Invisible Cities: Analysis of Major Characters
"Invisible Cities" explores the complex relationship between Marco Polo, a Venetian traveler, and Kublai Khan, the Tartar emperor. Set against the backdrop of Kublai's vast empire, Marco serves as an emissary, using both language and gestures to convey his experiences of the cities he has encountered. Initially struggling with the language barrier, Marco eventually learns Tartar, yet Kublai prefers their interactions to blend speech with pantomime, creating a unique form of communication that emphasizes perception and interpretation.
Marco's philosophy suggests that the cities exist only through his perception, leading to a deeper exploration of how stories are constructed and understood. This idea poses a challenge to Kublai, who seeks concrete knowledge of his empire through Marco's descriptions. As Kublai's impatience grows, he displays a range of reactions, from demanding clarity to resorting to aggression, highlighting his desperate need for definitive realities. The interplay between the two characters illustrates a tension between the quest for knowledge and the elusive nature of understanding, ultimately reflecting the limitations of perception in comprehending the complexities of existence.
Invisible Cities: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Italo Calvino
First published: Le citta invisibili, 1972 (English translation, 1974)
Genre: Novel
Locale: Kublai Khan's palace and empire
Plot: Magical realism
Time: The thirteenth through the twentieth centuries
Marco Polo, a Venetian traveler, now resident in the court of Kublai Khan. Marco is one of many emissaries reporting to Kublai, serving him by helping him to understand the subjects of his vast empire. At first, not knowing the Tartar language, Marco communicates with Kublai by means of gestures and pantomime, sometimes resorting to displaying objects to suggest narratives and descriptions. Once he has learned Tartar, Marco speaks, but, accustomed to the early emblematic communications, Kublai prefers to mix speech with pantomime. A sort of “mute commentary” is created when the two of them sit silently immobile, in private meditation, each imagining what the other is asking or saying. Regardless of idiom, Marco insists that all the cities he describes exist only as he has perceived them and that all communication is an act of creation. The emphasis placed on the perceiver applies equally to Kublai's act of listening. As Marco explains, “It is not the voice that commands the story: it is the ear.” Marco's insistence on this theory has the effect of arousing suspicion in Kublai and creates the principal dramatic tension of the story.
Kublai Khan, the Tartar emperor. As a listener to Marco's fantastic descriptions, Kublai is impatient and becomes progressively more domineering. Kublai's interest in the stories is motivated by his determination to possess his empire one day, which he believes he cannot do without knowing and understanding it. He thus hopes for patterns in Marco's descriptions, so that, without knowing every city, he can comprehend the empire. At Marco's claim that none of this is possible, Kublai shows his impatience with varying degrees of intensity: by demanding that Marco describe the cities simply and directly; by physically attacking Marco and accusing him of representing only dreams and moods; and, in occasional desperate attempts, by himself describing cities and asking Marco whether they exist. When Kublai decides to have Marco cease traveling to play chess with him, to deduce cities from configurations of the chessboard, Marco overwhelms Kublai by pointing out the infinite possibilities and suggestions in the very woods of which the board is made. Such exchanges depict Kublai as desperate in his desire for unambiguous realities and as ultimately defeated by Marco's persistent uncertainties.