In “Babylon Revisited,” F. Scott Fitzgerald creates a sweeping theme of redemption. Fitzgerald wastes no time stylistically structuring his story with powerful imagery, explosive language, and flawless use of symbols in his weaving together of a short story filled with emotional hostility, and brutal pragmatism.
Like a wound that never heals, this bleak atmosphere seeps from the first page through stark images. Fitzgerald writes, “The stillness in the Ritz bar was strange and portentous. It was not an American bar anymore...he felt the stillness from the moment he got out of the taxi and saw the doorman.” Charlie is revisiting a nightmare past, where all familiar places and faces are strange and alien to him. Fitzgerald feeds this bleak imagery of the past further by supplementing Charlie’s environment with superfluous characters—who endow little praise to his character, but rather take part in “reading a newspaper” (which contain forgotten events of yesterday), or reminiscing of long ago, reckless days, “Remember the night of George Hardt’s bachelor dinner?”
This atmosphere continues through Fitzgerald’s clever writing, giving the reader snapshots and snippets of Charlie’s own internal reluctance in his returning to the bar that helped perpetuate his own downfall. Charlie reminisces, “Passing through the corridor, he heard only a single, bored voice in the once-clamorous women’s room. When he turned into the bar he traveled the twenty feet of green carpet with his eyes fixed straight ahead by old habit...the place oppressed him.” Charlie’s newfound strength is confirmed with his reluctance to go back to his old self through his conversation with Alix the barman. Alix offers Charlie a drink—in which Charlie refuses, replying “No, no more...I’m going slow these days,” and when reminded of his drunken (embarrassing) past “I’ll stick to it all right...I’ve stuck to it for over a year and a half now.” Through this dialogue we gain valuable information about Charlie’s character—that he’s been sober for over eighteen months and that he’s sticking to it.
The setting of “Babylon Revisited,” is equal in importance to that of the time period in which it takes place. When the market crashed in the United States in October of 1929, it threw America into the Great Depression. “It left millions of Americans, who formally prospered during the roaring twenties, out of work, disillusioned, and blaming themselves (DuBois). Fitzgerald wanted his protagonist (Charlie) to be affected by the times, but more importantly, to gain enlightenment with his mind, body, and spirit.
The theme of redemption gains here and builds more steam through Fitzgerald’s use of emotionally charged language. With a surgeon’s steady hand, Fitzgerald opens up Charlie’s mind by letting the reader hear his inner monologue, a very important component in Babylon. Charlie speaks to himself, “He believed in character; he wanted to jump back a whole generation and trust in character again as the eternally valuable element. Everything else wore out.” Charlie views himself as a “reformed sinner,” and his character builds sympathy from the reader through this emotionally charged language.
This building of sympathy for Charlie continues as he visits his old stomping grounds, and relives a hazy eyed ambiguous past. “He passed a lighted door from which issued music, and stopped with the sense of familiarity; it was Bricktop’s, where he had parted with so many hours and so much money.” Fitzgerald builds this theme further by presenting a moral to the reader, “Family quarrels are bitter things. They don’t go according to any rules. They’re not like aches or wounds; they’re more like splits in the skin that won’t heal because there’s not enough material.” This is a beautiful line for we the reader can identify our own lives with Charlie.
Fitzgerald’s use of inner monologue, thought provoking morals, and emotional dialogue (best exhibited going home in the taxi cab between Charlie and Honoria, in a ‘On The waterfront’ revealing moment), propel the reader in viewing Charlie as a man who has truly repented. “They liked him because he was functioning, because he was serious; they wanted to see him, because he was stronger than they were now, because they wanted to draw certain sustenance from his strength.”
The title “Babylon Revisited,” is taken from the capital of Babylonia, a city noted in the Bible for materialism and luxury and the pursuit of sensual pleasure, and wickedness. In their book “Signs & Symbols,” authors Mark O’ Connell and Raje Airey refer to Babylon as a city “so splendid, that no city on earth may be compared with it. In the Judaeo-Christian tradition, however, it became the antithesis of paradise and the heavenly Jerusalem, and symbolized the profane.” F. Scott Fitzgerald uses Charlie’s Paris as a direct opposite to Babylon.
Fitzgerald craftily takes Charlie’s new found sense of redemption and brutally challenges it with powerful symbols from his past. Fitzgerald uses Duncan Schaeffer and Lorraine Quarrles to entice Charlie back to his drunken days. The two begin to strip apart Charlie’s new found armor through snide, objectifying remarks, “Charlie, I believe you’re sober, I honestly believe he’s sober, Dunc. Pinch him and see if he’s sober.”
Lorraine’s letter recounts all the crazy times they had in Paris and (in a begging tone), wants Charlie to find his old self again, “You were so strange when we saw you the other day...we did have such good times that crazy spring, like the night you and I stole the butcher’s tricycle...everybody seems so old lately...I’ve got a viral hang-over.”
Fitzgerald brings the two back later, during a crucial moment for Charlie in winning custody of Honoria. Lorraine and Duncan unexpectedly visit Charlie at Marion’s, bringing with them (old baggage) talk from long ago times. “They were gay, they were hilarious, they were roaring with laughter. For a moment Charlie was astounded; unable to understand how they ferreted out the Peters’ address. The two invite Charlie to dinner, and Charlie declines telling them he’ll phone. Lorraine nastily spits, “All right we’ll go. But I remember once when you hammered on my door at four A.M. I was enough of a good sport to give you a drink.”
Lorraine and Duncan are “objects” from Charlie’s past that represent all the bad moments in Charlie’s past. This symbol of the past being represented in the future is so powerful that Marion misinterprets them and our protagonist losses everything he’s been fighting for—that of custody of his daughter Honoria.
An antithesis between Charlie and Marion Peters is also noted. Fitzgerald uses Marion craftily, for the two are foils of each other. Charlie uses Marion’s belligerence for his benefit, thinking, “Her very aggressiveness gave him an advantage, and he knew enough to wait. He wanted them to initiate the discussion of what they knew had brought him to Paris.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald succeeds in the end by using many literary techniques in weaving this vast tapestry of redemption which was lost—but is now found.
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