The Symbol of the Heart in The Floating Opera Essay -- Floating Opera

The Symbol of the Heart in The Floating opera The centerfield is the dominant symbol in The Floating opera house, more all important(p) even than the symbol of the showboat of the novels title. From beginning to end the book is richly inhabit by references to the midriff on both a material, physical level, and a figurative, symbolic one. In the first case, literal references are made to Todds embrace condition. In the second case, the heart plays two symbolic roles not lone(prenominal) does it serve as a symbol of Todds emotional and non-rational side, but the debility of Todds heart serves as a correlative for the fragility of all serviceman life. This paper will examine several examples from The Floating Opera that dispute this multi-levelled usage of the heart. Hearts make an early appearance in the text, in the very first chapter, when Todd describes his heart condition a kind of acute bacteriological endocarditis1. This condition predisposes Todd towards myocardial infarction (heart attack), and consequently Todd writes, What that means is that either day I may fall quickly dead, without warning - perhaps before I complete this sentence, perhaps twenty years from now.2 Although this may seem to be a purely literal device, Barth is victimisation Todds heightened awareness of the delicateness of his own life as an exaggerated symbol for the photograph of all human life. This early focus upon the heart continues due to the centrality in the novels plot of Todds decision to kill himself, and his subsequent change of mind. At the core of this decision to suicide is Todds realisation that his life has been governed by his heart (his emotions), despite his best efforts to live by will, reason and intellect My heart was the master... ...when Froebel had Parnassus in his pan?8 This quotation is demonstrative of both the softness of reason to overcome emotions - the very problem which Todd has grappled with for much of his life, and which lies centrally in The Floating Opera - and also of Todds acute awareness of that inability. This, like so many of the facts in the narrative, has both a symbolic and a literal meaning, and shows the extent to which the heart and what it stands for permeate the fabric of the entire novel. Bibliography Barth, John, The Floating Opera and The finale of the Road, Anchor Books, New York, 1988. Endnotes 1 Barth, John, The Floating Opera and The End of the Road, Anchor Books, New York, 1988, p. 5. (All subsequent page numbers refer to this book.) 2 p. 5. 3 p. 226. 4 p. 49. 5 Ibid. 6 Ibid. 7 p. 124. 8 pp. 94-5