who do not know each others’ patterns and habits, were having a conversation. Thus, Lauren and Rey’s relationship of husband and wife is heavily distorted, as even greater distance between them is forged.
Despite these observations, there is an underlying sense of connection between Lauren and Rey, but that connection divides the couple further. “Every time [Lauren] had to bend down and reach into the lower…parts of the refrigerator she let out a groan…She was too trim and limber to feel the strain and was only echoing Rey, identifying, groaning his groan, but in a manner so seamless and deep it was her discomfort too” (DeLillo, 9). Instead of dissipating the great divide between Lauren and Rey, bringing them closer together, this connection serves to amplify the divide. While Lauren feels connected to her husband, she is incapable of truly identifying with him, or feeling what he feels, by virtue of her age. He, at 64, will feel pain when bending down, but Lauren, being under half his age and a body artist, experiences no pain at all. Through an attempted psychological connection, the real, physical division is blatantly exposed, in all of its painful rawness.
Through language and grammatical structure, the paradoxal nature of Lauren and Rey’s relationship, the clear-cut division of the protagonists’ identity and their relationship’s lack of consistency becomes evident, as does Lauren’s attempted ersatz of a connection, which only serves to further the great divide.
On another level, it is worth noting that Lauren and Rey, while they are mentally separated from one another, are also secluded from the rest of the world. In Lauren’s words to Rey, the couple is “out of the city…off the calendar” (21). Lauren further goes to describe that they live so far out of town, that even their newspaper was “an old newspaper, Sunday’s, from town, because they were no deliveries [where they lived]” (14). The couple is physically and temporally removed from ‘civilization’, a distance that becomes apparent through Lauren’s use of language, as she describes this isolation to her husband and the reader.
Tristan and Isolde
When Tristan and Isolde first meet, they do not immediately fall in love. As in The Body Artist, Gottfried uses language to communicate the distance between the fated-to-be lovers. But unlike with Lauren and Rey, that distance is expected, even encouraged. At this moment, Tristan and Isolde are not lovers, while Lauren and Rey are man and wife. Language is used to formalize this distance. The early promise that Tristan makes to Isolde demonstrates this point: “Lovely woman, do not be downcast. I shall soon give you a king for your lord in whom you will find a good and happy life, wealth, noble excellence and honor for the rest of your days,” he exclaims (Gottfried, 153). Through his vociferous promise, Tristan establishes the appropriate distance between himself and Isolde. He cannot, nor does he desire to be more to her than the man designated to bring her to her future husband, King Mark.
In an even starker contrast, Isolde voices her repugnance for Tristan, while establishing her desired distance from him. When Tristan seeks to comfort Mark’s future bride, the following exchange ensues:
“‘Enough, Captain,’ she said. ‘Keep your distance, take your arm away! What a tiresome man you are! Why do you keep touching me?’
‘But lovely woman, am I offending you?’
‘You are—because I hate you!’” (152).
Through this violent exchange, Isolde blatantly communicates her hated for Tristan, which she justifies with the outcry that he killed her uncle. In so doing, she emotionally and psychologically distances herself from Tristan. More obviously, Isolde doesn’t want him to touch her, even to comfort her, something she communicates to him, primarily through verbalizing her thoughts, which amplifies the physical boundary between the two characters.
Indeed, it is through these above-described dialogues that light is shed on Tristan and Isolde’s relationship and their initial distance from one another, distance created both by Isolde’s repulsion for Tristan and by Tristan’s assigned mission. As with Lauren and Rey, communication, helps to define the relationship between the two young people, and the appropriate distance.
In another parallel to The Body Artist, it is interesting that, when Tristan and Isolde first have a significant exchange, they are isolated from the rest of the world. In The Body Artist, Lauren and Rey live out of town, and in Tristan and Isolde, the characters are on a ship. Evidently, both couples are secluded from the rest of the world. Additionally, Isolde, who has left her family and native Ireland behind, is distanced from everything she knows. Gottfried’s narrative language serves to demonstrate this point: “[Isolde] wept and she lamented mid her tears that she was leaving her homeland, whose people she knew, and all her…and was sailing away with strangers” (152). Once again, language, through Gottfried’s descriptions, is used to communicate Isolde’s feelings to the reader, and through those feelings, distance from the world is manifest.
III. The Role of Technology
The symbolism used to alter the initial distance between the protagonists is of a technological nature, in both The Body Artist and in Tristan and Isolde.
