The Shipyard: Analysis of Major Characters
"The Shipyard: Analysis of Major Characters" delves into the intricate personalities within a decaying shipyard setting, primarily focusing on the antihero E. Larsen. Once a pimp, Larsen seeks redemption and reintegration into society after being exiled, taking on the role of general manager at a bankrupt shipyard. His efforts are marred by self-delusion, as he clings to the hope of revitalizing the rusting facility while courting the mentally impaired Angélica Inés, the daughter of the shipyard's elderly owner, Jeremías Petrus. Petrus himself is depicted as a delusional pioneer, maintaining a facade of industriousness even as he faces legal troubles.
The character A. Gálvez represents the tragic cynicism of the shipyard, living in poverty despite his nominal managerial role, ultimately succumbing to despair. Meanwhile, Kunz, the technical manager, embodies a similarly jaded outlook on their stagnant enterprise. The narrative also includes Dr. Díaz Grey, a physician whose encounters with Larsen provide additional depth to the exploration of despair and absurdity in their lives. Lastly, Josefina, Angélica’s servant, adds another layer to Larsen's interactions, highlighting the themes of longing and the emptiness of his pursuits. This character analysis offers a rich tapestry of human experience, touching on themes of failure, delusion, and the search for meaning amidst decay.
The Shipyard: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Juan Carlos Onetti
First published: El astillero, 1961 (English translation, 1968)
Genre: Novel
Locale: Santa Maria and its hinterlands
Plot: Existentialism
Time: The late 1950's
E. Larsen, the antihero, a stout, balding, late-middle-aged former pimp with a swagger to match his former trade. He wishes to reintegrate himself legitimately into the area of Santa Maria, the Argentine or Uruguayan river city from which he was exiled five years before for establishing a brothel there. Larsen is named general manager of a bankrupt shipyard nearby at Puerto Astillero. Feeding self-delusion to justify his vitiated existence, he tries to make something out of its rusting plant, which has not received an order or paid its managers in years. He even courts the boss's mentally defective daughter in the hope of possessing the seignorial house where she and her father live. Larsen's end comes when he realizes fully, at long last, that his quest for upward mobility has been a farce. Apparently dying, he rides upriver on a ferryboat.
Jeremías Petrus (heh-reh-MEE-ahs PEH-truhs), the elderly owner of the defunct shipyard. Petrus, too, is self-deluded. He keeps up the role of willful pioneer of industry with his bustling gait, heavy eyebrows, and sideburns. When he is jailed for forgery, Petrus ages further overnight, calls the cell his office, and continues to make empty plans for the business with his visitor, Larsen.
Angélica Inés Petrus (ahn-HEHL-ee-kah ee-NEHS), the idiot daughter of the shipyard owner. Tall, blonde, and childlike, she emits involuntary bursts of laughter from her perpetually open mouth and is generally incapable of making coherent conversation. Larsen courts her with comic formality at their proper meetings in the summerhouse of the Petrus estate, but Angélica Inés barely comprehends what is happening.
A. Gálvez (GAHL-vehs), the bald young administrative manager of the shipyard. Receiving no salary in his purely nominal job, with nothing to do but occasionally sell off spare parts from the plant, he lives in poverty with a wife and dogs in a shack on the shipyard grounds. When Larsen first meets him, Gálvez acts the role of the perfect cynic, mimicking Petrus' pomposity and the irony of the nonexistent activities and salaries of the shipyard. He then becomes increasingly humorless, denounces Petrus to the police for forgery, and commits suicide, as if he were no longer able to live the lie of the shipyard.
Gálvez's wife, a tall and pretty but unkempt woman who wears a man's overcoat and shoes. At the time of the action, she is pregnant. Larsen is attracted to her, considering her a real woman, perhaps by comparison with the childish Angélica Inés. She is kind and patient, but Larsen realizes that she is spent by her wretched existence. Their relationship is not intimate, although Larsen spends many evening hours alone with her at the shack. He leaves Puerto Astillero after looking through the window of the shack and seeing the woman alone, struggling in labor.
Kunz (kewnz), the older, corpulent, hairy technical manager of the shipyard, a German immigrant. Like Gálvez, Kunz is cynical and sarcastic about the phantom enterprise and spends his supposed work time looking over his stamp album. He simply yawns and professes ignorance when Larsen asks him about past operations. Kunz is the source of a story about a visit Larsen receives at the shipyard from Angélica Inés, who presumably accuses her aging beau of infidelity with Gálvez's wife.
Dr. Díaz Grey, a middle-aged bachelor physician from Santa Maria, formerly acquainted with Larsen. Díaz Grey lives a life of dull routine: evenings of solitaire, an unvarying program of recorded sacred music, and drugs to put him to sleep. He is happy to break the monotony when Larsen visits him one evening. Díaz Grey's impressions of Larsen and recollections of the string of Larsen's predecessors at Petrus Limited provide another perspective on things. When he is informed of Larsen's absurd engagement to Angélica Inés Petrus, Díaz Grey soberly recommends that they avoid having children.
Josefina (hoh-seh-FEE-nah), Angélica Inés' servant, a short, dark, and sturdy country girl whom Larsen bribes and romances to get access to Petrus' daughter. He spends his last night in Puerto Astillero with Josefina in a kind of sentimental replay of his past, which, nevertheless, is faceless: Anyone could have had the experience.