Operetta: Analysis of Major Characters
Operetta: Analysis of Major Characters delves into the complexities of key figures in a narrative rich with themes of fashion, identity, and societal change. Central to this exploration is Count Charmant Himalay, a character driven by a superficial love for fashion and appearances rather than genuine relationships, who ultimately faces the consequences of his choices. Alberta Kruzek, or Albertine, serves as a contrasting figure, embodying a yearning for authenticity and freedom from societal constraints. Other significant characters include Baron Firulet, a rival to Charmant, and Fior, a stylist grappling with the challenges of a changing world, who encourages others to shed their facades.
Count Hufnagel, disguised as a sportsman, operates with a hidden agenda to incite revolution, while the enigmatic Professor grapples with his own discontent and complicity in the bourgeois lifestyle. The dynamics among these characters reveal a tapestry of ambitions, desires, and the impact of societal roles, particularly in the context of a post-revolutionary landscape. The operetta employs these characters to critique social structures and the essence of identity, ultimately encouraging a return to authenticity amidst the chaos of pretense and disguise.
Operetta: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Witold Gombrowicz
First published: Operetka, 1966 (English translation, 1971)
Genre: Play
Locale: Himalaj Castle
Plot: Play of ideas
Time: c. 1910 and after World War II
Count Charmant Himalay, or Szarm Himalaj in some texts, the thirty-five-year-old son of Prince Himalay and Princess Fernanda. A “jaded rake and fop,” he plots to make Albertine his 258th conquest. His goal, however, is not to undress the girl but to dress her expensively and fashionably. It is the artifice of fashion that he loves, not the actual woman. As his plan starts to go awry, he begins to feel constrained by his life of appearances and, without considering the consequences, unleashes the forces that result in his downfall. He returns after the revolution disguised as a lunatic, still in search of Albertine.
Alberta Kruzek, also called Albertine or Albertynka, a shopkeeper's daughter. Charmant plots to meet Albertine by “saving” her from the pickpocket he himself has hired to steal her locket. The touch of the thief's hand on the sleeping girl's breast causes her to yearn for the freedom of complete nudity. As a result, she frequently falls out of the waking world of pretense and masquerade and into an opposing state of sleep, a state of the natural and the subconscious. She appears at the masked ball (act 2) weighed down by the clothing Charmant has given her; after her disappearance, she returns in act 3 to rise from the coffin in which the pickpockets have hidden her, hailed by all as the embodiment of the immortal ordinary and the eternally youthful.
Baron Firulet, Charmant's ape and mirror image, also thirty-five years old. A “hunter of female prey,” he and the count engage in endless competition (a card game, a duel, a chase) involving women and social position.
Fior, a “dictator of style in Europe.” This self-proclaimed artist has been invited to the Castle Himalay to devise a new fashion. The work of the man others call “master” is, however, made difficult by the uncertainty of a rapidly changing age. Returning in act 3 to the now-ruined (postwar, postrevolution) castle, Fior, confused by all the transformations and dismayed by the “painful masquerade,” urges the others to give up their disguises and to be themselves. His decision to renounce fashion helps restore Albertine to life and the world to the playwright's special kind of sanity.
Count Hufnagel, a sportsman and horse lover. He is in fact the former lackey Joseph, who was dismissed from the prince's service for insubordination six years earlier and subsequently was sentenced to five years in prison for political agitation. It is Hufnagel who suggests that a masked ball be given to help Fior devise the new fashion, though his disguised reason is to create the right atmosphere for conspiracy and revolt. Stripped of his mask, he appears as a figure of hate, the embodiment of socialism, riding others, leading them on a wild and destructive chase, and presiding over the Stalin-like show trials of his oppressors, the bourgeois fascists.
The Professor, who helps Hufnagel gain access to the castle. Suffering from chronic vomiting, he spends much of his time “puking” in the company of aristocrats and, alone with Hufnagel, reviling himself with socialist clichés for his bourgeois life. He willingly becomes Hufnagel's horse and actually looks forward to his “liquidation” at the hands of the revolutionaries.
Prince Himalay, or Himalaj, who recognizes that what separates him from the common man is nothing more than manners and dress. He understands that, because the lower classes imitate the upper classes, it is necessary that fashion change if he is to remain on top. The prince suffers from chronic indigestion, brought on by overindulgence. After the revolution, he appears disguised as a lamp, with his wife as a table.
Princessa Fernanda, his wife. Realizing that nudity is “downright socialist,” she wonders what the common people would do if they discovered that all posteriors are alike.
The priest, another exploiter and imitator. After the revolution, he appears disguised as a woman.
The pickpockets, who are kept on leashes by Charmant and Firulet until they are released during the ball; they then rob the guests and spirit away the sleeping Albertine. Disguised as gravediggers, they carry her around in a coffin until her awakening/resurrection.
Ladislaus and Stanley, lackeys to Charmant and Firulet, respectively. The lackeys, at once servile (they literally lick their masters' boots) and seething, are ready for revolution.
The banker, the general, and Marchioness Eulalia, who, when the sacks that have covered their costumes drop off to expose their contributions to Fior's new style, are shown as a man with a bomb, a Nazi officer, and the overseer of a German concentration camp.
Ladies and gentlemen, the count's admirers and apes.