The Body Artist
With regards to The Body Artist, technology not only affects the relationship between Lauren and Rey, it is used to convey the message of that changing relationship to the surviving protagonist. Rey commits suicide, in his first wife’s apartment, using a gun. Therefore, he selects a very modern method of ending his own life and in so doing, entirely alters the relationship with his third wife, Lauren. By virtue of dying, an inestimable distance is brought between the couple. Before, Lauren and Rey were mentally separated, but physically within the same realm. Now, technology has been used to permanently put them in a different world, and the distance between them cannot be reduced.
Additionally, the reader learns about Rey’s death through the medium of print, another modern technological invention. Between the first and second chapter, a newspaper article, outlining the details of Rey’s suicide, is inserted. The article, then, plays an essential role in describing the new, distanced relationship between husband and wife and effectively conveys the information the author wishes to share.
In The Body Artist, two technological symbols are used to alter, and describe, the level of distance between Lauren and Rey: the gun and the newspaper article.
Interestingly, neither objects are outright mentioned, but their presence is inferred. When it comes to the gun, the situation is described so as to leave no alternative impression. In the article, is it written that “the cause of death was a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to police who were called to the scene” (27). Similarly, the physical format of the newspaper article is familiar to anyone who has ever read a newspaper. Despite the lack of direct reference, the role of these technological symbols is essential to the alternation of Lauren and Rey’s relationship to distance. The gun irrevocably tears the couple apart, and the reader is made aware of this separation through the medium of the newspaper. Technology, though indirectly alluded to, has a reverberating effect on the distance between The Body Artist’s protagonists.
Tristan and Isolde
Relatively speaking, technology plays an equally important role in Tristan and Isolde. Because of the time period, technology, so-to-speak, is not nearly as evolved as it is in The Body Artist, but the symbolism it conveys is essential to the alteration of Tristan and Isolde’s relationship. Because of technology, strangers who weren’t meant to fall in love are brought together, thus greatly reducing the distance between them. The technology in question is the love potion the queen prepares and asks Isolde’s lady-in-waiting, Brangane, to pour for Isolde and Mark, once married. Yet events do not go as planned: Tristan finds the potion, drinks some of it and offers it to Isolde, thinking that it is wine.
What happens next completely alters their relationship, and the emotional distance they had kept between them is entirely reduced. Because of the love potion, “that arch-disturber of tranquility… they who were two and divided now became one and united. No longer were they at variance: Isolde’s hatred was gone” (Gottfried, 154). It is clear, then, that the potion, the technology the Queen wished to use to help her daughter fall in love with her lawful husband, fused Tristan and Isolde together, completely annihilating the earlier, palpable distance, fueled by Isolde’s hatred and Tristan’s honor.
This symbol is explicitly described, unlike the gun or the newspaper in The Body Artist, and its effects are clearly outlined: “the…queen…was brewing in a vial a love-drink so subtly devised and prepared, and endowed with such powers, that with whomever any man drank it had to lover above all things, whether he wished it or no, and she loved him alone” (150). Through the powerful language employed, the reader understands just how powerful the love potion is. Technology is explicitly described, and its impact on Tristan and Isolde is inestimable.
The Body Artist
With regards to The Body Artist, technology not only affects the relationship between Lauren and Rey, it is used to convey the message of that changing relationship to the surviving protagonist. Rey commits suicide, in his first wife’s apartment, using a gun. Therefore, he selects a very modern method of ending his own life and in so doing, entirely alters the relationship with his third wife, Lauren. By virtue of dying, an inestimable distance is brought between the couple. Before, Lauren and Rey were mentally separated, but physically within the same realm. Now, technology has been used to permanently put them in a different world, and the distance between them cannot be reduced.
Additionally, the reader learns about Rey’s death through the medium of print, another modern technological invention. Between the first and second chapter, a newspaper article, outlining the details of Rey’s suicide, is inserted. The article, then, plays an essential role in describing the new, distanced relationship between husband and wife and effectively conveys the information the author wishes to share.
In The Body Artist, two technological symbols are used to alter, and describe, the level of distance between Lauren and Rey: the gun and the newspaper article.
Interestingly, neither objects are outright mentioned, but their presence is inferred. When it comes to the gun, the situation is described so as to leave no alternative impression. In the article, is it written that “the cause of death was a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to police who were called to the scene” (27). Similarly, the physical format of the newspaper article is familiar to anyone who has ever read a newspaper. Despite the lack of direct reference, the role of these technological symbols is essential to the alternation of Lauren and Rey’s relationship to distance. The gun irrevocably tears the couple apart, and the reader is made aware of this separation through the medium of the newspaper. Technology, though indirectly alluded to, has a reverberating effect on the distance between The Body Artist’s protagonists.
Tristan and Isolde
Relatively speaking, technology plays an equally important role in Tristan and Isolde. Because of the time period, technology, so-to-speak, is not nearly as evolved as it is in The Body Artist, but the symbolism it conveys is essential to the alteration of Tristan and Isolde’s relationship. Because of technology, strangers who weren’t meant to fall in love are brought together, thus greatly reducing the distance between them. The technology in question is the love potion the queen prepares and asks Isolde’s lady-in-waiting, Brangane, to pour for Isolde and Mark, once married. Yet events do not go as planned: Tristan finds the potion, drinks some of it and offers it to Isolde, thinking that it is wine.
What happens next completely alters their relationship, and the emotional distance they had kept between them is entirely reduced. Because of the love potion, “that arch-disturber of tranquility… they who were two and divided now became one and united. No longer were they at variance: Isolde’s hatred was gone” (Gottfried, 154). It is clear, then, that the potion, the technology the Queen wished to use to help her daughter fall in love with her lawful husband, fused Tristan and Isolde together, completely annihilating the earlier, palpable distance, fueled by Isolde’s hatred and Tristan’s honor.
This symbol is explicitly described, unlike the gun or the newspaper in The Body Artist, and its effects are clearly outlined: “the…queen…was brewing in a vial a love-drink so subtly devised and prepared, and endowed with such powers, that with whomever any man drank it had to lover above all things, whether he wished it or no, and she loved him alone” (150). Through the powerful language employed, the reader understands just how powerful the love potion is. Technology is explicitly described, and its impact on Tristan and Isolde is inestimable.
IV. The Narrative Structure: Coming to Terms with Distance
The Body Artist
Lauren uses her conversations with Mr. Tuttle, the man she finds inhabiting her home, to come to terms with the newly-established distance from her husband. In the first place, Lauren holds frequent dialogues with Mr. Tuttle, who, for all the reader knows, is a figment of her imagination, and these dialogues help Lauren reduce that distance between herself and her deceased husband. Lauren’s dialogues with Mr. Tuttle are incoherent. In that way, they remind the reader of those Lauren had with Rey, before his death. For example, when Lauren asks Mr. Tuttle, “tell me something”, he responds: “I know how much…I know how much this house. Alone by the sea” (DeLillo, 48). The dialogue described earlier in this essay, where Rey is asking about his keys and Lauren is telling him about cream she purchased, is only slightly less incongruent. This type of dialogue, along with Lauren’s desire to tell both Rey and Mr. Tuttle to “shut up”, at one time, links Rey to Mr. Tuttle, and thus, creates a link between Lauren and Rey, beyond the grave. In this scenario, distance is greatly reduced through communication.
This sentence, “I know how much…I know how much this house. Alone by the sea” is lacking in grammatical structure, but to Lauren, it makes sense: “the house, the sea-planet outside it, and how the word alone referred to her and to the house and how the word sea reinforced the idea of solitude” is perfectly logical to the bereaved widow (48). Lauren uses the metaphor inspired by Mr. Tuttle to examine and define her own thoughts and feelings. It also helps her cope, and redefine the world- and her identity- in the wake of her loss. The last paragraph of the novel confirms this point. DeLillo writes that “[Lauren walked into the room [of the house]…She threw the window open. She didn’t know why she did this. Then she knew. She wanted to feel the sea tang on her face and the flow of time in her body, to tell her who she was” (124). Lauren’s communication with Mr. Tuttle, then, is essential to Lauren’s redefinition of herself, after her eternal distancing from Rey.
Tristan and Isolde
Once, by means of the love potion, Tristan and Isolde fall in love, distance between them becomes irrelevant. As Isolde exclaimed, “our hearts and souls have been engrossed with each other too long too closely and too intimately, ever to know what forgetting could be between them. Whether you are near or far, there shall be no life in my heart nor any living thing, save Tristan” (Gottfried, 239). Through this exclamation, Isolde’s love for Tristan, which he returns, is established. The gap between two souls is closed, as they merge into a single being. At this stage, Tristan and Isolde are not only physically in close proximity; they are in the same sphere emotionally, as manifested through Isolde’s metaphorical vocabulary. The couple’s new relationship to distance is outlined, as is the evolution of the narrative structure.
When Tristan and Isolde are forced to part ways, Tristan flees to Germany. Through introspection-oriented thoughts, guided by Gottfried, he attempts to make peace with the finality of the situation. He does so by establishing his new relationship to distance, where, once again, he represents a separate entity from Isolde. Tristan meets the other Isolde, Isolde of the White hands, who reminds him of the first Isolde, the love of his life. Yet he fears this young woman, asserting that, “he desired love that way far away and endured great anguish for one whom he neither heard nor saw, whilst refraining from one that was near and often before his eyes. He never ceased to desire Isolde of Ireland…and he fled her of the white hands…He desired yet did not desire Isolde and Isolde” (252). Tristan’s dilemma, then, is communicated to us through the paradox of his desire for both Isoldes. Through this paradox the role of distance between the two lovers, seen from Tristan’s perspective, is communicated to the reader.
Unlike The Body Artist’s Lauren, for whom we see the hope of successfully overcoming the issue of distance, with regards to her relationship with her husband, Tristan’s longing is irreconcilable with reality, despite his attempts at understanding his predicament.
Lauren uses her conversations with Mr. Tuttle, the man she finds inhabiting her home, to come to terms with the newly-established distance from her husband. In the first place, Lauren holds frequent dialogues with Mr. Tuttle, who, for all the reader knows, is a figment of her imagination, and these dialogues help Lauren reduce that distance between herself and her deceased husband. Lauren’s dialogues with Mr. Tuttle are incoherent. In that way, they remind the reader of those Lauren had with Rey, before his death. For example, when Lauren asks Mr. Tuttle, “tell me something”, he responds: “I know how much…I know how much this house. Alone by the sea” (DeLillo, 48). The dialogue described earlier in this essay, where Rey is asking about his keys and Lauren is telling him about cream she purchased, is only slightly less incongruent. This type of dialogue, along with Lauren’s desire to tell both Rey and Mr. Tuttle to “shut up”, at one time, links Rey to Mr. Tuttle, and thus, creates a link between Lauren and Rey, beyond the grave. In this scenario, distance is greatly reduced through communication.
This sentence, “I know how much…I know how much this house. Alone by the sea” is lacking in grammatical structure, but to Lauren, it makes sense: “the house, the sea-planet outside it, and how the word alone referred to her and to the house and how the word sea reinforced the idea of solitude” is perfectly logical to the bereaved widow (48). Lauren uses the metaphor inspired by Mr. Tuttle to examine and define her own thoughts and feelings. It also helps her cope, and redefine the world- and her identity- in the wake of her loss. The last paragraph of the novel confirms this point. DeLillo writes that “[Lauren walked into the room [of the house]…She threw the window open. She didn’t know why she did this. Then she knew. She wanted to feel the sea tang on her face and the flow of time in her body, to tell her who she was” (124). Lauren’s communication with Mr. Tuttle, then, is essential to Lauren’s redefinition of herself, after her eternal distancing from Rey.
Tristan and Isolde
Once, by means of the love potion, Tristan and Isolde fall in love, distance between them becomes irrelevant. As Isolde exclaimed, “our hearts and souls have been engrossed with each other too long too closely and too intimately, ever to know what forgetting could be between them. Whether you are near or far, there shall be no life in my heart nor any living thing, save Tristan” (Gottfried, 239). Through this exclamation, Isolde’s love for Tristan, which he returns, is established. The gap between two souls is closed, as they merge into a single being. At this stage, Tristan and Isolde are not only physically in close proximity; they are in the same sphere emotionally, as manifested through Isolde’s metaphorical vocabulary. The couple’s new relationship to distance is outlined, as is the evolution of the narrative structure.
When Tristan and Isolde are forced to part ways, Tristan flees to Germany. Through introspection-oriented thoughts, guided by Gottfried, he attempts to make peace with the finality of the situation. He does so by establishing his new relationship to distance, where, once again, he represents a separate entity from Isolde. Tristan meets the other Isolde, Isolde of the White hands, who reminds him of the first Isolde, the love of his life. Yet he fears this young woman, asserting that, “he desired love that way far away and endured great anguish for one whom he neither heard nor saw, whilst refraining from one that was near and often before his eyes. He never ceased to desire Isolde of Ireland…and he fled her of the white hands…He desired yet did not desire Isolde and Isolde” (252). Tristan’s dilemma, then, is communicated to us through the paradox of his desire for both Isoldes. Through this paradox the role of distance between the two lovers, seen from Tristan’s perspective, is communicated to the reader.
Unlike The Body Artist’s Lauren, for whom we see the hope of successfully overcoming the issue of distance, with regards to her relationship with her husband, Tristan’s longing is irreconcilable with reality, despite his attempts at understanding his predicament.
V. Final Thoughts
In both The Body Artist and Tristan and Isolde, DeLillo and Gottfried extensively discuss the theme of distance, which is irrevocably linked to the notions of communication and technology. In these works, a similar pattern, with regards to distance, can be identified. The characters’ communication outlines their initial relationship. This relationship, embedded in the idea of distance, is altered by means of technology. Then, a new relationship to distance is forged, and the characters use methods of communicating to discover what this relationship means to them. At the end of both narratives, the protagonists have explored the boundaries of physical and psychological distance. And in both instances, their concept of distance has changed them forever.
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